Northern Ireland violence shocks Muslims and stokes fears over sectarian divides

Protesters hold placards during the Belfast Welcomes Diversity anti-racism protest in Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
Protesters hold placards during the Belfast Welcomes Diversity anti-racism protest in Belfast, Northern Ireland, August 10, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 12 August 2024
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Northern Ireland violence shocks Muslims and stokes fears over sectarian divides

Northern Ireland violence shocks Muslims and stokes fears over sectarian divides
  • The violence has mirrored disorder across England, spurred by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack in Southport on July 29 which killed three children
  • Three decades of violent sectarian conflict known as the “Troubles” largely ended in 1998, but bitterness and frictions persist between pro-UK Protestant loyalists and pro-Irish unity Catholic nationalists

BELFAST: A week of racism-fueled disorder in Northern Ireland, sparked by disturbances in English towns and cities, is proving harder to end, with fears the UK region’s sectarian divisions are feeding into the violence.
“They burned every single thing, there is nothing left inside, just ashes,” said Bashir, whose supermarket in Belfast was torched during attacks against foreign-owned shops and businesses.
A mosque in a town near Belfast was also targeted late Friday.
“We are scared at what may happen next, there is lots of hostility against the Muslim community,” said the 28-year-old from Dubai, who did not want to give his full name citing safety reasons.
Northern Ireland has seen nightly unrest, mainly in pro-UK loyalist neighborhoods, that began after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast on August 3.
The violence has mirrored disorder across England, spurred by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack in Southport on July 29 which killed three children.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Saturday that 31 people have been arrested during the disturbances.
“On a fundamental level the Belfast attacks are similar in its dynamic to anti-immigration protests in white working class areas in England, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe,” said Peter McLoughlin, a politics lecturer at Queens University Belfast.
“It is driven by racism and fear of the other, but in Northern Ireland it also interfaces with sectarian political dynamics,” he told AFP.

Three decades of violent sectarian conflict known as the “Troubles” largely ended in 1998, but bitterness and frictions persist between pro-UK Protestant loyalists and pro-Irish unity Catholic nationalists.
Outside Bashir’s smoke-scarred shopfront in the staunchly loyalist inner-city district of Sandy Row, British Union Jack flags flutter on lampposts and painted wall murals proclaim fierce allegiance to the UK.
“Within loyalism there is a sense that prevailed through Northern Ireland’s peace process that their community is in retreat, that their community and British identity is under attack,” McLoughlin explained.
Many loyalists feel they “must oppose outsiders coming into those areas, who are seen as taking supposedly Protestant jobs and houses, and encroaching on a community that was once dominant,” he added.
After last Saturday’s anti-immigration protest, rioters rampaged through streets looking for foreign-owned businesses to attack.
“What happened last week was crazy,” Yilmaz Batu, a 64-year-old Turkish chef who has been living in Northern Ireland for two years, told AFP.
“There was never any trouble before,” he said, sitting at the Sahara Shisha Cafe, one of several Middle Eastern and Turkish-owned businesses near Sandy Row that were hit.
The Northern Ireland Muslim Council said in a statement that “the vast majority of the violence has been whipped up and fueled by deliberate misinformation and disinformation on social media.”
“False and dangerous narratives” about Muslims who “constitute a small minority in Northern Ireland” led to the attacks, it added.

Northern Ireland has low rates of immigration compared to the rest of the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
The 2021 census showed about six percent of the population were born outside the UK or Ireland, with around 97 percent describing their ethnicity as white.
The disorder was “extremely shocking for the wider community,” said Fiona Doran, chair of the United Against Racism group which co-organized a solidarity rally in Belfast on Saturday.
The demonstration, which drew several thousand people, gave people “a chance to come out on the streets, to show that Belfast is a welcoming city, it’s a city that says no to racism and fascism,” she told AFP.
At an anti-immigration rally the previous day in Belfast, around a hundred protesters carried British flags and placards reading “respect our country or leave!“
Some chanted the name of Tommy Robinson, a notorious anti-Muslim agitator who has been accused of helping to fuel the unrest in England through constant social media posts about the events.
Nearby, behinds ranks of armored police vehicles, more than 1,000 counter-protesters chanted “racists out!“
Bashir told AFP on Saturday he is unsure if he will reopen his supermarket.
“My question is: are we able to do that? If we do, it will be because of all the people who came out to show us support,” he said following the solidarity demonstration.
 

 


Venezuela says it arrested 6 foreigners allegedly involved in a plot to kill President Maduro

Venezuela says it arrested 6 foreigners allegedly involved in a plot to kill President Maduro
Updated 6 sec ago
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Venezuela says it arrested 6 foreigners allegedly involved in a plot to kill President Maduro

Venezuela says it arrested 6 foreigners allegedly involved in a plot to kill President Maduro
  • The arrests were announced on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the nation’s powerful interior minister

BOGOTA, Colombia: Three Americans, two Spaniards and a Czech citizen were arrested Saturday after Venezuelan officials accused them of coming to the South American country to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.
The arrests were announced on state television by Diosdado Cabello, the nation’s powerful interior minister. Cabello said the foreign citizens were part of a CIA-led plot to overthrow the Venezuelan government and kill several members of its leadership. In the television program, Cabello showed images of rifles that he said were confiscated from some of the plotters of the alleged plan.
The arrest of the American citizens included a member of the Navy, who Cabello identified as Wilbert Joseph Castañeda Gomez. Cabello said that Gomez was a navy seal who had served in Afghanistan, Iraq and Colombia. Spain’s embassy in Venezuela did not reply to a request for comment on the arrests of its citizens.
The US State Department late Saturday confirmed the detention of a US military member and said it was aware of “unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained in Venezuela.”
“Any claims of US involvement in a plot to overthrow Maduro are categorically false. The United States continues to support a democratic solution to the political crisis in Venezuela,” the statement said.
The announcement of the arrests comes just two days after the US Treasury imposed sanctions on 16 allies of Maduro who were accused by the US government of obstructing voting during the disputed July 28 Venezuelan presidential election, and carrying out human rights abuses.
Earlier this week, Spain’s parliament recognized opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as the winner of the election, angering Maduro allies who called on the Venezuelan government to suspend commercial and diplomatic relations with Spain.
Tensions between Venezuela’s government and the US have increased as well following the election, whose result sparked protests within Venezuela in which hundreds of opposition activists were arrested.
Venezuela’s Electoral Council, which is closely aligned with the Maduro administration, said Maduro won the election with 52 percent of the vote, but did not provide a detailed breakdown of the results.
Opposition activists, however, surprised the government by collecting tally sheets from 80 percent of the nation’s voting machines. The tally sheets collected by the opposition were published online, and they indicate that Gonzalez won the election with twice as many votes as Maduro.
Despite international condemnation over the election’s lack of transparency, Venezuela’s supreme court, which has long backed Maduro, confirmed his victory in August. Venezuela’s attorney general then filed conspiracy charges against Gonzalez, who fled to Spain last week after it became clear he would be arrested.
Maduro has dismissed requests from several countries, including the leftist governments of Colombia and Brazil, to provide tally sheets that prove he won the election. Maduro, who has been in power since 2013, has long claimed the US is trying to overthrow him through sanctions and covert operations.
The Maduro administration has previously used Americans imprisoned in Venezuela to gain concessions from the US government. In a deal conducted last year with the Biden administration, Maduro released 10 Americans and a fugitive wanted by the US government to secure a presidential pardon for Alex Saab, a close Maduro ally who was held in Florida on money laundering charges. According to US prosecutors, Saab had also helped Maduro to avoid US Treasury sanctions through a complex network of shell companies.


Boeing strike could drag on as workers push for higher wages, union leader says

Boeing strike could drag on as workers push for higher wages, union leader says
Updated 15 September 2024
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Boeing strike could drag on as workers push for higher wages, union leader says

Boeing strike could drag on as workers push for higher wages, union leader says
  • More than 30,000 workers who produce Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX and other jets began a strike on Friday
  • Negotiators from both sides are due to return to the bargaining table next week, in talks overseen by US federal mediators

SEATTLE: A strike at Boeing “could go on for a while” as workers are confident they can get bigger wage increases and an improved pension, union leader Jon Holden said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on Saturday.
More than 30,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), who produce Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX and other jets in the Seattle and Portland, began a strike on Friday after overwhelmingly voting down a new contract.
Boeing and union negotiators are due to return to the bargaining table next week, in talks overseen by US federal mediators, after more than 94 percent of workers voted to reject an initial contract offer that Holden had endorsed.
Holden said the priorities for his members were a bigger wage increase and the restoration of a defined-benefit pension scheme that the IAM lost during a previous round of negotiations with Boeing a decade ago.
“We have the most leverage and the most power at the most opportune time that we’ve ever had in our history, and our members are expecting us to use it,” Holden told NPR.
“I know that our members are confident. They’re standing shoulder to shoulder and they’re ready. So it (the strike) could go on for a while.”
The initial deal included a 25 percent pay rise spread over four years and a commitment by Boeing to build its next commercial jet in the Seattle region, if the plane program was launched within the four-year period of the contract.
Union members, venting frustration at years of stagnant wages and rising living costs, said removal of a performance bonus in the Boeing offer would erode half of the headline salary increase.
Boeing’s stock fell 3.7 percent on Friday. It has tumbled almost 40 percent so far this year, slashing the company’s market value by roughly $58 billion
A long strike could further damage Boeing’s finances, already groaning due to a $60 billion debt pile. A lengthy pause on plane production would also weigh on airlines that fly Boeing jets and suppliers that manufacture parts.


British PM urged to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles as Russia continues to hit civilian targets

British PM urged to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles as Russia continues to hit civilian targets
Updated 15 September 2024
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British PM urged to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles as Russia continues to hit civilian targets

British PM urged to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles as Russia continues to hit civilian targets
  • Former PM Boris Johnson and former Conservative defense chiefs warned Starmer that “any further delay will embolden President Putin”
  • While Russia had been striking Ukrainian civilian targets at will, Ukraine's forces have been handicapped by Western restrictions

LONDON: British Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been urged by former defense secretaries and an ex-premier to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles inside Russian territory even without US backing, the Sunday Times reported on Saturday.
According to the Sunday Times, the call came from five former Conservative defense secretaries — Grant Shapps, Ben Wallace, Gavin Williamson, Penny Mordaunt and Liam Fox — as well as from ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
They warned Starmer that “any further delay will embolden President Putin,” the Sunday Times said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire Western missiles including long-range US ATACMS and British Storm Shadows deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Starmer and US President Joe Biden held talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use the long-range missiles against targets in Russia. No decision was announced.
Some US officials are deeply skeptical that allowing the use of such missiles would make a significant difference in Kyiv’s battle against Russian invaders.
President Vladimir Putin has said the West would be directly fighting Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike with Western-made long-range missiles.
While Russia had been striking Ukrainian civilian targets at will, Ukraine's forces have been handicapped by restrictions on use of Western-supplied weapons.

As of July 31, 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had recorded 11,520 civilians killed and 23,640 injured in Ukraine since February 24, 2022, but said they believe the real number is higher.

On Saturday, Russian shelling killed at least seven people in four attacks on the south, southeast and east of Ukraine, regional Ukrainian governors said.
In the Zaporizhzhia region in southeast Ukraine, governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian shells struck an agricultural enterprise in the town of Huliaipole, killing three people.
“All the dead are employees of the enterprise,” Fedorov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters could not verify details of these latest attacks in the war in Ukraine.
A missile attack in the suburbs of the Black Sea port city of Odesa killed a man and a woman born in 1958 and 1962 and injured a 65-year-old woman, Oleh Kiper, the Odesa regional governor, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“A married couple died,” he said, adding that they were found during checks of residential and commercial buildings damaged earlier in the day and that Russian forces had used a prohibited cluster warhead.
Shelling killed a sixth person in the southern region of Kherson, governor Oleksandr Prokudin, said. “A 60-year-old man who suffered serious injuries this afternoon died in hospital,” Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
In Kharkiv region, Russia struck the village of Pisky-Radkivski with the high-speed Tornado-S multiple rocket launch system, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.
The body of a 72-year-old woman was retrieved from the rubble, and two civilians, a man and a woman, were taken to hospital, he added.

 


Polish FM says EU must end benefits for exiled Ukrainian men to help Kyiv’s call for more troops to fight Russian forces

Polish FM says EU must end benefits for exiled Ukrainian men to help Kyiv’s call for more troops to fight Russian forces
Updated 15 September 2024
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Polish FM says EU must end benefits for exiled Ukrainian men to help Kyiv’s call for more troops to fight Russian forces

Polish FM says EU must end benefits for exiled Ukrainian men to help Kyiv’s call for more troops to fight Russian forces
  • Of more than 4.1 million Ukrainians on temporary protection status in the EU, 22 percent are adult males
  • Many Ukrainian men have reportedly fled abroad to avoid military service by bribing their way out

KYIV: European governments should halt welfare benefits to Ukrainian men of military age who are living in their countries, Poland’s foreign minister said, a measure he said would help Ukraine call up more troops to fight Russian forces.

Following a meeting in Kyiv with his Ukrainian counterpart, Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski said ending social benefits for Ukrainian male refugees would also benefit state finances in host countries in Western Europe.

More than 4.1 million Ukrainians had temporary protection status in European Union countries as of July this year, and about 22 percent of them were adult men, according to data from the EU statistics office, Eurostat.

“Stop paying those social security payments for people who are eligible for the Ukrainian draft. There should be no financial incentives for avoiding the draft in Ukraine,” Sikorski said at a conference of international leaders in Kyiv. “It’s not a human right to be paid to avoid the draft, to defend your country. We in Poland don’t do it.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed Sikorski’s call. “It’s time really to raise the question of the European Union developing programs to return Ukrainians home. Certainly, appropriate conditions should be created for this. But this should be on the agenda. And I support the idea of Minister Sikorski,” Sybiha said.

Nearly 31 months into the war against Russia and with Moscow’s forces slowly but steadily advancing in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv needs more soldiers to maintain its defense lines, rotate out exhausted troops and make up for losses.

Russia has a significant advantage in staff numbers and weapons on the battlefield.

Earlier this year, Ukraine adopted new legislation and implemented other measures, including lowering the call-up age for combat duty to 25 from 27 to increase the pace of mobilization into the army.

Under the new law, Kyiv ordered Ukrainian men living abroad to renew their military draft information online and encouraged them to return to Ukraine and join the fight.

Ukraine imposed martial law at the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, banning men aged 18 to 60 from traveling abroad without special permission and beginning a rolling mobilization of civilian men into the armed forces.

But many men of military age have still fled abroad to avoid the draft amid reports of corruption in the army recruitment system, allowing some men to bribe their way out of army service.

 

 


Nigerian army rescues 13 hostages from extremist group

Nigerian army rescues 13 hostages from extremist group
Updated 14 September 2024
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Nigerian army rescues 13 hostages from extremist group

Nigerian army rescues 13 hostages from extremist group
  • Kidnappings have become common in parts of northern Nigeria, where dozens of armed groups take advantage of a limited security presence to carry out attacks in village

ABUJA, Nigeria: Nigerian troops have rescued 13 hostages who were kidnapped by an extremist group in the northwestern state of Kaduna, the country’s army said on Saturday.
The army said in a statement that “the troops successfully overwhelmed the terrorists, forcing them to abandon their captives.”
Several kidnappers were killed and others captured, the military added. It didn’t specify what armed group the kidnappers belonged to.
The rescued hostages were taken to a military facility for a medical assessment before being reunited with their families. Weapons, ammunition, solar panels and cash were also discovered during the rescue operation.
Kidnappings have become common in parts of northern Nigeria, where dozens of armed groups take advantage of a limited security presence to carry out attacks in villages and along major roads. Most victims are released only after the payment of ransoms that sometimes run into the thousands of dollars.
At least 1,400 students have been taken from Nigerian schools since the 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in the village of Chibok in Borno state shocked the world.
Boko Haram, Nigeria’s homegrown jihadi rebels, launched its insurgency in 2009 to establish Islamic Shariah law in the country. At least 35,000 people have been killed and 2.1 million people displaced as a result of the extremist violence, according to UN agencies in Nigeria.