Qatar row: Six countries cut links with Doha

  Qatar row: Six countries cut links with Doha

Six Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.
They say Qatar backs militant groups including so-called Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, which Qatar denies.
The Saudi state news agency SPA said Riyadh had closed its borders, severing land, sea and air contact with the tiny peninsula of oil-rich Qatar.
Qatar called the decision "unjustified" and with "no basis in fact".
The unprecedented move is seen as a major split between powerful Gulf countries, who are also close US allies.
It comes amid heightened tensions between Gulf countries and their near-neighbour, Iran. The Saudi statement accused Qatar of collaborating with "Iranian-backed terrorist groups" in its restive Eastern region of Qatif and in Bahrain.

What has happened?

The diplomatic withdrawal was put into motion by Bahrain then Saudi Arabia early on Monday. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, Yemen and Libya followed suit.
SPA cited officials as saying the decision was taken to "protect its national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism".
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have given all Qatari visitors and residents two weeks to leave their territory.
So far, there has been no sign of reciprocal moves by Qatar.
In the latest developments:
  • The UAE has given Qatari diplomats 48 hours to leave the country
  • Airlines from many of the affected countries, including Etihad Airways and Emirates, said they are to cancel flights to and from the Qatari capital Doha
  • The Gulf allies said they had closed their airspace to Qatar Airways, which has suspended all its flights to Saudi Arabia
  • Bahrain's state news agency said it was cutting its ties because Qatar was "shaking the security and stability of Bahrain and meddling in its affairs"
  • The Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting Yemen's Houthi rebels also expelled Qatar from its alliance because of its "practices that strengthen terrorism" and its support of extremist groups.

Why has this happened?

 

While the severing of ties was sudden, it has not come out of the blue, as tensions have been building for years, and particularly in recent weeks.
Two weeks ago, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE blocked Qatari news sites, including Al Jazeera. Comments purportedly by Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani criticising Saudi Arabia had appeared on Qatari state media.
The government in Doha dismissed the comments as fake, attributing the report to a "shameful cybercrime".
Back in 2014, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar for several months in protest over alleged interference in their affairs.
More broadly, two key factors drove Monday's decision: Qatar's ties to Islamist groups, and the role of Iran, Saudi Arabia's regional rival.
While Qatar has joined the US coalition against IS, the Qatari government has repeatedly denied accusations from Iraq's Shia leaders that it provided financial support to IS.
Wealthy individuals in the emirate are believed to have made donations and the government has given money and weapons to hardline Islamist groups in Syria. Qatar is also accused of having links to a group formerly known as the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate.
The SPA statement accused Qatar of backing these groups, as well as the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood - banned in Gulf countries as a terrorist organisation - and that it "promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly".
Saudi Arabia itself is a key backer of Islamist rebels, including hardline jihadist groups, in Syria.

Qatar - Key facts

2.7m
population
  • 2m of whom are men
  • 11,437 sq km in size (4,416 sq miles)
  • 79 years life expectancy (men)
  • 78 years for women
Source: UN, World Bank, MDPS
Reuters
While on a visit to Riyadh two weeks ago, US President Donald Trump urged Muslim countries to take the lead in combating radicalisation, and blamed Iran for instability in the Middle East.
"It seems that the Saudis and Emiratis feel emboldened by the alignment of their regional interests - toward Iran and Islamism - with the Trump administration," Gulf analyst Kristian Ulrichsen told Reuters news agency.
"[They] have decided to deal with Qatar's alternative approach on the assumption that they will have the [Trump] administration's backing."
Saudi Arabia, too, has been accused of funding IS, either directly or by failing to prevent private donors from sending money to the group - allegations it denies.
In recent days, British Prime Minister Theresa May has also come under pressure from election rivals to publish a report thought to focus on the funding of UK extremist groups by Saudi Arabia.

What has been the reaction?

Qatar, which is due to host the football World Cup in 2022, was critical of the decision. The foreign ministry said the decisions would "not affect the normal lives of citizens and residents".
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in Sydney, urged the countries to resolve their differences through dialogue.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said there was a need for "transparent dialogue and diplomacy", adding: "No country in the region will benefit from the heightened tension."
Qatar's stock market closed down 7.27%.


One of the likely knock-on effects is on food stability: about 40% of Qatar's food is believed to come by lorry from Saudi Arabia.
The Doha News newspaper reported that people had rushed to supermarkets to stock up on food and water.

Why this decision, and why now? - Alan Johnston, BBC Middle East analyst

There have long been tensions not far beneath the surface. Qatar has often seemed out of step with its neighbours.
It has tended, for example, to side with Islamist forces in the Middle East - like the Muslim Brotherhood, which is reviled by the Saudis and the current Egyptian leadership.
Past efforts by the neighbours to pull the Qataris into line have had limited impact. But now Doha has suddenly come under much greater and more co-ordinated pressure.
The neighbours have been given new confidence by President Trump's approach to the Middle East. The Saudis and the Emiratis feel they have his support, and that now is the time to solidify the Gulf camp's approach to the challenges they see around them.
They believe this is the moment to make clear to the Qataris that their divergent views will no longer be tolerated.
And right now this small country's rulers will probably be feeling very lonely indeed.

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Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May clash over security

Jeremy Corbyn has said Theresa May should pay a price in Thursday's general election for ignoring "repeated warnings" not to cut police numbers.
The Labour leader said Mrs May had "presided" over a 19,000 fall in numbers as home secretary and he agreed with those calling on her to resign in the wake of the London Bridge attacks.
But the PM said she had protected counter-terror police numbers.
And she accused the Labour leader of opposing shoot-to-kill powers.
With less than 72 hours to go before Thursday's election, party leaders have returned to the campaign trail after electioneering was briefly suspended because of the London Bridge attack, in which seven people died.
Following a meeting of senior ministers and security chiefs at the emergency Cobra committee, Mrs May said Saturday's atrocity was an attack on "the free world" and said she was best equipped to deal with the "evolving" threat facing the UK.
In a speech in London, she vowed to tackle the "whole spectrum" of extremism as security took centre stage in the election.


Action was needed in communities and online to ensure "bigotry and hatred" did not turn to violence, the PM said. Defending her record on police funding, she said longer custodial sentences for terror offences should be considered.
She defended her record on security over the past seven years in the face of criticism that she had presided, as home secretary, over a fall of more than 19,000 in police numbers between 2010 and 2016 and accused officers of "crying wolf" over their capabilities.
She said she had protected counter-terror police budgets as home secretary and was now "providing funding for an uplift in the number of armed officers" as well as was protecting funding for the police as a whole.
Saying leadership was "absolutely vital" for keeping the UK safe, she said Mr Corbyn had "boasted" of opposing every single piece of counter-terrorism legislation and had voiced his opposition to shoot-to-kill powers, saying the response of the police to Saturday's attack showed how vital these were.

'Carry on'

But Mr Corbyn suggested the government's decision to cut police numbers by 19,000 between 2010 and 2016 was now coming back to haunt Mrs May.
Asked whether he agreed with a call by some, including former Downing Street adviser Steve Hilton, for Mrs May to quit, he said he did, but added that the "best way" for the issue to be dealt with was by voters on Thursday.
In the first of a whirlwind series of campaign events planned for the next 72 hours Mr Corbyn said of the terrorists: "We are not going to allow them to dictate how we live or how we go about enjoying themselves. We carry on and our democracy will prevail."
Analysis - BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg
Voters choose their political parties for all sorts of different reasons. But as this strange election hurtles towards its close, the demand of who can keep the country safe is firmly on the table.
For Theresa May that doesn't just mean questions over how she would counter extremism if she stays in power. She faces criticism too over the Tories' record on squeezing money for the police.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has repeated his promise to reverse the cuts and slammed the Tories, warning the government could not "protect the public on the cheap".
He also tried to counter perceptions that he is soft on security, including his earlier stance on shoot-to-kill, which he questioned days after the Paris attack at the Bataclan. He said, if he were prime minister he would take "whatever action is necessary and effective" to protect the public.
After a brief pause, the election campaign is well and truly back, even if with a more subdued tone, and with security as its primary subject.
Read more from Laura
Lib Dem leader Tim Farron has accused the Conservatives of making the "wrong choices" over police budgets, "posturing" over internet surveillance powers and not putting enough pressure on allies in the Middle East to turn the screw on extremist groups.
"Fewer police on the beat means fewer conversations, less information being passed on and less knowledge about who's who and who needs to be kept under surveillance," he wrote in an article for the Guardian.
He added: "Theresa May talks of the need to have some difficult and sometimes embarrassing conversations. That should include exposing and rooting out the source of funding terror, even if it means difficult and embarrassing conversations with those like Saudia Arabia that the government claims are our allies."
He warned about the UK seeking to "control" the internet in a manner associated with regimes like North Korea. "If we turn the internet into a tool for censorship and surveillance, the terrorists will have won. We won't make ourselves safer by making ourselves less free." 


On Sunday the PM called for new measures to tackle extremism - including online - saying in a speech outside No 10 that "enough is enough".
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley told the BBC that the fight against online radicalisation meant getting "access to information as required" from tech firms.
Pressed on whether this meant penetrating encrypted messaging services, she said the tech industry had done the "right thing" in the past in terms of removing indecent images from their platforms and now ministers wanted the "same response" over extremist material.
"We know it can be done and the internet companies want to do it," she told BBC Radio 4's Today.
Appearing on a Question Time general election special on Sunday night, UKIP leader Paul Nuttall called for 20,000 more police officers on UK streets, and for a review of funding of mosques in Britain while Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley said the Prevent counter-radicalisation strategy should be scrapped.
SNP leader and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has said it makes sense to review counter-terror arrangements following the latest attacks but that no community should be made a scapegoat for the actions of a "mindless minorit
 
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     One Love Manchester: Joy shines               through pain at benefit concert


The benefit concert held in the wake of the Manchester attack turned into a night of unity, healing and joy for 50,000 music fans.
The all-star show was held to remember the victims of the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert on 22 May.
Despite the circumstances, a celebratory atmosphere prevailed as Grande herself returned to the stage.
She told the crowd: "I want to thank you for coming together and being so loving and strong and unified."
She added: "I love you guys so much, and I think that the kind of love and unity that you're displaying is the medicine that the world really needs right now."
Visibly moved at times, the 23-year-old US singer performed with Miley Cyrus and the Black Eyed Peas, while other highlights were provided by Katy Perry, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Liam Gallagher and Justin Bieber.

It wasn't just the fans who got into the spirit of the show. Police officers danced, medics sang along and one lively steward encouraged the crowd to clap and dance.
Grande made appearances throughout the show. She sang My Everything with students from Parr's Wood High school in Manchester, comforting 12-year-old soloist Natasha Seth when she was overcome with emotion.
She also told the crowd how she changed the set list at the last minute after meeting the mother of Olivia Campbell-Hardy, 15, who was among the 22 people who died in the attack.
Grande said: "She told me Olivia would have wanted to hear the hits. We had a totally different show planned and we had a rehearsal yesterday and we changed everything."
Justin BieberImage copyrightDAVE HOGAN FOR ONE LOVE MANCHESTER
Image captionJustin Bieber asked everyone to raise their hands in honour of the victims
One Love ManchesterImage copyrightWPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES
Image captionThe concert was beamed and streamed around the world
She also performed Oasis' Don't Look Back In Anger with Coldplay's Chris Martin before Martin accompanied former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher on Live Forever.
Speaking in his home city, Gallagher dedicated the song to "the beautiful people who were killed and injured" in the attack.
At the end of the show, Grande was joined on stage by the night's other stars to perform the song One Last Time before finishing with a poignant solo rendition of Over the Rainbow.
Grande wore a One Love Manchester sweatshirt - and many of the fans wore shirts bearing similar messages, or face paint saying "I heart MCR", or #WeStandTogether stickers.
Organisers said the night had raised £2m for victims and families through text and online donations, taking the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund's total to more than £10m.
On Saturday, Grande announced she is re-releasing her song One Last Time, with proceeds going towards the campaign.

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      Canada's mowing man and tornado                             photo goes viral


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        London attack: 12 arrested in                       Barking after van and knife attack 

Twelve people have been arrested after the London terror attack which left seven people dead and 48 injured.
The arrests in Barking, east London, followed a raid at a flat belonging to one of the three attackers.
A van hit pedestrians on London Bridge at 21:58 BST on Saturday. Three men then got out and stabbed people in nearby Borough Market.
The attackers were shot dead by eight officers who fired 50 bullets. A member of the public was accidentally shot.
Of the 12 people who were arrested, seven are women. A 55-year-old man was later released without charge.
Meanwhile, Canadian national Chrissy Archibald has been named by Canadian broadcaster CTVas the first victim of the attack.
A statement from her family said she "believed strongly that every person was to be valued and respected".
It said she had worked in a homeless shelter until she moved to Europe to be with her fiance.

'Range of injuries'

The so-called Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said the police had reacted knowing the attackers "had to be stopped immediately".
"The situation these officers were confronted with was critical, a matter of life and death - three armed men wearing what appeared to be suicide belts," he said.
The vests were later found to be hoaxes.
Mr Rowley said 36 people were in hospital with a "range of injuries" and 21 were in a critical condition.
Malik Ramadhan, a doctor at the Royal London Hospital, said his team had treated one man who had been shot in the head and was expected to make a full recovery.
Both London Bridge rail and Tube stations are due to reopen on Monday from 05:00 BST but the rail station will be exit only, Network Rail said.
The mother of 23-year-old Daniel O'Neill, who is recovering in hospital after being stabbed, told the BBC he had a seven-inch scar from the knife attack.
"He had just stepped outside the bar for a second and a man ran up to him and said 'this is for my family, this is for Islam' and stuck a knife in him," Elisabeth O'Neill said.
"I'm still in shock. I can't quite believe it's happened."
Sunday Express journalist and martial arts expert, Geoff Ho, who was injured, said that he helped defend a bouncer from the attackers outside the Southwark Tavern as it "isn't happening on my watch", his newspaper reported.
Controlled explosions were carried out at the flat in Barking during the raids on Sunday morning.
According to neighbours, the dead attacker lived there for about three years and was married with two children.
One man, who did not want to be named, told the BBC's Asian Network that one of the attackers had become more extreme over the past two years.
"We spoke about a particular attack that happened and like most radicals he had a justification for anything - everything and anything.
"And that day I realised that I need to contact the authorities," he said.
He said no action was taken.
"I did my bit... but the authorities didn't do their bit," he said.
It is the third terror attack in the UK in three months, following the car and knife attack in Westminster in March, in which five people were killed, and the Manchester bombing less than two weeks ago, in which 22 people were killed.
Most political parties have suspended national general election campaigning, but the prime minister said full campaigning would resume on Monday.
The general election will go ahead as planned on Thursday.
Condemning the attack, Theresa May said it was "time to say enough is enough".
Eyewitnesses described a van travelling at high speed along London Bridge, hitting pedestrians, before crashing close to the Barrowboy and Banker pub.
The white Renault van used was recently hired by one of the attackers, Mr Rowley said.
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         Tech Tent: BA’s computer meltdown

 


  • Listen to previous episodes on the BBC website
  • Listen live every Friday at 15:00 GMT on the BBC World Service
This week has seen another example of the chaos that can ensue when complex computer systems fail. On Tech Tent we try to draw some lessons from the British Airways IT fiasco.
We also discuss bullying in online games and hear what the criminal underworld is saying about the WannaCry ransomware attack.

Lessons from an IT disaster

Last weekend's catastrophic failure in BA's computer system threw the travel plans of 75,000 passengers into chaos. What went wrong has become a little clearer - it appears the power somehow went off at a Heathrow data centre and when it was switched back on a power surge somehow took out the whole system.
Airline bosses insist that this means the whole incident was a power failure not an IT failure - but experts point out that power management is an essential element of any well-planned IT system.
Bert Craven of the consultancy T2RL, who has designed systems for major airlines, tells us the real question is whether the airline had what he calls geo-redundancy. 



"This is a duplicate mirrored system in a data centre at a distance. Clearly either that was not the case or there was also a problem with the geo-redundant system at the same time - a perfect storm."
He reckons every airline IT executive will have been hauled out of their bed last weekend to be asked: "Could this happen to us?"
Passengers may be tempted to ask whether it would be simpler to abandon the computers and return to paper. Mr Craven tells us that until a few years ago, airports were in the habit of printing out passenger manifests and other documents at the beginning of the day just in case things went wrong.
These days however there is just too much real-time data involved in running complex airline operations for that to be feasible. Only computers can make modern air travel work, and when they fail it is like throwing sand into the machine.

Rough Games

We are all sadly familiar with the problem of abuse and bullying on social networks. But this week the anti-bullying charity Ditch The Label published research showing the extent of the problem in online video games.
Its survey, carried out through the online game Habbo Hotel, showed more than half of young gamers reported that they had been subjected to hate speech while playing online. Bailey Mitchell, 16, told me he'd first experienced abuse when he was 10. 


And it was more than just banter - he was told to kill himself after scoring a goal in Fifa. Nowadays, he says, he can shrug it off, but when he was younger he'd come home from being bullied at school expecting to escape into a game, only to face abuse there too.
The games industry was a bit sniffy about the charity's report, unconvinced that Habbo Hotel was the right place to get an overview of the gaming scene.
Jo Twist of the British games body Ukie tells us that the industry is already acting responsibly, using everything from AI and semantic analysis to human moderators to detect abuse.
"Players are our lifeblood," she says. "We use all sorts of tools to make sure they have a safe experience."
But she says it's also up to players and parents to take responsibility. "There are games that are suitable for everybody - and some games are only suitable for 18-plus audiences."

WannaCry and the Underworld

It's still not clear who was behind last month's WannaCry ransomware attack, which affected organisations around the world, including hospitals here in the UK. But whoever it was, it seems the criminal underworld was not happy about it.
Andrei Barysevich is a cyber-security researcher at the Recorded Future threat intelligence company, who works as a consultant to the FBI and spends a lot of time monitoring the dark web.
He tells us that criminal hackers were not at all impressed by the high-profile nature of the attack - and were particularly angry about hospitals and police forces being attacked. Not because they were squeamish, you understand, but because governments and law enforcement agencies are on the warpath - and that has put criminal hackers in the spotlight.
It seems there was even a meeting of elders of the criminal underground, at which they all declared that this attack was nothing to do with them. It seems that WannaCry was probably hatched by a relatively amateur group of hackers who may have been surprised by just how much mayhem they unleashed.
It is as if a nuclear weapon fell into the hands of a group of teenage pranksters who thought it was just a firecracker - not an entirely reassuring thought.

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 Obama avoids crowds outside Edinburgh     charity dinner

Former US president Barack Obama has given a speech at a charity dinner in Edinburgh, addressing an audience made up largely of business leaders.
The event was organised by the Hunter Foundation, set up by the philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter.
Thousands of people gathered at the venue but were disappointed when Mr Obama avoided the front entrance.
The former president had visited St Andrews earlier, playing a round of golf on the Old Course.
Mr Obama had arrived in Edinburgh by private jet, on what was his first visit to Scotland.
A large crowd outside the charity dinner were told by police that Mr Obama would not be making a public arrival.



 Stewart Kermack, 61, from Prestwick, said: "I came especially to see Obama. I think he is a great guy and was a very charismatic leader."


Jody Mulvey, 20, from Edinburgh said: "I'm disappointed we didn't get to see Obama but I understand after everything that's going on right now."
The dinner at the EICC is thought to be one of his first major addresses since his term as president came to an end.
Tickets for a table of 10 at the event are understood to have cost about £5,000.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was at the dinner.
Although the media were not allowed inside, Mr Obama is reported to have said that in times of inequality people turn to simplistic and populist answers on the left and the right.
He also spoke about the Manchester bombing, saying it is not possible to solve lone wolf attacks perfectly.
If someone is determined and willing to die, he said, it is almost impossible to prevent that entirely.


All of the cash raised at the dinner will be split between children's charities in Scotland and the Obama Foundation.
Security was tight in Edinburgh as police stepped up resources around major events in the wake of the Manchester bombing.
Comedian Kevin Bridges, singer Annie Lennox and Scottish band Texas provided entertainment at the event and young people were also involved.
Thirteen-year-old Mila Stricevic, from Glasgow, read a poem after winning a schools competition.


Mr Obama, a golfing enthusiast, had been joined in St Andrews by Sir Tom Hunter, whose charitable foundation had invited Obama to speak in Edinburgh.
After completing the third hole, Mr Obama spoke to the crowd who had been following him around the course.
He shook hands with people and asked them how they were doing before heading back to play golf.



The Hunter Foundation has previously arranged for US politicians and actors including Bill Clinton, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney to come to Scotland.
Last year, Leonardo DiCaprio travelled to Edinburgh to speak at the Scottish Business Awards at the EICC.
Announcing Barack Obama's visit in April, Sir Tom said: "From the south side of Chicago to the White House has been an epic, historic journey and it will be a true honour to hear that story from the man who made that journey.
"We are both truly proud and delighted to be hosting the 44th president of the United States in Scotland at this event."

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Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

  Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on customers' devices. Before an image is stored on...