Andrew Tate loses appeal in Romania, to be held 30 more days

Andrew Tate loses appeal in Romania, to be held 30 more days
Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate are escorted by police officers outside the headquarters of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, in Bucharest, Romania. (Reuters)
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Updated 01 February 2023
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Andrew Tate loses appeal in Romania, to be held 30 more days

Andrew Tate loses appeal in Romania, to be held 30 more days
  • Tate lost his appeal against a judge’s decision to extend his arrest a second time for 30 days

BUCHAREST, Romania: Andrew Tate lost his appeal at a Romanian court and will be held for a further 30 days, an official said Wednesday.
Tate, a divisive influencer and former professional kickboxer, is detained on suspicion of organized crime and human trafficking.
Tate lost his appeal at the Bucharest Court of Appeal against a judge’s Jan. 20 decision to extend his arrest a second time for 30 days, said Ramona Bolla, a spokesperson for Romania’s anti-organized crime agency DIICOT.
Tate, 36, a British-US citizen who has nearly 5 million followers on Twitter, arrived at the Bucharest Court of Appeal on Wednesday handcuffed to his brother Tristan, who is held in the same case along with two Romanian women.
The court rejected all four appeals and will remain in custody until Feb. 27 as prosecutors continue investigating the case.
 


Denmark’s parliament adopts law banning Qur'an burnings

Denmark’s parliament adopts law banning Qur'an burnings
Updated 16 sec ago
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Denmark’s parliament adopts law banning Qur'an burnings

Denmark’s parliament adopts law banning Qur'an burnings
  • Over the summer, Denmark and neighboring Sweden became the focus of anger across several Muslim countries after a slew of protests involving burnings and desecrations of the Qur'an

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s parliament on Thursday adopted a law criminalizing the “inappropriate treatment” of religious texts, effectively banning Qur'an burnings after a series of desecrations of Islam’s holy book sparked anger in Muslim countries over the summer.
The bill, which prohibits “inappropriate treatment of writings with significant religious importance for a recognized religious community,” was passed with 94 votes in favor and 77 opposed in the 179-seat Folketing.
“We must protect the security of Denmark and the Danes. Therefore, it is important that we now have better protection against the systematic insults we have seen for a long time,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said in a statement.
In practical terms, it will be forbidden to burn, tear or otherwise defile holy texts publicly or in videos intended to be disseminated widely.
Those who break the law, which will be evaluated after three years, risk a fine or up to two years in prison.
Over the summer, Denmark and neighboring Sweden became the focus of anger across several Muslim countries after a slew of protests involving burnings and desecrations of the Qur'an.
Nearly a thousand protesters attempted to march to the Danish embassy in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in late July following a call by firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr.
In response to the worsened security situation, the Scandinavian country temporarily tightened border controls, but returned to normal on August 22.
Between July 21 and October 24 this year, 483 book burnings or flag burnings were recorded in Denmark, according to national police figures.

Initially announced at the end of August, the bill was amended following criticism that its first draft limited freedom of expression and would be difficult to enforce.
It was originally planned to cover objects of significant religious importance.
The first draft was also criticized by some — including politicians, artists, media and freedom of speech experts — as a return to a blasphemy law that Denmark abolished in 2017.
During a lengthy debate in parliament ahead of the vote, opposition lawmakers railed against the government, accusing it of sacrificing freedom of expression.
“It is a betrayal. A huge failure on the part of the government,” Inger Stojberg, leader of far-right Denmark Democrats, told parliament.
In 2006, a wave of anti-Danish anger and violence erupted in the Muslim world following the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
“Imagine that we are becoming the generation that curtailed freedom of speech. I hadn’t actually thought this would be — and certainly not after the Muhammad crisis. Back then, we stood firm,” Stojberg said.
In neighboring Sweden, the government has condemned desecrations of the Qur'an at protests while upholding the country’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws.
It has vowed to explore legal means of stopping protests involving the burning of holy texts in certain circumstances.
Denmark is not the only European country to have banned burnings of the Qur'an.
According to Denmark’s justice ministry, eight European countries — Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Poland and Romania — do so to varying degrees.
In Greece, for example, the burning of a sacred text can be banned if the act takes place in or near a religious site.
 

 


UK team helping PA prepare for Gaza takeover: Defense secretary

UK team helping PA prepare for Gaza takeover: Defense secretary
Updated 07 December 2023
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UK team helping PA prepare for Gaza takeover: Defense secretary

UK team helping PA prepare for Gaza takeover: Defense secretary
  • Grant Shapps visits Israel, holds talks with Palestinian officials in Ramallah
  • British Support Team has been in West Bank for over a decade working with PA on security issues

LONDON: British military personnel are helping the Palestinian Authority prepare to take control of the Gaza Strip, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps told The Times.

The British Support Team, which works with US and Canadian personnel, has been in Ramallah for over a decade, working with elements of the Palestinian security services, he said.

Shapps met the team and PA Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Ziad Hab Al-Reeh in Ramallah on Thursday, and said the UK’s presence could be expanded to assist the PA with any power transition in Gaza.

“Ultimately, I think the solution (to governance of Gaza) is likely to be a Palestinian Authority, who need to be capable of a level of governance which will require a huge amount of international help and support and we are not there yet,” Shapps said.

“When something really terrible happens what we absolutely need to do is get something that is better than what was there before.

“We have to use this appalling crisis to improve the security of Israelis and the lives and livelihoods of Palestinians. And I think you do that by bringing together an international coalition which is led by Arab states in terms of the on-the-ground reconstruction of Gaza and also administratively.

“One of the reasons we are going to Ramallah to talk to the Palestinian Authority is to understand their capacity and ability. One of the things we will be doing is talking to the British team who are helping to build that capacity along with the Americans.”

Shapps, who is Jewish, also met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. They lit candles to mark the first day of Hanukkah, while Shapps also visited a kibbutz near Israel’s border with Gaza.

His comments come in sharp contrast to those of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said Israel needs security control over Gaza after its military operation in the enclave ends.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in November that the PA taking control in Gaza would depend on a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.


Harry says UK not safe for him and family without security

Prince Harry. (AP)
Prince Harry. (AP)
Updated 07 December 2023
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Harry says UK not safe for him and family without security

Prince Harry. (AP)
  • The youngest son of King Charles III quit the British royal family with his wife Meghan in early 2020, and settled in California

 

LONDON: Prince Harry believes he was forced to leave the UK and that he and his family can never feel safe during visits home without adequate security, a court was told Thursday.
The youngest son of King Charles III quit the British royal family with his wife Meghan in early 2020, and moved to north America, eventually settling in California.
He has brought a case against the British government at the High Court in London after his UK taxpayer-funded protection was removed.
A hearing has been taking place since Tuesday, with only the opening and closing session open to the media and public for security reasons.
On Thursday, his lawyer Shaheed Fatima said Harry did not accept that he chose to stop being a “full-time working member of the royal family.” Fatima read his written statement to the court, which said: “It was with great sadness for both of us that my wife and I felt forced to step back from this role and leave the country in 2020.
“The UK is my home. The UK is central to the heritage of my children and a place I want them to feel at home as much as where they live at the moment in the US.
“That cannot happen if it’s not possible to keep them safe when they are on UK soil.
“I cannot put my wife in danger like that and, given my experiences in life, I am reluctant to unnecessarily put myself in harm’s way too.”
Harry’s lawyers have argued that the decision to change his security arrangements as a result of his departure was “unlawful and unfair” given his royal status and his mother Princess Diana’s death.
She was killed in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 as she tried to escape paparazzi photographers.
But lawyers for the government reject that he was “singled out” and treated “less favorably” or that a proper risk analysis was not carried out.
James Eadie, for the Interior Ministry, told the court that it was decided Harry would not be provided the same level protection as before because he had left the royal family and mostly lived abroad.
A judgment in the case — one of five involving Harry at the High Court — will be given at a later date.
In May, he lost a bid for a legal review of a government decision refusing him permission to pay for specialist UK police protection himself.
The ministry argued then that it was “not appropriate” for wealthy people to “buy” protective security when it had decided that it was not in the public interest for such taxpayer-funded protection.
London’s Metropolitan Police also opposed Harry’s offer on the grounds that it would be wrong to “place officers in harm’s way upon payment of a fee by a private individual.”

 

 


Protesters blockade Israel-linked UK defense factories

Protesters blockade Israel-linked UK defense factories
Updated 07 December 2023
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Protesters blockade Israel-linked UK defense factories

Protesters blockade Israel-linked UK defense factories
  • Sites in Bournemouth, Glasgow, Brighton, Lancashire targeted for selling parts used in F-35 manufacturing
  • Workers for a Free Palestine group demands UK govt back Gaza ceasefire, Israel withdraw from Occupied Territories

LONDON: Protests have taken place at factories across the UK tied to the arms industry over the sale of equipment to Israel.

Hundreds of members of the Workers for a Free Palestine group arrived at sites in Bournemouth, Glasgow, Brighton and Lancashire to call on manufacturers including BAE Systems to sever relations with Israel. Protests also took place in France and Denmark at other defense-related facilities.

At the factory in Glasgow, a banner reading “Stop Arming Israel” was unfurled at an entrance alongside Palestinian flags.

The sites are thought to manufacture and supply parts for the F-35 jet, a multi-role combat aircraft built by US defense firm Lockheed Martin, which Israel has used in missions over Gaza.

The group is also calling on the UK government to demand a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, and for Israeli forces to leave the Occupied Territories.

A Workers for a Free Palestine spokeswoman told Sky News that the F-35 is a key component of “Israel’s murderous war machine.”

She added: “The fighter jets these factories help to produce are being used to imprison the people of Gaza in a death trap.

“They are ordered to evacuate when they have nowhere safe to go, while our government still refuses to back a ceasefire.

“Workers all over Britain are rising up for Palestine, saying we will not allow arms used in a genocide to be supplied in our name and funded by our taxes.”

A protester said BAE System’s management, not its workers, is responsible for selling lethal items to Israel. “It is them we hold accountable for being part of the chain of killing,” he told Sky News.

A BAE Systems spokesperson said the company is “horrified” by the “devastating impact” that the conflict is having on civilians in Gaza, adding: “We operate under the tightest regulations and comply fully with all applicable defense export controls, which are subject to ongoing assessment.”


UK PM Sunak faces party revolt after unveiling new Rwanda asylum plan

UK PM Sunak faces party revolt after unveiling new Rwanda asylum plan
Updated 07 December 2023
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UK PM Sunak faces party revolt after unveiling new Rwanda asylum plan

UK PM Sunak faces party revolt after unveiling new Rwanda asylum plan
  • The Rwanda scheme is at the center of the government’s strategy to stop illegal migration

LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was battling to keep his party together on Thursday a day after unveiling a plan to disregard some human rights law to send migrants to Rwanda, bringing back to the fore deep divisions in his party.
Facing the biggest challenge to his year-long tenure, Sunak is trying to stop lawmakers on the Conservative Party’s right wing from rebelling over their demand that Britain should quit international treaties to set its own migration policy.
His immigration minister quit on Wednesday and he is facing questions as to whether he can get his key policy through a vote in parliament. Some Conservative lawmakers said on Thursday that Sunak could face a leadership challenge.
The prime minister was due to hold a press conference at 1100 GMT.
One Conservative politician, who reluctantly supports the Rwanda plan, said the last year had shown that his colleagues can be ruthless in removing a struggling prime minister.
“I have a feeling of deja vu,” he said.
The draft legislation comes three weeks after Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda was not a safe place to send those arriving in small boats on the southern coast of England, and that the plan would breach British and international law.
The Rwanda scheme is at the center of the government’s strategy to stop illegal migration. The court’s decision was a setback for Sunak who is struggling to revive a weak economy and is heavily trailing the main opposition party ahead of an election expected next year.
Sunak could make the vote in parliament on the new legislation next week a confidence vote — meaning that if he loses, it could trigger a national election — in an attempt to shore up party support.
So far only one Conservative lawmaker has publicly called for a no confidence vote, but she said six of her colleagues have done so privately.
To trigger a leadership challenge, 53 of the 350 Conservative lawmakers in parliament must write letters of no confidence to the chairman of the 1922 Committee.
Sunak suffered his first parliamentary defeat this week as members of parliament voted to establish a compensatory body for victims of the infected blood scandal.
The prime minister has pleaded with his party to get behind the legislation as the best chance to get flights to Rwanda leaving before the next election.
‘IT WON’T WORK’
A poll last month showed immigration was one of the three biggest issues facing the country. Only the economy and National Health Service were seen as more important.
Last year net legal migration hit a record of 745,000 people and around 45,000 arrived illegally.
Rwanda currently only has the capacity to accept a few hundred migrants from Britain, but ministers say the plan will act as a vital deterrent to discourage people from making the crossings.
The new bill will instruct judges to ignore some sections of the Human Rights Act (HRA) and provisions of domestic or international law that might deem that Rwanda was not a safe destination, though appeals by people based on specific circumstances would still be permitted.
The former interior minister Suella Braverman, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and their allies say that does not go far enough, with some wanting Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights altogether.
“I’m very concerned that the bill on the table will allow a merry-go-round of legal claims and litigation,” Braverman told BBC radio, but said no one was talking about changing the party’s leader.
“The reality is, and the solid truth is, that it won’t work and it will not stop the boats.”