Recently, a report released by the United Nations stated that the United States, Britain, and France (“Coalition”) may be complicit in possible war crimes in Yemen over their support for parties to the conflict there, and called for a ban on arms transfers to warring sides of Yemen. The report has also accused the Coalition of killing civilians in airstrikes and deliberately denying them food during the times of famine.
The Coalition has dismissed this report as subjective and biased. A statement published by Saudi state news agency claimed the presence of inaccurate assumptions in the report that makes it devoid of objectivity and impartiality.Rejecting the assertion that it had not provided information to the panel, the Coalition has agreed to provide a comprehensive and detailed legal response later in time. The Coalition has also assured its commitment to international humanitarian law and international human rights law in its military operations. The Yemeni Civil War has its roots in the Arab Spring which overthrew its longtime authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh and restored his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, to power in 2011. Mr. Hadi’s rule brought instability and resulted in the Houthi movement, which champions Yemen's Zaidi Shia Muslim minority. Taking advantage of the new president's weakness, the rebels took over Sanaa in 2014-15 and forced Mr. Hadi to flee abroad. The Saudi-led group of Sunni Muslim states intervened the following year to restore the ousted government leading to a conflict that has since killed thousands of people.
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The US and China have been in a trade war that has now started to impact corporates and consumers alike while putting a strain on the global economy. Recently, the US imposed tariffs on US$250 billion worth of Chinese products and has further threatened tariffs on US$325 billion worth products more. In retaliation, China has set tariffs on US$110 billion worth of US goods and is threatening qualitative measures that would affect US businesses operating in China.
Chinese tech giant Huawei is also playing a major role in this trade war. Apprehensions exist that China is using Huawei as a proxy so it can spy on the US and scoop up useful data. Meanwhile, Huawei has stated it is an independent corporation and gives nothing to China, apart from relevant taxes. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently stated that "The threat of having Chinese telecom systems inside of American networks or inside of networks around the world present a national security risk. Our mission is to find a way to reduce that risk, to take that risk down as much as we possibly can". Following which Huawei has been put on a U.S. blacklist called the Entity List which restrains American firms selling the company products. The US ban is prompting China and Huawei to stimulate their efforts in becoming self-sufficient in advanced technologies. The trade war is also impacting technology innovation, as tariffs have escalated expenses and lessened revenues of tech companies. The future of Huawei is indecisive, till both the countries resolve their conflicts and come to an amicable solution, in another way this trade war could turn into a digital cold war and it would impact the global economy. |