Number of Muslims in UK up 44% in a decade

Number of Muslims in UK up 44% in a decade
Of the UK’s total population, 6.5 percent — 3.9 million people — are adherents of Islam. (File/AP)
Short Url
Updated 29 November 2022
Follow

Number of Muslims in UK up 44% in a decade

Number of Muslims in UK up 44% in a decade
  • Latest census shows 6.5% of population are adherents of Islam
  • Second most common ethnic group is “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh”

LONDON: The Muslim population of the UK has risen 44 percent in a decade, according to the latest census figures published by the Office for National Statistics. Of the country’s total population, 6.5 percent — 3.9 million people — are adherents of Islam.

Meanwhile, the second most common ethnic group in the UK is now “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh,” making up 9.3 percent of the population.

In figures showing that the UK has diversified apace since the last census in 2011, London is now two-thirds ethnic minority, while other major cities such as Leicester, Luton and Birmingham have become home to “minority majorities,” driven by significant increases in Asian communities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and East Africa.

The census is a survey of trends across the UK that is undertaken every 10 years to provide as accurate a picture of the makeup of the country as possible.

The 2021 census found that around 10 percent of UK households now contain members from at least two different ethnic groups, an increase of 8.7 percent.

It also found that Punjabi and Urdu have become the fifth and sixth most common languages spoken in the UK, with 291,000 and 270,000 speakers respectively, making up around 1 percent of the total population.

The deputy director of the census, Jon Wroth-Smith, said: “Today’s data highlights the increasingly multicultural society we live in. The percentage of people identifying their ethnic group as ‘White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British,’ continues to decrease. Whilst this remains the most common response to the ethnic group question, the number of people identifying with another ethnic group continues to increase.

“However, the picture varies depending on where you live. London remains the most ethnically diverse region of England, where just under two-thirds identify with an ethnic minority group, whereas under one in 10 identify this way in the North East.

“But despite the ethnically diverse nature of society, nine in 10 people across England and Wales still identify with a UK national identity, with nearly eight in 10 doing so in London.”


Zelensky says nothing will weaken Kyiv’s resolve against Russia

Zelensky says nothing will weaken Kyiv’s resolve against Russia
Updated 02 October 2023
Follow

Zelensky says nothing will weaken Kyiv’s resolve against Russia

Zelensky says nothing will weaken Kyiv’s resolve against Russia
  • No one could “shut down” Ukraine’s stability, endurance, strength and courage, Zelensky says

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech released on Sunday that nothing would weaken his country’s fight against Russia, a day after the US Congress passed a stopgap funding bill that omitted aid to Ukraine.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said separately he had received reassurances about further military assistance in a telephone call with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“Secretary Austin assured me,” he wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, using flags in place of country names, that US support to Ukraine “will continue” and that Ukrainian “warriors will continue to have a strong back-up on the battlefield.”
A Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson said Kyiv was working with its American partners to ensure a new budget decision would include funds for the country, and that US support was intact.
Zelensky, in a recorded speech marking the Defenders Day holiday, did not address the vote in Congress directly, but reiterated his determination to fight to victory.
No one could “shut down” Ukraine’s stability, endurance, strength and courage, he said, echoing a Ukrainian verb often used to refer to power outages caused by Russian attacks.
He added that Ukraine would only stop resisting and fighting on the day of victory. “As we draw closer to it every day, we say, ‘We will fight for as long as it takes.’“
US President Joe Biden said on Sunday that Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote and US support could not be interrupted “under any circumstances.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko also sought to reassure Ukrainians about future US support in comments on Facebook, stressing that previously approved funds would be unaffected.
“Support for Ukraine remains unwaveringly strong in the US administration, in both parties and chambers of the US Congress, and most importantly, among the American people,” he wrote.


Serbia’s president denies troop buildup near Kosovo, alleges ‘campaign of lies’ in wake of clashes

Serbia’s president denies troop buildup near Kosovo, alleges ‘campaign of lies’ in wake of clashes
Updated 02 October 2023
Follow

Serbia’s president denies troop buildup near Kosovo, alleges ‘campaign of lies’ in wake of clashes

Serbia’s president denies troop buildup near Kosovo, alleges ‘campaign of lies’ in wake of clashes
  • Both the US and EU earlier Serbia to scale down its troop presence with its border with Kosovo to reduce tensions
  • Serbia has denied Kosovo’s allegations that it trained the group of some 30 men involved in an attack last week

BELGRADE: Serbia’s president on Sunday denied US and other reports of a military buildup along the border with Kosovo, complaining of a “campaign of lies” against his country in the wake of a shootout a week earlier that killed four people and fueled tensions in the volatile Balkan region.

Both the United States and the European Union expressed concern earlier this week about what they said was an increased military deployment by Serbia’s border with its former province, and they urged Belgrade to scale down its troop presence there.
Kosovo’s government said Saturday it was monitoring the movements of the Serbian military from “three different directions.” It urged Serbia to immediately pull back its troops and demilitarize the border area.
“A campaign of lies ... has been launched against our Serbia,” President Aleksandar Vucic responded in a video post on Instagram. “They have lied a lot about the presence of our military forces .... In fact, they are bothered that Serbia has what they describe as sophisticated weapons.”
Associated Press reporters traveling in the border region Sunday saw several Serbian army transport vehicles driving away toward central Serbia, a sign that the military might be scaling down its presence in the region following calls from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others.
Tensions have soared following the violence in northern Kosovo last Sunday involving heavily armed Serb gunmen and Kosovo police officers. The clash was one of the worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and prompted NATO to announce it would beef up a peacekeeping force stationed in the country.
Serbia has denied Kosovo’s allegations that it trained the group of some 30 men who opened fire on police officers, leaving one dead, and then barricaded themselves in an Orthodox Christian monastery in northern Kosovo. Three insurgents died in the hours-long shootout that ensued.
Kosovo has also said it was investigating possible Russian involvement in the violence. Serbia is Russia’s main ally in Europe, and there are fears in the West that Moscow could try to stir trouble in the Balkans to avert attention from the war in Ukraine.
John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said Friday that US officials were monitoring a large deployment of Serbian troops along the border with Kosovo, describing it as an “unprecedented staging of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks and mechanized infantry units.”
Vucic has several times over the past months raised the combat readiness level of Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo. Serbia also has been reinforcing its troops with weapons and other equipment mainly purchased from Russia and China.
“We will continue to invest in the defense of our country but Serbia wants peace,” the president said Sunday. “Everything they said they made up and lied, and they knew they were making up and lying.”
Last weekend’s shootout near the village of Banjska followed months of tensions in Kosovo’s north, where ethnic Serbs are a majority of the population and have demanded self-rule. Dozens of soldiers from the NATO-led peacekeeping force known as KFOR were injured in May in a clash with ethnic Serbs protesting the Kosovo police presence in the area.
Fearing wider instability as the war rages in Ukraine, Washington and Brussels have sought to negotiate a normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo, but the two sides have failed to implement a tentative agreement that was recently reached as part of an EU-mediated dialogue.


Nigeria offers measures to offset rising costs as unions mull strike

Nigeria offers measures to offset rising costs as unions mull strike
Updated 48 min 15 sec ago
Follow

Nigeria offers measures to offset rising costs as unions mull strike

Nigeria offers measures to offset rising costs as unions mull strike
  • The fuel subsidy had been in place for decades and kept petrol prices artificially low in what was seen by many Nigerians as a benefit from their government

ABUJA: Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government on Sunday proposed a temporary wage hike for federal workers and more cheap gas-powered public transport among other measures to offset the impact of his economic reforms and convince labor unions to call off a planned national strike.
Speaking in a broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 63rd independence day anniversary, Tinubu’s announcement came after he ended a longstanding fuel subsidy that cost the government billions of dollars a year to keep fuel cheap and also his liberalization of the naira currency.
Government officials say the reforms were needed to revive Africa’s largest economy and investors applauded them, but Nigerians are struggling with a tripling of fuel prices, a sharp naira devaluation and inflation now at 25 percent.
“There is no joy in seeing the people of this nation shoulder burdens that should have been shed years ago,” Tinubu said.
“I wish today’s difficulties did not exist. But we must endure if we are to reach the good side of our future.”
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) — the two major unions representing industries from aviation workers and nurses to teachers and bankers — had called an indefinite strike for October 3 because they say the government failed to address their concerns.
In his broadcast, Tinubu said the federal minimum wage for the lower-grade public employees would increase by 25,000 naira a month ($32) for the next six months.
Later Sunday, government officials and labor unions met for negotiations, and the government said the temporary wage increase would now apply to “all treasury-paid federal government workers for six months,” according a presidency statement.
The temporary wage hike was among other offers, it said.
“NLC and TUC will consider the offers by the Federal Government with a view to suspending the planned strike to allow for further consultations,” the statement said.
NLC chief Joe Ajaero told reporters the union would take the government offers to its membership for consultations.
“We’re hopeful that (membership) will have a look at them and give us a fresh mandate,” he said.
Tinubu said the government was also preparing to speed up the introduction of gas-powered buses for public transport, which would lower the costs of transport — one of the main complaints for Nigerians since the fuel subsidy removal.
Social security cash transfers to the poorest Nigerians would also be extended and investments made available for small businesses, he said.
Tinubu — a former Lagos governor elected in February in a highly contested ballot — has promised to bring in more investment and tackle the country’s complex security challenges, from jihadists to bandit militias carrying out mass kidnappings.
The Nigerian leader has also sought to shake up the country’s central bank, whose previous director critics say was responsible for unorthodox monetary policies that kept investors away.
The former central bank director has been replaced and arrested.
The fuel subsidy had been in place for decades and kept petrol prices artificially low in what was seen by many Nigerians as a benefit from their government.
But the measure cost the government billions annually because although Nigeria is a major oil producer, it imports most of its fuel because of a lack of functioning refineries.
The NLC and TUC went on strike in August over the same issues, with many businesses, government offices, markets, banks closed for a day in the capital Abuja. But the call to strike met with more mixed response from businesses in the economic capital Lagos.


EU’s top diplomat urges US to reconsider dropping Ukrainian aid from stop-gap budget bill

EU’s top diplomat urges US to reconsider dropping Ukrainian aid from stop-gap budget bill
Updated 02 October 2023
Follow

EU’s top diplomat urges US to reconsider dropping Ukrainian aid from stop-gap budget bill

EU’s top diplomat urges US to reconsider dropping Ukrainian aid from stop-gap budget bill
  • Josep Borrell said the 27-nation bloc would carry on helping the invaded country defeat Russia
  • Ukrainian officials stressed that US backing for Ukraine would continue despite the stop-gap legislation

LONDON: The European Union’s foreign policy chief called on US lawmakers Sunday to reconsider their decision to omit financial support for Ukraine from a stop-gap budget bill Congress passed to halt a federal government shutdown.

The legislation approved Saturday to keep the federal government running until Nov. 17 dropped provisions on providing additional aid to Ukraine, a White House priority opposed by a growing number of Republican lawmakers.
Speaking in Kyiv after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said European officials were surprised by the last-minute agreement in Washington and pledged the 27-nation bloc would carry on helping the invaded country defeat Russia.
“I have hope that this will not be a definitive decision and Ukraine will continue having the support of the US”, Borrell said.
“We are facing an existential threat. Ukrainians are fighting with all their courage and capacities, and if we want them to be successful, then you have to provide them with better arms, and quicker,” the Spanish diplomat added.
Ukrainian officials stressed that US backing for Ukraine would continue despite the stop-gap legislation.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said America’s relationship with Ukraine had not changed and that Ukrainian officials meet regularly with representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
“All of Ukraine’s key partners are determined to support our country until its victory in this war,” he wrote on Telegram.
However, the omission of additional Ukrainian aid from the package has raised concerns in Kyiv, which relies heavily on Western financial aid and military equipment in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion.
A little more than a week ago, lawmakers met in the Capitol with Zelensky, who sought to assure them his military was winning the war but stressed that additional aid would be crucial for continuing the fight.
Yet recent voting in the House has pointed to increased US isolationism and a growing resistance to providing further aid as the war, now in its 20th month, grinds on.
Writing on Telegram, Ukrainian parliament member Oleksiy Goncharenko said Sunday that Kyiv needed to adopt new measures to ensure the continued support of both American officials and the general public. Without it, Goncharenko said, Ukrainians have “practically no chance” of defending themselves.
He set forward a list of proposals that included permanently posting Ukrainian delegates in Washington.
“We need to speak the language of money with the US: How will the United States benefit from Ukraine’s victory? What will the US get? What will American taxpayers get?” Goncharenko wrote. “We need to change strategy. We need to act differently. Let’s fix this situation. We cannot lose.”
Over the weekend, Russian shelling hit 11 regions of Ukraine over 24 hours, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry reported. A man was killed in the Kharkiv region city of Volchansk.
Russian forces also launched 30 drones across the country’s south early Sunday, 16 of which were shot down by Ukrainian forces, the ministry said.
Five people were wounded during the barrage, which hit cities in Ukraine’s Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions, local officials reported.
In Russia, five Ukrainian drones were shot down over the country’s Smolensk region, Gov. Vasily Anokhin said on social media. He cautioned residents not to leave their homes unless necessary.
Another drone was destroyed in southern Russia’s Krasnodar region, which is where Sochi International Airport is located.
On Sunday, a funeral was held in Kyiv for Volodymyr Myroniuk, 59, a Ukrainian-American who was killed last week in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region. 59-year-old independent photographer who died last week in the eastern Donetsk region.
Myroniuk worked as a truck driver in the US and returned to the country of his birth to cover the 2014 Maidan protests as an independent photographer. He later covered the fighting between Ukrainian and Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, as well as ongoing war following Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
Myroniuk died Sept. 26 while he was documenting the lives of front-line soldiers as they came under heavy Russian shelling.
His daughter, Oleksadra Myroniuk, remembered her father as always smiling and said he took his camera everywhere. Myroniuk never sold any pictures but was passionate about photography and pursued it for the love of his country. He went by the call sign “John,” and Ukrainian soldiers gave him a truck with a plate bearing his name.
Elsewhere, Britain’s new defense secretary stressed his support of Ukraine, suggesting that British military training of Ukrainian soldiers, which currently takes place at UK bases, could move into western Ukraine.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Grant Shapps said he was in discussions with the British army about “eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was quick to rule out speculation of an imminent deployment of British soldiers to Ukraine. Shapps’ suggestion was not for the “here and now,” Sunak told reporters, but a possibility “for the long term.”
“There are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict. That’s not what’s happening,” Sunak said.
Russian politicians immediately criticized the proposal. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, claimed Shapps was actively pushing “toward a Third World War.”
The British minister “will be turning his instructors into a legal target for our armed forces, knowing perfectly well that they’ll be mercilessly destroyed — not as mercenaries, but as NATO specialists,” Medvedev wrote on social media.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine more than 19 months ago, Medvedev, a law school graduate, has emerged as one of the most hawkish Russian officials, regularly issuing blustery remarks that combine Latin mottos and legal expressions with four-letter words.
Observers have interpreted Medvedev’s rhetoric, which sounds tougher than the statements of even old-time Kremlin hard-liners, as an apparent attempt to curry favor with Putin.
Yan Gagin, adviser to the head of the Russian-occupied part of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, also dismissed Shapps’ idea but without Medvedev’s fiery warnings. “Even if British instructors do organize training for Ukraine’s armed forces inside Ukraine, it won’t bring any results,” Gagin told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
“Ukraine’s failed counter-offensive has already shown the level of such training,” he added.
More than 23,500 recruits from Ukraine have received combat training at army bases across the UK since the start of 2022, receiving instruction on skills that include weapons handling and battlefield first aid. Earlier this year, Britain’s government committed to training another 20,000 recruits.
The training is part of a broader package of support for Ukraine that includes a pledge of 2.3 billion pounds ($2.8 billion) of anti-tank weapons, rocket systems and other hardware this year.
Shapps, who took over as defense secretary from predecessor Ben Wallace in August, said he also spoke with Zelensky in recent days about Britain’s Royal Navy helping to defend commercial vessels in the Black Sea. He did not provide details.
 


Senegal navy intercepts migrant boats as more risk perilous journey

Senegal navy intercepts migrant boats as more risk perilous journey
Updated 01 October 2023
Follow

Senegal navy intercepts migrant boats as more risk perilous journey

Senegal navy intercepts migrant boats as more risk perilous journey
  • Videos shared on X showed the boat being tossed by waves close to a beach as dozens of would-be migrants jump off and try to swim ashore

SAINT LOUIS: The Senegalese navy on Sunday said it had stopped two more boats carrying 262 would-be migrants late the previous night, taking the total to five boats intercepted and over 600 people rescued by a navy patrol boat since Thursday.

Those rescued included 26 women and 13 minors, the navy said in a post on social media platform X, sharing photos of dozens of people on a patrol boat and others seated in rows on a quay.

The successive rescues comes during the busy summer season when thousands of migrants brave the hundreds of miles of ocean separating Africa from Europe each year in a desperate search for a better life.

In August, only 37 survived after a migrant boat carrying 101 people from Senegal was found to have been adrift in the ocean without fuel for weeks.

From Senegal, they leave fishing villages and towns along the country’s Atlantic shorelines in brightly painted fishing vessels for the open ocean, overloaded with people with no shelter from the elements.

Another fishing boat on Saturday carrying more than a hundred people from the south of the country ran aground in the coastal city of Saint Louis when it was forced to turn around by high winds, witnesses said.

Videos shared on X showed the boat being tossed by waves close to a beach as dozens of would-be migrants jump off and try to swim ashore.

“We were at the beach chilling when suddenly we saw a pirogue arriving with migrants on board. When they got closer to the shore, they were frantically jumping into the water,” said Fallou Ndir, a 19-year old Saint Louis resident. 

“We all rushed to witness this although here, it’s common.”

The migrants jump off to avoid arrest by the navy, he said, adding that they blend into the population and disappear once on dry land.

On Sunday morning, a Reuters reporter saw the abandoned boat on the Saint Louis beach being stripped apart by young men who plan to use the wood to rebuild another boat.