Follow the latest news from the Sudan crisis here
A Conservative MP has told the House of Commons how British nationals were “beaten and robbed” as they travelled to catch flights to flee Sudan.
Richard Drax, who is an MP for South Dorset, raised the concerns as he suggested UK military personnel could have been sent to escort citizens to the Wadi Saeedna airfield in Khartoum.
But Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was impossible to provide an armed escort given people were travelling from several points around Sudan’s capital and surrounding areas to reach the airfield.
During the British evacuations, the longest and largest by any western nation in Sudan, 2,341 people were moved on 28 flights, according to Downing Street.
MPs were also told at least 22 of the 24 National Health Service doctors identified as being trapped in Sudan were evacuated by the UK.
People have been trying to escape the country after fighting between rival generals.
“Several constituents, mainly with military backgrounds, and myself were concerned and interested to hear of British citizens being beaten and robbed on the way to the airport to get out of Sudan,” Mr Drax said during Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office questions.
After he suggested the possibility of a military escort, Mr Drax asked: “Was that happening or were British citizens told to get to the airport with no escort at all?”
Mr Cleverly replied: “The military practicalities of providing what to all intents and purposes would be an armed escort from multiple points around Khartoum and the surrounding areas to a single point of exit proved insurmountable — and that is true of our international partners as well as ourselves.
“So no country in the world was able to provide that level of security arrangements. We kept under review the safety of the various routes from within Khartoum to Wadi Saeedna, and we advised that accordingly.
“I’ve a huge amount of admiration for the military personnel who sustained the longest airhead of any western nation at Wadi Saeedna and are currently supporting British nationals and others in their evacuation through Port Sudan.”
Evacuees from Sudan arrive in Abu Dhabi - in pictures
For Labour, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy raised the plight of NHS doctors seeking to escape the country.
“Last week, Newsnight reported that there were at least 24 National Health Service doctors who were British residents but not yet on evacuation flights," Mr Lammy said.
“Can the Foreign Secretary confirm that all 24, and any other NHS doctors who would be evacuated, were taken safely back to the UK — the Africa minister (Andrew Mitchell) is helping him — so they can do their jobs in the creaking National Health Service that we now have?”
Mr Cleverly replied: “My understanding, and the Africa minister has given me the most up-to-date figures on this, is that 22 of the 24 that were identified have been directly evacuated by us.
“It should be remembered that British nationals and others may well have made their own routes out of Sudan.
"We keep in close co-ordination both through the NHS and through direct conversation with us to ensure that we provide as full a service for those seeking evacuation as possible.”
Final UK evacuation flight to leave Sudan on Wednesday
The final UK evacuation flight is expected take off from Sudan on Wednesday, Mr Cleverly has announced.
He urged British nationals still wanting to leave the war-torn nation to make their way to Port Sudan.
It was previously thought the evacuation flights had ended on Monday when planes left Sudan for Cyprus.
British nationals arrived back in the UK on Tuesday afternoon.
The evacuees arrived at Birmingham Airport at 4.58pm on Tuesday on a Titan Airways Airbus A321 after a four-hour, 40-minute flight from Larnaca, Cyprus, having been taken out of Port Sudan on Monday.
They were the last of 2,341 people evacuated by the government from Sudan on 28 flights since fighting began in the African nation three weeks ago.
They were met at Birmingham Airport by members of the British Red Cross.
The latest from the crisis in Sudan - in pictures
UK mission ‘not over’ despite end of evacuation, Foreign Secretary says
The British mission in Sudan is “not over yet” despite the end of the evacuation flights, Mr Cleverly said.
He said the situation remained dangerous and officials were still in Port Sudan to help Britons seeking to leave the country.
“There is still an ongoing humanitarian situation," Mr Cleverly told GB News.
"We still have a presence at Port Sudan, both a military presence and a number of other government officials, to help British nationals and their dependents leave the country.
“We will ensure that we maintain a presence to support British nationals, because the situation in Sudan, sadly, is still volatile and it is still dangerous."
Red Cross aid flight arrives in Port Sudan - video
As well as officials and military personnel in Port Sudan, HMS Lancaster is off the coast to support them.
Mr Cleverly said the evacuation from Sudan would have a “significant” cost for taxpayers.
But he told LBC Radio: “What we have found increasingly now, as people use those land routes to Port Sudan, in many instances they are less in need of an air evacuation from Sudan itself.
“There are a number of options available from Port Sudan, including a ferry across to Saudi Arabia.
“At the moment we have a warship just off the coast of Port Sudan, we have a cross-Whitehall team of officials in Port Sudan to help British nationals leave the country.
“We can scale that up, or indeed scale that down, according to circumstances.”
The international focus is shifting to preventing a wider humanitarian catastrophe in the region and Mr Cleverly said any further fighting would hamper relief efforts.
The UN said Sudanese army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his rival Gen Mohamed Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, have agreed to send representatives to the negotiation table in a bid to establish a more stable truce.
The two generals were allies in an October 2021 military coup that halted Sudan’s fraught transition to democracy, but they have since turned on each other.
“Where there is live conflict, our ability to provide … humanitarian support is massively degraded," Mr Cleverly told BBC Radio 4.
“We have given aid to Sudan, we are giving support to countries in the region.
"We will continue to push for an extension of the ceasefire and a permanent end to the conflict because that is the best way to maximise the effectiveness of our humanitarian support."
Korean Film Festival 2019 line-up
Innocent Witness, June 26 at 7pm
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The Great Battle, June 27 at 9pm
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Mal Mo E: The Secret Mission, June 28 at 8pm
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A Resistance, June 29 at 6pm
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
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4,872 matches
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116 pitches
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2 Kuwaiti teams
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
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- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The Facility’s Versatility
Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket
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TRAP
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'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
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What is a calorie?
A food calorie, or kilocalorie, is a measure of nutritional energy generated from what is consumed.
One calorie, is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1°C.
A kilocalorie represents a 1,000 true calories of energy.
Energy density figures are often quoted as calories per serving, with one gram of fat in food containing nine calories, and a gram of protein or carbohydrate providing about four.
Alcohol contains about seven calories a gram.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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