Man jailed for three years for punching police officer in UK anti-Muslim riots

The government has put together a so-called ‘standing army’ of 6,000 specialist police officers to respond to any outbreaks of violence. (Reuters)
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Updated 07 August 2024
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Man jailed for three years for punching police officer in UK anti-Muslim riots

  • Britain has been gripped by an escalating wave of violence that erupted early last week
  • In towns and cities groups of a few hundred rioters have clashed with police

LONDON: A British man was on Wednesday jailed for three years for violent disorder during anti-Muslim riots last week, one of the first sentences from a wave of violence after the killing of three girls in northwest England.
Derek Drummond, 58, was sentenced to three years in prison at Liverpool Crown Court having pleaded guilty to violent disorder and assaulting an emergency worker by punching a police officer.
The sentence is believed to be first imposed for a charge of violent disorder since trouble erupted after three young girls were killed in a knife attack in the seaside town of Southport.
“The genuine and collective grief of the residents of Southport was effectively hijacked by this callous behavior,” Judge Andrew Menary said.
Another man, Declan Geiran, 29, was jailed for 30 months after pleading guilty to violent disorder and arson by setting the seatbelt of a police van on fire in Liverpool city center on Aug. 3.
Liam Riley, 41, was jailed for 20 months having pleaded guilty to violent disorder and a racially-aggravated public order offense.

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Thousands of riot police stood ready Wednesday as Britain remained on alert for disturbances during far-right protests across the country.
Nightly riots, during which mosques and migrant targets have been attacked, erupted after the three children were murdered.
Police said they were investigating several racially-motivated hate crimes in Belfast on Tuesday, including an attack on a young boy that left him with minor facial injuries.
And far-right groups plan demonstrations Wednesday in more than 30 locations, with immigration lawyers and buildings hosting asylum seekers primary targets, according to posts on messaging app Telegram leaked to the British media.

The government has said 6,000 specialist police are on standby to deal with the disorder, which has seen more than 425 people arrested and at least 120 charged, according to latest police figures.


UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon

Updated 3 sec ago
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UK Labour MPs ‘scared’ to challenge Starmer on Gaza, Lebanon

  • MP Zarah Sultana tells BBC ex-colleagues who disagree with PM risk losing their jobs
  • Labour leader has drawn criticism over failure to do more against Israel

LONDON: A former Labour MP has said colleagues are “scared for their jobs” over disagreeing with the party’s leader, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, on Israel’s war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon.

Starmer has called for immediate ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon, saying at the UN General Assembly last week that “escalation serves no one.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also announced a review into arms export licenses to Israel in July, amid fears that items sold to the country could be used to commit war crimes in Gaza. Thirty licenses were suspended in September. 

However, Starmer has found himself at odds with many in his party, with some believing that he has not done enough to facilitate an end to the fighting in the Middle East, or that he has been slow to act. Currently, 320 arms exports licenses from the UK to Israel remain valid.

MP Zarah Sultana, who was suspended by the party earlier this year, told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program: “Many (disagree with Starmer) because we’re seeing (the) deaths of 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. We’re seeing death in Lebanon, and we know the UK government could take a different route where it prioritized lives, treated them all equally and ended all arms sales.

“I think it’s deeply concerning that people aren’t willing to be public about that because they’re scared for their jobs.”

One of the program’s hosts, Nick Robinson, told listeners that he had contacted six Labour MPs to ask them to comment on Sultana’s claims, but said: “None would come on the program as they said, and I quote one of the MPs we contacted, ‘it would cost us our jobs.’”

Sultana was one of seven Labour MPs suspended by the party in July after voting for a Scottish National Party motion to amend the King’s Speech, which is the UK government’s policy platform for the coming year. She currently sits as an independent MP in the House of Commons.


UN releases $5 million for flood victims in Nigeria

Updated 2 min 45 sec ago
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UN releases $5 million for flood victims in Nigeria

  • The flooding has affected more than 1.2 million people in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states
  • Several Nigerian states hit by flooding have seen rises in the cases of cholera

LAGOS: The United Nations Wednesday said it had released $5 million to help flood victims in Nigeria, where the rainy season has killed more than 300 people and caused widespread damage.
The money from its Central Emergency Relief Fund will help “scale up the flood response and address critical needs in three of the most flood affected states in Nigeria,” the UN said in a statement. They are Borno and Bauchi in the northeast, and Sokoto in the northwest.
The flooding has affected more than 1.2 million people in at least 31 out of Nigeria’s 36 states in the West African country, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Around 127,500 hectares of farmland has also been affected.
“Floods across Nigeria have created a crisis within a crisis,” said Mohamed Malick Fall, the UN coordinator in Nigeria.
“Millions of people were already facing critical levels of food insecurity before the floods because of economic hardships that have made it exceedingly difficult for the most vulnerable to feed themselves and their families.
“The floods have compounded people’s suffering.”
The latest emergency aid is in addition to the $6 million already released by the Nigerian Humanitarian Fund.
Several Nigerian states hit by flooding have seen rises in the cases of cholera.
Last month, severe flooding disaster killed at least 31 people and forced around 400,000 out of their homes in northeastern city of Maiduguri, the Borno state capital.
In 2022, more than 500 people died and 1.4 million were displaced in the country’s worst floods in a decade.


More UK charter flights to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

Updated 28 min 16 sec ago
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More UK charter flights to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

  • More than 150 British nationals and their dependents were evacuated on Wednesday
  • Many commercial airlines have suspended flights to and from Beirut

LONDON: Britain will charter more flights to help citizens and dependents leave Lebanon, the foreign office said on Thursday as Israel continued to strike Beirut overnight.
More than 150 British nationals and their dependents were evacuated from the Lebanese capital on a UK government chartered flight that arrived in Birmingham, central England, on Wednesday, the ministry said.
“A limited number” of flights will depart from Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on Thursday, and “will continue for as long as the security situation allows,” it added.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was ready to support “hundreds” more to leave Lebanon in the coming days.
The statement came a day after Defense Secretary John Healey visited Cyprus, where 700 British troops and staff are stationed to prepare for the possible evacuations.
Many commercial airlines have suspended flights to and from Beirut.
“Recent events have demonstrated the volatility of the situation in Lebanon,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Thursday, reiterating his message for nationals to “leave the country immediately.”
As of last week, there were around 5,000 British nationals, dual nationals and dependents in Lebanon, according to government estimates.
Israel has intensified its bombing of southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut, saying it aims to secure its northern border after nearly a year of hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
The fighting has cost more than 1,000 lives in Lebanon so far.
The British government has confirmed that two of its fighter jets and a tanker were involved in responding to Iran’s firing of a barrage of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, although they “did not engage any targets.”


Russian man jailed for burning Qur’an charged with treason

Updated 03 October 2024
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Russian man jailed for burning Qur’an charged with treason

  • Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said that 20-year-old Nikita Zhuravel was accused of sending footage of a freight train carrying warplanes

MOSCOW: A Russian man jailed in February for burning the Qur’an has been charged with treason by prosecutors who accuse him of passing video footage of military movements to Ukraine.
In a statement, Russia’s prosecutor general’s office said that 20-year-old Nikita Zhuravel was accused of sending footage of a freight train carrying warplanes, and information about the movements of a car linked to a Russian military base to a representative of Ukrainian intelligence.
It said Zhuravel had volunteered himself to send the Ukrainian intelligence officer the data.
Reuters was not immediately able to identify a lawyer representing Zhuravel in the treason case.
Zhuravel is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence after being convicted under Russia’s law against offending religious believers, for publicly burning a Qur’an in his home city of Volgograd.
His case drew international attention last year when Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov published a video in which his son Adam was shown beating and kicking the defendant while he was in prison awaiting trial.
Russian investigators had earlier transferred his case to Chechnya. The Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, said this was because they received many messages from residents of the heavily Muslim region asking to be designated injured parties.


Armed assailants kill four in attack on Mexico rehab center

Updated 03 October 2024
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Armed assailants kill four in attack on Mexico rehab center

  • The attack took place in Salamanca in the central state of Guanajuato on Tuesday night
  • Guanajuato is Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics

CELAYA, Mexico: Armed assailants attacked a drug rehabilitation center in Mexico, killing four people and wounding five others, local authorities said Wednesday.
The attack took place in Salamanca in the central state of Guanajuato on Tuesday night, the municipal government said in a statement.
Police and the National Guard “initiated a chase to find those responsible,” but the attackers escaped by throwing down metal spikes to puncture the tires of security forces in pursuit, it said.
Police said three bodies of those killed were found inside the rehab center while a fourth was found in the street.
No suspects have been arrested yet.
Disputes between drug gangs have led to rehab centers being targeted in several attacks in Mexico.
Authorities say some rehab centers are used as safe havens by suspected members of criminal groups, who are attacked by their rivals when found.
Guanajuato is Mexico’s most violent state, according to official homicide statistics, due to fighting between the local Santa Rosa de Lima cartel and the powerful Jalisco New Generation.
Mexico has recorded more than 450,000 murders since December 2006, when a controversial military anti-drug operation was launched.