UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur

Short Url

https://arab.news/29cqs

Updated 28 June 2024

Reuters

June 28, 2024 15:53

UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur

Sunak, Britain’s first ethnic-minority prime minister, was responding to comments broadcast by Channel 4 News, by a man named as Andrew Parker
“My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki,” Sunak told broadcasters

Updated 28 June 2024

Reuters

June 28, 2024 15:53

STOCKTON-ON-TEES, England: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out.
Sunak, Britain’s first ethnic-minority prime minister, was responding to comments broadcast by Channel 4 News, by a man named as Andrew Parker calling Sunak a “f… Paki” — a British racial slur for people of South Asian descent.
Sunak was born in the southern English port city of Southampton in 1980 to Hindu parents of Punjabi Indian descent.
“My two daughters have to see and hear Reform people who campaign for Nigel Farage calling me an effing Paki. It hurts and it makes me angry, and I think he has some questions to answer,” Sunak told broadcasters on Friday.
“I don’t repeat those words lightly, I do so deliberately because this is too important not to call out clearly for what it is.”
Parker provided a statement to Channel 4 News, in response to them saying they would broadcast the video that was taken without his knowledge, saying that no one at Reform was aware of his personal views on immigration.
“I would therefore like to apologize profusely to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party if my personal views have reflected badly on them and brought them into disrepute as this was not my intention,” he said.
“I offered to help the Reform Party on their canvassing as I believe that they are the only party that offer the UK voter a practical solution to the illegal immigration problem that we have in the UK.”
In the Channel 4’s video, Parker says: “I’ve always been a Tory (Conservative) voter but what annoys me is that f… Paki we’ve got in. What good is he? You tell me, you know. He’s just wet. F… useless.”
Farage said in a statement late on Thursday, when the comments were first broadcast, that he was dismayed by the language. On Friday he said on Twitter: “We now learn that he is an actor by profession.
“This whole episode does not add up.”
Reuters could not immediately reach Parker for comment. Channel 4 News said in a statement that they covertly filmed Parker and did not know him before they met him as a Reform volunteer.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he was hurt and angry that a supporter of Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK party had been recorded making a racial slur about him, saying it was too important for him not to speak out. (AFP/File)

France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

Updated 12 sec ago

AFP

August 02, 2024 11:42

France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

Academic Laurent Vinatier is accused of gathering Russian military information without registering as a ‘foreign agent’
Vladimir Putin ramped up a historic crackdown on dissent after invading Ukraine in February 2022

Updated 12 sec ago

AFP

August 02, 2024 11:42

PARIS: France on Friday welcomed a historic prisoner swap between Russia and the West and urged Moscow to set free French citizen Laurent Vinatier and other people still “arbitrarily” detained in the country.
“France shares the sentiment of the families and allied governments following the release of several political prisoners held in Russia,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
“Our thoughts are with those who remain arbitrarily detained in Russia, including our compatriot Laurent Vinatier. France calls for their immediate release.”
France said it paid tribute “to the courage of the men and women who, in Russia as elsewhere, defend freedom of speech and opinion despite the risks involved.”
In the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War, 10 Russians were traded for 16 Westerners and Russians imprisoned in Russia in a dramatic exchange on the airport tarmac in Turkiye’s capital Ankara on Thursday.
US officials said that the swap should have included the leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, but he was suddenly pronounced dead in his remote Arctic prison in February just as the secret talks were at a crucial stage.
In the statement, Paris singled out Navalny, reiterating that “Russian authorities must be held to account” for the death of Vladimir Putin’s charismatic critic.
Academic Vinatier, 48, is accused of gathering Russian military information without registering as a “foreign agent.” He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted.
Putin ramped up a historic crackdown on dissent after invading Ukraine in February 2022, with hundreds of political prisoners and arbitrarily detained people held in prisons across the country, according to human rights activists.
Among them are theater director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk, historian Yury Dmitriev, journalist Ivan Safronov and Arseny Turbin, a teenage Navalny supporter.

Filipino-American teens run mobile library to support literacy in Mindanao

Updated 5 min 55 sec ago

Samantha Beltran

August 02, 2024 14:44

Filipino-American teens run mobile library to support literacy in Mindanao

Grandchildren of Filipino journalist Ben Emata Jr. set up mobile library in his home province Misamis Oriental
Launched on June 27, the mobile library has over 5,000 books and hopes to reach 300 children a week

Updated 5 min 55 sec ago

Samantha Beltran

August 02, 2024 14:44

MANILA: Brought up in the US, Arianna and Oliver Horsup knew their grandfather was one of the pioneers of Philippine community journalism, but it was only last year, during a trip to his ancestral province, that they learned more and found a way to honor his legacy.

When they traveled across the impoverished rural areas of Misamis Oriental in Northern Mindanao, they realized how other children had limited access to quality education and often had to walk far to even get to their schools. The teenagers thought they could help by bringing educational materials straight to their homes.

Chapters of Change, a mobile library with over 5,000 books in its inventory, began its journey on June 27, from Cagayan de Oro, the hometown of their late grandfather, Ben Emata Jr.

A reporter and editor, Emata ran the local publication Mindanao Reporter, which was shut down during a press clampdown under martial law in 1972.

“Oliver and Arianna knew that their grandfather, Ben Emata, Jr., was a renowned journalist in the area. He was the only journalist who was on local TV, radio and newspaper at the time. They were surprised to find that locals and reporters still remember him fondly,” the teenagers’ father, David Horsup, told Arab News.

“When we visited the rural areas of Misamis Oriental, Oliver and Arianna noticed that the schools were few and far between. They asked how children went to school. We informed them that in certain areas, children have to walk great distances to attend school. Arianna wanted to find a way to help others break the cycle of poverty for generations by increasing access to literature, specifically, in English comprehension.”

When the Horsups returned home from their trip, Arianna spent the rest of her summer researching how to establish a charity. Chapters of Change was registered in Texas in July last year.

The 15-year-old also handpicked members of the board, which included family members and people from her community, including her former Filipino middle school teacher.

Chapters of Change also became a literacy partner under the Barbara Bush Literacy Foundation in the US, which helped the charity in its early stages by exposing it to a network of other nonprofit organizations.

“It has also provided our organization with a degree of credibility, which is helpful, especially when dealing with corporations,” David said.

“Once we obtained the necessary certifications to become a charity at the state and federal level, we immediately set in motion several fundraising events. Our goal was to acquire and retrofit a vehicle to create the Chapters of Change mobile library.”

Most of the books were donated by famous children’s book authors in the US from schoolbook drives, while the organization approached businesses for sponsorships and ran a GoFundMe page to set the library up.

At the moment, Chapters of Change is run on the ground by a Misamis Oriental-based board member, a lawyer and philanthropist who mobilizes a group of volunteers, with plans to hire a full-time library manager in the next few months.

The mobile library aims to eventually reach 300 children a week when it reaches full operations, stopping at one village or school a day where children can borrow books and return them when the mobile library returns. The organization is working out a route for the mobile library to regularly drop by, allowing children to routinely check out and return books.

As a high school freshman back in Houston, Arianna, 15, and her younger brother are learning the ins and outs of running a charity while balancing their teenage lives.

“Our vision is to improve literacy,” Arianna told Arab News.

“I try to make time based on my priorities and section my time for education, sports, volunteering, and personal (things). It was hard having to cut time from my personal life, but it was well worth it!”

Topics: Philippines

Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

Updated 40 min 30 sec ago

AFP

August 02, 2024 10:54

Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

Student rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem that killed at least 206 people last month
The violence was some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure

Updated 40 min 30 sec ago

AFP

August 02, 2024 10:54

DHAKA: Demonstrations in Bangladesh after Friday prayers demanded justice for victims of nationwide unrest and police crackdown, after the release of protest leaders failed to quell public anger.
Student rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem that killed at least 206 people last month, according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.
The violence was some of the worst of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure, and the actions of her government’s security forces provoked widespread rancor at home and international criticism abroad.
A day after police freed six top members of the group which organized the initial protests, its leaders urged their compatriots to once again return to the streets.
“We want justice for the murders of our sisters and brothers,” Students Against Discrimination said in a statement.
Thousands of young men in the capital Dhaka and the port city of Chittagong heeded the call after midday worship in the Muslim-majority nation, defying torrential monsoon rains.
“Why are our brothers in graves and the killers outside?” one crowd chanted outside the country’s largest mosque in central Dhaka, a teeming megacity of 20 million people.
Students Against Discrimination had demanded the release of its detained leaders, three of whom were forcibly checked out of a hospital and taken away by plainclothes police last week.
Their release was a sign the government was hoping to “de-escalate tensions” with protesters, University of Oslo researcher Mubashar Hasan said on Thursday.
But other demands by the students remain unmet, including a public apology from Hasina for the violence and the dismissal of several of her ministers.
They have also insisted that the government reopen schools and universities around the country, all of which were shuttered at the height of the unrest.
Many protesters have gone further, demanding Hasina step down altogether.
“She must go,” writer and activist Arup Rahee said from a rally in the capital. “There will be no justice for the student murders if she remains in power.”
Internet outage monitor Netblocks reported that service providers had again restricted access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, all used last month to organize protests.
“We were instructed by the authorities to block Facebook,” said an official from one phone company, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of a quota scheme — since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court — that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.
Critics say the quota system was used to stack public jobs with loyalists to the ruling Awami League.
Last month’s protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.
Hasina’s government eventually imposed a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and shut down the nation’s mobile Internet network for 11 days to restore order.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week condemned the police clampdown that followed for “excessive and lethal force against protesters and others,” urging an independent investigation into their conduct.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters last weekend that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings.
At least 32 children were among those killed last month, the UN children’s agency said Friday.
Diplomats said Hasina’s government had approached the United Nations to assist with its own probe into the unrest but had been rebuffed.
“The UN called for an impartial, independent and transparent investigation into all alleged human rights violations,” a United Nations official said on condition of anonymity.
“The UN, however, does not support national investigations in the way that is being suggested.”

Topics: Bangladesh

Myanmar airstrikes on border hospital near China kill 10: media

Updated 02 August 2024

AFP

August 02, 2024 09:51

Myanmar airstrikes on border hospital near China kill 10: media

Military planes carried out at least two air strikes on Laukkai city, normally home to some 25,000 people
Myanmar’s northern Shan state has been rocked by fighting since late June

Updated 02 August 2024

AFP

August 02, 2024 09:51

BANGKOK: Myanmar military airstrikes hit a hospital in a city controlled by an ethnic minority armed group close to the China border killing 10 people, local media reported on Friday.
Military planes carried out at least two air strikes on Laukkai city, normally home to some 25,000 people, late on Thursday night, a resident said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
Local media quoted one resident as saying 10 civilians were killed in the strike.
Myanmar’s northern Shan state has been rocked by fighting since late June when an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups renewed an offensive against the military along a major trade highway to China.
The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) group have held Laukkai since January after more than 2,000 junta troops surrendered there in one of the military’s biggest defeats in decades.
MNDAA spokesman Li Jiawen said a military airstrike had hit a hospital in Laukkai, but he had no information yet on casualties.
The junta has been approached for comment.
The junta has bombed Laukkai several times in recent weeks after the MNDAA renewed its offensive in northern Shan state, shredding a Beijing-brokered ceasefire.
Pictures taken on Thursday and shared with AFP by the Laukkai resident showed deserted streets.
In recent days MNDAA fighters have entered the town of Lashio, also in northern Shan state and home to the military’s northeastern command.
Fighting was ongoing in Lashio on Friday, a military source said, requesting anonymity to talk to the media.
Local media, citing a local resident, reported that MNDAA fighters had entered a military hospital in Lashio and killed an unspecified number of patients and medical staff.
AFP was unable to reach people on the ground in Lashio or confirm the report.
Dozens of civilians have been killed or wounded in the recent fighting in Shan state according to the junta and local rescue groups.
Neither the junta nor the ethnic alliance have released figures on their own casualties.
Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.
Some have given shelter and training to newer “People’s Defense Forces” (PDFs) that have sprung up to battle the military after the coup in 2021.
China is a major ally and arms supplier to the junta, but analysts say it also maintains ties with armed ethnic groups in Myanmar that hold territory near its border.

Topics: Myanmar

South Korea says no response from North on flood relief offer

Updated 02 August 2024

AFP

August 02, 2024 09:47

South Korea says no response from North on flood relief offer

North Korea says a “record downpour” hits northern border areas near China isolating 5,000
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years

Updated 02 August 2024

AFP

August 02, 2024 09:47

Seoul: South Korea said Friday it had received no response after trying to contact the North to offer humanitarian aid following reports of deaths and heavy damage caused by recent flooding.
Seoul’s unification ministry said in a statement Thursday that it was willing to “urgently provide” humanitarian assistance to “North Korean disaster victims” impacted by the downpours.
The ministry attempted to contact the North to make an offer of aid via the Koreas’ liaison office communication channel, but Pyongyang has not responded, Seoul said Friday.
“We will not make assumptions about the situation and look forward to a prompt response (from the North) to our proposal,” Kim In-ae, the deputy spokesperson for the ministry, told reporters.
North Korea said earlier this week that a “record downpour” hit its northern border areas near China, resulting in “a grave crisis in which more than 5,000 inhabitants were isolated in the zone vulnerable to flooding.”
On Wednesday, Pyongyang said many “public buildings, facilities, roads and railways, including more than 4,100 dwelling houses and nearly 3,000 hectares of farmlands” were flooded in its northern regions of Sinuiju and Uiju.
That same day, North Korean state media said leader Kim Jong Un “proposed to strictly punish” officials who neglected their disaster prevention duties, which had caused unspecified deaths or injuries “that can not be allowed.”
A report by South Korea’s TV Chosun said hundreds of people could have been killed.
Kim has been shown in multiple videos this week traversing flood waters in a rubber boat, overseeing rescue operations involving military helicopters.
Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on the isolated and impoverished North due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has left it vulnerable to flooding.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North bolstering military ties with Russia while sending thousands of trash-carrying balloons to the South.
In response, Seoul’s military blasts K-pop and anti-regime messages from border loudspeakers and recently resumed live-fire drills on border islands and near the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean peninsula.
Despite the heightened tensions on the peninsula, South Korea’s unification ministry on Thursday expressed “deep sympathy” for the flood victims in the North.
Seoul’s foreign ministry also issued a separate statement Friday, extending its “deep condolences” to the North Koreans who have been “affected by the recent heavy rainfall.”
South Korea has “consistently maintained the position that it will continue humanitarian assistance to North Korea,” regardless of the “political and military situation,” the foreign ministry added.
Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with Seoul in 2020 and blew up a disused inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border.
The inter-Korean liaison office channel was restored in 2021, but the North has not been responding to the hotline calls since April 2023.
Despite the North’s lack of response, Seoul has been attempting to communicate with the North through the channel twice daily, every day, according to the unification ministry.

Topics: North Korea South Korea

UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur

UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur

UK Labour leader hits back after PM Sunak’s ‘ayatollah and Taliban negotiations’ jibe

Sunak, Starmer clash in final TV debate before election

France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

Filipino-American teens run mobile library to support literacy in Mindanao

Filipino-American teens run mobile library to support literacy in Mindanao

Young Filipinos urge Israel boycott as they join global student movement for Palestine

Gaza refugee stories bring Filipinos closer to Palestinians

Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

Teachers, TV stars rally against student arrests as Bangladesh protests resume

Bangladesh mourns some 200 deaths as student protests wind down

Myanmar airstrikes on border hospital near China kill 10: media

Myanmar airstrikes on border hospital near China kill 10: media

ASEAN urges Myanmar to start peace process, alarmed over Gaza casualties

Myanmar junta ‘trying to destroy country’: UN special rapporteur

South Korea says no response from North on flood relief offer

South Korea says no response from North on flood relief offer

Saudi commerce minister meets South Korean official in Seoul

Saudi-S. Korea firms sign 10 agreements at high-level business forum

Latest updates

Turkiye arrests 99 suspected Daesh members

France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

Tunisian presidential candidates complain of restrictions and intimidation

Filipino-American teens run mobile library to support literacy in Mindanao

Israel summons Turkish envoy over half-mast salute for Hamas leader

Recommended

How an AI moderator aims to eliminate toxicity and cheating in online multiplayer gaming

Violent clash over torture of Palestinian detainees reveals extent of Israeli political polarization

How might the US election impact Russian and Western resolve in Ukraine?

Search form

Print Edition

Search form

Search form

You are here

UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur

UK’s Sunak hurt and angry over Reform volunteer’s racial slur

Related

France urges Moscow to release others ‘arbitrarily’ detained in Russia

Filipino-American teens run mobile library to support literacy in Mindanao

Related

Student leader release fails to quell Bangladesh protests

Related

Myanmar airstrikes on border hospital near China kill 10: media

Related

South Korea says no response from North on flood relief offer

Related

Latest updates

Recommended

Search form

Print Edition