When it comes to refugees, do all lives really matter? | Annie Lewis

Cast your mind back to June – just two months ago – when the Black Lives Matter movement was rightfully gaining momentum after the killing of George Floyd.

However, while we were meant to be supporting and advocating the rights of the black community, too many people were saying that instead of Black Lives Matter, it should be about All Lives Matter.

But with the recent crossings of refugees travelling from Calais, France, to the shores of the United Kingdom, it has become extremely evident that, in fact, all lives don’t matter.

It would be laughable how ironic that is, but the lives of whole families in danger is not funny at all.

Because when it comes to young children fleeing war-torn countries, such as Syria and Sudan, all lives do not matter when many believe those seeking safety should be turned away and sent back to the devastated country they were desperate to flee in the first place.

No matter how Nigel Farage tries to stay relevant, it’s important to remind yourself about what you would do for your family if you were in their shoes.

If your children had no future in your home country; no running, clean water; no food; the constant threat of bombing and gunfire; and hardly a home, would you not search for a better life for them, and for yourself?

I think we all know what the answer to that is. However too many are afraid to admit it and instead jump on the bandwagon of not wanting refugees to live in the UK when they don’t know the facts.

And the truth is, there are no safe and legal routes available for these people because to claim asylum in Europe, they have to get here first.

So as the news broke of the death of Sudanese refugee, Abdulfatah Hamdallah, who drowned as he tried to cross the Channel, we should all, including the UK government, be thinking about how we can help and support these desperate people – not how we can take hope and safety away from them.

A sympathetic insight into the lives of Harry and Meghan

Like hundreds of others, I was desperate to get my hands on Finding Freedom, the biography of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Written by royal reporters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, I believe Finding Freedom is an insightful and sympathetic look into the lives of a couple whose relationship with the royal family has been fractured by the media.

I think at first the book painted Meghan as a shallow LA girl, when actually she is a humanitarian and feminist, so the book is not wrong for insinuating she was a breath of fresh air.

I wish them every happiness but am also sad that life in the UK did not work for them.

Africa declared free of polio is a huge medical milestone

Less than a decade ago Nigeria accounted for half the polio cases in the world.

Now Nigeria has become the last African country to be cleared of the disease by the independent body, the Africa Regional Certification Commission.

This is such a huge milestone for the country.

At a time when we are all relying on medical advancements so much to help tackle coronavirus, it is great to get some positive news about disease eradication, whatever it may be.

Even though polio is very different to the current virus we are facing, this breakthrough proves how there is always light at the end of the tunnel.