UK police face far-right rioters seeking to enter hotel thought to be housing asylum seekers

British Muslims voiced fear about far-right protests that have targeted UK mosques in recent days, as community leaders bolstered security at Islamic centers. (AFP)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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UK police face far-right rioters seeking to enter hotel thought to be housing asylum seekers

  • Prime Minister Keir Starmer has accused “gangs of thugs” of “hijacking” the nation’s grief to “sow hatred”

LONDON: Police in the north of England town of Rotherham were struggling to hold back a mob of far-right activists Sunday who were seeking to break into a hotel believed to be housing asylum seekers, as the latest bout of rioting following a stabbing rampage at a dance class last week that left three girls dead and several wounded showed few signs of abating.
Footage from Sky News showed a line of police officers with shields facing a barrage of missiles as they sought to prevent the rioters from entering the Holiday Inn Express hotel. A small fire was also visible while windows in the hotel were smashed.
More demonstrations are expected to take place around the country, with many counter-demonstrators also set to make their presence felt.
On Saturday, far-right activists faced off with anti-racism protesters across the U.K., with violent scenes playing out in locations across the U.K., from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, to Liverpool in the northwest of England and Bristol in the west. Further arrests are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage.

In just one incident on Saturday, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder in Liverpool, which saw a community facility set on fire. The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide support for one of the most deprived communities in the country, suffered severe damage to the ground floor. Police said rioters tried to prevent firefighters from accessing the fire, throwing a missile at the fire engine and breaking the rear window of the cab.
Police have also warned that widespread security measures, with thousands of officers deployed, mean that other crimes may not be investigated fully.
“We’re seeing officers that are being pulled from day-to-day policing," Tiffany Lynch from the Police Federation of England and Wales told the BBC. “But while that’s happening, the communities that are out there that are having incidents against them — victims of crime — unfortunately, their crimes are not being investigated.”
The violence erupted earlier this week, ostensibly in protest of Monday’s stabbing attack in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested.
False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters,. Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder.
Police said many of the actions are being organized online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilizing support online with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.” They are tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the country, in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.
Calls for protests have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack.
The group first appeared around 2009, leading a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often devolved into violence. Yaxley-Lennon was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers.
The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years, and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has faced myriad legal issues. He has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the U.K. last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.
Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform U.K., has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days. While condemning the violence, he has criticized the government for blaming it on “a few far-right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people.”
Far-right demonstrators have held several violent gatherings since the stabbing attack, clashing with police Tuesday outside a mosque in Southport — near the scene of the stabbing — and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day. Many in Southport have expressed their anger at the organized acts of violence in the wake of the tragedy.
Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has blamed the violence on “far-right hatred” and vowed to end the mayhem. He said police across the U.K. would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.”
Policing minister Diana Johnson told the BBC that there is “no need” to bring in the army to help police in their efforts to confront the violence.
“The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment," she said.


Russia says talks on Ukraine’s security without Moscow are a ‘road to nowhere’

Updated 5 sec ago
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Russia says talks on Ukraine’s security without Moscow are a ‘road to nowhere’

  • Foreign Minister Lavrov raps ‘clumsy’ European lobbying of Trump
  • Comments highlight Russia’s demand for direct engagement

MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday attempts to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without Moscow’s participation were a “road to nowhere,” sounding a warning to the West as it scrambles to work out guarantees for Kyiv’s future protection. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov particularly criticized the role of European leaders who met US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine that could help end the three-and-a-half-year-old war.
“We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Lavrov told a joint press conference after meeting Jordan’s foreign minister. US and European military planners have begun exploring post-conflict security guarantees for Ukraine, US officials and sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Lavrov said such discussions without Russia were pointless.
“I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia, it’s a road to nowhere.”

A service member of the 44th Separate Artillery Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a 2S22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops near a front line in Zaporizhzhia region on August 20, 2025, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. (REUTERS)

NATO military leaders holding a video conference on Wednesday had a “great, candid discussion” on the results of recent talks on Ukraine, the chair of the alliance’s military committee said.
“Priority continues to be a just, credible and durable peace,” Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone wrote in a post on X.
A Western official told Reuters that a small group of military leaders continued discussions in Washington on security guarantees shortly after the bigger virtual meeting. After Polish officials said that an object that crashed in a cornfield in eastern Poland overnight was likely a Russian drone, Poland accused Russia of provoking NATO countries just as efforts to find an end to the war were intensifying.
“Once again, we are dealing with a provocation by the Russian Federation, with a Russian drone. We are dealing in a crucial moment, when discussions about peace (in Ukraine) are under way,” Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
Lavrov’s comments highlighted Moscow’s demand for Western governments to directly engage with it on questions of security concerning Ukraine and Europe, something it says they have so far refused to do.
Moscow this week also restated its rejection of “any scenarios involving the deployment of NATO troops in Ukraine.”

‘Clumsy’ Europeans
Lavrov accused the European leaders who met Trump and Zelensky of carrying out “a fairly aggressive escalation of the situation, rather clumsy and, in general, unethical attempts to change the position of the Trump administration and the president of the United States personally ... We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there.”
Trump said on Monday the United States would help guarantee Ukraine’s security in any deal to end Russia’s war there. He subsequently said he had ruled out putting US troops in Ukraine, but the US might provide air support as part of a deal to end the hostilities.
Zelensky’s chief of staff, speaking after a meeting of national security advisers from Western countries and NATO, said work was proceeding on the military component of the guarantees.
“Our teams, above all the military, have already begun active work on the military component of security guarantees,” chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on social media.
Yermak said Ukraine was also working on a plan with its allies on how to proceed “in case the Russian side continues to prolong the war and disrupt agreements on bilateral and trilateral formats of leaders’ meetings.”
Lavrov said Russia was in favor of “truly reliable” guarantees for Ukraine and suggested these could be modelled on a draft accord that was discussed between the warring parties in Istanbul in 2022, in the early weeks of the war.
Under the draft discussed then, Ukraine would have received security guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council — China, Russia, the United States, Britain, and France.
At the time, Kyiv rejected that proposal on the grounds that Moscow would have held effective veto power over any military response to come to its aid. 


Somalia-Jubaland power struggle benefits Al-Shabab militants

Updated 20 August 2025
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Somalia-Jubaland power struggle benefits Al-Shabab militants

  • Jubaland severed relations with Mogadishu last year after its leader, Ahmed Madobe, a former warlord in power since 2012, was elected for a third term in polls that the central government labelled “unlawful”

NAIROBI: Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for extremist militant group Al-Shabab to gain ground.
Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital Mogadishu.
But ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for Al-Shabab infiltration.
Last week, two Somali soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and Jubaland loyalists, days after both sides called for mobilization in the area. Five Somali soldiers had already died in July.
The Horn of Africa nation has battled Al-Shabab since the mid-2000s, with its fortunes rising and falling over the years. This year, the Al-Qaeda-linked group has won back major towns.
“Once the attention shifted from the fight against Al-Shabab to politics we started seeing losses and setbacks in the battlefield,” Samira Gaid, a security analyst in the Horn of Africa, told AFP.
According to Gaid, the group is using the power struggle as a “recruitment drive.”
“It really doesn’t favor anyone when these sort of incidents happen,” she said.
The deadly clashes have underscored the weakness of Somalia’s federal government, analysts said.
“There wasn’t enough political agreement at the time of the formation of the Somali federal government in 2012 and that’s why you have this constant struggle and tension within the federal model,” said International Crisis Group’s senior analyst Omar Mahmood.
Jubaland severed relations with Mogadishu last year after its leader, Ahmed Madobe, a former warlord in power since 2012, was elected for a third term in polls that the central government labelled “unlawful.”
An arrest warrant was issued against Madobe, who is based in the de facto state capital of Kismayo.
“The reason why this is spiking up now is because we are heading into the election,” Mahmood said.
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has been pushing for the country to hold its first-ever one-man, one-vote election next year — a move opposed by Madobe.
Jubaland’s Gedo region, where last week’s clashes took place, appears to be critical for the central government.
Both Madobe and Mohamud “want to exert control over Gedo, which they also can then use to exert control over the election process,” Mahmood said.
Last month, Mohamud appointed Madobe’s former security minister, Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur, known locally as Janan, as the head of security operations in Jubaland.
Janan, seen as an influential power broker in Gedo, has previously been accused by the United Nations of serious human-rights violations.
After last week’s clashes, he announced the takeover of a key border town in Gedo, Beled Hawo, saying a new administration will be formed in the region.
The violence has taken a toll on the population. Since June, clashes in the Gedo region have displaced 38,000 people internally and forced 10,200 across the border to Kenya, according to official data.
Clan politics generally play a key role in Somalia, Jubaland included.
“The clan that resides in Gedo area has never been politically aligned to the leadership of Ahmed Madobe,” security analyst Gaid said, as the dominant clan feels marginalized by him.
In the government’s eyes, that divide could be a way to unseat Madobe. But the opposition to him is also split, and the federal government does not enjoy absolute support.
Mohamed Jumale, a traditional elder in Jubaland, is convinced Mogadishu will fail.
“We are hearing that the federal government is trying to annex Gedo from the rest of the Jubaland-administered territories before they can form a loyal administration. It will not work,” he said.


Cockfighting livestreams thrive in Philippines despite ban, murders

Updated 20 August 2025
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Cockfighting livestreams thrive in Philippines despite ban, murders

  • Easy access, anonymity of the online world, and sheer volume of betting sites can lead to e-sabong addiction

MANILA: Divers have spent more than a month searching a lake south of Manila for the bodies of men with links to the Philippines’ bloody national obsession: cockfighting.

They were murdered by rogue police, a government witness said, allegedly for rigging matches at the height of the country’s pandemic-era craze for betting on live-streamed cockfights, or “e-sabong.”

The disappearances led then President Rodrigo Duterte to announce a total ban, but three years later, the e-sabong industry is still thriving.

On a recent Saturday in the Manila suburb Bulacan, cockfighters, or “sabungeros,” cracked grim jokes about their missing compatriots.

Inside the “tarian,” a crowded room where blades are attached to each bird’s leg, sabungero Marcelo Parang insisted the murders had nothing to do with the legal cockfighting world.

“We don’t know if (the men killed) did something bad,” said the 60-year-old.

“We’re not scared ... In here, we’re peaceful. In here, the matches are held fairly,” he said of the deadly contests.

Outside, the crowd in the 800-seat arena roared as another bout ended with the losing rooster unceremoniously dumped in an empty paint bucket.

Cockpits like the one in Bulacan were once a second home for Ray Gibraltar, who grew up in a family of cockfight enthusiasts. One uncle was a breeder.

When the fights moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the former director-turned-painter began wagering on them as well.

But the easy access, anonymity of the online world, and sheer volume of betting sites can lead to e-sabong addiction, and within a year, Gibraltar was winning and losing upwards of $15,000 a day.

“I wasn’t eating. I was just drinking coffee and smoking ... I had no sleep,” he said of a three-day session.

“In terms of money that I lost on e-sabong ... I could have bought a house and car,” he said, adding he “borrowed money from everyone.”

Before checking into rehab, he wagered the last 300 pesos in his e-wallet.

The story is a familiar one for Reagan Praferosa, founder of Recovering Gamblers of the Philippines, who said few clients show up before hitting rock bottom.

“They won’t call us if they still have money,” he said.

His first e-sabong addicts began arriving in 2020. Since then, about 30 percent of his caseload has revolved around the livestreamed fights.

“(At arenas) you had to go somewhere to cash out. Now ... it’s connected to an e-wallet,” he said, adding other forms of gambling were now taking their cues from e-sabong.

“Most of the sites have replicated their platforms.”

Jay, a graphic artist, still logs onto an illegal website every time he gets his paycheck.

The 24-year-old, who asked to use a pseudonym as he fears his family’s judgment, showed how wagers for as little as 10 pesos (about 18 US cents) could be placed on two roosters shown on his phone.

Authorities estimate gamblers like Jay are fueling an industry that generates millions of dollars in revenue each week.

“It’s not the money I’m after, it’s the thrill,” he said of an addiction he said he is trying to control.

“It’s easier to chase that in (e-sabong) because it’s available on my cellphone.”

While gambling for relatively low stakes, Jay has found himself forced to make excuses after losing the money meant for his younger brother’s school supplies.

Since the e-sabong ban was initiated, the country’s telecoms commission has blocked more than 6,800 e-sabong websites, police Brig. Gen. Bernard Yang told AFP.

But the use of VPNs makes pinpointing the streams’ true origins nearly impossible.

Asked for examples of IP traces that had led to raids, he pointed to a successful operation in the central Philippines’ Cebu province — though it had taken place years earlier.

While conceding that current penalties — with fines as low as 1,000 pesos ($17) — provide little deterrent, Yang insisted the problem was simply “not so grave anymore.”

But Senator Erwin Tulfo on Friday told Congress e-sabong remained a menace as he pushed the country’s central bank for action against a range of online gambling sites.

Hours later, the monetary authority issued a directive that e-wallet firms remove their links to illegal websites within 48 hours.

Congressman Rolando Valeriano, who told AFP the situation remains “very alarming,” has authored an anti-online cockfighting and gambling bill that would dramatically increase fines and jail terms.

“In every community, you can see children who know how to (bet on) e-sabong. That’s what was worrying me,” he said.

“This might be a lonely battle, but we will keep on fighting.”

The fight could be lonely indeed.

A day after the new session of Congress began, a photograph began circulating in local media.

The image was of a congressman staring at his smartphone during the vote for House speaker.

He was watching a cockfight.


Most Americans believe countries should recognize Palestinian state, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

Members of the Global Movement for Palestine wave a giant Palestine flag during a rally against Israel’s actions. (File/AFP)
Updated 20 August 2025
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Most Americans believe countries should recognize Palestinian state, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds

  • Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed that 59 percent of Americans believe that Israel’s military response in Gaza has been excessive
  • latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, conducted online, gathered responses from 4,446 US adults nationwide

WASHINGTON: A 58 percent majority of Americans believe that every country in the United Nations should recognize Palestine as a nation, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, as Israel and Hamas considered a possible truce in the nearly two-year-long war.
Some 33 percent of respondents did not agree that UN members should recognize a Palestinian state and 9 percent did not answer. The six-day poll, which closed on Monday, was taken within weeks of three countries, close US allies Canada, Britain and France, announcing they intend to recognize the State of Palestine. This ratcheted up pressure on Israel as starvation spreads in Gaza.
The survey was taken amid hopes that Israel and Hamas would agree on a ceasefire to provide a break in the fighting, free some hostages and ease shipments of humanitarian assistance. Two officials said on Tuesday Israel was studying Hamas’ response to a potential deal for a 60-day truce and the release of half the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Britain, Canada, Australia and several of their European allies said last week that the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn Palestinian enclave has reached “unimaginable levels,” as aid groups warned that Gazans are on the verge of famine.
The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday Israel was not letting enough supplies into the Gaza Strip to avert widespread starvation. Israel has denied responsibility for hunger in Gaza, accusing Hamas of stealing aid shipments, which Hamas denies.
A larger majority of the Reuters/Ipsos poll respondents, 65 percent, said the US should take action in Gaza to help people facing starvation, with 28 percent disagreeing. The number disagreeing included 41 percent of President Donald Trump’s Republicans. Trump and many of his fellow Republicans take an “America First” approach to international relations, backing steep cuts to the country’s international food and medical assistance programs in the belief that US funds should assist Americans, not those outside its borders.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led fighters stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 62,000 Palestinians, plunged Gaza into humanitarian crisis and displaced most of its population, according to Gaza health authorities.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed that 59 percent of Americans believe that Israel’s military response in Gaza has been excessive. Thirty-three percent of respondents disagreed.
In a similar Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in February 2024, 53 percent of respondents agreed that Israel’s response had been excessive, and 42 percent disagreed.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos survey, conducted online, gathered responses from 4,446 US adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about 2 percentage points.


US targets more ICC judges including over Israel

Judge Nicolas Guillou of France is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Netanyahu.
Updated 20 August 2025
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US targets more ICC judges including over Israel

  • Rubio said the four people targeted from the tribunal had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the US or Israel “without the consent of either nation”

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on four more International Criminal Court judges or prosecutors, including from allies France and Canada, in a new effort to hobble the tribunal particularly over actions against Israel.
“The Court is a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the United States and our close ally Israel,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, using a term popular with President Donald Trump’s supporters.
Rubio said that the four people targeted from the tribunal based in The Hague had sought to investigate or prosecute nationals from the United States or Israel “without the consent of either nation.”
The four include Judge Nicolas Guillou of France, who is presiding over a case in which an arrest warrant was issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The case was brought forward by the State of Palestine, which is not recognized by Washington but, unlike Israel or the United States, has acceded to the statute that set up the tribunal in The Hague.
Guillou, a veteran jurist, had worked for several years in the United States assisting the Justice Department with judicial cooperation during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Also targeted in the latest US sanctions was a Canadian judge, Kimberly Prost, who was involved in a case that authorized an investigation into alleged crimes committed during the war in Afghanistan, including by US forces.
Under the sanctions, the United States will bar entry of the ICC judges to the United States and block any property they have in the world’s largest economy — measures more often taken against US adversaries than individuals from close allies.
Rubio also slapped sanctions on two deputy prosecutors — Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal.
The State Department said the two were punished by the United States for supporting “illegitimate ICC actions against Israel,” including by supporting the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
The Trump administration has roundly rejected the authority of the court, which is backed by almost all European democracies and was set up as a court of last resort when national systems do not allow for justice.
Trump on Friday welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to Alaska even though Putin faces an ICC arrest warrant, a factor that has stopped him from traveling more widely since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Rubio slapped sanctions on four other ICC judges in June.