Video of violent arrest at Manchester Airport sparks protest

Video of violent arrest at Manchester Airport sparks protest
screen grab from the video of the attack (X)
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Updated 25 July 2024
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Video of violent arrest at Manchester Airport sparks protest

Video of violent arrest at Manchester Airport sparks protest
  • One man was kicked and stamped upon as he lay face down on the floor. The second man also appeared to be struck in the head by an officer

LONDON, July 25 : A video showing a British police officer kick and stamp on a man’s head during an arrest at Manchester airport in northern England sparked a protest outside a police station late on Wednesday night.
Police said they had referred the actions to an independent complaints watchdog after the video, filmed by an onlooker, was posted on social media platforms and attracted immediate criticism.
It showed a chaotic scene in an airport car park in which several officers armed with tasers restrained two suspects. One man was kicked and stamped upon as he lay face down on the floor. The second man also appeared to be struck in the head by an officer.
A Greater Manchester Police (GMP) statement said the video showed “an event that is truly shocking, and that people are rightly extremely concerned about. The use of such force in an arrest is an unusual occurrence and one that we understand creates alarm.”

It said police had been responding to reports of an assault, and that three officers were themselves assaulted during their response. The officers required hospital treatment, including one female officer who had a broken nose.
“One male officer has been removed from operational duties and we are making a voluntary referral of our policing response to the Independent Office of Police Conduct,” the statement added.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of assault, assault of an emergency worker, affray, and obstructing police.
The incident sparked a protest outside a police station in a nearby town. One videos posted online showed the crowd of at least 100 people chanting “Shame on you GMP.”
Police, who have not confirmed any details about the identity of those arrested at the airport, said the protest concluded safely and without incident.
“We have spent the evening listening to community feedback and will continue to engage with communities and elected members to maintain strong partnership links and understand local views,” they said in a subsequent statement.


France’s Macron lambasts ministers, media over alleged Israel cabinet comment leaks

France’s Macron lambasts ministers, media over alleged Israel cabinet comment leaks
Updated 15 sec ago
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France’s Macron lambasts ministers, media over alleged Israel cabinet comment leaks

France’s Macron lambasts ministers, media over alleged Israel cabinet comment leaks
  • Macron denied making remarks that brought into question the creation of Israel at a cabinet meeting
  • The reported comments provoked Netanyahu to link them to the French Vichy government that had collaborated with Nazi Germany

BRUSSELS: France’s president on Thursday accused some of his ministers of lacking in professionalism and spreading false information, while taking a swipe at the media over how they reported comments he allegedly made on Israel during a cabinet meeting.
In the latest sign of his political frustration, a visibly angry Emmanuel Macron berated journalists over comments they had reported that suggested he had brought into question the creation of Israel at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and denied he had made the remarks.
“I must tell you how astonished I was to read so many comments, reactions, including from foreign or French political leaders, to remarks that I allegedly made without asking the question of what they were saying and what exactly I said,” he said at a press conference after a European Council meeting in Brussels.
“There is therefore no ambiguity. All those who would like to make it exist through this type of manipulation are not only mistaken, but are hurting some people and weakening France,” he said. “France has always stood by Israel. The existence and security of Israel are intangible for France and the French.”
The reported comments earlier this week led to a vitriolic response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who linked them to the Vichy government that had collaborated with Nazi Germany, the latest round in diplomatic sparring between the two men over Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon.
“All this is proof, in essence, of a breakdown in public debate and a lack of professionalism on the part of ministers who repeated distorted statements, of journalists who took them up, of commentators who did not dwell on the reality and veracity of such statements,” Macron said.
“If words that are reported, truncated and distorted are put in quotation marks, there is no point in holding press conferences or answering your questions.”
Macron has faced a tough few months since deciding to dissolve parliament earlier this year after a crushing defeat in European elections. The ensuing legislative elections left parliament divided into three political blocs and his party badly defeated.
Without a government for several months, the French leader in the end opted to pick up center-right politician Michel Barnier as prime minister despite his party finishing sixth in the vote.
The new government has left Macron scrambling to save the last 2-1/2 years of his mandate having seen his power dwindle and influence over ministers from opposing parties and his own camp curtailed.

 


US warns China using overproduction for global dominance

US warns China using overproduction for global dominance
Updated 24 min 38 sec ago
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US warns China using overproduction for global dominance

US warns China using overproduction for global dominance
  • Data showed that China had a significant overcapacity relative to projected demand for electric vehicles, batteries or semiconductors
  • He said China had long used the same tactics for two decades to gain dominance in steel and solar and medical devices

WASHINGTON: The United States will use restrictive tools like tariffs to push back against China’s practice of making far more goods than it needs in order to dominate global markets, White House official Daleep Singh said on Thursday.
Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said the Asian giant has amassed growing market power that it uses for economic and geopolitical leverage, and Washington viewed the costs as unacceptable.
“So that’s the problem, and it’s not abstract. You can see it in the numbers,” Singh told an event hosted by the Alliance for American Manufacturing. “They’re a big outlier and we’ve got to do something about it.”
Beijing and Washington have had tense relations for years due to multiple issues ranging from trade tariffs and the origins of COVID-19 to human rights, intellectual property and Taiwan. Singh gave no details on any new measures being considered by Washington.
Data showed that China had a significant overcapacity relative to projected demand for electric vehicles, batteries or semiconductors, Singh said, noting that Chinese producers were reporting “persistent losses.”
“We’re seeing an unrivaled level and rate of growth in China’s subsidies, and ... forget about the numbers, look at their public pronouncements to dominate key sectors and diffuse them with military pre-eminence,” Singh said at the event, a week before finance officials from around the world gather in Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Singh said that “a growing number of countries,” including Brazil, India, South Africa and the European Union, were starting to see industrial overcapacity as a major problem like the US did, adding China was using production to gain dominance in a number of sectors.
“China is flooding strategic sectors with supply that’s well beyond what global demand can plausibly absorb, and therefore wiping out the competition,” he said.
He said China had long used the same tactics for two decades to gain dominance in steel and solar and medical devices, but the trend was now “broadening and intensifying” to include electric vehicles, batteries and semiconductors, where Washington has been investing heavily.
Washington has previously said the US may need to take further and “more creative” actions beyond tariffs to protect US industries and workers against China’s growing excess industrial capacity.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, speaking at a separate Council on Foreign Relations event in New York, said every province in China is competing to try to invest more in advanced manufacturing sectors, such as clean energy and semiconductors.
“So the level of subsidization is utterly enormous. There are many profit-losing firms that are kept in existence. And so there is a gigantic amount of overcapacity that is threatening our own attempts to build in these areas,” she said.

 


Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start

Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start
Updated 18 October 2024
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Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start

Trump says Zelensky ‘should never have let’ Ukraine war start

WASHINGTON: White House candidate Donald Trump on Thursday blamed US ally Ukraine for Russia’s invasion, arguing that President Volodymyr Zelensky had failed in his duty to halt hostilities before they started.
The comments — made in an interview with a podcast supportive of him — sparked an immediate backlash as critics accused the 78-year-old Republican former president of being a “traitor” and an “idiot.”
“Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen. Every time he comes in, we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been (anyone),” Trump told the two-million-subscriber PBD Podcast.
“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him, because I feel very badly for those people. He should never have let that war start.”
Trump — who is running against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — immediately pivoted to criticizing President Joe Biden, accusing him of having “instigated” the Ukraine war.
The Trump campaign told AFP the Republican was “clearly talking about Biden” and not Zelensky when he made his remarks about culpability for the war.
Ukraine communicates little about losses for fear of demoralizing its citizens after more than two years of Russia’s invasion, but the Wall Street Journal reported last month that the war had killed or wounded a million soldiers on both sides.
The United States is one of Ukraine’s main backers, and has disbursed more than $64.1 billion in military assistance to Zelensky’s government since the start of the war.
Although Kyiv is a US ally and Moscow is considered an adversary, Trump touted his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin during a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky in September.
Trump was impeached for withholding vital weaponry from Ukraine after Russia’s smaller-scale 2014 invasion, as he pushed its government unsuccessfully into announcing investigations into Biden, who was then his election rival.
A federal investigation identified numerous links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, which was found to have interfered in the 2016 US election on the Republican’s behalf.
Criticism over Trump’s apparent closeness to Putin was turbocharged last week by allegations that, while president, he sent the Russian leader Covid tests despite a US shortage and that the Republican and Putin may have been in contact numerous times since 2021.
“What a despicable Traitor,” the Republicans Against Trump lobby group posted on X, alongside footage of Trump’s podcast remarks.
“He’s an idiot, and the whole world wonders why so many Americans don’t see it,” added national security analyst John Sipher, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.
 


Britain ‘will not mourn’ Sinwar’s death, says Starmer

Britain ‘will not mourn’ Sinwar’s death, says Starmer
Updated 17 October 2024
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Britain ‘will not mourn’ Sinwar’s death, says Starmer

Britain ‘will not mourn’ Sinwar’s death, says Starmer

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday called for the release of all hostages in Gaza and said his country “will not mourn” the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Starmer said that Sinwar was the “mastermind behind the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust” when Hamas launched the October 7, 2023 attacks. “Today my thoughts are with the families of those victims. The UK will not mourn his death,” he said in a statement.


Italy’s Meloni says Sinwar death opens ‘new phase’ in Gaza conflict

Italy’s Meloni says Sinwar death opens ‘new phase’ in Gaza conflict
Updated 17 October 2024
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Italy’s Meloni says Sinwar death opens ‘new phase’ in Gaza conflict

Italy’s Meloni says Sinwar death opens ‘new phase’ in Gaza conflict

ROME: Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar cleared the way for a “new phase” in the deadly conflict in Gaza.
“With the death of Yahya Sinwar, the person principally responsible for the October 7 attacks no longer exists,” Meloni said in a statement.
“I am convinced that a new phase should be launched: it is time for all the hostages to be released, for a ceasefire to be immediately proclaimed and for the reconstruction of Gaza to begin.”