London exhibition honors ‘human stories’ of migrants

London exhibition honors ‘human stories’ of migrants
A “Story disk” is pictured during a photocall ahead of the exhibition ‘All Our Stories: Migration and the Making of Britain’ at the Migration Museum in Lewisham, south London on Sept. 12, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 13 September 2024
Follow

London exhibition honors ‘human stories’ of migrants

London exhibition honors ‘human stories’ of migrants
  • The exhibition, which opened Thursday at London’s Migration Museum, features 7,000 testimonies, 200 photographs and contributions from about 50 artists
  • It aims to show the “human stories behind the headlines,” added Anand, the museum’s artistic director

LONDON: Weeks after anti-immigrant riots spread across England, a London exhibition is celebrating the impact immigrant communities have had on Britain through photos, testimonies and art installations.
Migration is “often seen as something that’s very divisive” but in reality “is just a part of our daily lives,” said Aditi Anand, curator of “All Our Stories: Migration and the Making of Britain.”
“It’s shaped Britain over the centuries and we want to get a sense of that long history and show that migration has always been happening,” she told AFP.
The exhibition, which opened Thursday at London’s Migration Museum, features 7,000 testimonies, 200 photographs and contributions from about 50 artists.
It aims to show the “human stories behind the headlines,” added Anand, the museum’s artistic director, who said migration had influenced Britain from food to fashion.
The long history of migration down the centuries also features in the exhibit, which runs until December next year.
A video by director Osbert Parker recalls that between 4,000 and 800 BC, “communities from the Mediterranean and continental Europe arrived in Great Britain including Celtic tribes, today known as the Ancient Britons.”
The video is a reminder that the Romans were followed in the fifth century by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes of northern Europe, who brought with them Germanic languages and culture.
“The idea is to show that the immigration is not something modern. It’s been going on for generations,” she added.
According to the last census in 2021, 17 percent of the British population was born outside the country, or around 10 million people.
“I think what we really want to show is that it (migration) has just been a part of our lives. It’s part of the fabric of this country’s DNA,” said Anand.
The display features a vending machine of products that “look like they’re quintessentially British brands” but have “migrant founders,” she noted.
One company featured is Marks & Spencer, co-founded by Michael Marks who was born into a Polish-Jewish family before arriving in Leeds in northern England in 1882.
The country’s first coffee chain, Costa Coffee, is also included. It was created by two brothers who arrived from Italy in the 1950s.
The exhibition also shows a reconstructed Chinese takeaway and the kitchen of a Spanish restaurant.
It also details the European migration crisis of 2015 with a look at the now-closed “Calais Jungle,” a vast camp where thousands of people waited to cross the Channel from northern France.
Next to a reconstructed tent, a series of photos put faces and stories to the migration crisis.
The exhibition comes as the UK continues to grapple with high levels of irregular migration, with nearly 23,000 crossing the Channel in dangerous small boats this year.
It recalls that three centuries ago, Huguenot French Protestants fled persecution by crossing the same body of water to England where they were warmly welcomed by the authorities.


UK orders sanctions against top Iranian military figures

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy. (REUTERS)
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy. (REUTERS)
Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

UK orders sanctions against top Iranian military figures

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy. (REUTERS)
  • Lammy, in Luxembourg at a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said in a statement that the sanctions were a way to hold Iran to account and expose those behind the attacks

LONDON: Britain on Monday ordered sanctions against top Iranian military figures after Iran’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack on Israel.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Iran had ignored repeated warnings that its “dangerous actions” — and those of its proxies — were fueling conflict in the Middle East.
Among the individuals subject to a travel ban and assets freeze are the commander-in-chief of the Iranian army, Abdolrahim Mousavi, and the air force, Hamid Vahedi.
Iran said it launched the missile attack in response to Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon and the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in a Tehran bombing widely blamed on Israel.
It was Iran’s second direct attack on Israel after a missile and drone attack in April in response to an airstrike on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus that it blamed on Israel.
Lammy, in Luxembourg at a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said in a statement that the sanctions were a way to hold Iran to account and expose those behind the attacks.
“Alongside allies and partners, we will continue to take necessary measures to challenge Iran’s unacceptable threats and press for de-escalation across the region,” he added.
The British list also features the Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence chief Mohammad Kazemi.
Two companies, including Iran’s space agency, whose technology can be used in cruise and ballistic missiles, were hit with an assets freeze.
Last week, the US government imposed restrictions on dozens of companies in Iran’s oil and petrochemicals sectors to cut off funding for what it said was the country’s “destabilizing activity.”
Also on Monday, the EU imposed sanctions on prominent Iranian officials and entities, including airlines, accused of taking part in the transfer of missiles and drones for Russia to use against Ukraine.
The bloc said that EU foreign ministers approved the sanctions on seven entities, including Iran Air, and seven individuals, including Deputy Defense Minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari and the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force senior officials.
Leading European powers Britain, France, and Germany adopted similar sanctions last month over Iranian missile transfers to Russia, as did the US.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the adoption of the sanctions by the entire bloc, adding: “More is needed.”
“The Iranian regime’s support to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is unacceptable and must stop,” she posted on X.
Two other Iranian airlines, Saha Airlines and Mahan Air, were hit under the EU measures, along with two procurement firms blamed for the “transfer and supply, through transnational procurement networks, of Iran-made UAVs and related components and technologies to Russia.”
The sanctions also target two companies producing propellants to launch rockets and missiles.
Those targeted are subject to an asset freeze and banned from traveling to the EU.
Iran rejects Western accusations it has transferred missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, dozens of Russian military personnel have received training in Iran on using the Fath-360 missile, which has a range of 120 km.

 


Canada, India expel each other’s diplomats in escalating row over Sikh activist’s assassination

Canada, India expel each other’s diplomats in escalating row over Sikh activist’s assassination
Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

Canada, India expel each other’s diplomats in escalating row over Sikh activist’s assassination

Canada, India expel each other’s diplomats in escalating row over Sikh activist’s assassination
  • Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the Surrey city
  • Nijjar owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland

NEW DELHI: Canada and India each expelled six diplomats Monday in tit-for-tat moves as part of an escalating dispute over the June 2023 assassination of a Sikh activist in Canada.
A senior Canadian government official said that Canada was expelling six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, after police uncovered evidence of ongoing violent criminal activity linked to the Indian government.
Shortly afterward, the Indian foreign ministry said it was expelling six Canadian diplomats, including the acting high commissioner and the deputy high commissioner. It said in a statement that the diplomats were told to leave India by the end of Saturday.
The ministry had said earlier Monday that India was withdrawing its diplomats, after rejecting Canada’s diplomatic communication on Sunday that said the Indian ambassador was a “person of interest” in the assassination.
A second senior Canadian official said that Canada expelled the Indian diplomats first before they withdrew. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last year that there were credible allegations that the Indian government had links to the June 2023 assassination in Canada of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Mike Duheme said that police have evidence allegedly tying Indian government agents to homicides and other violent acts in Canada. He declined to provide specifics.
“The team has learned a significant amount of information about the breadth and depth of criminal activity orchestrated by agents of the government of India, and consequential threats to the safety and security of Canadians and individuals living in Canada,” Duheme said.
RCMP Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin called it extremely concerning.
“Indian diplomats and consular officials are to protect the interests of their nationals based in Canada and their national interest and not to be part of criminal activity or intimidation, so we take that very seriously. That is without a doubt a contravention of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations,” Gauvin said.
India has rejected the accusation as absurd.
Nijjar, 45, was fatally shot in his pickup truck in June 2023 after he left the Sikh temple he led in the city of Surrey, British Columbia. An Indian-born citizen of Canada, he owned a plumbing business and was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland.
India designated him a terrorist in 2020, and at the time of his death had been seeking his arrest for alleged involvement in an attack on a Hindu priest.
In response to the allegations, India told Canada last year to remove 41 of its 62 diplomats in the country. Ever since, the relations between the two countries have been frosty.
The pro-Khalistan, or Sikh independence, movement is a thorny issue between India and Canada. New Delhi has repeatedly criticized Trudeau’s government for being soft on supporters of the Khalistan movement who reside in Canada. The Khalistan movement is banned in India, but has support among the Sikh diaspora, particularly in Canada.
India has been asking countries like Canada, Australia and the UK to take legal action against Sikh activists. India has particularly raised these concerns with Canada, where Sikhs make up nearly 2 percent of the country’s population.
The Indian foreign ministry said Monday that “India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India.”
The ministry also summoned the top Canadian diplomat in New Delhi and told him that “the baseless targeting” of the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, and other diplomats and officials in Canada “was completely unacceptable.”
“We have no faith in the current Canadian government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said.
Stewart Wheeler, the Canadian diplomat who was directed to leave India, told reporters after being summoned that his government has shared “incredible and irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.”
Wheeler said India must investigate the allegations and that Canada “stands ready to cooperate with India.”
Meanwhile, the US State Department said in a statement Monday that an Indian enquiry committee set up to investigate a plot to assassinate another prominent Sikh separatist leader living in New York would be traveling to Washington on Tuesday as part of their ongoing investigations to discuss the case.
“Additionally, India has informed the United States they are continuing their efforts to investigate other linkages of the former government employee and will determine follow-up steps, as necessary,” it said.
Last year, U,S, prosecutors said that an Indian government official directed the plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil and announced charges against a man they said was part of the thwarted conspiracy.
The Indian government official was niether charged nor identified by name, but was described as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence, said to have previously served in India’s Central Reserve Police Force.
New Delhi at that time had expressed concern after the US raised the issue, and said India takes it seriously.


Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested outside New York Stock Exchange

Anti-Israel protesters occupy an area in front of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Anti-Israel protesters occupy an area in front of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP)
Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested outside New York Stock Exchange

Anti-Israel protesters occupy an area in front of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP)
  • The protesters chanted “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” in front of the stock exchange’s landmark building in lower Manhattan

NEW YORK: About 200 demonstrators protesting Israel’s war in Gaza were arrested in a sit-in outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday, police said.
The protesters chanted “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” in front of the stock exchange’s landmark building in lower Manhattan.
“The reason we’re here is to demand that the US government stop sending bombs to Israel and stop profiting off of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace, the group that organized the demonstration. “Because what’s been happening for the last year is that Israel is using US bombs to massacre communities in Gaza while simultaneously weapons manufacturers on Wall Street are seeing their stock prices skyrocket.”
A handful of counterprotesters waved Israeli flags and tried to shout down the pro-Palestinian chants.
None of the pro-Palestinian protesters got inside the exchange, but at least 200 made it inside a security fence on Broad Street, where they sat down and waited to be taken into custody.
A spokesperson for the exchange declined to comment on the protest.
Police arrested the protesters one by one, cuffing their hands behind their backs with plastic ties and leading them to vans. Some demonstrators went limp and were carried by three or four officers.
A police spokesperson said there were about 200 arrests. She did not have details on the charges they faced.
The protest happened a week after the world marked the anniversary of Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, which has since spread to Lebanon and beyond.
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 21 people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military and it was not clear what the target was.


India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row

The flag of India flies at The High Commission of India in Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario.
The flag of India flies at The High Commission of India in Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario.
Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row

The flag of India flies at The High Commission of India in Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario.
  • Murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed country’s diplomatic relations with India
  • Trudeau previously said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime

NEW DELHI: India and Canada each expelled the other’s ambassador and five other top diplomats, after New Delhi said its envoy had been named among “persons of interest” following the killing of a Sikh separatist leader.
New Delhi said it was withdrawing its six diplomats from Canada, but an Ottawa government source told AFP they had been expelled, not withdrawn.
The 2023 murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar crashed the country’s diplomatic relations with India after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there were “credible allegations” linking Indian intelligence services to the crime.
The expulsion of the diplomats — the most senior envoys on both sides — is a major escalation in the row.
India “decided to expel” Ottawa’s acting High Commissioner Stewart Wheeler, his deputy and four first secretaries, ordering they leave before midnight on Sunday.
Ottawa announced similar measures in return, with Canadian police saying they had “evidence pertaining to agents of the government of India’s involvement in serious criminal activity” in Canada.
Nijjar — who immigrated to Canada in 1997 and became a citizen in 2015 — had advocated for a separate Sikh state, known as Khalistan, carved out of India.
He had been wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder.
Four Indian nationals have been arrested in connection with Nijjar’s murder, which took place in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in Vancouver in June 2023.
New Delhi had earlier said it had “received a diplomatic communication from Canada suggesting that the Indian High Commissioner and other diplomats are persons of interest” in the ongoing investigation.
It said their envoy, Sanjay Kumar Verma, a former ambassador to Japan and Sudan, was a respected career diplomat and that the accusations were “ludicrous.”
New Delhi’s foreign ministry said it had told Verma to return home.
“We have no faith in the current Canadian Government’s commitment to ensure their security,” it said in a statement.
India on Monday called allegations it was connected to the killing “preposterous” and a “strategy of smearing India for political gains.”
Last year, the Indian government briefly curbed visas for Canadians and forced Ottawa to withdraw diplomats, and on Monday threatened further action.
“India reserves the right to take further steps in response to the Trudeau Government’s support for extremism, violence and separatism against India,” the foreign ministry said.
The foreign ministry also summoned Canadian envoy Wheeler, who said that Ottawa had given India the evidence it had demanded.
“Canada has provided credible, irrefutable evidence of ties between agents of the Government of India and the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” Wheeler told reporters after leaving the ministry.
“Now, it is time for India to live up to what it said it would do and look into all those allegations. It is in the interest of both our countries and the peoples of our countries to get to the bottom of this. Canada stands ready to cooperate with India.”
India then announced his expulsion.
Canada is home to around 770,000 Sikhs, who make up about two percent of the country’s population, with a vocal minority calling for an independent state of Khalistan.
In November 2023, the US Justice Department also charged an Indian citizen living in the Czech Republic with allegedly plotting a similar assassination attempt on US soil.
Prosecutors said in unsealed court documents that an Indian government official was also involved in the planning of that attempt.


WHO approves Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents

Children, adolescents and those with weakened immune systems have been particularly vulnerable to mpox. (Reuters)
Children, adolescents and those with weakened immune systems have been particularly vulnerable to mpox. (Reuters)
Updated 14 October 2024
Follow

WHO approves Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents

Children, adolescents and those with weakened immune systems have been particularly vulnerable to mpox. (Reuters)
  • The US Food and Drug Administration has also approved Bavarian’s shot, but only for use in adults 18 years and older, although it granted Emergency Use Authorization for its use in adolescents during the mpox outbreak of 2022

GENEVA: The World Health Organization said on Monday it had approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, an age group considered especially vulnerable to outbreaks of the disease that has triggered global concern.
The WHO said it gave the Jynneos vaccine prequalification for adolescents on Oct. 8. The organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August after a new type of the virus spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo to its neighbors.
The UN agency approved the use of the vaccine in September as the first shot against mpox in adults, making it easier for badly hit African countries to access the vaccine.

SPEEDREAD

• The WHO said it gave the Jynneos vaccine prequalification for adolescents on Oct. 8.

• The organization declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years in August.

Children, adolescents and those with weakened immune systems have been particularly vulnerable to mpox, a viral infection that typically causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions filled with pus.
WHO’s latest decision comes after the EU approved the drug for the vaccine for adolescents in September.
The Danish biotech firm is also preparing to conduct a clinical trial to assess the vaccine’s safety in children aged two to 12, potentially extending its use.
The trial, partially funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, is expected to start in October.
The US Food and Drug Administration has also approved Bavarian’s shot, but only for use in adults 18 years and older, although it granted Emergency Use Authorization for its use in adolescents during the mpox outbreak of 2022.
Another mpox vaccine, LC16, made by Japan’s KM Biologics, can already be given to children, according to the Japanese regulator, although it requires a special kind of needle.
Bavarian Nordic did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the prequalification.