SOLIHULL: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed on Thursday not to ease up efforts to stop further far-right riots in English towns and cities, after more anticipated street violence failed to materialize overnight.
The UK leader said despite a largely peaceful Wednesday evening, he would chair another emergency meeting of senior ministers and police leaders later on Thursday to plan for potential trouble in “the coming days.”
He also noted the criminal justice system would continue “working speedily” to convict those already arrested during a week of near nightly riots across England and in Northern Ireland.
It came as a judge in Liverpool, northeast England, jailed several more participants in the violence, which has seen mosques and migrant-related facilities attacked alongside police and other targets.
“It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer told media outlets as he visited a mosque and met community leaders in Solihull, western England.
“That’s why later on today, I’ll have another... meeting with law enforcement, with senior police officers, to make sure that we reflect on last night but also plan for the coming days.”
Starmer credited “police deployed in numbers in the right places, giving reassurance to communities” with helping to ease the unrest overnight.
Instead of rumored far-right gatherings at dozens of sites linked to immigrant support services, thousands of anti-racism and anti-facism protesters took to the streets.
They massed in considerable numbers, holding rallies in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.
“Whose streets? Our streets!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters joined the rally under a heavy police presence.
However, Northern Ireland saw another night of disturbances — its fourth in a row.
There were five arrests and a police officer was injured during disorder in Belfast.
The UK government had put 6,000 specialist police on standby across England to deal with scores of potential flashpoints, after far-right social media channels called for a string of immigration-linked sites to be targeted.
The violence has been fueled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack on July 29 which killed three children.
London’s Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers onto the streets of the capital on Wednesday, said he was “really pleased” with how the police and local communities had responded to the riots.
“I think the show of force from the police — and frankly, the show of unity from communities together — defeated the challenges that we’ve seen,” he told UK broadcasters.
Rowley noted there had been a small number of arrests due to “some local criminals” engaging in anti-social behavior in some locations but that fears of “extreme-right disorder were abated.”
On Thursday, London mayor Sadiq Khan thanked “heroic police force working round the clock” and “those who came out peacefully to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia.”
“And to those far-right thugs still intent on sowing hatred and division: you will never be welcome here,” he added on X.
Courts started on Wednesday to order jail terms for offenders tied to the unrest as authorities sought to deter fresh disorder.
The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has seen hundreds arrested and at least 120 charged, and has led several countries to issue travel warnings for the UK.
London police said on Thursday that officers had made 10 further arrests overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.
Rowley, who joined the dawn raids, said those arrested “aren’t protesters, patriots or decent citizens.”
“They’re thugs and criminals,” he noted, adding most had previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offenses.
The riots broke out after three girls — aged nine, seven and six — were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.
False rumors spread on social media that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.
The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales.
UK media report that his parents are from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian.
UK’s Starmer vows no let up in stopping further far-right riots
https://arab.news/gdtgg
UK’s Starmer vows no let up in stopping further far-right riots
- “It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer told media outlets as he visited a mosque and met community leaders in Solihull, western England
Man suspected in apparent assassination attempt on Trump charged with federal gun crimes
Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury
FLORIDA: A man suspected in an apparent assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump was charged Monday with federal gun crimes, making his first court appearance in the final weeks of a White House race already touched by violence.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, faces charges of possessing a firearm despite being a convicted felon and possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional and more serious charges are possible as the investigation continues and prosecutors seek an indictment from a grand jury.
Routh appeared briefly in federal court in West Palm Beach, where he answered perfunctory questions about his work status and income. Shackled and wearing a blue jumpsuit, he smiled as he spoke with a public defender and reviewed documents ahead of his initial appearance. The lawyer declined to comment after the court appearance.
The episode occurred Sunday afternoon when Secret Service agents stationed a few holes up from where Trump was playing golf noticed the muzzle of an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lines the course, roughly 400 yards away.
An agent fired and Routh dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV, leaving the firearm behind along with two backpacks, a scope used for aiming and a GoPro camera, authorities said. Routh was later stopped by law enforcement in a neighboring county.
It was the second apparent assassination attempt targeting Trump in as many months.
On July 13, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Eight days later, Democratic President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, giving way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the party’s nominee.
Germany wants trade with Kazakhstan, won’t circumvent Russia sanctions, Scholz says
- “I am grateful for the trusting dialogue between us, through which we want to prevent trade between us from being misused to circumvent sanctions,” Scholz said
- Both Scholz and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said their countries were interested in increasing trade in oil, rare earths, lithium and other raw materials
ASTANA: Germany is interested in expanding trade with Kazakhstan while also ensuring such trade is not used to circumvent EU sanctions on Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on a visit to the Central Asian nation.
“I am grateful for the trusting dialogue between us, through which we want to prevent trade between us from being misused to circumvent sanctions,” Scholz said.
After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, prompting Moscow to seek circuitous routes for importing technology and goods.
Sources have told Reuters that Russian businesses seeking goods banned by the West sometimes procured them from companies based in neighboring Kazakhstan or other former Soviet nations. The Astana government has said it would abide by the sanctions.
Both Scholz and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said their countries were interested in increasing trade in oil, rare earths, lithium and other raw materials.
“Both sides benefit from this exchange because it allows us to diversify our economies and make them more resilient,” Scholz said. “A very concrete example of this is the oil supplies from Kazakhstan, which helped us a lot after Russia failed as a supplier.”
The two met ahead of a broader meeting between Scholz and all five Central Asian leaders, an example of more active Western diplomacy in what has traditionally been Russia’s backyard.
Kazakhstan has already stepped in to replace Russia as the supplier of crude for Berlin’s Schwedt refinery. Scholz’s visit comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to curb sales of metals such as titanium to “unfriendly” nations.
Russia evacuates border villages in Kursk region
- Moscow appears to be mounting a counter-offensive in the region
- More than 150,000 people in the region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s offensive began on August 6
MOSCOW: Russia is evacuating a number of villages in the Kursk region close to the Ukrainian border, the local governor said on Monday, almost six weeks after Ukraine launched its surprise incursion.
Moscow appears to be mounting a counter-offensive in the region, claiming to have retaken at least a dozen villages from Ukraine’s control since last week.
Authorities have decided to order the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15-kilometer (nine-mile) zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine,” Governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram.
He did not say which villages would be evacuated or the number of evacuees. There are dozens of villages and towns within this 15-kilometer radius.
More than 150,000 people in the region have had to flee their homes since Kyiv’s offensive began on August 6, state media reported Smirnov as saying last week.
Ukraine says its forces have advanced across tens of kilometers of Russian territory and seized dozens of settlements, including the border town of Sudzha.
Ukraine’s incursion — which began more than two years after Russia launched a full-scale military assault on its neighbor — caught Moscow off-guard.
It is the biggest incursion by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II.
Secret Service ‘needs more help’ after apparent Trump assassination bid: Biden
- “The (secret) service needs more help, and I think the Congress should respond to their needs,” Biden told reporters at the White House
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden said Monday that the US Secret Service needs more personnel to perform its duties after a second apparent assassination attempt against Republican election candidate Donald Trump.
“One thing I want to make clear, the (secret) service needs more help, and I think the Congress should respond to their needs,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
“I think we may need more personnel.”
Biden added that “thank God the president’s OK” following Sunday’s incident in which the Secret Service opened fire on a gunman, who was later arrested, at Trump’s golf course in Florida.
The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN says
- It comes as a setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious
- Any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress
DUBAI: The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the UN said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus is spreading could undo years of progress.
Afghanistan is one of two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. The other is Pakistan. It’s likely that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions for other countries in the region and beyond.
News of the suspension was relayed to UN agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start. No reason was given for the suspension, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.
A top official from the World Health Organization said it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead have immunizations in places like mosques.
The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023.
“The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari from the WHO. “Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy.”
Polio campaigns in neighboring Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
As recently as August, the WHO reported that Afghanistan and Pakistan were continuing to implement an “intensive and synchronized campaign” focusing on improved vaccination coverage in endemic zones and an effective and timely response to detections elsewhere.
During a June 2024 nationwide campaign, Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, the WHO said.
But southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, used site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns, which are less effective than going to people’s homes.
Kandahar continues to have a large pool of susceptible children because it is not carrying out house-to-house vaccinations, the WHO said. “The overall women’s inclusion in vaccination campaigns remains around 20 percent in Afghanistan, leading to inadequate access to all children in some areas,” it said.
Any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the program in Pakistan due to high population movement, the WHO warned last month.
Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.
“Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back,” said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. “People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers.”
There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.
The campaign suspension is the latest obstacle in what has become a problematic global effort to stop polio. The initiative, which costs about $1 billion every year, has missed multiple deadlines to wipe out the disease and technical mistakes in the vaccination strategy set by WHO and partners have been costly.
The oral vaccine has also inadvertently seeded outbreaks in dozens of countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East and now accounts for the majority of polio cases worldwide.
This was seen most recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of polio first seen in the oral vaccine, marking the territory’s first case in more than 25 years.
