Violence against women and girls in UK a ‘national emergency’: police
Violence against women and girls in UK a ‘national emergency’: police/node/2554706/world
Violence against women and girls in UK a ‘national emergency’: police
British Police officers walk behind a security cordon by a house in the Knotty Ash area in Liverpool, on August 23, 2022, where a 9 years old girl was shot overnight by a gunman. (AFP)
Violence against women and girls in UK a ‘national emergency’: police
Updated 23 July 2024
AFP
LONDON: Violence against women and girls in England and Wales is a “national emergency” with almost 3,000 offenses recorded daily, police warned in a new report published on Tuesday.
The study, commissioned by two law enforcement bodies, estimates that at least one in every 12 women will be a victim every year, with the exact number expected to be much higher.
“Violence against women and girls is a national emergency,” senior police chief Maggie Blyth said in comments accompanying the report.
The study found that more than one million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by police in 2022-2023.
They accounted for just under a fifth of all police-recorded crime excluding fraud in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023.
The report said violence against women and girls had increased 37 percent between 2018-2019 and last year, with domestic abuse being one of the biggest demands on policing.
One in 20 adults in England and Wales, or 2.3 million people, will be perpetrators of crimes against women and girls annually, the study added.
“These are cautious estimates as we know much crime goes unreported and in policing, we often only see the tip of the iceberg,” Blyth said.
She warned that violence against females in the two countries had “reached epidemic levels” and called for government intervention in the “overwhelmed” criminal justice system.
Child sexual abuse and exploitation offenses meanwhile jumped by 435 percent between 2013 and 2022, the report estimated — from just over 20,000 to nearly 107,000.
Offenders are getting younger, with the average age of a suspect now 15, it said.
The report said stalking and harassment accounted for 85 percent of online-related offenses.
Britain’s interior ministry declared violence against women and girls a national threat to public safety in February last year.
More than 4,500 new officers have been trained to investigate rape and serious sexual offenses over the last year, with the report detailing a 38-percent increase in charges for adult rape from the year ending December 2022 to the year ending December 2023.
Anwar Ibrahim: Malaysia will not stop South China Sea exploration despite China protests
Malaysia’s exploration activities were within its territory and were not intended to be provocative or hostile toward China, PM says
Leaked note reveals Beijing’s assertion that Malaysia’s oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea breached its territory
Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday the country will not stop its oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea despite claims by Beijing that Malaysia was infringing on its territory. Anwar, speaking from Russia where he is on an official trip, said Malaysia’s exploration activities were within its territory and were not intended to be provocative or hostile toward China, with whom it has friendly relations. “Of course, we will have to operate in our waters and secure economic advantage, including drilling for oil, in our territory,” Anwar said in a televised press conference in Vladivostok. “We have never denied the possibility of discussion (with China). But it doesn’t mean we have to stop the operation in our area.” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it would investigate the leak of a classified diplomatic note from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. In the note, which was carried by a Philippine news outlet, Beijing asserted that Malaysia’s oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea breached its territory. China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including parts of the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating energy exploration efforts by several of those countries. Under international law, an EEZ does not denote sovereignty, but grants a country sovereign rights to extract natural resources from those waters. Malaysian state energy firm Petronas, or Petroliam Nasional Berhad, operates oil and gas fields in the South China Sea within Malaysia’s EEZ and has in recent years had several encounters with Chinese vessels. Anwar said China has sent “one or two” protest notes to stop Malaysia’s oil exploration activities, without specifying details, but stressed that the government would continue to explain to Beijing its position. “We have said that we will not transgress other people’s borders. That is our stringent policy and principles,” he said. “They know our position.... They have claimed that we are infringing on their territory. That is not the case. We say no, it is our territory.” “But if they continue with the dispute, then okay, we will have to listen, and they will have to listen.” An international arbitration tribunal in The Hague in 2016 ruled China’s claim to about 90 percent of the South China Sea, made via a U-shaped “nine-dash line” on its maps, had no basis under international law, a decision Beijing does not recognize.
UK-bound Air India plane makes emergency landing in Moscow
The plane, en route from New Delhi to Birmingham, landed safely without any injuries to all 258 passengers and 17 crew members
In July, an Air India plane made a precautionary landing in Siberia after the cockpit crew detected potential issue in the cargo hold
Updated 51 min 40 sec ago
Reuters
MOSCOW: An Air India Boeing 787-800 passenger plane en route from India to Britain made a precautionary landing in Moscow on Wednesday due to “technical problems,” Sheremetyevo Airport said.
The plane, en route from New Delhi to Birmingham, landed safely without any injuries to all 258 passengers and 17 crew members.
The scheduled departure time of the flight was set for 2135 Moscow time (1835 GMT).
In July, an Air India plane operating from Delhi to San Francisco made a precautionary landing in the Russian region of Siberia after the cockpit crew detected a potential issue in the cargo hold area.
Republican Liz Cheney and former senator McCain’s son endorse Kamala Harris
Cheney joins other Republicans like former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman as backers of Harris
The son of the late Republican stalwart John McCain is supporting Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in Arizona
Updated 05 September 2024
AP
WASHINGTON: Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and a son of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Wednesday threw their support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in the latest case of Republicans turning against party candidate Donald Trump.
Cheney's announcement ended weeks of speculation about how fully the member of a GOP dynasty-turned-Trump critic would embrace the Democratic ticket.
Cheney, who co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, became a fierce Trump critic and was ousted in her 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming as a result, made her announcement at an event at Duke University. In a video posted on the social media network X, she finished by talking about the “danger” she believed Trump still poses to the country.
“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement Wednesday night: “The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first.”
The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney has been perhaps Trump’s highest-profile Republican critic. She joins other Republicans like her former Jan. 6 committee member, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman, as backers of Harris. More than 200 alumni of the Bush administration and former Republican presidential campaigns of the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney also announced their endorsement of Harris last week.
Cheney was in House Republican leadership at the time of the Jan. 6 attack but broke with most of her caucus over Trump’s responsibility. She lost her leadership post and was one of the few Republicans willing to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, which was appointed by Democrats who controlled the House at the time.
McCain's son now a Democrat
Jimmy McCain, a son of former Arizona senator John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in a battleground state.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, appeared outside Phoenix Wednesday for an event with the conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA, which has been instrumental in remaking the Arizona GOP as a faithful organ of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.
Jimmy McCain’s endorsement and Vance’s Turning Point USA appearance reflect the disparate segments of the GOP that Harris and Trump are trying to reach. Democrats are appealing to traditional conservatives disillusioned by Trump’s takeover of the GOP, while Republicans are looking to shore up their base and ensure that their young supporters turn out.
Jimmy McCain, son of Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain, pauses at his father's casket during ceremonies honoring Vietnam War veteran at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Aug. 31, 2018. (Pool Photo via AP)
Democrats have made big inroads over the last six years in Arizona, once a Republican stronghold that routinely backed McCain and other Republicans for president, with an anti-Trump coalition that includes Republicans and conservative independents.
That reality is clear in each campaign’s approach to winning the state. Harris has staked out moderate positions in contrast to the progressive stances she outlined in her 2020 Democratic primary campaign, including on the border, an important issue in this border state, while elevating Republican backers.
Trump, meanwhile, is counting on support from young voters turned off by politics and distrustful of institutions. He chose Phoenix for a rally joining forces with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who abandoned his own independent campaign to back Trump.
The Turning Point event where Vance spoke was aimed at promoting the group’s “chase the vote” initiative to identify supporters who might need an extra nudge and ensure they participate. The event, at a mega church on the outskirts of metro Phoenix, began with a concert by a Christian rock band with a heavy, seat-shaking base and a colorful light show.
Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk spoke to Vance onstage for nearly an hour, focusing the conversation on social issues that have animated Trump’s base, including immigration and transgender rights.
“We just want Americans to be able to live a decent life in the country their parents and grandparents built,” Vance said.
Jimmy McCain said he had been an independent since leaving the Republican Party after Trump became its standard bearer in 2016. He decided during a nine-month overseas deployment that just ended to switch his registration to Democratic and announce it publicly. His decision was first reported by CNN.
He said he was further “fired up” by the decision after seeing Trump’s campaign visit to Arlington National Cemetery, a visit that Harris called a “political stunt” that “disrespected sacred ground.”
Trump has had a fraught relationship with the McCain family since he denigrated the senator’s status as a war hero during his 2016 campaign.
Jimmy McCain said it was personally difficult for him to hear his father disrespected, but he said his father chose a public life and Americans are allowed to criticize their leaders.
“With Arlington, the people who are buried there gave their lives and the ultimate sacrifice,” McCain said. “They don’t get a political opinion. ... We don’t know what those people felt, thought, what they believed. We know they believed in their country and that’s about it.”
Trump said he was invited to Arlington by the families of Marines killed in a suicide bombing during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan. His campaign released statements from the relatives accusing Harris of playing politics with the issue.
“There has been no greater advocate for our brave military men and women than President Trump,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary. He secured new military investments and pay raises for troops while he was in the White House, and no new wars broke out, she said.
Jimmy McCain, 36, enlisted in the US Marines as a teenager and served four years. He reenlisted in the Army National Guard and was later commissioned as an officer, currently holding the rank of 1st Lieutenant.
Ideologically, McCain said he’s a moderate and hearkened back to his father’s 2008 campaign slogan, “Country first.”
“I’m a center man who cares about his country more than anything,” McCain said.
Cindy McCain, the late senator’s widow, endorsed President Joe Biden shortly before the 2020 election, a vote of confidence that helped the Democrat eke out a narrow win in Arizona with support from Republicans disaffected with Trump. Biden appointed McCain to be the US ambassador to the United Nations food and agriculture agencies in Rome, where she is now executive director of the UN World Food Programme.
A Navy pilot, John McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967. He was captured, beaten and held prisoner for more than five years, refusing to be released ahead of other American servicemembers.
Trump said of McCain, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain later angered Trump with his dramatic thumbs-down vote against repealing Obama’s health care law.
McCain represented Arizona in Congress for 31 years until his death in 2018 from an aggressive brain tumor and built a national reputation as a “maverick” willing to buck his party. While he sometimes took flack from the GOP base and faced fierce primary challengers, he was overwhelmingly reelected and remains a beloved figure in the state.
Still, the endorsement won’t sway the Republicans who still dislike McCain.
“I didn’t respect John McCain,” said Jerry Lyn of suburban Phoenix, who went to the Turning Point rally because he’s been so impressed by Vance he wanted to see him in person. “I really didn’t. He did a lot of bad things and people don’t realize it.
“I think it’s disgusting.”
UK government moves to oust hereditary peers from House of Lords
To be removed are 92 seats reserved for peers who inherited their position as a member of an aristocratic family
Britain is an anomaly among western governments in having such lawmakers, who hold titles such as duke, earl, viscount and baron
Updated 05 September 2024
AFP
LONDON: The UK government will introduce legislation on Thursday to remove seats in the House of Lords retained for hereditary lawmakers as it moves to reform parliament's unelected upper chamber.
The bill will remove the 92 seats reserved for peers who inherited their position as a member of an aristocratic family.
They hold titles such as duke, earl, viscount and baron. Britain is an anomaly among western governments in having such lawmakers.
The move was a manifesto commitment of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour party ahead of its landslide general election win in July, which returned it to power for the first time in 14 years.
It resurrects reform of the Lords that started under Tony Blair's Labour government in the late 1990s.
"This is a landmark reform to our constitution," constitution minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said in a statement.
"The hereditary principle in law-making has lasted for too long and is out of step with modern Britain.
"The second chamber plays a vital role in our constitution and people should not be voting on our laws in parliament by an accident of birth," he added.
Wikimedia Commons Infographic
The legislation will easily pass the House of Commons lower chamber due to Labour's massive majority before it will have to be approved by the Lords.
It is not clear when exactly it will become law.
Lesotho in southern Africa is the only other country in the world with a hereditary element in its legislature, according to UK officials.
The scrapping of the hereditary peers has been described by Labour as a "first step in wider reform".
The government says it wants to ultimately replace the Lords with an alternative second chamber that is more representative of the UK.
The Lords comprises around 800 members, most of whom are appointed for life.
They include former MPs, typically appointed by departing prime ministers, along with people nominated after serving in prominent public- or private-sector roles, and senior Church of England clerics, including the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The primary role of the centuries-old chamber is to scrutinise the government.
It cannot override legislation sent from the popularly elected House of Commons, but it can amend and delay bills and initiate new draft laws.
Blair's government had intended to abolish all the seats held by hundreds of hereditary members who sat in the chamber at that time.
But it ended up retaining 92 in what was supposed to be a temporary compromise.
Lords reform has proved a thorny issue for successive administrations, in part because officials have struggled to propose better alternatives.
Kamala Harris accepts rules for Sept. 10 debate with Trump on ABC, including microphone muting
President Joe Biden’s campaign had made the muting of microphones, except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, a condition of his decision to accept any debates this year
Once Harris rose in Biden’s stead and became their party’s pick for president, her campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate
Updated 05 September 2024
AP
WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted the rules set forth for next week’s debate with former President Donald Trump, although the Democratic nominee says the decision not to keep both candidates’ microphones live throughout the matchup will be to her disadvantage.
The development, which came Wednesday by way of a letter from Harris’ campaign to host network ABC News, seemed to mark a conclusion to the debate over microphone muting, which had for a time threatened to derail the Sept. 10 presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
President Joe Biden’s campaign had made the muting of microphones, except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak, a condition of his decision to accept any debates this year. Some aides have said they now regret that decision, saying voters were shielded from hearing Trump’s outbursts during the June debate. A disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat fueled his exit from the campaign.
Once Harris rose in Biden’s stead and became their party’s pick for president, her campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying previously that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”
But on Wednesday, in a letter obtained by The Associated Press, Harris’ advisers wrote that the former prosecutor will be “fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President.”
“We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones,” her campaign added.
Despite those concerns, Harris’ campaign wrote, “we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format.” So as not to “jeopardize the debate,” Harris’ campaign wrote, “we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones.”
According to an official with Harris’ campaign, a pool of journalists will be on hand to hear what the muted candidate may be trying to say when his or her microphone is turned off. That detail was not in the full debate rules, also released Wednesday by ABC, which are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and Biden.
The network laid out parameters from the basic format — 90 minutes, with two commercial breaks — to specifications that moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis “will be the only people asking questions,” perhaps hoping to avert a free-for-all between the candidates.
“Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion,” the network noted.
The Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning around the debate, said a candidate who repeatedly interrupts will receive a warning from a moderator, and both candidates’ microphones may be unmuted if there is significant crosstalk so the audience can understand what’s happening.
After a virtual coin flip held Tuesday and won by Trump, the GOP nominee opted to offer the final closing statement, while Harris chose the podium on the right side of viewers’ screens. There will be no audience, written notes or any topics or questions shared with campaigns or candidates in advance, the network said.
