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UK gov’t facing High Court battle over arms sales to Saudi Arabia

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UK gov’t facing High Court battle over arms sales to Saudi Arabia

The Marketing campaign Towards Arms Commerce group says the weapons exports have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

A marketing campaign group has launched a courtroom battle towards the UK’s arms gross sales to Saudi Arabia, warning the weapons are worsening a significant humanitarian catastrophe in war-torn Yemen.

The UK’s Excessive Courtroom on Tuesday started listening to the case introduced ahead by the Marketing campaign Towards Arms Commerce (CAAT), which says arms exports have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

The UK-based group is difficult the lawfulness of a choice taken by the British authorities in 2020 to proceed supplying weapons to the Saudi-led coalition concerned within the nine-year-old battle in Yemen.

It marks the newest improvement in a long-running battle over the legality of the exports, which CAAT says have made the UK greater than 23 billion kilos ($28bn) for the reason that conflict started.

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Yemen is dealing with one of many world’s most urgent humanitarian crises, with greater than 23 million folks estimated by the UN to be in want of humanitarian help [File: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]

 

CAAT gained an analogous combat in 2019, when Courtroom of Attraction judges stated persevering with to license army tools that may very well be used within the conflict in Yemen for export was illegal amid considerations they could have been used to commit conflict crimes.

The federal government quickly halted gross sales following the ruling. UK regulation doesn’t enable for the export of weapons if there’s a “clear threat” they could be used to hold out conflict crimes.

Nevertheless, exports resumed in mid-2020 below the order of then-trade minister Liz Truss after a governmental assessment.

The assessment concluded that potential violations of worldwide humanitarian regulation by actors utilizing UK-supplied weapons had been solely “remoted incidents”.

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Governmental assessment below scrutiny

British arms gross sales to Saudi Arabia have continued in recent times, regardless of the UK’s main ally, the USA adopting a partial ban on weapons exports to the dominion due to the conflict in Yemen.

In the meantime, campaigners and rights teams have disputed the validity of the governmental assessment’s findings.

“The ample proof of legal guidelines of conflict violations by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen all through the conflict clarify that these violations will not be merely ‘remoted incidents’ as claimed by the UK authorities,” Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated.

“UK weapons have been utilized in a few of these violations with whole impunity,” Jafarnia stated.

“At a time when the UK is selling a rules-based worldwide order, and rightly calling out Russia for severe violations of worldwide regulation, it wants to use those self same guidelines to itself and finish the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia.”

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The weapons provided by the UK embody Paveway guided bombs and Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles.

‘UK bombs kill civilians’

Emily Apple, a spokesperson for CAAT, accused the federal government of “caring extra about revenue than conflict crimes”.

“The … case is being taken in solidarity with the folks of Yemen who deserve justice,” Apple stated.

“We can not sit by whereas UK bombs kill civilians and trigger devastation whereas UK arms sellers revenue.”

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The battle in Yemen began in 2014 when Houthi rebels, backed by Iran, seized massive swaths of the nation, together with the capital, Sanaa.

The conflict escalated in March 2015, when the Saudi Arabia-led coalition intervened in an try to revive the federal government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

The coalition has been assisted by a number of Western powers, together with the UK and the US.

Each side within the battle have since been accused of conflict crimes throughout combating that has killed greater than 8,900 folks to this point, in line with the Yemen Knowledge Venture.

A United Nations-brokered truce deal agreed to in April of final yr has largely held, regardless of expiring in early October.

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The settlement has delivered the longest stretch of relative calm in Yemen for the reason that conflict started, however either side have stepped up strikes to economically weaken the opposite within the interim.

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Manhattan's Top Federal Prosecutor Williams Joins Law Firm Paul Weiss

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Manhattan's Top Federal Prosecutor Williams Joins Law Firm Paul Weiss
By Sara Merken (Reuters) – Damian Williams, the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, will return to law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison as a partner in New York, the firm said on Friday. Williams was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 2021 by …
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Trump issues warning to Maduro as Venezuelan leader enters third term, US expands sanctions

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Trump issues warning to Maduro as Venezuelan leader enters third term, US expands sanctions

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President-elect Donald Trump issued a warning ahead of the inauguration of contested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who took up the top job for a third term on Friday. 

Despite significant opposition both at home and abroad to the July election in which Maduro claimed victory without providing ballot-box proof, the Venezuelan leader, deemed a “dictator” by American lawmakers, is now set to hold office until 2031.

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On Thursday, opposition leader María Corina Machado emerged from months of hiding to join hundreds of anti-Maduro protesters in the capital city of Caracas and demand that opposition candidate Edmundo González be sworn in instead.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a news conference at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela, July 31, 2024, three days after his disputed reelection. Maduro banned the social network X from Venezuela for 10 days after accusing it of being used by his opponents to create unrest after the election. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

TWO AMERICANS ARRESTED IN VENEZUELA ON EVE OF MADURO INAUGURATION OVER ‘TERRORISM’ CLAIMS

Machado was briefly detained by government security forces after they “violently intercepted” her convoy as she attempted to leave the protests, the Associated Press reported.

Trump took to social media to demand she remain “safe and alive.”

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“Venezuelan democracy activist Maria Corina Machado and President-elect Gonzalez are peacefully expressing the voices and the will of the Venezuelan people with hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime,” he wrote. “These freedom fighters should not be harmed, and must stay safe and alive.”

The opposition figure was apparently forced to record several videos before she was released, though the details of those recordings remain unclear. 

Maria Corina Machado

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, the day before his inauguration for a third term. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

THOUSANDS OF VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS TAKE TO THE STREETS AHEAD OF MADURO’S THIRD INAUGURATION

Maduro’s supporters have reportedly denied that Machado was arrested.

On Friday, the Biden administration backed the efforts by the opposition leaders and, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, “President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia should be sworn in, and the democratic transition should begin.

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“Today, Nicolás Maduro held an illegitimate presidential inauguration in Venezuela in a desperate attempt to seize power. The Venezuelan people and world know the truth – Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency,” the secretary said in a statement. “The United States rejects the National Electoral Council’s fraudulent announcement that Maduro won the presidential election and does not recognize Nicolás Maduro as the president of Venezuela. 

“We stand ready to support a return to democracy in Venezuela,” Blinken added. 

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday slapped a new round of sanctions on the Maduro regime, this time targeting “officials who lead key economic and security agencies enabling Nicolás Maduro’s repression and subversion of democracy in Venezuela.”

Eight officials were named in the sanctions, including the recently appointed head of Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA, Hector Obregon, as well as the nation’s transportation minister, Ramon Velasquez, according to a statement by the department.

“In addition, OFAC is sanctioning high-level Venezuelan officials in the military and police who lead entities with roles in carrying out Maduro’s repression and human rights abuses against democratic actors,” the statement said. 

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A supporter of Venezuela's opposition holds his arms up and shouts with fellow supporters ahead of President Nicolas Maduro's inauguration.

A supporter of Venezuela’s opposition reacts while gathering with fellow supporters ahead of President Nicolas Maduro’s inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, on January 9, 2025. (Reuters/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria)

Maduro was also once again targeted by Washington’s sanctions, and the reward for information leading to his arrest or conviction was increased to $25 million.

The same amount was offered up for the Venezuelan Minister of Interior, Justice, and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, along with a $15 million reward for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino. 

Members of the military and police were also named in the sanctions. 

Blinken confirmed on Friday that some 2,000 Maduro-aligned individuals have had visa-restrictions imposed on them.

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US Supreme Court critical of TikTok arguments against looming ban

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US Supreme Court critical of TikTok arguments against looming ban

Justices at the United States Supreme Court have signalled scepticism towards a challenge brought by the video-sharing platform TikTok, as it seeks to overturn a law that would force the app’s sale or ban it by January 19.

Friday’s hearing is the latest in a legal saga that has pitted the US government against ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in a battle over free speech and national security concerns.

The law in question was signed in April, declaring that ByteDance would face a deadline to sell its US shares or face a ban.

The bill had strong bipartisan support, with lawmakers citing fears that the Chinese-based ByteDance could collect user data and deliver it to the Chinese government. Outgoing US President Joe Biden ultimately signed it into law.

But ByteDance and TikTok users have challenged the law’s constitutionality, arguing that banning the app would limit their free speech rights.

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During Friday’s oral arguments, the Supreme Court seemed swayed by the government’s position that the app enables China’s government to spy on Americans and carry out covert influence operations.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito also floated the possibility of issuing what is called an administrative stay that would put the law on hold temporarily while the court decides how to proceed.

The Supreme Court’s consideration of the case comes at a time of continued trade tensions between the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies.

President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to begin his second term a day after the ban kicks in, had promised to “save” the platform during his presidential campaign.

That marks a reversal from his first term in office, when he unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok.

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In December, Trump called on the Supreme Court to put the law’s implementation on hold to give his administration “the opportunity to pursue a political resolution of the questions at issue in the case”.

Noel Francisco, a lawyer for TikTok and ByteDance, emphasised to the court that the law risked shuttering one of the most popular platforms in the US.

“This act should not stand,” Francisco said. He dismissed the fear “that Americans, even if fully informed, could be persuaded by Chinese misinformation” as a “decision that the First Amendment leaves to the people”.

Francisco asked the justices to, at minimum, put a temporary hold on the law, “which will allow you to carefully consider this momentous issue and, for the reasons explained by the president-elect, potentially moot the case”.

‘Weaponise TikTok’ to harm US

TikTok has about 170 million American users, about half the US population.

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Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, arguing for the Biden administration, said that Chinese control of TikTok poses a grave threat to US national security.

The immense amount of data the app could collect on users and their contacts could give China a powerful tool for harassment, recruitment and espionage, she explained.

China could then “could weaponise TikTok at any time to harm the United States”.

Prelogar added that the First Amendment does not bar Congress from taking steps to protect Americans and their data.

Several justices seemed receptive to those arguments during Friday’s hearing. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts pressed TikTok’s lawyers on the company’s Chinese ownership.

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“Are we supposed to ignore the fact that the ultimate parent is, in fact, subject to doing intelligence work for the Chinese government?” Roberts asked.

“It seems to me that you’re ignoring the major concern here of Congress — which was Chinese manipulation of the content and acquisition and harvesting of the content.”

“Congress doesn’t care about what’s on TikTok,” Roberts added, appearing to brush aside free speech arguments.

Left-leaning Justice Elena Kagan also suggested that April’s TikTok law “is only targeted at this foreign corporation, which doesn’t have First Amendment rights”.

TikTok, ByteDance and app users had appealed a lower court’s ruling that upheld the law and rejected their argument that it violates the US Constitution’s free speech protections under the First Amendment.

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