The last time the UN declared a famine was in 2011, in Somalia. The last time it faced more than one major famine simultaneously was more than three decades ago. Today we are on the brink of four – in Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan. The spectre of famine is primarily the result of war, not natural disaster. According to the UN, more than twenty million people, millions of them children, are at risk of starvation. This is happening in man-made crises and under the Security Council’s watch. In some places, the denial of food and other aid is a weapon of war as much as its consequence. Combatants’ fighting tactics often make the problem worse. Both sides of Yemen’s conflict, for example, fight with little to no regard for the local population. The Huthis and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces, on one hand, and their opponents in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, on the other, have repeatedly strangled the flow of aid and commodities to areas controlled by their rivals. The impending Saudi-led push to recapture the Red Sea coast, including the port of Hodeida – the main entry point for imports on which much of the country depends – and the battle that offensive will provoke risk creating another major chokehold on supplies. Elsewhere, too, the actions of governments and their opponents exact high humanitarian tolls. In north-east Nigeria, Boko Haram’s attacks on rural communities and the destruction wrought by fighting between its insurgents and the military caused the acute food crisis. The curtailing by Lake Chad basin states of economic activity, aimed at weakening the insurgency, has damaged communities’ livelihoods and increased their vulnerability. Fighting in South Sudan often involves indiscriminate killing of civilians, sexual violence and pillage by state and non-state armed actors alike. Civilians in Southern Unity state must constantly flee armed groups, rendering them unable to farm or receive assistance and creating conditions for famine. Many resort to hiding in swamps; to seek food is to risk attack. The risk of famine is thus closely tied to the spike, over recent years, in war and its fallout, particularly mounting human suffering. Critical norms, including adherence to International Humanitarian Law (IHL), are fast eroding. For the first time in a generation, most indicators suggest the world is becoming more dangerous. The Nigerians, Somalis, South Sudanese and Yemenis over whom famine looms have already suffered intense, in some cases protracted conflict. The impact on those most affected is more than a passing tragedy. The displacement, destruction to livestock and local communities and the threat of a lost generation, without education or socio-economic prospects, hinder prospects for building sustainable peace. Beginning today with publication of the special briefing Instruments of Pain (I): Conflict and Famine in Yemen, and continuing over the next few weeks with similar special briefings on South Sudan, Nigeria and Somalia, Crisis Group will describe these crises’ roots and the measures necessary to prevent their further deterioration. Each requires a unique response: challenges of access and funding vary, as do ways to quiet and eventually end the wars that have increased risks of famine. Each special briefing will offer detailed prescriptions. Overall, though, governments of the states affected and their backers should: show far greater respect for IHL, particularly by allowing in aid and protecting those delivering it. They must avoid tactics that contribute to the risk of famine, like the Hodeida offensive, the curtailing of Lake Chad basin trading or predation in Southern Unity state; increase and sustain funds for relief efforts. Shortfalls are not the only financial challenge – in Yemen, for example, the central bank’s failure to pay public sector salaries has left many Yemenis unable to buy food that is available. But humanitarian efforts in all four crises are chronically underfunded; and renew efforts to calm violence and bring those conflicts to a sustainable end. The spike in war over recent years, which has already caused more civilian casualties, mass displacement and terrorism, now threatens to starve millions. Without redoubled efforts to end those conflicts, 2017 promises to be not the low-water mark, but rather a way-station on the descent to something far worse. _____________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 International Crisis Group

Protection of civilians site in Wau, South Sudan. IOM/McLaughlin 2017 South Sudan – A recent upsurge in violence beginning 10 April has displaced an estimated 8,000 people in South Sudan’s Wau town. International Organization for Migration (IOM) teams and relief agencies are providing assistance to new arrivals at existing displacement sites, which had already been hosting nearly 43,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled their homes due to insecurity in late June 2016. IOM Displacement Tracking and Monitoring (DTM) teams were deployed to displacement sites in Wau on 11 and 12 April to assess the scale of new displacement. Between 10 and 12 April, approximately 4,000 people arrived at the protection of civilians (PoC) site adjacent to the UN Mission in South Sudan base, joining more than 25,200 IDPs already sheltering in the site. An additional 3,800 people arrived at the Cathedral site, which has been hosting nearly 8,000 people since June. “With thousands of people fearful to return to their homes, humanitarian needs in Wau continue to grow,” says William Barriga, IOM South Sudan Chief of Mission. “The displacement figure is likely to increase over the coming days as families continue to seek protection at displacement sites.” Clashes were intense in areas south and west of Wau town, including near the Nazareth church displacement site. DTM teams observed that many IDPs, who were seeking protection at the Nazareth church compound, have left for the PoC site and Cathedral, in search of more secure areas. While conditions in the town had calmed by 11 April, IOM received reports of gunfire in south and west areas of Wau on the morning of 12 April and observed additional IDPs moving towards the PoC site. Difficult living conditions in the already overcrowded displacement sites have been compounded by the influx of new arrivals, stretching limited space and resources. IOM and aid agencies are working to provide services and space to new arrivals despite constraints. More than 7.5 million people, out of an estimated population in South Sudan of 12 million, are in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 4.9 million people facing severe food insecurity due to displacement, conflict and economic decline since December 2013. For further information, please contact Ashley McLaughlin at IOM South Sudan, Tel: +211 922 405 716, Email: amclaughlin@iom.int. (C) 2017 International Organization for Migration South Sudan

As conflict spreads and intensifies in the Central African Republic (CAR), dozens of civilians are being killed and wounded. Thousands are being forced to flee for their lives and are receiving little to no humanitarian assistance. “Our teams have witnessed summary executions and have found mutilated bodies left exposed to terrorise populations. Civilians are traumatised and many have fled to the bush where they are surviving on whatever they can find,” says René Colgo, MSF’s deputy head of mission. He has been leading the team providing medical care in the areas of Bakouma and Nzako since 26 March. In the past few months, in-fighting among parties from the 2014–2015 conflict has resulted in splinter groups and has triggered a conflict for control of territory and resources, especially in the centre and east of the country (Ouaka, Haute Kotto, Basse Kotto and Mbomou prefectures). When cities change hands, civilians are the first to suffer. In Bria paediatric hospital, for example, MSF teams have treated 168 people for violence-related injuries since November. “During the weekend of 24 to 26 March our pediatric ward received around 24 badly injured people. Among them was a three-year-old girl who had a gunshot wound. It was chaos, and I remember having to leave one wounded man because I needed to urgently focus on another who just arrived with his intestines hanging out. We had limited technical equipment, but our surgeon managed to save his life,” says Dr Katie Treble, who was working for MSF in Bria hospital at the time. The conflict is spreading to areas that had been considered relatively stable for the past two years. In Bakouma and Nzako (Mbomou province), towns and mining areas are being contested by rival armed groups, with devastating consequences for the civilian population. “What was already one of the most acute humanitarian crises in the world is worsening. The Central African Republic is spiraling into levels of violence that have not been seen since the peak of the conflict in 2014,” says Emmanuel Lampaert, MSF’s representative in CAR. In recent months there has also been an increase in the number of targeted attacks by armed groups against specific communities, which in turn leads to retaliation and a quick escalation of violence. “The nature of the conflict is evolving and traumatized and helpless civilians find themselves trapped in the crossfire, kicked out of their homes, and cut off from their fields and livelihoods. At the very least all parties need to stop attacking non-combatants and allow a minimum of assistance to reach those in desperate need,” says Caroline Ducarme, head of mission in CAR. About the crisis in the Central African Republic Last year, the Central African Republic organised general elections and settled into uneasy peace, punctuated by sporadic but often localised episodes of violence. Since the 2014–2015 war between the Séléka and anti-Balaka, the eastern half of the country has remained out of government control, but a precarious status quo allowed some normalcy for the civilian population. However, in the past few months the ex-Séléka and anti-Balaka have splintered into different and loosely affiliated armed factions that are currently fighting each other over control of territory, particularly in the eastern part of the country. As the balance of power is contested, the turf wars leave civilians to suffer. According to UN Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), half the 4.6 million people living in CAR rely on humanitarian assistance. An additional 100,000 people were displaced between September 2016 and February 2017 due to the renewed fighting, bringing the total number of people internally displaced to over 400,000 and the total number of registered refugees to over 460,000. So far only 5.4 per cent of the funds needed in the UN humanitarian response plan have been pledged. About MSF in the Central African Republic MSF has worked in the Central African Republic since 1997, delivering emergency medical care to those most in need across the country. In 2016, MSF provided 947,000 medical consultations (in a country of 4.6 million people), treated 580,000 people for malaria, administered 490,000 vaccines and assisted over 21,000 births. MSF relies 100 per cent on private donors for its work in CAR. (C) 2017 ReliefWeb on behalf of OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

For the first time, a big budget, wide-release feature film-complete with a-list, Hollywood celebrities and a renowned, Academy Award-winning director-will depict the Armenian Genocide. This monumental film, The Promise, will be released in mainstream theaters across the United States and Canada on April 21, marking a major triumph for the Armenian community. Produced by the legendary Kirk Kerkorian’s Survival Pictures and directed by Academy Award winner Terry George (Hotel Rwanda), The Promise features an outstanding international cast, including Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon, Christian Bale, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Angela Sarafyan, and many more. All proceeds from the film will be donated to non-profit organizations, the first time for a film of this scale. In the film, it is 1914. As the Great War looms, the vast Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople (Istanbul)-its once vibrant, multicultural capital-is about to be consumed by chaos. Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac) arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine to Siroun, his ancestral village in southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by side for centuries. Photo-journalist Chris Meyers (Christian Bale) has come only partly to cover geo-political news. He is mesmerized by his love for Ana (Charlotte Le Bon), an Armenian artist he has accompanied from Paris after the sudden death of her father. When Michael meets Ana, their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between the two men, even as Michael hangs on to a promise from his past. After the Turks join the war on the German side, the Empire turns violently against its own ethnic minorities. Despite their conflicts, everyone must find a way to survive-even as monumental events envelope their lives. In addition to the all-star cast, acclaimed musician and activist Serj Tankian served as the film’s executive music consultant and contributed a modern rendition of the Armenian folk song, “Sari Siroun Yar,” to the soundtrack. “It’s been an honor to be an impartial ear and eye to the film,” said Tankian. “The best way to counter high budget disinformation campaigns by the Turkish government is to move people with the truth via the arts. I’ve been doing it for years with music and wanted to help do it through film somehow.” The original title song for the film was written and performed by Chris Cornell of the band Soundgarden and the original score was composed by Academy Award winner Gabriel Yared (The English Patient). In addition to the release in the United States and Canada on April 21, The Promise will also be released in the Middle East (Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, UAE, Yemen) on April 20; in Armenia and Russia on April 27; in the United Kingdom on April 28; in Poland on May 5; in Australia on May 25; in Thailand on June 1; in Spain on June 2; in Belgium on June 14; in the Netherlands on June 15; in Singapore on June 22; in South Africa on June 23 and in Italy on August 24. The grassroots campaign to ensure the box-office success of The Promise has been a worldwide effort supported by a joint coalition of Armenian organizations in North America, including: All-Armenian Student Association (All-ASA), Armenia Fund, Armenia Tree Project, Armenian Assembly of America, Armenian Dramatic Arts Alliance, Armenian Catholic Eparchy in the United States & Canada, Armenian Film Foundation, Armenian Gay and Lesbian Association of New York (AGLA NY), Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), Armenian International Women’s Association (AIWA), Armenian Missionary Association of America, Armenian Missionary Association of Canada, Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC), Armenian National Institute (ANI), Armenian Network of America, Armenian Prelacy of Canada, the Armenian Relief Society (ARS) of the United States, Armenian Students’ Association of America, Arpa Foundation for Film, Music and Art (AFFMA), Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), Constantinople Armenian Relief Society (CARS), Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), Diocese of the Armenian Church of Canada, Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to Canada, Embassy of the Republic of Armenia to the United States, Gay and Lesbian Armenian Society (GALAS), Hamazkayin Educational & Cultural Society of the United States, Hayastan Foundation Canada, Knights and Daughters of Vartan, National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR), Office of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic in the United States, ONEArmenia, Organization of Istanbul Armenians (OIA), Tekeyan Cultural Association of the United States and Canada, Society for Orphaned Armenian Relief (SOAR), Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of North America, Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and Zoryan Institute. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Public Radio of Armenia

A sign in Istanbul asks for yes votes on Sunday in a referendum that would expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who is pictured on the sign. Credit: Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images ISTANBUL — When Aynur Barkin became one of roughly 40,000 teachers purged from Turkey’s education system after last year’s attempted coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, she was not immediately replaced. As a result, her second-grade students were forced to join the third grade, tripling their original class size. “I could pay attention to each of them one by one,” said Ms. Barkin, 37, who was fired in February from a school west of Istanbul. “But their new teacher can’t do that.” That is one example of the administrative upheaval and chaos caused by the government’s vast purge of Turkish institutions since the failed coup in July — the backdrop for a referendum on Sunday to expand the president’s powers. Mr. Erdogan’s government has sought to root out any remaining dissent by targeting nearly every segment of society. It has also used the purge as cover for a crackdown on dissidents of all stripes, including leftists like Ms. Barkin. The numbers are extraordinary. The government has fired or suspended about 130,000 people suspected of being dissidents from the public and private sectors. Most are accused of affiliations with the Gulen movement, the Islamic followers of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric accused of orchestrating the putsch. More than 8,000 army officers, 8,000 police officers, 5,000 academics and 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been forced out, according to estimates. The social cost has been significant. Watchdogs say that around 1,200 schools, 50 hospitals and 15 universities have been closed. Affected schoolchildren have usually been able to find places in local state schools — but their purged parents have mostly been frozen out of the job market. Turkey has become “like an open-air prison,” said Sezgin Yurdakul, 40, who was fired from the Istanbul ferry system because his daughter attended a Gulen-run school on a scholarship. Mr. Yurdakul’s name is blacklisted on a national database, so no employer has yet dared to give him a new job. He, like thousands of other purged employees of the state, is now living off his savings. The vacuum left by people like Mr. Yurdakul has prompted many Turks to question which individuals are permitted to fill the void — and which factions, if any, have benefited. Supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey at a campaign rally in Ankara. Credit: Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images Mr. Erdogan’s allies argue that a wide range of groups has filled the void. But some claim that the gaps have been largely plugged by members of other Islamic orders, or loyalists from the president’s Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P. “The A.K.P.’s own cadres are filling the void,” said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the largest opposition party. “They want to establish a bureaucratic structure that accepts whatever the politicians say.” Mustafa Karadag, the head of the judges’ union, says that gaps in the judiciary have often been filled by novices who can provide letters of accreditation from a legal guild with links to the A.K.P. “This has allowed access to the judicial and prosecutorial professions to those who receive lower marks but who have a closer relationship to the government, or who are able to procure references from them,” Mr. Karadag said. The government denies this. Ibrahim Kalin, the president’s official spokesman, said in a recent briefing with reporters that those let go had been “replaced by ordinary people” who had “all gone through very transparent, open examinations.” But even some of the president’s critics say the situation is too chaotic, and the purges too widespread, for one faction alone to have benefited. To fill the holes in the bureaucracy and the political sphere, some say, Mr. Erdogan has had to rely on right-wing nationalists, hard-left nationalists, novices and recalled retirees, as well as party loyalists and Islamists. “The perception among Turks is that Erdogan rules everything, but that’s not the case,” said Orhan Gazi Ertekin, a judge who heads the Democratic Judicial Association, a liberal legal watchdog. “There are various groups, all different to each other, that previously plotted against each other, but are now in alliance” against the Gulenists. The most striking example may be that of Dogu Perincek, the leader of the tiny arch-secularist Patriotic Party. He was jailed for plotting to overthrow Mr. Erdogan before his conviction was quashed in 2014. Upon his release, Mr. Perincek pledged to “demolish” Mr. Erdogan’s government, which he accuses of undermining Turkey’s secular system. Yet, in a recent interview, Mr. Perincek offered qualified approval of some of Mr. Erdogan’s recent policies. “There’s no reason for us to fight. We became side by side. They are now following our program,” he said, referring to Mr. Erdogan’s government. Opponents of a move to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey waved a Turkish flag with a picture of the country’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, on Wednesday in Istanbul.CreditBulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Erdogan also has the unlikely support of the Nationalist Movement Party, also known as the M.H.P., a far-right nationalist group whose votes helped him secure parliamentary backing for the referendum. In return, senior officials with the nationalist group privately say, they expect cabinet seats after the referendum. If they get what they want, it would constitute an unlikely about-face for a party whose leader once called Mr. Erdogan a “political disaster.” In the military, the firings of thousands of officers have led to no obvious ideological victor. Mr. Erdogan raised eyebrows with the appointment last August of Adnan Tanriverdi, a former one-star general, as his new military adviser. Mr. Tanriverdi was expelled from the army in 1996 because of concerns over his religiosity. He has since run a group for other soldiers fired for similar reasons in the late 1990s, known as the Association of Justice Defenders. His appointment as Mr. Erdogan’s adviser prompted claims that the president had enlisted Mr. Tanriverdi to help install loyalists in the army. But Mr. Tanriverdi’s allies said that no other members of his association had been appointed to positions of significance. Other observers have concluded that a mix of factions has benefited from the purge of the military. Anti-American ultranationalists — known as Eurasianists and sometimes associated with Mr. Perincek — have profited at the expense of pro-NATO officers, according to two military experts at Sabanci University in Istanbul. “It seems for now that the Eurasianists will hold on to their influence and ranks, but for how long remains a question,” Megan Gisclon and Metin Gurcan, a former officer in the Turkish special forces, wrote in a briefing last year. One former military prosecutor says such was the scale of undercover Gulenists’ infiltration over the last two decades that they are still the largest faction in the armed forces. “In the Turkish armed forces,” said Ahmet Zeki Ucok, who once led investigations into Gulenists in the military, “if there is a group that currently is influential, it’s still the Gulenists.” In some parts of higher education, the vacuum has not been filled. At Ankara University, half of the 14 professors in the university’s human rights law department have been let go, and it has had to scrap more than half its courses. “How can we write our dissertations?” asked Emine Ay, a master’s student who has been left without a supervisor. Her department head, Prof. Kerem Altiparmak, said: “If our professors are not reinstated, this program will end. These are the last students we will see in this program.” Some wonder if this, in fact, is the goal: to dismantle one of the country’s liberal strongholds. In the judiciary, the number purged is one-third of Turkey’s 12,000 judges and prosecutors. “If you purge 30 to 40 percent of the judiciary, in a sense you purge it all,” Judge Ertekin said. “There’s no tradition left and no knowledge left.” Mr. Karadag, the head of the judges’ union, said the government was filling the vacancies with loyalists. Some say the situation is dangerous for Mr. Erdogan because it leaves him vulnerable to groups beyond his control, just as his relationship with the Gulenist network once did. “As long as he depends on these alliances,” Judge Ertekin said, “a new betrayal may be on the horizon, too.” Mr. Erdogan’s newfound allies in Parliament, the M.H.P., offer a glimpse of this vulnerability. While the party’s leadership supports expanding the president’s powers, several of its lawmakers do not. Many in the party’s ultranationalist rank and file also have yet to be convinced. In the case of Mr. Perincek, the leader of the arch-secularist party, his support for Mr. Erdogan goes only so far. While he applauds the president’s recent pro-Russian, anti-Kurdish policies, he says the president has eroded the country’s secular character. Significantly, he also vehemently opposes the expansion of Mr. Erdogan’s powers, and therefore opposes the referendum. “Turkey,” Mr. Perincek said, “is not going to carry Tayyip Erdogan on its shoulders.” Correction: April 12, 2017 An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of a professor at Ankara University. He is Kerem Altiparmak, not Altinparmak. Gardiner Harris contributed reporting. (C) 2017 The New York Times

Fernanda Santini, an elementary school teacher in Sao Paulo, seemed to sum up the feelings of many Brazilians when a Supreme Court justice this week released a list of politicians being investigated on corruption allegations. Rumors of who was on the list had circulated for some time, and when it finally came out, scores of officials were named, including eight Cabinet ministers. “It’s about time they were all named,” Santini said with satisfaction Wednesday. “It’s not like we all didn’t know who would — or at least should — be investigated, but it makes you smile to think that what they’ve done could all catch up to them now.” Residents of Sao Paulo celebrated the release of the list Tuesday by banging on pots and pans, an act that has become symbolic in Brazil of protesting against political corruption since the arrest and jailing of many government leaders in the seemingly never-ending fallout from the investigation code-named “Lava Jato,” or Car Wash. Satirical Brazilian website Sensacionalista even published a list of 15 politicians on the list who had previously attended anti-corruption protests. The list, the subject of leaks and much speculation, was made public when Justice Luiz Edson Fachin removed the seal on plea-bargain testimony from executives of the construction company Odebrecht, whose former chief executive, Marcelo Odebrecht, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for his involvement in paying millions of dollars in bribes as part of a graft scheme. Federal prosecutors will open new inquiries into eight ministers in President Michel Temer’s Cabinet, as well as 24 senators and 39 lawmakers in the lower house of Congress. Among those on the “Fachin list,” as it is being called, are Temer’s chief of staff, Eliseu Padilha, and Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes Ferreira. Members of the Brazilian Congress have been implicated too, including the president of the lower house, Rodrigo Maia, as well as former Senate President Renan Calheiros and his replacement, Eunicio Oliveira. Temer’s name was also mentioned in evidence and transcriptions related to investigations into some of his top allies, according to Fachin’s ruling. The president, however, has temporary immunity, which prevents a sitting president from being investigated for acts that occurred outside his current mandate. Brazilians are becoming accustomed to seeing presidents in legal hot water. Temer’s predecessor, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached last fall for breaking budgetary rules by shifting around funds to cover short-term deficits. She wasn’t accused of corruption, nor was she a target of Lava Jato, but her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, was. He faces corruption charges in connection with alleged bribes from Oderbrecht. While some see the list’s release as a victory, other Brazilians say it’s likely just another step in a long, long road. “Just because they’re on that list doesn’t mean anything will actually happen to them,” said Jairo Peres, a street vendor in São Paulo. “It’s good that they have the shame of being investigated, but they’ll find a way to stay right where they are, spending all our money.” Once federal prosecutors wrap up their investigations into each politician on the list, their findings will be brought back to the Supreme Court, which will decide whether the officials will be charged with crimes such as corruption and money laundering. Despite the fact that nearly a third of his Cabinet and a third of the Senate are named on the Fachin list, Temer said the accusations would not slow down the work of the federal government. “We absolutely cannot paralyze legislative activity,” he said Thursday. “We have to continue with government [work], and legislative and judicial activity.” The new inquiries have come at a delicate time for Temer, who is trying to obtain approval of controversial pension reform proposals that the government considers its only way out of severe pension system debt and, in turn, would provide a return to confidence in the country’s economy. Last year alone, Brazil registered a pension deficit of $67 billion in the 12 months through November. Brazilians, however, are not pleased with the plan to set a minimum retirement age of 65 after the country has gone so many years without setting a bar at all. “I’ve been working since I was 14 years old, and now they tell me I’ll have to wait until I’m 65 to retire and get my measly pension? It’s absurd,” said Antonia Ferreira, who works at a clothing store in São Paulo. “Maybe if [politicians] stopped lining their pockets with our money, we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place. They should start paying us taxes. Or maybe I’ll just run for office next year.” ©, 2017, The L.A. Times

Funeral of victims of Tanta city church bombing. PA Images. All Rights Reserved. It is customary for Copts – Egypt’s roughly 9 million strong Christian population – to celebrate Palm Sunday at church, waving palm fronds and singing joyful chants that go back to ancient times to commemorate Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, days before his crucifixion. They did not expect the service to be interrupted by bodies being ripped apart. On 9 April 2017, in the second largest church in the city of Tanta, a suicide bomber approached the alter and blew himself up. At least 29 people were killed and 71 injured, some gravely. Three hours later, a suicide bomber tried to enter St Mark’s Church in Alexandria where Pope Tawadros, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, was presiding over a service. The man was stopped by police, and detonated his bomb outside. At least 18 people died, with 35 wounded. The Copts comprise roughly 10 percent of Egypt's population and are enraged over the state’s failure to ensure churches are safe places for worship. The recent attacks also recall another inside a church in Cairo on 11 December 2016, which killed 26 people, mostly women, and injured 49. These are not the first church bombings targeting Copts in Egypt: on 1 December 2011, a bomb was planted in the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria where many congregate to mark the New Year in prayer. It killed more than 20 people and injured more than 70. But the bombings in Cairo, Tanta and Alexandria are different from previous attacks in significant ways – and they were each preceded by threats from ISIS. In 2015, ISIS beheaded 21 Copts in Libya and warned that it would target the “crusaders” – Christians – and the Coptic Church. It then struck in December 2016 in Cairo; ISIS claimed responsibility for this bombing and vowed to “continue war against the apostates.” In February 2017, ISIS murdered seven Christians in Sinai and described Copts as its favourite “prey,” calling for further killings. Then, the Palm Sunday bombings occurred. (Again, ISIS claimed responsibility). Headlines report on April bombings. PA/Richard B Levine. All Rights Reserved. Details of the attacks over the last year also suggest careful orchestration. They share similar tactics: the use of explosive belts by prepared suicide bombers. And they were each timed to occur when churches were packed with worshippers – to maximise civilian suffering and break morale. The Copts have long endured ebbs and flows of persecution and integration and are a strong, resilient and fairly cohesive community. Over the past four decades, the rise of political movements with aspirations of instating an Islamic State, governed by their interpretations of Sharia, has posed the greatest threat to their equal citizenship – and have threatened social cohesion more broadly. Under Mubarak, state security services were complicit in failing to prevent assaults on the Copts – intervening too late when sectarian assaults occurred and enforcing informal “reconciliation meetings” which denied Coptic victims of assault access to justice in courts. Assaults on Copts increased markedly after the 2011 revolution. The political rise of Islamists, and a general state of lawlessness, has increased Copts’ vulnerability. Petty everyday disputes assumed a sectarian character. There were mobilisations against the construction and repair of churches, or for the closure of existing ones. New kinds of targeting emerged such as the kidnapping of Copts in return for ransom and the imposition by criminal groups and individuals of “special levies” on Copt businesses. In June 2013, Copts received public and private warnings that they would incur the wrath of Islamists should they dare protest against Muslim Brotherhood affiliated President Morsi’s regime – but they joined demonstrations regardless, and paid a heavy price for doing so. In August 2013, pro-Morsi factions looted and torched dozens of Christian places of worship, assaulting Copts and their property. Again the December 2016 and April 2017 bombings of churches mark a new shift in the religious targeting of Copts that is qualitatively different. The actors, ways of striking and intended outcomes of attacks have all expanded. ISIS has vowed to pursue a campaign of annihilating the Copts and with every bloody terrorist attack they believe they are progressing towards that goal. We are no longer dealing with local Salafi groups obstructing Copts from praying in a local church or fanatical mobs burning Christian homes and property or even a state that resorts to divide and rule policies to detract attention from its governance failures. ISIS is not a national entity – it is a global actor, well-networked and resourced with a wide array of splinter cells across borders. The attacks by Islamists in Egypt over the past half century were undertaken by individuals and groups who wanted to either contain the Copts or put them in their place – subservient to Muslims. Those involved rarely went so far as to put their own lives at risk. The recent suicide bombings are different: these attackers will do anything to inflict as much harm as possible. Previous incidents of sectarian violence – with the exception of the pro-Morsi assault on Copts, their property and places of worship in August 2013 – have been largely local acts. ISIS strategy in targeting Copts is on a much grander scale. Copts have moved from being survivors of erratic incidents of local sectarian violence to targets of a global terrorist network. The targeting of the Copts by ISIS should be seen as part of a broader geostrategic plan to eliminate religious pluralism – and the Christian element of it – in the region. International human rights organizations should recognize that what the Copts are facing are acts of terrorism not just “sectarian violence.” This is a significant distinction, which has been overlooked by some. In response to the bombings this week, Amnesty International issued a press release proposing “Addressing sectarian violence requires genuine political will to end impunity and provide protection.” The latter is an appropriate measure for addressing every day forms of sectarian violence against Copts, but the idea of impunity to a suicide bomber who has torn himself to pieces is redundant. It is to be expected that ISIS will strike again, targeting Copts not only in Egypt but also in neighbouring countries (as they did in Libya) and in the diaspora in Europe, the US and Australia. It is not so much that the situation is that “Egypt’s security situation has rapidly deteriorated” but that threats are now of a scale and intensity that is dramatically greater than at any other time before. Three police officers heroically gave their lives blocking the suicide bomber from entering the church in Alexandria this month, but there were – and continues to be – major flaws in the security system’s protection of churches. The security service needs to be held accountable for its performance. But if future targeting of Copts are to be mitigated, international cooperation is also needed. We further owe it to those who have been killed, injured, and lost loved ones to stand together against the politics of omission. Prominent commentator Fahmy Howeidy has asserted: “I am against the idea that the targeting of churches – as awful as it is – amounts to a targeting of Copts and their persecution.” His rationale is that ISIS do not generally target society but focus on those in authority. The evidence Howeidy offers is that “we have never heard of terrorist operations targeting coffee shops or residential areas or shops or malls.” The reason why ISIS did not strike at the public venues mentioned by Howeidy is that they are likely to be populated by Muslims and Christians alike, unlike the churches. Howeidy’s narrative feeds the politics of denial by implicitly negating that Copts are part of Egyptian society. When Howeidy claims that ISIS assaults are ultimately politically-motivated – not religiously-driven – acts, he is contributing to the politics of omission by denying that this violence is tied to ISIS viewing Copts as infidels and idolaters. It is bad enough to experience terrorism, it is worse when you are denied the recognition that the only reason you are a target is because you happen to be, in the eyes of the perpetrators, following the wrong religion. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 openDemocracy

REUTERS Minarets of a mosque and the cross above a church are seen near Cairo, Egypt, April 11. April 11, 2017 —As it loses ground elsewhere in the Middle East, the Islamic State (ISIS) has stepped up terrorist attacks in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country but also home to the region’s largest Christian community. The latest attack was the killing of 45 people at two Christian churches on Palm Sunday. ISIS seems intent on sparking a religious conflict between Egypt’s majority Muslims and minority Christians. Yet if anything, the attacks have drawn the faiths closer. Other countries that seek a good defense against ISIS should take note of how Egyptians are countering the militants’ message. A good example was an interview on Cairo’s Dream TV with the nephew of a Muslim policewoman assigned to protect Coptic Christian churches but who was killed in the April 9 attacks. “I say to our Coptic Christian brothers and sisters. Do not be sad. Muslims and Christians are one. It’s not about Muslim attacking Christians,” said the nephew, Islam Fathi. His words echoed those of many leaders in Egyptian society. Egypt has struggled for decades to calm sectarian tensions between Coptic Christians and Muslims. ISIS is well aware of the occasional violent flare-ups in local communities. And the government could be doing far more, such as giving Copts greater rights and privileges while also offering better protection of churches. Yet the best attempt to safeguard Muslim-Christian coexistence comes from the top two religious leaders, Grand Imam Muhammad al-Tayyeb and Coptic Pope Tawadros II. In 2011, the two have launched an effort, known as “The House of the Egyptian Family,” to reform religious teachings about the others and seek to end the root causes of religious violence. The program sends out teams of Islamic imams and Coptic priests to meet with young people and to go into villages with high sectarian tensions. The teams hold sessions on reconciliation that focus on each faith’s shared message of peace for a diverse society like Egypt’s. The rest of the Middle East needs similar models of such cross-faith harmony. They would be a soft but powerful weapon against the hate and violence of both ISIS and Al Qaeda. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The Christian Science Monitor

Skulls of victims of the Khmer Rouge at the Choeung Ek memorial, a mass grave in Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge regime killed 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979. Credit Damir Sagolj/Reuters BANGKOK — After spending more than a decade and nearly $300 million, the United Nations-backed tribunal prosecuting the crimes of the Khmer Rouge has convicted just three men. It appears now that they could be the only people to answer in court for the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979 in one of the worst episodes of mass killing in the last century. Three more potential defendants have been investigated by the tribunal, an ungainly mix of Cambodian and international prosecutors and judges. But because of resistance on the Cambodian side, there are serious doubts that their indictments will proceed. “From the start, the Cambodian government had a very different idea about how many people would be tried, and their view appears to be prevailing,” said Alexander Hinton, an anthropology professor at Rutgers University-Newark. “The court’s legacy will be tainted and greatly diminished if it fails to try further cases.” The trial’s slow pace and its susceptibility to political interference are in part a result of an awkward compromise reached by Cambodia and the United Nations when they agreed to set up a combined international court, which formally began in 2006. Questions about the tribunal’s effectiveness and independence have been raised from the start. “From the perspective of truth and justice, a de facto show trial of a few senior political figures would almost be a worst-case scenario,” Stephen Heder, an expert on Cambodia at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said in 2003 as plans for the tribunal were being put in place. Of the three people convicted, two were members of the highest circle of the radical Communist regime: Nuon Chea, 90, who was No. 2 in the hierarchy, and Khieu Samphan, 85, the chief of state. They were sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity and are undergoing a separate trial for genocide and other crimes. People lined up outside court in a case against the former Khmer Rouge leaders Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan in Phnom Penh in November. Credit Samrang Pring/Reuters The third convict, Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, who commanded a notorious Khmer Rouge prison, was also sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity. Prime Minister Hun Sen has opposed further indictments, suggesting that an expanded trial would lead to civil war. Hor Namhong, the former foreign minister, said when he held the post that further indictments “will not be allowed.” The government includes several former members of the Khmer Rouge, including Mr. Hun Sen himself, and it has been careful to protect its own. In addition to trying to limit the number of defendants, it has denied access to potential witnesses who now hold influential government positions. The limited number of convictions is partly the result of the quarter-century of civil war and political turmoil that elapsed between the fall of the Khmer Rouge and the start of the trials. Many potential defendants are no longer alive, including Pol Pot, the movement’s chief, who died in 1998. Two of the original five defendants died before their trials were completed. The small number of defendants also reflects the court’s narrow brief to try only “senior leaders” and those who were “most responsible” for the crimes. That second category is open to interpretation and has so far been applied to only one person, Duch, the prison superintendent. In February, the court ruled that another Khmer Rouge official, Im Chaem, 74, did not fit in the “most responsible” category, although she was accused of overseeing the deaths of tens of thousands of people in a labor camp. Charges against her were dropped, leaving her to tend her garden and enjoy living among her children and grandchildren. Mr. Khieu Samphan at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in 2010. He was later sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity. Credit Chor Sokunthea/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The tribunal’s awkward hybrid of Cambodian and international legal systems pairs Cambodian and foreign judges, who must reach at least a limited agreement on decisions. That formula preserved the Cambodian sense of sovereignty while attempting to hold the court to legal standards advocated by the United Nations. Over the years, it has led to clashes between the international and Cambodian staff members over the scope of the trial. Some disputes became bitter. In 2012, a Swiss jurist, Laurent Kasper-Ansermet, resigned as a reserve co-investigating judge and issued a statement denouncing what he said were “egregious dysfunctions” within the tribunal and government interference in his investigations of additional defendants. In a report last year, the Open Society Justice Initiative criticized “the apparent ongoing government interference” into the progress of further cases, as well as “delayed and tepid responses from the U.N. and the international officials of the court.” It said this dynamic “generates cynicism and basic distrust of the institution.” Heather Ryan, an expert on the trials with the Justice Initiative, added that the slow pace of the trial fed on itself, creating a kind of complacency, “a sense that the money will go on forever and people’s patience will go on forever.” But for all its flaws, the tribunal plays an important role in Cambodia’s recovery from the Khmer Rouge years, said Mr. Hinton, author of a new book on the Duch trial, “Man or Monster?” “Amidst all of the political storms, it’s remarkable that the court has been able to deliver two final judgments that are viewed as relatively fair and legally sound,” he said, referring to the separate trials of Duch and of the two senior leaders. “It has delivered a degree of justice, both for the victims and the spirits of the dead.” A news conference was held in 2014 after Mr. Nuon Chea, No. 2 in the hierarchy of the Khmer Rouge, and Mr. Khieu Samphan, the chief of state, were found guilty. Credit Omar Havana/Getty Images He added: “Bottom line, would you rather have the justice that was rendered here — this court, with all its problems — or have nothing at all?” Given the political realities, he said, this was the only court on offer. Without a tribunal to examine and adjudicate its traumatic past, Cambodia would in large part have been left in the dark, and the worst perpetrators would have been left to live out their days in quiet retirement. In addition to the convictions it has reached, the tribunal has brought the crimes of the Khmer Rouge into the open in a society where survivors often prefer to forget and where the younger generation is often mistrustful and disbelieving. The fact that the trials — unlike those for Yugoslavia and Rwanda — were held in the country assured that news of the tribunal’s work and the evidence it unearthed spread through the country. “They have established a culture of debate in this broken society, and any talk about the tribunal is extremely important for Cambodia,” said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the country’s main repository for records of the Khmer Rouge years. The court proceedings now define the Khmer Rouge era for the public, he said. In 2009 as the trials progressed, a short history of the Khmer Rouge period was for the first time included in high school curriculums, after 30 years of silence. But there is fundamental disagreement among scholars in assessing the tribunal’s value beyond the three convictions. A portrait of Mr. Nuon Chea at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. Questions about the effectiveness and independence of a tribunal prosecuting the Khmer Rouge’s crimes were raised from the start. Credit Damir Sagolj/Reuters Peter Maguire, who has taught law and theory of war at Columbia University and other institutions, derided as “therapeutic legalism” the notion that war crimes trials can offer such benefits as healing, national reconciliation and closure for the victims. “Trials, at best, convict the guilty and exonerate the innocent,” he said. “To freight a court with a nonjudicial, slightly New Age, therapeutic agenda and predict positive outcomes is an act of intellectual dishonesty.” The opposite view was voiced by Philippe Sands, a professor of law and director of the Center on International Courts and Tribunals at University College London. “I don’t think it’s a fair sign of success or failure just to look at dollar signs and convictions,” he said. “The bigger question is, To what extent has this tribunal contributed to beginning the process of embedding the idea of justice, the absence of impunity, into public consciousness, to help Cambodia transition to a better place?” Among the ranks of war crimes tribunals, the Cambodian court will count as the most vulnerable to political pressure and the least able to counter it, said Thierry Cruvellier, a journalist who has covered most of them. Taking a decade to convict three men “is clearly not a great achievement,” he said, though the time and expense are modest by tribunal standards. The war crimes trial for the Rwandan genocide lasted 20 years, produced 61 sentences and 14 acquittals, and cost between $1 billion and $2 billion. The tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is drawing to an end after 23 years, with a record of 83 convictions and 19 acquittals and a price tag estimated at more than $2 billion. The Cambodian tribunal has had one inarguable success, Mr. Cruvellier said: Three of the perpetrators lived long enough to answer for their crimes. “In that sense the court got a bit lucky,” he said, “because eventually they had the time to convict them, even though they took way too much time.” __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The New York Times Company

New York (CNN)The US missile strikes in Syria Thursday night exploded just as the UN Security Council in New York concluded a closed-door debate on Syria so heated one council diplomat said "there was blood on the floor." The Security Council -- the group of 15 countries charged with protecting international peace and security -- has seen only failures in Syria during the six years of war. Russia, backed by China, has vetoed seven different resolutions. The years of frustration plus the new presence of US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, with a more aggressive approach, contributed to a more heated discussion Thursday night. The evening before at the Women in the World Summit in Manhattan, Haley smiled and said, "We don't do soft power." The UN meeting just two days after the chemical attack was to determine if there could be an international resolution to condemn the Syria gas attack and potentially state demands for Syria to comply with an international investigation. The exchanges between the US and Russia behind closed doors were particularly tense. One council diplomat described the whole atmosphere as "exceptionally poisonous." As Thursday night's debate began, the rising tensions in and outside of the Council chamber reminded observers of the run-up to the two US-led invasions of Iraq, along with other US quick strikes such as inside Libya in 2011. Those events seemed were preceded by days or weeks of debate and drama at the UN. By comparison, events late last week at the UN happened at warp speed. Soon after the nations sat down in the private consultations room, Haley announced there would not be a vote on a resolution. A British diplomat tweeted that news leaving media and other diplomats not in the room perplexed. All day, the US had talked openly about the need for a vote to send a message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. That would be the first tip that the US delegation knew a military option, not diplomacy, had been chosen by the Trump administration. Diplomats speculated that Haley would have liked to have gotten a Russian veto to provide political cover for a missile launch. Not that the Trump administration felt it needed any action from the UN, an organization the US President disdains. But something unexpected happened inside the room. There were now three different proposed resolutions that would respond to the chemical weapons attack. The US draft would demand more compliance from the Syrians and the Russians were more supportive of the Assad regime. A third resolution, intended as a compromise of sorts, was submitted by Sweden and nine other non-permanent members of the council that usually let the big permanent nations flex their muscles. Haley was peeved that countries usually supportive of the US were coming up with their own resolution on Syria. That would hamper efforts to highlight Russia's intransigence. In explaining the decision to not go to a vote, a US official said Monday looking back, "it just got complicated. When it went from one to three texts it made things more difficult." A Security Council diplomat said Haley was quickly dismissive of the new third draft by these member countries who don't have veto power on the Security Council. The diplomat said Haley's body language indicated she wasn't pleased. And Haley remarked, "then there is this Swedish thing!" The diplomat said its extremely rare to get countries from such widely different political spectrums as Ukraine and Bolivia to come together on a proposed resolution to counter the big powers who weren't happy that these two-year Council members were now pushing their own Syrian ideas. A council diplomat said the non-permanent members during the meeting said in effect, don't take us for granted. But Haley, serving as council president for the month, was in charge. And if the US didn't want a vote, Russia didn't either. Moscow, well aware it would not get the required nine votes for even putting its draft, more supportive of Assad, to a formal vote. There are "bruised feelings', said one council diplomat that have to hear first before further action. The US official said the "process isn't dead yet." After about two hours of sharp talk Thursday night, the ambassadors filed out of the room. As to why it ended at that exact moment, one UN diplomat said everybody had their say and it was finished. But the timing was hard to ignore. The Deputy Russian Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov was surrounded by UN journalists and asked what the impact would be if the US staged a military attack. He said there would be "negative consequences." Minutes before he issued his warning, the US missiles had just made their impact at the Syrian base suspected of delivering the deadly gas attack. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 Cable News Network

Marine Le Pen, the presidential candidate of the far-right National Front party, at a rally in Lille, France, last month. Credit: Sylvain Lefevre/Getty Images PARIS — A casual remark about France’s wartime anti-Jewish actions by Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, threatened on Monday to derail her years long effort aimed at “un-demonizing” her party just as she is emerging as a strong contender in this month’s presidential election. The remark was made on Sunday during an interview in which she referred to the most notorious roundup of Jews in France during World War II, when nearly 13,000 were arrested in Paris by the French police on July 16 and 17, 1942, in what is known as the “Vel d’Hiv roundup.” “France wasn’t responsible for the Vel d’Hiv,” she said. “If there was responsibility, it is with those who were in power at the time, it is not with France. France has been mistreated, in people’s minds, for years.” Ms. Le Pen’s words created a small eruption in an already heated campaign, drawing strong criticism by politicians right, left and center and by Jewish groups, who all saw it as an echo of her party’s anti-Semitic roots. In addition, the remark contradicted over 20 years of state policy, which has been to recognize French responsibility for the roundup, in which thousands of men, women and children were rousted from their homes by French police officers, parked in a stinking overcrowded sports arena in Paris — the Vélodrome d’Hiver, which has since been destroyed — and eventually deported to their deaths in concentration camps. Ms. Le Pen’s words also flew in the face of over four decades of historical research into the eager collaboration of the wartime French government, which had been installed in the spa town of Vichy. It was the French government’s police chief, René Bousquet — a favorite of the head of the government at the time — who organized the roundup, impressing his German counterparts with his energy. “Vichy did not have a knife to its throat,” the historian Philippe Burrin wrote of the Vel d’Hiv roundup in his landmark book, “La France à l’Heure Allemande,” (“France Under the Germans”). “Without the help of the police” — the French police — “the SS was paralyzed,” Mr. Burrin wrote. “The French authorities were entirely disposed to get rid of foreign Jews,” he wrote, referring to the officials’ offer to the Nazis, on that occasion at least, to hand over Jews who were not French citizens. Ms. Le Pen’s remark on Sunday was criticized as a “grave mistake” by her principal election opponent, the former economy ministerEmmanuel Macron, and as “negationism” by a leader on the right, Christian Estrosi, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The Israeli government also had harsh words, as did French Jewish organizations. Ms. Le Pen’s campaign has been oriented around an extreme form of nationalism, and she often criticizes historians and others who bring up the uglier aspects of France’s past, as she did on Sunday. “We’ve taught our children that they have all the reasons in the world to criticize it, to only see its darkest historical aspects,” she said. “I want them to be proud of being French.” Mainstream candidates on the right have uttered similar sentiments about respecting France’s “national narrative.” But the Vel d’Hiv and France’s wartime treatment of its Jews have generally been off-limits to this sort of historical revisionism. As the American historian Robert Paxton has pointed out, France was unique in Western Europe in that it was the only country to use its own police force for roundups in territory not occupied by the Germans. Ever since President Jacques Chirac declared in a speech in 1995 commemorating the Vel d’Hiv roundup that “France, on that day, committed the irreparable,” the question of French complicity and guilt has appeared largely settled, officially at least. “Going back on its word, it delivered those whom it was protecting to their executioners,” Mr. Chirac said at the time. On Sunday night, to quiet the growing polemic, Ms. Le Pen tried to place her words in the context of others who have disassociated the Vichy government from France itself “I consider that France and its Republic were in London during the occupation, and that the Vichy regime wasn’t France,” Ms. Le Pen said in a news release. There again, the historians’ verdict is different. The Vichy government initially enjoyed wide support, its functionaries and officials came largely from the prewar bureaucracy, and many went on to have excellent careers in government and business after the war. Foreign countries, including the United States, maintained embassies at Vichy and had cordial relations with it. Mr. Bousquet received a suspended sentence in 1949 and had a successful career in business afterward. His role and high connections were only belatedly re-exposed 40 years later, when he was charged with crimes against humanity. He was shot dead by a deranged person in June 1993. “To isolate Vichy from the French population, that doesn’t hold up for one second,” one of France’s leading historians of the period, Henry Rousso, said on Monday. “You only have to look at the newsreels of the crowds applauding Pétain,” Mr. Rousso said, referring to the wartime Vichy leader, Marshal Pétain. “Not all of France was at Vichy. But a part of it was.” Ms. Le Pen’s remark was all the more puzzling in that she has worked strenuously to dissociate herself from her party’s anti-Semitic past, embodied by her father, the party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who notoriously called the Holocaust a “detail in the history of the Second World War.” Ex-wartime Nazi collaborators were prominent in the early leadership of the National Front in the 1970s — including members of the French SS and collaborationist Milice, and even a leading official of the French wartime anti-Jewish agency, a minor cog in the Holocaust. By the end of the 1980s, Holocaust denial “had become a wholesale part of the Front’s ideology,” the historian Valérie Igounet has written. Ms. Le Pen has typically distanced herself from that aspect of her party. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 The New York Times

Maram's father can't stop her crying as she battles severe malnutrition. Credit: ITV News Parts of Yemen are now in famine, according to a United Nations World Food Programme report seen by ITV News. Doctors and aid workers here confirmed the assessment and told us there is no doubt the official statistics are lagging behind the reality on the ground. Famine is officially declared only when specific statistical conditions are met. But in rural Yemen, now in it’s third year of war, accurate data collection is virtually impossible. Nineteen million people in Yemen are relying on aid to reach them. Credit: ITV News Many poor communities here are extremely remote, hours from the nearest tarmac road. Half of Yemen’s medical facilities are out of action, many have been bombed. Few people can afford to travel to hospital for medical care. No written population records are kept, thousands of children do not attend school, the dead are buried quickly in accordance with local custom - and whole sections of Yemen’s population are beyond the authorities’ reach. None of these boys has eaten more than one meal a day for weeks. Credit: ITV News The report, by the United Nations World Food Programme, outlines the official hunger statistics (known as IPC’s) for March this year. It states: "The situation continues to deteriorate by the day; together we are facing down the very real threat of a conflict-induced famine. "Even though there is no statistical confirmation of famine in Yemen a number of UN agencies and partners concur that pockets of famine already exist." No one is collecting data from remote villages in the region. Credit: ITV News In one small and remote village visited by ITV News, 10 children have died this year from hunger or illness. Village elder Mohammed Ali Ismail told us: "We always feel that we are alone because no help, nobody asks about us, no organisation visits us." A senior humanitarian worker told us: "The IPCs are meaningless here." Village elder Mohammed Ali Ismail. Credit: ITV News Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. 19m People rely on humanitarian aid in Yemen 7m Are facing the threat of famine 500,000Children under the age of five suffer acute malnutrition Half a million children under the age of five suffer severe malnutrition. Credit: ITV News An appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee, which represents 13 leading British charities, raised £22 million. The money is already in action, saving lives, but the sheer scale of this crisis is staggering. The UN say their funding requirement in Yemen for the next 12 months is $1.2 billion. So far they have raised just 10% of that. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (c) 2017 ITV News