The Globalist - David Cassels' Current World Issue Blog

Describing Canada as a "work in progress," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the UN Thursday about the country's failures and mistakes in its historical relationship with Indigenous people and his hope to right the wrongs of the past. "There are, today, children living on reserves in Canada who cannot safely drink, or bathe in, or even play in the water that comes out of their taps," Trudeau said in a speech to the UN General Assembly. He said Indigenous families putting their kids to bed at night are beset by worry that their children will run away before morning or commit suicide in the night. "And for far too many Indigenous women, life in Canada includes threats of violence so frequent and severe that Amnesty International has called it 'a human rights crisis,'" Trudeau said. The prime minister said his government was working with Indigenous leaders to improve the situation and address gender-based violence as well the lack of saf...

British companies selling weapons have earned hundreds of millions of dollars by selling arms to Saudi Arabia during the ongoing war in Yemen, a report says. New estimates released by the children's charity War Child reveal that since the Saudi-led coalition began its intervention in Yemen, UK weapons companies  including BAE systems and Raytheon  have earned revenues exceeding $8bn from dealings with Saudi Arabia, generating profits estimated at almost  $775m . The UK government, however, has received just $40m of corporate tax, the report said. "This tax revenue figure is pitifully small and comes at the cost of thousands of children who have been killed, injured, and starved by a conflict that this trade has helped sustain," the report said. A Saudi-led military coalition was formed in March 2015 to support Yemen's internationally recognized government in fighting the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.  The conflict has  killed  more than 10,000 ...

The security operation targeting Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar "seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing", the UN human rights chief says. Zeid Raad Al Hussein urged Myanmar to end the "cruel military operation" in Rakhine state. More than 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh since violence erupted there late last month. The military says it is responding to attacks by Rohingya militants and denies it is targeting civilians. The violence began on 25 August when the Rohingya militants attacked police posts in northern Rakhine, killing 12 security personnel. Rohingyas who have fled Myanmar since then say the military responded with a brutal campaign, burning villages and attacking civilians in a bid to drive them out. The Rohingya, a stateless mostly Muslim minority in Buddhist-majority Rakhine, have long experienced persecution in Myanmar, which says they are illegal immigrants. Mr Zeid, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human R...

An Iranian court has upheld 10-year jail terms for an American, two US-Iranian dual nationals and a Lebanese resident of the  United States  who were convicted on charges of spying and collaboration against the state.  Tehran's prosecutor's office confirmed on Sunday that the four men's appeals had been rejected. Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi identified the four as Princeton University student Xiyue Wang, Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his elderly father Baquer, and Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen with permanent US residency, the judiciary's official news website reported. Jared Genser, a US-based lawyer for the Namazis, said in a statement carried by US media last week that their family was informed that a Tehran court had upheld the convictions days earlier. Earlier in August, Princeton University and the wife of Wang, a history doctoral student and US citizen, said they had been informed that Iranian authorities had denied the appeal. ...