LONDON: The UK government said on Tuesday that 6,000 specialist police officers were ready to deal with far-right rioting that broke out following the murder of three children, triggering a week of violence.
On Monday, six people were arrested and several police officers injured when they were attacked by rioters hurling bricks and fireworks in Plymouth, southern England.
Officers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, were attacked as rioters attempted to set fire to a shop owned by a foreign national.
Police said a man in his 30s was seriously assaulted during the disorder and that they are treating the incident as a racially motivated hate crime.
Meanwhile, a group of men who gathered in Birmingham, central England, to counter a rumored far-right demonstration, forced a Sky News reporter off air shouting: “Free Palestine.” She was then followed by a man in a balaclava holding a knife.
Another reporter said he was chased by members of the group “with what looked like a weapon,” while police said there had also been incidents of criminal damage to a pub and a car.
The unrest broke out last Tuesday after three children were killed in a stabbing spree at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.
Riots have since flared up in several cities and towns, leading to hundreds of arrests.
Justice minister Heidi Alexander told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday that the government had freed up an extra 500 prison places and drafted in 6,000 specialist police officers to deal with the ongoing violence.
“We will make sure that anyone who is given a custodial sentence as a result of the riots and disorder, there will be a prison place waiting for them,” she said.
Mobs threw bricks and flares, attacked police, burnt and looted shops, smashed the windows of cars and homes and targeted at least two hotels housing asylum seekers in a number of cities at the weekend.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday convened and emergency meeting of ministers and police chiefs to discuss the unrest.
The government will “ramp up criminal justice” to ensure that “sanctions are swift,” Starmer told the media after Monday’s meeting.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said 378 people had so far been arrested and that others would be “brought to justice.”
Clashes broke out in Southport on Wednesday, the day after three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during the knife attack there.
False rumors initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales. UK media reported that his parents are from Rwanda, which has very few Muslims.
That has not stopped mosques from being targeted by rioters.
The government has offered new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
In Burnley, northwest England, a hate crime investigation was underway after gravestones in a Muslim section of a cemetery were vandalized with grey paint.
“What type of evil individual(s) would undertake such outrageous actions, in a sacrosanct place of reflection, where loved ones are buried, solely intended to provoke racial tensions?,” local councillor Afrasiab Anwar said.
The prime minister warned rioters on Sunday that they would “regret” participating in England’s worst disorder in 13 years.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Monday that “there will be a reckoning.”
Cooper also said that social media put a “rocket booster” under the violence.
Starmer stressed that “criminal law applies online as well as offline.”
On Tuesday, Alexander criticized Elon Musk, owner of X, after he claimed “civil war” in the UK was “inevitable.”
“I think it is deeply irresponsible. I think everyone should be appealing for calm,” she said.
Police have blamed the violence on people associated with the now-defunct English Defense League, a far-right Islamophobic organization founded 15 years ago, whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.
The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough.”
6,000 specialist police at the ready to quell UK far-right riots — government
https://arab.news/nnrtn
6,000 specialist police at the ready to quell UK far-right riots — government
- Rioting broke out following the murder of three children, triggering week of violence
- Riots have since flared up in several cities and towns, leading to hundreds of arrests
Mission specialist for Titan sub owner tells Coast Guard goal was to ‘make dreams come true’
- Five people were killed last year when Titan submersible imploded last year enroute to Titanic wreck
- The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration
A mission specialist for the company that owned the Titan submersible that imploded last year told the US Coast Guard on Thursday that the firm was staffed by competent people who wanted to “make dreams come true.”
Renata Rojas was the latest person to testify who was connected to Titan owner OceanGate. An investigatory panel had previously listened to two days of testimony that raised questions about the company’s operations before the doomed mission. OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among five people who died when the submersible imploded en route to the site of the Titanic wreck in June 2023.
Rojas’ testimony struck a different tone than some of the earlier witnesses, who described the company as troubled from the top down and focused more on profit than science or safety.
“I was learning a lot and working with amazing people,” Rojas said. “Some of those people are very hardworking individuals that were just trying to make dreams come true.”
Rojas also said she felt the company was sufficiently transparent during the run-up to the Titanic dive. Her testimony was emotional at times, with the Coast Guard panel proposing a brief break at one point so she could collect herself.
Rojas is a member of the Explorers Club, which lost members Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet in the Titan implosion. The club described Rush as “a friend of The Explorers Club” after the implosion.
“I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never at any point felt unsafe by the operation,” Rojas said in testimony Thursday.
Earlier this month, the Coast Guard opened a public hearing that is part of a high-level investigation into the cause of the implosion. The public hearing began on Sept. 16 and some of the testimony has focused on problems the company had prior to the fatal 2023 dive.
During the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.
“The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”
Also expected to testify on Thursday is former OceanGate scientific director Steven Ross. The hearing is expected to run through Friday with more witnesses still to come and resume next week.
Lochridge and other witnesses have painted a picture of a company led by people who were impatient to get the unconventionally designed craft into the water. The deadly accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.
Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.
OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.
During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about the Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if the Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.
One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual recreation presented earlier in the hearing.
When the submersible was reported missing, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Four days later, wreckage of the Titan was found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said.
No one on board survived. Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman were the other two people killed in the implosion.
OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. The Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.
UK urged to scrap ‘racist’ visa route
- Long and expensive visa route for immigrants has been labeled ‘racist’ after analysis showed most applicants who feel forced to go through it are people of color
- Analysis of Home Office data showed that all but one country in the top 10 nationalities who felt forced to use the route were those with predominantly non-white populations
LONDON: The UK has been urged to scrap a 10-year visa route and cap all routes to settlement in the country at five years.
The long and expensive visa route for immigrants has been labeled “racist” after analysis showed most applicants who feel forced to go through it are people of color, according to a report in The Guardian.
The 10-year route to a visa is used by hundreds of thousands of people who are not eligible for other immigration schemes because of a lack of income or professional qualifications. Many work in low-paid jobs, such as cleaning or care work. Other common routes to settlement in the UK take five years.
According to freedom of information data obtained by the charity Ramfel, there are 218,110 people on the 10-year route.
Analysis of Home Office data showed that all but one country in the top 10 nationalities who felt forced to use the route were those with predominantly non-white populations. The top five were Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Ghana and Bangladesh. Overall, 86 percent of people using the route were from Asian or African countries, while 6 percent were from Europe.
People seeking to gain a visa via the 10-year route must renew their leave to remain with the Home Office every 30 months, meaning four renewals. The fee for each renewal is £3,850 ($5,095). The Home Office can grant a fee waiver but many requests are refused.
According to a 2023 report on the 10-year route by the legal advice and support service Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, the think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research and the charity Praxis, the most common way of covering the fees was to borrow money, with many people remaining in debt afterward and struggling to pay for basic living costs.
A GMIAU spokesperson said: “These numbers confirm what people on the 10-year route already know: It is a racist policy. People are being driven into debt, forced to choose between paying thousands of pounds in visa fees to keep their legal status and keeping their families fed and warm.
“Ten years is far too long for anyone to wait to settle. The route must be scrapped. A good place to start would be to cap all routes to settlement at five years.”
Nick Beales, of Ramfel, said: “The 10-year route is an enduring legacy of the hostile environment. Like many other Conservative policies from this period, the racist intent is clear, with African and South Asian nationals far more likely to be placed on this arduous and often brutal route toward securing permanent immigration status.”
New hope in Rohingya camps as Bangladesh’s Nobel-winning leader pledges support
COX’S BAZAR: Mohammad Jamal heard about Dr. Muhammad Yunus long before the economist became the head of Bangladesh’s new government last month. Like many other Rohingya refugees, he is now pinning his hopes on the Nobel prizewinner changing his life.
An internationally renowned microfinance pioneer who in 2006 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work, Yunus was appointed to lead Bangladesh’s interim administration following the ousting of veteran prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
With strong ties to the international community, donors and Western governments, he has promised reforms and also support to the 1.2 million Rohingya refugees that Bangladesh is hosting.
“We have heard of Dr. Yunus earlier many times. He raised his voice for our wellbeing in different international media earlier also. Since he is a Nobel laureate, people know him across the world as well (as) in Bangladesh. He is a very good person,” said Jamal, a 27-year-old living in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.
A coastal district in Bangladesh’s east, Cox’s Bazar became the world’s largest refugee settlement with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing death in neighboring Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.
Referred to as ethnic cleansing and genocide by various UN agencies, International Criminal Court officials, human rights groups and governments, the global outrage over the violence against the Rohingya initially brought robust aid to Bangladesh to help it support them, but it has rapidly declined over the years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Food Programme last year even resorted to reducing the value of its food assistance to those living in Cox’s Bazar camps.
As Yunus has been credited with lifting millions of Bangladeshis out of poverty through his microlending programs, the Rohingya believe he will find a way to help them, too.
“Refugee life is not a dignified one. For everything, we need to ask or depend on aid. If we could be provided with some livelihood training and then informal working opportunities, it would make us self-reliant to some extent,” said Amena Begum, a 38-year-old mother of three.
“I heard that he spent years of his life for the well-being of the rural people, especially for empowering the women. So, I hope that he will take some initiatives for changing the fate of the Rohingya women also.”
In his first major government policy address in late August, Yunus pledged that his government “will continue to support the million-plus Rohingya people sheltered in Bangladesh” and that it needs the “sustained efforts of the international community for Rohingya humanitarian operations and their eventual repatriation to their homeland, Myanmar, with safety, dignity and full rights.”
Despite multiple attempts from Bangladeshi authorities, a UN-backed repatriation and resettlement process for the Rohingya has failed to take off for the past few years, as in Myanmar they are denied the most basic rights.
Currently, it is also not possible as violence in their home Rakhine state has escalated in recent months amid fighting between Myanmar’s ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia.
With a new wave of those fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh, Yunus earlier this month called for a fast-tracked third-country resettlement of Rohingya — a plan that has been on the table for years but has so far resulted in insignificant response abroad.
But before that happens, refugees hope there are ways in which Yunus’s government will improve on the previous regime’s handling of the crisis.
With Bangladesh not being a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, the Rohingya do not have access to formal education and cannot be legally employed to earn their livelihood.
“As a Nobel peace laureate, I hope he will stand beside the genocide survivors and oppressed Rohingyas, (that) he will provide us with better education opportunities until we get the chance of repatriation,” said Mohammad Rizwan, 26-year-old Rohingya volunteer and activist in Cox’s Bazar.
“As a Nobel laureate, he understands the importance of the rights for human beings and the agony of having a life without rights. That’s why we are expecting that, Dr. Yunus will do something new for us.”
India’s Modi to visit US for Quad meeting, UN summit
NEW DELHI:Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in the Quad Leaders’ Summit hosted by US President Joe Biden and attend the UN’s Summit of the Future in New York as part of his upcoming visit to America, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
Modi’s three-day visit to the US will begin on Sept. 21 in Wilmington, Delaware — Biden’s hometown — for the Quad meeting comprising also Japan and Australia.
“The Quad has a very, very full and substantive agenda on this occasion,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told journalists at a press conference in New Delhi.
Misri added that the leaders would also cover health security, climate change, critical and emerging technologies, maritime security and counter-terrorism.
“This upcoming visit offers … the Quad leaders the opportunity to review progress achieved in the last one year and set the agenda for the next year.”
Modi is expected to hold bilateral meetings with Biden, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida and Australian PM Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the Quad summit.
This is the fourth leaders’ summit of the Quad — a four-state strategic security dialogue — which positions itself against China’s growing-assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
Modi’s US trip will also see the 74-year-old premier attend a gathering organized by the Indian diaspora in Long Island, New York, as well as a business roundtable with leaders of US tech companies.
“The prime minister will also be attending a business roundtable with CEOs of leading US companies in the cutting-edge areas of artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing and biotechnology,” Misri said, adding that details of attendees are still being finalized.
On his last day in the US, Modi will speak at the UN’s Summit of the Future, where world leaders are expected to address current and emerging global challenges.
India’s foreign ministry did not confirm that Modi would meet with former US President Donald Trump as a part of the visit, after the Republican presidential nominee announced it on Wednesday.
In 2019, Trump joined Modi at a “Howdy Modi” rally in Houston, Texas, that drew about 50,000 people and was billed as one of the largest receptions of a foreign leader in the US.
When Trump made his inaugural visit to India in February 2020, Modi hosted him in his home state of Gujarat, where the “Namaste Trump” welcome event was attended by around 100,000 people.
Portugal tackles last of deadly northern forest fires
- The wildfires, which sprang up over the weekend fed by crushing heat and strong winds, have killed five people, four of them firefighters
- Another 77 people were injured, 12 of them seriously
AGUEDA, Portugal: Portugal’s firefighters have mastered most of the deadly forest fires in the north of the country, according to official data Thursday.
And improving weather conditions have raised hopes that they could extinguish the last of the blazes by the end of the day.
The wildfires, which sprang up over the weekend fed by crushing heat and strong winds, have killed five people, four of them firefighters. Another 77 people were injured, 12 of them seriously.
By late morning on Thursday the civil protection service website said 1,200 firefighters were battling the six remaining fires in the northern districts of Aveiro and Viseu.
A day earlier, 3,900 firefighters were tackling 42 active fires, supported by more than a thousand vehicles and around 30 aircraft.
But overnight, the teams brought several blazes in villages in the Aveiro region covering a front of around 100 kilometers (60 miles) under control.
Temperatures have dropped since the weekend and rain is forecast for Friday.
But there has been extensive damage in the north and center of the country, much of it to the eucalyptus groves there.
One estimate issued Wednesday by the Copernicus observatory said at least 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of vegetation had been destroyed.
And data from the European Forest Fires Information System (Effis) said the total area hit by the recent fires came to 100,000 hectares: 10 times more than the area burnt since the beginning of summer.
Dozens of houses were also destroyed or damaged.
