GRAFFITI IS PUBLIC ART

Banksy wows London with three animal artworks


By AFP
August 7, 2024


The artwork was the third Banksy in three days - Copyright AFP Yuri CORTEZ

One goat, two elephants, and now three monkeys: British street artist Banksy thrilled fans in London on Wednesday by installing his third new artwork in three days.

The animal-themed collection has sparked speculation about their message. Are they criticism of England’s far-right riots or possibly support for Palestinians? Perhaps they reference global warming or even the Olympics?

As usual, the enigmatic artist gave no explanation when he claimed them on Instagram. What is unusual is how quickly they have appeared — usually Banksy’s works are spaced several months apart.

On Monday, a depiction of a goat precariously perched on top of a wall with rocks tumbling down appeared in Richmond, southwest London.

“I think it’s actually a mountain gazelle from Palestine. So I think that work has to do with Palestine,” Daniel Lloyd-Morgan, a 60-year-old artist told AFP.

Then on Tuesday two elephant silhouettes with their trunks stretched towards each other appeared in Chelsea, southwest London.

On Wednesday, the black silhouette of three monkeys appeared on the side of a railway bridge as if they were swinging.

“Banksy is trying to get us to think and reflect about the ecological crisis that really threatens humanity,” university professor Fawaz Gerges told AFP as he admired the latest work.




“His focus seems to be on animals, on trees, on oceans and it’s an overarching theme of his in the past few months,” he added.

The artworks have appeared at a time when England is gripped by violent far-right, anti-immigrant protests over the murder of three girls. Demonstrators have targeted hotels housing asylum seekers.

Banksy, whose identity is unknown, has repeatedly shown sympathy for the plight of refugees.

At the Glastonbury music festival last month the artist launched an inflatable boat over crowds depicting dummy migrants wearing life vests.

Tom Cruise at Olympics would be 'disgrace', say French anti-cult groups

Agence France-Presse
August 8, 2024 

Tom Cruise (AFP)

Anti-cult activists have condemned the likely appearance of Hollywood actor and well-known Scientologist Tom Cruise at the Paris Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday.

While his attendance has not been confirmed, the "Mission Impossible" star is widely expected to be part of the Games' final show, angering a French umbrella group for cult victims.

"The simple fact that we are talking about his presence is an insult to victims," said Catherine Katz, a former French judge who heads UNADFI, a group dedicated to defending victims of cults. "It really is a bad message."

Charline Delporte, the president of victims' association Caffes, called it "a disgrace".

Anti-cult activists like Katz and Delporte accused Scientologist of recruiting outside Olympic venues, including the Stade de France north of Paris, which will host the closing ceremony.

"They are very present at the big sporting events, they will no doubt reach many young people, I am very worried," Delporte said.

The movement describes itself as a religion but is considered a cult in France.

- 'Sock puppets' -

Miviludes, a French government agency tasked with dealing with cult movements, said it had received reports of Scientology-linked "No to drugs" brochures being handed out across Paris.

While the 30-page leaflets do not explicitly mention the Church of Scientology, the campaign is connected to it via a Scientology-sponsored organisation, Foundation For a Drug-Free World, Katz said.

"They are sock puppets," he told AFP. "If you don't know who they are, you can fall for their grand values. They say they're here to help drug addicts, but in fact it enables indoctrination."

Miviludes said the flyers even turned up in some Parisian pharmacies.

"We worry that this could be a proselytizing approach that has nothing to do with prevention," its chief Donatien Le Vaillant told AFP.

The agency warned against the "risks of psychological destabilization, exorbitant financial expectations" and people being split from their families and friends associated with Scientology, whose members have previously been convicted of fraud in France.

The movement opened a centre in Saint-Denis, where the Stade de France is located, in April.

The Church of Scientology, which was founded by American Sci Fi  writer L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950s and counts Cruise and John Travolta among its members, is well-established in Hollywood and Los Angeles, where it owns multiple sprawling properties.

It claims between 40,000 and 45,000 members in France, but one expert estimated the figure was more likely to be in the hundreds.

Hubbard was sentenced in his absence to four years in prison for fraud in France in 1978, according to Miviludes.


Two of the movement's main structures in France were also convicted of fraud, extortion and racketeering in 2013.

AFP attempted to contact the Church of Scientology's European head for comment.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Smartmatic co-founder charged in 2016 bribery scheme involving Philippines election: feds

Daniel Hampton
August 8, 2024 

Voting machine maker Smartmatic has filed a lawsuit for defamation against Fox News hosts and former president Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani(AFP

A co-founder of Smartmatic — the voting machine company that accused Fox News of defamation — was among three executives indicted Thursday in what federal prosecutors called a bribery and money laundering scheme connected to the 2016 election in the Philippines.

Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, 49, of Boca Raton, Florida, was indicted by a grand jury in Florida for his role in the scheme, along with Jorge Miguel Vasquez, 62, of Davie, Florida, and 60-year-old Juan Andres Donato Bautista.

Pinate was among three engineers who founded Smartmatic in the United States in 2000, the company said on its website.

Prosecutors said that between 2015 and 2018 Piñate and, Vasquez schemed to pay more than $1 million in bribes to Bautista, the former chairman of the Commission on Elections for the Republic of the Philippines. In exchange for the money, the company would receive contracts for providing voting machines and election services for the 2016 election, prosecutors said.

Read also: Voting tech company scores win in lawsuit against Fox News: report

"The co-conspirators allegedly funded the bribes through a slush fund, created by inflating the cost per voting machine," prosecutors said in a news release.
ADVERTISEMENT


To conceal the payments, the group used coded words and created bogus contracts and sham loan deals, prosecutors said. They then laundered the money through bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and the United States, including in southern Florida.

Pinate and Vasquez face charges of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and a substantive violation of that same act. Along with Bautista and Elie Moreno, 44, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Israel, they also face charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and three counts of international laundering of monetary instruments.

The defendants face up to five years for FCPA violations and 20 years for the money laundering charges.


Smartmatic's website said Pinate executes "strategic efforts and daily business functions worldwide" and co-created the company’s long-term vision. He became company president in 2018 and holds a seat on the company’s global board of directors.

"Roger played a critical role in planning and executing the world’s largest election using optical scanners (in the Philippines) and in Smartmatic winning the largest election contract in US history (in Los Angeles)," the company said.

Musk's misleading election posts viewed 1.2 billion times: study

Washington (AFP) – False or misleading US election claims posted on X by Elon Musk have amassed nearly 1.2 billion views this year, a watchdog reported Thursday, highlighting the billionaire's potential influence on the highly polarized White House race.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 -

Elon Musk is accused of spreading US election misinformation on X, the influential platform he bought in 2022 

© Alain JOCARD / AFP/File

Ahead of the November election, researchers have raised alarm that X, formerly Twitter, is a hotbed of political misinformation.

They have also flagged that Musk, who purchased the platform in 2022 and is a vocal backer of Donald Trump, appears to be swaying voters by spreading falsehoods on his personal account.

Researchers from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) identified 50 posts since January by Musk –- who has more than 193 million followers on the social media site -- with election claims debunked by independent fact-checkers.

None of the posts displayed a "Community Note," a crowd-sourced moderation tool that X has promoted as the way for users to add context to posts, CCDH said, raising questions about its effectiveness to combat falsehoods.

"Elon Musk is abusing his privileged position as owner of a... politically influential social media platform to sow disinformation that generates discord and distrust," warned CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed.

"The lack of Community Notes on these posts shows that his business is failing woefully to contain the kind of algorithmically-boosted incitement that we all know can lead to real-world violence."

The posts analyzed by CCDH carried widely debunked claims, such as that Democrats are encouraging illegal migration with the aim of "importing voters" or that the election is vulnerable to fraud. Both claims amassed hundreds of millions of views.

Last week, Musk faced a firehose of criticism for sharing with his followers an AI deepfake video featuring Trump's Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

In it, a voiceover mimicking Harris calls President Joe Biden senile before declaring that she does not "know the first thing about running the country."

The video, viewed by millions, carried no indication that it was parody -- save for a laughing emoji. Only later did Musk clarify that the video was meant as satire.

"Musk behaves as if he is beyond reproach despite growing evidence of the harmful role he is personally playing to fuel disinformation and division ahead of the US elections," Nora Benavidez, from the advocacy group Free Press Action Fund, told AFP.

"As his behavior edges closer to election interference, it's up to others -- the public, regulatory agencies and advertisers -- to hold him accountable for his anti-democratic behavior."

Musk, who purchased the platform in 2022 for $44 billion, is facing growing scrutiny over his potential influence on voters.

On Monday, a bipartisan group of five US secretaries of state sent an open letter to Musk, urging him to fix X's AI chatbot known as Grok after it produced election misinformation.

Hours after Biden stepped down from the presidential race last month and endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee, Grok churned out false information about ballot deadlines, which was amplified by other platforms.

X -- which also faced criticism for stoking tensions during recent far-right riots across England -- has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts once used to tame misinformation, making it what researchers call a haven for disinformation.

X did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

© 2024 AFP

Kenyan police fire tear gas at Nairobi protests, injuring several journalists

Kenyan police on Thursday fired tear gas to clear pockets of protesters in Nairobi calling for President William Ruto's resignation as a revamped cabinet was sworn in. At least 60 peope have been killed since the demonstrations began in mid-June.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 - 

A member of the media is carried by colleagues to seek medical attention during a demonstration against the government in Nairobi, Kenya on August 8, 2024. 

© Kabir Dhanji, AFP

Kenyan police fired volleys of tear gas Thursday in the capital Nairobi, injuring several journalists, as small groups of protesters gathered on what was billed as a fresh day of action against embattled President William Ruto.

The East African nation, usually one of the most stable in the region, has been rocked by weeks of sometimes deadly protests against Ruto's two-year-old administration, mostly led by young Gen-Z Kenyans.

As Ruto was overseeing the swearing-in of a revamped cabinet, riot police were out in force in the central business district where many shops were shut, while roadblocks were set up on major arteries.

Only a few dozen demonstrators turned out in the centre of Nairobi, chanting "we are peaceful", but police fired tear gas multiple times, wounding several journalists including two AFP staff members who said police fired tear gas canisters directly at them.

The International Press Association of East Africa said at least three journalists were shot "at close range" with tear gas canisters.

The Nairobi-based group said it "condemns this violent targeting of journalists simply for doing their jobs. It is unacceptable and contrary to fundamental principles of democracy".

Police said they had arrested 174 "suspects" in Nairobi, Kitengela-Rift Valley and Emali-Makueni county on Thursday.
'Outrageous violent practices'

Global media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders issued a report Thursday saying it had documented police violence and intimidation against journalists covering the seven weeks of protests, using rubber bullets, tear gas and arbitrary arrests.

"The authorities must immediately put an end to these outrageous violent practices and the subsequent impunity," said the group, known by its French acronym RSF.

At least 60 people have been killed since the demonstrations began in mid-June, with police accused of using excessive force, sometimes firing live bullets, while dozens of people have gone missing, according to rights groups.

Stephens Wanjiku, a 29-year-old fashion stylist, said she had taken to the streets since the rallies began to demand "good governance and accountability".

"I have been beaten," Wanjiku, sporting a bright blue robe, ski goggles and multiple masks, told AFP in Nairobi, saying police brutality should be a "thing of the past, we should not be seeing it in 2024".

Kenya's acting police chief Gilbert Masengeli had warned on Wednesday that "criminals" intended to infiltrate the demonstrations, which have descended into violence and chaos a number of times.

What started out as peaceful youth-led rallies against controversial proposed tax hikes have ballooned into wider action against Ruto and what many see as profligate government spending and corruption.

Organisers have in the past accused "goons" of hijacking their plans for peaceful action and of stoking trouble.
'New chapter'

In a bid to tackle the worst crisis of his presidency, Ruto has taken a series of measures to address public anger including scrapping the tax hikes, rejigging his cabinet and making deep budget cuts.

He said Thursday's installation of a new "broad-based" cabinet -- which includes four opposition stalwarts but also a number of previously sacked ministers -- represented the start of a "new chapter" for Kenya's governance and development.

Ruto took office in September 2022 after winning a closely fought and divisive election against veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga, pledging to work for Kenya's poor and downtrodden.

But he has found himself caught between the demands of international lenders to shore up government finances to enable it to service its massive $78-billion debt, and ordinary Kenyans who are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.

While economic growth has remained relatively strong, estimated by the central bank at 5.4 percent this year, a third of the country's 52 million people live in poverty.

Edwin Kagia, a 24-year-old man trying to eke out a living selling masks, said Ruto should be given a chance.

"We have to wait. Right now what Kenya needs today is to give our president time," he told AFP.

(AFP)

Nadeem wins Olympic javelin gold in historic first for Pakistan

Paris (AFP) – Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem won the Olympic men's javelin title in Paris on Thursday, his country's first individual gold at a Summer Games.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 - 

Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem reacts as he competes in the men's javelin throw final © Andrej ISAKOVIC / AFP

Nadeem threw an Olympic record of 92.97 metres for victory, India's defending champion Neeraj Chopra taking silver with 89.45. Grenada's Anderson Peters claimed bronze with 88.54m.

"When I threw the javelin, I got the feel of it leaving my hand and sensed it could be an Olympic record," said the 27-year-old Nadeem.

Nadeem, the 2022 Commonwealth champion who was fifth at the Tokyo Olympics and a silver medallist at last year's Budapest world championships, said the result was "very important for Pakistan because I have worked very hard over the years for this".

"My training and hard work have paid off."

The rivalry with Chopra "is there, no doubt", he added.

"Like cricket, the javelin rivalry was present! People back home in Pakistan and India were eager to see us compete together.

"Rivalry is there when it comes to cricket matches, other sports, the two countries have a rivalry, but it's a good thing for the young people in both countries to watch our sport and follow us.

"It's a positive thing for both countries."

Chopra agreed, saying it was good for both countries, and could act as a spur to attract more people to athletics, and javelin in particular.

Nadeem said he had big ambitions for throwing even further.

"I was expecting to go even further and I am hoping to go even further," he said after his new Olympic record beat his previous best by more than two metres.

"I will try harder to even extend my personal best to over 95 metres."

Before Arshad's remarkable victory, Pakistan had never won an individual gold medal at the Olympics.

All of Pakistan's previous three gold medals came in field hockey, with their team winning gold in 1960, 1968 and 1984.

Prior to Thursday, only two Pakistan athletes had won individual medals of any colour – with a wrestling bronze in 1960 and a boxing bronze in 1988.

Since the 1992 Barcelona Games, Pakistan has not won a medal of any kind.

Chopra was satisfied with his best throw, but not much else.

"I'm not that happy with my performance today and also my technique and runway was not that good," he said.

"Only one throw, the rest I fouled. That second throw I believed in myself to think I can also throw that far. But in javelin, if your run-up is not so good, you can't go very far."

Chopra admitted to not doing much throwing in training because of a groin injury.

"The last two, three years were not so good. I'm always injured. I really tried hard, but I have to do some more work on my injury and technique.

"But I will work hard in the future. Today's competition was really great. Arshad threw really well. Congratulations to him and his country."

© 2024 AFP

Boxer Ngamba wins first medal for Refugee Olympic Team

Paris (AFP) – Cindy Ngamba won the Refugee Olympic Team their first ever medal on Thursday when she clinched a bronze in women's boxing.


Issued on: 08/08/2024 -

Panama's Atheyna Bylon (Blue) reacts after beating Refugee Olympic Team's Cindy Ngamba in the women's 75kg semi-final

 © MOHD RASFAN / AFP


Ngamba, who was born in Cameroon but sought safe haven in Britain aged 11, was beaten by Panama's seventh seed Atheyna Bylon by split decision in the semi-finals of the women's 75kg category.

That denied her a place in Saturday's final but boxing hands out bronze medals for losing semi-finalists.

The Refugee Olympic Team first competed at the Rio 2016 Games and is designed to represent forcibly displaced people worldwide.

There are 37 athletes competing for the team in Paris from more than a dozen countries.

The 25-year-old Ngamba is a lesbian, which is illegal in her native Cameroon.

She qualified for the Olympic competition by right and won two matches in Paris to reach the semi-finals.

Ngamba had trouble dealing with her taller Panamanian opponent but continued to attack throughout the match.

She was behind on points after the first round but came back in the second, leaving it all to fight for in the final round.

Bylon had a point deducted in the third round but the Panamanian still did enough to get the win, much to the displeasure of the crowd at Roland Garros, the home of the French Open tennis tournament.

After moving to Britain as a child, Ngamba had a tough upbringing, bullied at school for her poor English and her weight.

She took up boxing and qualified by right for the Olympic competition.

Britain wanted to select her for the Paris Games and boxing officials appealed unsuccessfully for her to receive a British passport.

© 2024 AFP

Nagasaki mayor defends Israel snub at A-bomb memorial


By AFP
August 8, 2024


Nagasaki City Mayor Shiro Suzuki speaks to the media at City Hall on August 8, 2024 - Copyright JIJI Press/AFP STR

Nagasaki’s mayor said Thursday it was “unfortunate” that US and British ambassadors have refused to attend a ceremony marking the 1945 atomic bombing of the Japanese city because Israel was snubbed.

But he defended the decision not to invite Israel to Friday’s annual event, repeating that it was “not political” but to avoid possible protests related to the Gaza conflict.

“It is unfortunate that they have communicated to us that their ambassadors are not able to attend,” Shiro Suzuki told reporters.

“We made a comprehensive decision not for political reasons. We want to conduct a smooth ceremony in a peaceful and solemn environment.”

On August 9, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people including many who survived the explosion but died later from radiation exposure.

This came three days after the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima that killed 140,000 people.

Japan announced its surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945.

The United States, Britain, France, Italy and the European Union — plus reportedly Canada and Australia — are all sending diplomats below ambassador level to the ceremony.

Only the US and British embassies made an explicit link to Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Israel’s ambassador Gilad Cohen, although a source told AFP that Italy’s move was also a direct consequence.

The British embassy said leaving out Israel created “an unfortunate and misleading equivalency with Russia and Belarus — the only other countries not invited to this year’s ceremony”.

A spokesperson for the French embassy called Suzuki’s decision “regrettable and questionable”, while the German mission criticised “placing Israel on the same level as Russia and Belarus”.

Cohen, who attended a similar memorial ceremony in Hiroshima on Tuesday, said last week that the Nagasaki decision “sends a wrong message to the world”.

On Thursday Cohen thanked “all the countries that have chosen to stand with Israel and oppose its exclusion from the Nagasaki Peace Ceremony.”

“Thank you for standing with us on the right side of history,” Cohen said on X, formerly Twitter.

Relief after UK streets see respite from far-right riots


By AFP
August 8, 2024


People protest at anti-immigrant violence instigated by the far right

 - Copyright AFP Alberto PIZZOLI
Joe JACKSON

The UK government and police breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday after further anticipated far-right riots failed to materialise overnight and thousands of anti-racism protesters massed on the streets instead.

The anti-racism demonstrations on Wednesday evening passed off almost entirely peacefully, after police flooded the streets of numerous English towns and cities and reiterated violence by suspected far-right agitators would not be tolerated.

It follows a week of near nightly riots — during which mosques and migrant-related facilities have been attacked — nationwide and in Northern Ireland.

The violence was fuelled by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack on July 29 which killed three children.

London’s Metropolitan Police chief Mark Rowley, who ordered thousands of officers onto the streets of the capital on Wednesday, said he was “really pleased” with how events unfolded.

“I think the show of force from the police — and frankly, the show of unity from communities together — defeated the challenges that we’ve seen,” he told UK broadcasters.

Rowley noted there had been a small number of arrests due to “some local criminals” engaging in anti-social behaviour in some locations but that fears of “extreme-right disorder were abated”.

Attention will now turn to the coming weekend and whether there will be a repeat of disorder then.

Some of the worst scenes of violence were recorded last weekend.

Junior interior minister Diana Johnson cautioned that Wednesday’s respite was “just the start”.

“It’s good that we didn’t see the level of disorder and criminality on our streets that we have in previous days,” she told Sky News.

“There is now further intelligence of events during the next few days and we need to see what happens there.”

– ‘Our streets!’ –

Wednesday evening saw anti-racism and anti-fascist counter-protesters mass in considerable numbers, holding rallies in cities including London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Newcastle.

“Whose streets? Our streets!” thousands chanted in Walthamstow, northeast London, where hundreds of pro-Palestine supporters joined the rally under a heavy police presence.

The government had put 6,000 specialist police on standby to deal with scores of potential flashpoints after far-right social media channels called for protests at an array of sites linked to immigration support services.

On Thursday, London mayor Sadiq Khan thanked “heroic police force working round the clock” and “those who came out peacefully to show London stands united against racism and Islamophobia”.

“And to those far-right thugs still intent on sowing hatred and division: you will never be welcome here,” he added on X.

Courts started on Wednesday to order jail terms for offenders tied to the unrest as authorities sought to deter fresh disorder.

The unrest, Britain’s worst since the 2011 London riots, has seen hundreds arrested and at least 120 charged, and has led several countries to issue travel warnings for the UK.

London police said on Thursday that officers had made 10 further arrests overnight, a week after protests outside Downing Street in Westminster turned violent.

Rowley, who joined the dawn raids, said those arrested “aren’t protestors, patriots or decent citizens”.

“They’re thugs and criminals,” he noted, adding most had previous convictions for weapon possession, violence, drugs and other serious offences.

The riots broke out after three girls — aged nine, seven and six — were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.

False rumours initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker.

The suspect was later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales.

UK media report that his parents are from Rwanda, which is overwhelmingly Christian.

UK riots: How far-right actors capitalized on public anger

Anchal Vohra

08/07/2024

Who is the far right in the United Kingdom, and how did they fan the flames in the recent riots?

Police have clashed with rioters in Rotherham in recent daysImage: Danny Lawson/dpa/picture alliance

Parts of the United Kingdom have been engulfed in rioting since a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the northwestern English town of Southport killed three girls and injured several others.

The suspected perpetrator was later revealed to be Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Cardiff, Wales, to Rwandan parents. But protests in response to the attack took on quite a different dimension, transforming into an ethnic or sectarian clash.

On one side were far-right supporters and local, predominantly white communities; on the other, immigrant-related targets, particularly in the Muslim community.

Hotels housing asylum-seekers were set on fire, public buildings were damaged and police stations were attacked by throngs of agitators in various parts of the country. Masked, predominantly Asian men were also spotted in social media clips strolling the streets.

Many people asked whether the violence was planned or arose spontaneously and haphazardly. And how did a knife attack at a dance class, carried out by a 17-year-old from Cardiff with Rwandan parents and of nominally Christian belief, turn into riots that targeted predominantly Muslims?

Riot police faced off with protesters after disorder broke out on July 30 in Southport

The UK's protective reporting laws initially barred the police from releasing the name of the knife attack suspect, a minor, which was capitalized on by the far right.

Rosa Freedman, a professor at the University of Reading, told DW that in the absence of the attacker's name, the far right had a chance to blame it on their favorite enemy: Muslim immigrants.

"The far right spread rumors that he was an irregular migrant, that he was a Muslim," she told DW.

She said that while that itself didn't cause the riot, it lit the spark of the fear and hatred "that has been whipped up in the UK by the previous Conservative government, some of the newspapers, as well as far-right groups since before Brexit."

By the time a judge lifted the anonymity of the attacker's name, the UK's new and old far right had gathered enough momentum for their campaign, mostly online.

Hope not Hate, an anti-racism charity, said in a statement that the far right organized a flurry of demonstrations across the country "on a broad anti-migrant, anti-Muslim and anti-multiculturalism agenda." The organization added what unfolded was"the worst wave of far-right violence in the UK post-war."

Far-right riots unsettle UK's Muslim community  02:23

Who are the UK's new far right?

The new far right in the UK is a smorgasbord of smaller groups, often individual actors who are online phenomenons. They have out-sized influence due to their ability to tap into some genuine complaints online, but mostly use social media to provoke bigotry against immigrants and Muslims.

A key player in the UK's far-right ecosystem is Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, who has adopted the name Tommy Robinson.

He is a former member of the far-right and fascist British National Party (BNP) and a co-founder of the English Defence League (EDL), a far-right, anti-immigrant group.

The BNP does not have a single elected representative in the UK, and the EDL has long been deemed defunct. And yet, according to Merseyside police, EDL supporters were prominent in a clash with officers posted outside a mosque in Southport earlier last week. British media reported that the government is pondering whether to proscribe the group as an extremist organization.

The EDL was established in London in 2009, and many of its followers were football fans who believed that Muslims could never be truly English. Football hooliganism has a long association with far-right activity in the UK, though the association has declined since the hooligans' heyday in the 1970s and '80s.

Yaxley-Lennon continues to be an influential figure among EDL supporters and disseminates his anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-police message through his 900,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter.

In a post on X on August 2, he seemed to hail the attack on a police station and said, "You should've listened @Keir_Starmer," tagging the British prime minister's account.

Andrew Tate, a British-American social media influencer currently awaiting trial in Romania on rape and trafficking charges, has also accused the police in the UK of siding with immigrants and Muslims. He himself is mixed race and has declared himself to be a Muslim convert. He was among the first to start the rumor that led to the recent violence, suggesting the Southport attacker had "arrived on a boat a month ago."

In a post on X, he shared an image of a brown man on a rubber dinghy holding a knife in one hand and British pounds in the other. The post said, "Typical man from Cardiff."

Police mistrust sown by far right abets violence and hatred

Sowing mistrust against the police and tarnishing its credibility is another tactic widely being adopted by all hues of far-right actors in the UK. Experts said this turns the people against the law enforcement agencies and encourages them to resort to violence.

Matthew Hankinson, a convicted member of the neo-Nazi group National Action, which was banned by the British government in 2016, attended the Southport riot and reportedly argued in favor of killing corrupt police officers. He accused the police of oppressing people merely protesting the murder of "white children," according to the BBC.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the right-wing populist Reform UK party, also seems to have deliberately created doubts about the information shared and questioned the police's sincerity. He said he wondered "whether the truth is being withheld from us."

Paul Golding, co-leader of another far-right fascist political party called Britain First, posted more tweets questioning the fairness of the police. Experts said such accusations against the police are often linked with anti-Muslim content to deliberately drive a false link.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer laid flowers near the site of the Southport attack

Image: James Speakman/PA Wire/dpa/picture alliance

Far right is thankful to Elon Musk

Elon Musk, the owner of X, has emerged as the biggest supporter of the UK's far right. Last year, Yaxley-Lennon thanked Musk for reinstating his account on X after he was banned for posting hateful content.

In a controversial move, Musk recently posted that a "Civil war is inevitable" in Britain.

When Starmer took to X to assuage the concerns of the citizens, saying, "We will not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities," Musk started a war of words by insinuating the prime minister wasn't interested in the safety of all communities.

Golding of Britain First piggy-backed on Musk's questioning of the prime minister and posted that Musk was "exposing Keir Starmer" with a clapping hand emoji.

In a note titled "Violent disorder driven by disinformation and social media rumors,"BJ Harrington, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for public order, said: "Disinformation is a huge driver of this appalling violence, and we know a lot of those attending these so-called protests are doing so in direct response to what they've read online.

"Often, posts are shared and amplified by high-profile accounts. We're working hard to counteract this."

He asked people to "please pay special attention to what you read, share and believe from online sources."

Edited by: Davis VanOpdorp

6,000 police deployed as Britain braces for wave of riots targeting immigration lawyers

By Paul Godfrey
Aug. 7, 2024 / 

British authorities were gearing up for as many as 30 riots across the country Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets. File photo by Adam Vaughan/EPA-EFE

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- British authorities were gearing up for a wave of riots across England with reports of at least 30 planned for Wednesday night amid fears the offices of law firms that represent immigrants and asylum seekers could be potential targets.

A "standing army" of 6,000 police was mobilized after far-right groups circulated a list of 39 immigration lawyers, charities and groups that provide services to migrants and refugees on social media and 500 prison spaces had been freed up as public prosecutors threatened swingeing justice for those participating in or organizing violent disorder.

"All of us are concerned that a list is being circulated online," Communities Minister Jim McMahon told BBC Radio.

"We at this point don't know if those will transpire to be protests in the way that we've seen in other places. Or whether it's a list that's intended just to cause alarm and distress, or even to provoke.

"But to be clear we are absolutely prepared in terms of our policing response, our prosecutor response and also our court response," said McMahon.

The country's top prosecutor said at least one rioter had been charged with terror offenses and warned his office would consider the same where organized groups were planning "really serious disruption to advance an ideology."

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said his officials would deploy every legal means available to put people behind the disorder behind bars and that anti-terrorism laws were being used in one ongoing prosecution.

Police also said they were confident they would be able to maintain control.

The Law Society said it had "serious concerns for the safety and wellbeing" of its members with at least one immigration advice center boarding up its windows and doors in anticipation of trouble.

"A direct assault on our legal profession is a direct assault on our democratic values and we are supporting our members who are being targeted," the society's president, Nick Emmerson, said in a post on X.

He added that he had written to Prime Minister Keir Starmer asking that the threats against the profession be treated with the "utmost seriousness."

The non-profit advocacy group Hope Not Hate warned the list was an aspirational "hit list" that called for action, "up to and including terrorism" against the targets named at 8 p.m. local time, circulated by an anonymous individual who it said was also involved in instigating anti-Muslim violence in Southport and Liverpool over the past week.

"This actor, who has also called for the assassinations of public figures, must be brought to justice and face the full force of the law," HNH said in a news release.

The group said the purpose of the list was to spread fear and uncertainty as it was impossible to predict whether and where attacks might materialize and therefore "any and all services should be on high alert."

HNH said it was also monitoring a number of other far-right demonstrations planned for the days ahead which it said were emerging "more organically" and so may attract larger numbers of protesters.

The developments came after a night of relative calm with police in Liverpool and Durham tamping down tensions with the use of dispersal orders that give them powers to order people to leave the area.

The coroner was due to open inquests Wednesday morning in the Liverpool suburb of Sefton into the killings of Bebe King, 6, Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, in nearby Southport on July 29.

The last of the eight other children and two adults injured in the stabbing spree at a dance studio -- triggering a week of unrest across England and Northern Ireland -- were discharged from hospital.

Axel Muganwa Rudakubana,17, of Banks in Lancashire, was charged July 31 with three counts of murder, 10 counts of attempted murder and possession of a bladed weapon.

On Wednesday, the first rioters were also sent to prison with a judge at Liverpool Crown Court sentencing one man to three years for taking part in violent disorder in Southport last week when a mob hijacked a vigil for the slain girls, injuring dozens of police and attacking police vehicles and a mosque.

The man received a concurrent two-month sentence for assaulting a police officer.

Another man was sentenced to 28 months in prison for violent disorder and torching a police vehicle in Liverpool plus two months for perpetrating "malicious communication."

A third man was sent to prison for 18 months plus two months for a "racially aggravated element" of the offense.

The first significant prison sentences follow the jailing of an 18-year-old man sent to prison Tuesday for two months after pleading guilty to criminal damage charges following a riot near Manchester on Sunday.

About 100 among the more than 400 people arrested across the country since rioting erupted a day after the July 29 killings in Southport pleaded not guilty to various charges but, unusually, were refused bail pending trial.

Juveniles, however, continue to be bailed in line with standard policy.