What’s been making the News?

Peace talks have been advocated and taking place to stop the conflicts and wars going on, around the World as should be.

A Saudi Arabian delegation and mediation team from Oman, arrived in Sanaa, Yemen's capital to implement a permanent ceasefire, which is a good thing, to bring an end to the years of suffering of Yemeni children and civilians that have suffered from malnutrition, death and impacted severely. The ceasefire plan will also lift the embargo on vital air & sea links.

 

In the name of God, can the World not imagine, having peace with everyone and Countries living in peace & harmony, which is how it should be, in an ideal World? Why do humans/people choose to fight each other and start wars that destroy years of civilisation, humanity, progress & prosperity?

 

A visit by Taiwan’s President, Tsai to Washington D.C. to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy led to China deploying Warships into the Bashi Channel, near the coast of Taiwan with Taiwan responding with its own military defences, drills and exercise. As stated above, what is wrong with some of our World leaders looking for war/conflict? Don’t they have better things to divert their attention to, like, building up their economy and people for prosperity rather than seeking the destruction of each other. It seems some are trying to out-muscle/bully weaker nations that are just going about their own business and focusing on their prosperity.

 

TikTok was fined £12.7m by the Information Commissioner (ICO), UK's Data watchdog for failing to protect children’s privacy by allowing a million children under 13 years of age to use the platform between 2018 - 2020 without parental consent and may have tracked, profiled, targeted them for advertising and potentially presented them with harmful or inappropriate content because user data, contributes to an algorithm that feeds into content.

TikTok released a statement that their 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for their community and disagreed with the ICO’s decision while they continue to review the decision and consider their next steps. The Company was however, pleased that, the fine/penalty had been reduced from £27m, at the point of notice of intent, to £12.7m for the breaches with 28 days to appeal the decision. The ICO has a maximum of 16 weeks to deliver a final verdict.

 

Finland has become the 31st member of the NATO security alliance and rightly so. Hope others including Ukraine can join. It comes a time when Russia took over the Presidency of the UN Security Council 2nd time around, after it did in Feb 2022 when it invaded Ukraine. The membership rotates among the 5 Permanent members (UK, US, France, China & Russia) that work with 10 other non-permanent member States. It was a joke that coincided with April Fool’s day (1st April).

How can Russian Presidency be taken seriously – a nation that invaded another Sovereign Nation, violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, UN Charter, risking Peace and putting the UN in complete disrepute, as well as, the Russian leader being on the International Arrest Warrant of the ICC for alleged war crimes and abducting Ukrainian Children, is chairing the same body, whose values it has violated? How is that right and how can that be?

Russia should have been thrown out of the UN and their membership suspended when it invaded Ukraine. So many mistakes and errors have been made all along the way, in the way and manner that Ukraine invasion has been handled. Although, the ICC is not part of the arm of the UN like other agencies and bodies, the rule of law, peace, human rights and national Sovereignty needs to be maintained as a mandate.

 

Former US President, Donald Trump was charged for felony on 34 counts of falsifying business records in historic cases of hush money paid to 2 women before the 2016 elections and trying to conceal violation of election laws. He was arraigned in New York Court, booked and he pleaded not guilty on all counts. He denied any wrongdoing, and says that it is a political indictment and is expected back in Court on December 4th.

 

Powerful Tornadoes swept through the South and the Midwest (in Arkansas, little Rock, Wynne, Mississippi, Alabama, Des Moines, Oklahoma) killing people, damaging homes and infrastructures. Our prayers and thoughts are with all affected and may those that died rest in perfect peace! We also pray for those that have been ravaged by wars and conflict.

 

The Men’s and Women’s Boat race 2023 between Oxford and Cambridge was won by Cambridge making it a double for Cambridge. Cambridge women have won the race since 2016 making it a 6th straight win. Cambridge lead the women’s rivalry 47-30 while the men lead by 86 - 81.

In Golf, Jon Rahm current World No. 1 Golfer, won the Masters at Augusta on a weekend when torrential rain stopped play on Saturday before it resumed on Sunday. Old timer, Phil Mickleson came 2nd and was the runner-up with Koepka in joint second, 4 shots adrift of Phil Mickleson.