India’s bad boy pilgrimage for Hindu god of destruction 

SAFFRON FASCISM


By AFP
August 13, 2024

The Hindu sacred month of Shravan honouring Lord Shiva, god of destruction, has become increasingly associated with mob violence by saffron-clad devotees 

- Copyright AFP Money SHARMA

Arunabh SAIKIA

The Hindu sacred month of Shravan honours the god of destruction Lord Shiva, and in northern India, it has become increasingly associated with mob violence by saffron-clad devotees.

Analysts say the increase in violence, and the muted response to stop it by the authorities, is a reaction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-first politics.

Millions of people mark the month by trekking — some hundreds of kilometres — to collect holy water from the sacred Ganges river and carry it home to shrines, a celebration of the monsoon rains and new beginnings.

Many are young and poor men, dedicated to their deity — but also partying and taking a break from tough day-wage labour for a rare few weeks of fun, blaring loud music and smoking strong cannabis.

They are known as “Kanwarias”, after the bamboo poles across their shoulders they use to carry the heavy containers of sacred water.

This year, after the month-long pilgrimage started in late July, lawlessness surged.

The pilgrims have been caught multiple times on camera running riot — seen in videos shared widely on social media and verified by AFP.

They include vandalising a fuel station for being asked to stop smoking, violent road rage leaving passers-by grievously injured, and groups of Kanwarias fighting among themselves.

Pilgrims insist that hooliganism is restricted to a few stray incidents, blaming devotees who over-indulge in cannabis.

“There are rotten apples everywhere,” 30-year-old Sachin Chawla told AFP, a Kanwaria puffing out clouds of fragrant smoke from a hand-rolled cigarette.

“Some people tend to get high and create a ruckus.”



– ‘Subordinate to the party’ –



Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has boosted support for the travellers.

In the country’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh — whose chief minister is a hardline Hindu monk and key BJP leader — top government officials showered flower petals on the devotees from a helicopter.

That came days after pilgrims overturned a government security car.

The Modi government has “put across the message that the state is subordinate to the party in power”, said Sanjay Srivastava, an anthropologist teaching at SOAS University of London.

“This messaging seems to be clearly understood on the ground”.

Many devout Hindus are vegetarian during Shravan, and in several BJP-run states, local administrations ban meat on pilgrim routes.

But this year, some went further.

Two state governments ordered restaurants to display the names of their owners, a rule that critics said was intended to divide restaurants by religion and target minority Muslims.

The order was later suspended by the Supreme Court.



– Ancient tradition, new popularity –



Rickshaw-puller Kamal Kumar had spent two weeks walking nearly 200 kilometres (125 miles) carrying 70 litres (15 gallons) of water in containers slung from a bamboo pole across his shoulders.

He had a day to go to his destination, a temple in the capital Delhi.

“I do it for Baba,” said the 20-year-old, using a term of endearment for Shiva. “Whatever I have, it is his doing.”

The number of devotees undertaking this journey is swelling by the year, according to official numbers.

Organisers estimate some 45 million people — more than the population of Canada — assembled in the holy Ganges-side city of Haridwar to collect water this year, a rise of 50 percent from 2017.

Most are poor, male, unemployed, or work precarious menial jobs.

The offer of aid from a god has resounding appeal in “an uncertain economy with large-scale unemployment”, Srivastava said.

“Everyone around me goes, so I also decided to go,” said Siddharth Kumar, a jobless 18-year-old who resides in a slum on the fringes of Delhi.

“I hope god does something for me and my family.”

Srivastava said more men now undertake the pilgrimage because there is a “broader climate of encouragement for participation in public religious activities”.

Popularity has been boosted within the context of “underemployed men’s activities, as well as a source seeking divine intervention for their precarious economic situation,” he added.



– ‘Holiday’ –



The pilgrimage allows the working class to briefly “occupy the centre stage”, said sociologist Ravinder Kaur, from the University of Copenhagen.

“It is as much an expression of vast class and caste inequalities that shape contemporary India,” she said.

For many men, the journey is as much an opportunity to bond with friends.

Less dedicated devotees skip the walk, crowding into open trucks or on motorbikes, playing thumping music.

“I went with my friends from the neighbourhood on our motorbikes,” said 23-year-old electrician Sunny Prajapati.

“Along with the chance to offer our prayers, we also get to go on a joy ride together –- it is like a holiday.”

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/indias-bad-boy-pilgrimage-for-hindu-god-of-destruction/article#ixzz8ircFEGEd

Right-wing podcaster bought West Virginia skate park — then rebellion ensued

Brad Reed
August 12, 2024 

A man jumps on his skateboard on August 15, 2023

. (Photo by APHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images)

The Washington Post's Will Sommer has written a lengthy report about tensions that have erupted after right-wing podcaster Tim Pool purchased property that housed a skateboarding park in West Virginia.

The saga began back in August of 2023 when regulars at the venue in Martinsburg, West Virginia rejected Pool's offer of $20,000 in prize money for the park's 10-year anniversary celebration.

Some skaters informed Pool that not only was he not welcome at their event but that he would "be removed if he showed up," Sommer writes.

Chace Amos, a regular at the park, told Sommer that he and other skaters who objected to Pool aren't committed left-wingers by any stretch of the imagination, and simply insisted that "we didn't want to be associated with that hateful stuff" that Pool regularly spews on his podcast.

Another organizer said that they simply didn't want Pool publicizing the existence of what they saw as their private skate park.

“We didn’t want a billion people showing up to our small town DIY looking for a $20k payday,” one tells Sommer. “We’re not in wheel sports for a paycheck."

Pool didn't take this snub lying down, however, and instead bought the land where the skate park was located, along with a nearby building, for $850,000 months later.

Pool would justify the purchase later by saying that now the skaters could no longer block him from being on the property.

“They don’t own the spot,” Pool explained. "By what right do they have to tell me I can’t stand on a derelict piece of property where they’re squatting?”

Amos tells Sommer that many of his fellow skaters have stayed away ever since Pool bought it, as they suspect he will make it into a private skate park in the future.

However, Sommer writes that the anti-Pool skaters left a going-away present for him at the park.

"Amid the usual skatepark graffiti, nestled above a drawing of Garfield the cat smoking a joint, someone spray-painted a message implying that Pool can’t pull off a skateboarding trick called the 'slappy grind,'" Sommer reports. "Their message: 'Tim Pool can’t slappy.'"

UK teens who lived through racist riots want change

Rosie Birchard 

in Liverpool, UK

DW

11/08/24

A week after the racist riots in Liverpool, some young people are still scared to show up to sports clubs. Three teens share their stories and hopes for the future.

Since last weekend, anti-racism rallies have replaced violent riots on UK streets, including in Liverpool

Image: Andy Von Pip/ZUMA Press Wire/picture alliance

It was supposed to be a regular Saturday afternoon basketball game. But when 18-year-old Callum and 15-year-old Blaize came out of training last weekend in Liverpool, they saw men in balaclavas running past them.

"We were just like: We don't know where to go. We don't know how to get home. And then we saw a helicopter above us," Blaize told DW.

"We ended up going to the train station but didn't want to get on the train because this guy was just staring us down there. And then we ended up nearly walking into the middle of it all and running away."

Blaize, a regular basketball player, had to seek out safety when he stumbled upon riots in Liverpool after a gameImage: Toxteth El8te

What they witnessed was one of the far-right riots that rocked cities across UK in the weeks after false claims spread online that the perpetrator of a mass stabbing attack in Southport on July 29 was a Muslim immigrant. It was the most widespread civil unrest in the UK in a decade, with mosques and migrant support centers targeted amid violent clashes with police.

"It was scary. To be honest I was scared, and I've never seen some of my friends that scared," said Blaize.

"We had to go to a restaurant and wait to get Ubers," Callum explained. "It wasn't really safe to be in the city. I was seeing videos of people getting attacked. Police officers, civilians, people just in shops minding their own business."

Violent unrest gripped a number of northern English cities after unfounded rumors spread online about the identity of the Southport attackerImage: Getty Images
Racism steps up a gear

Callum, who grew up near Liverpool with an English mother and Nigerian father, said he's experienced racism all his life. But the last two weeks have felt different.

"These are things that were happening decades ago. I didn't really think when I was 18 that in 2024 it would still be happening."

Callum believes people now feel emboldened to express more anti-immigrant views.

"I actually didn't think there were that many around me who really felt that way. So it's quite scary to think that you're coming across people every day who really have that opinion," he said.

But since last weekend, thousands across the UK have also showed up to anti-racism rallies, and hundreds of rioters have been arrested.

In Liverpool's crown court, several people have already pleaded guilty to violent disorder — including teenagers.
Teen rioters facing charges

Fifteen-year-old Binah, also a keen basketballer, told DW she believes some of her classmates were involved.

"I think it's really childish and it doesn't really make sense to me. I don't see the need for doing all this. Some of them think it's really funny to do that: burn stuff up, be racist. They don't see how it impacts other people," she said.

UK sees anti-racism protests after days of far-right riots 02:40

Blaize, meanwhile, thinks many got too caught up in the moment. "I'd say probably 95% of the people there, if you genuinely ask them why are you here, they wouldn't know. They're just there because they're misled by information you see online. And also, they're able to go smash things up," he said.

Callum feels no sympathy for the rioters, but thinks inequality is part of the problem. "I feel like people see the UK as a very rich and very 'silver spoon' type of place.

"But there's a lot of people and different parts of the country — like certain areas of Liverpool, London, Manchester, Birmingham — that don't really get the same that other places do. It's not all nice," he said.

The Toxteth El8te basketball program has trained thousands of young people like Binah

Image: Toxteth El8te

Is more spaces for teens the solution?

Blaize's father, Emile Coleman, who is coaching the teens, isn't surprised that so many local young people were involved in criminality.

"They've got nothing to lose," said Coleman. "You engage with some of these kids, you just see the dead in their eyes. There's a huge amount of self-medication from them. The use of ketamine is massive in the young population here in Liverpool. It's like the go-to drug alongside smoking weed," he explained. "They've got no fear."

Coleman set up his basketball program, dubbed Toxteth El8te, to get kids off the street and into sports. With the help of extra funding from the police and a local violence prevention network, he's organized free training for more than 3,000 people aged 6 to 25 since last September.

Some kids still scared to go out

On the night of the riot, Coleman said, there were few places open for kids to hang out or play. That's why he thinks schemes like his are part of the "antidote" to the digitally-fueled divisions on display in recent weeks.

"We have people from all over the world," he said, before reciting a long list which he insists is just the tip of the iceberg.

"Brazil to Congo to Cameroon to Nigeria to Sudan and Australia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Hong Kong, India... it's like the UN!"

Coleman has been paying out of pocket to organize private taxis for some of the players from minority ethnic backgrounds who now feel unsafe — Binah among them.

"I usually take the bus to get there and I was worried," she explained.

"Once I get there I'm safe and I feel free. I feel good."
Signs of reconciliation?

A week after the riots, Liverpool is calm. Coleman described the mood in the city center as "flat" and "quiet" on Saturday. But in this almost-eerie aftermath, some signs of positive change have been cropping up.

A local mosque organized an open day and invited those who attended anti-immigration rallies to come in and ask questions about Islam.




A local influencer who participated the march before it descended into a riot, and who has since spoken out against the violence, is also taking action.

He's organized a "digital detox" day to offer busloads of children a chance to go out walking in Welsh countryside with no phones allowed. An invitation was specifically extended to Muslim families when they attended Friday prayer earlier this week.
'We just have to deal with it as Black people'

But for now, the teen basketballers remain unsure whether things will change for the better. Blaize is soon moving to Spain to start intensive basketball training. "It's my biggest relief that I'm able to leave the country," he said.

Callum plans to stay and start studying law at university later this year. He said his long-term goal is help fight racial injustice.

"It gets passed down generations, racism. It's been years and I don't think it will end. I don't think there's any real solution. We just have to deal with it as Black people, as Asian people, as other ethnic minorities.

"There's ways you can help minimize it, but as a whole it's too far gone," he said.

Binah hopes she can keep playing basketball

Image: Toxteth El8te

Binah, meanwhile, said she wants to continue playing basketball and get on with her exams when school restarts in September.

"I just hope everything gets going back to normal and there's peace and love everywhere again," she said.

Edited by: Andreas Illmer

Correction, August 11, 2024: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Emile Coleman as Binah's father. He is, in fact, Blaize's father. DW apologizes for the error.

'SOUND TERROR'

Sonic booms – the psychological warfare Israel uses to sow fear in Lebanon

Since October 7, Israel has been using thunderous noise, triggering memories of Beirut’s devastating port explosion and spreading dread among the population.

An Israeli combat jet flies near the border with Lebanon on February 29, 2024 in northern Israel [Amir Levy/Getty Images]

By Mat Nashed
Published On 10 Aug 2024

Beirut, Lebanon – The first time Eliah Kaylough, 26, heard the thunderous blast, he was so terrified, he instinctively ran for cover. On Tuesday this week, he had just started his shift as a waiter at a restaurant on bustling Gemmayze Street in east Beirut when he was suddenly startled by the sound of a major blast.

For Kaylough, it immediately triggered memories of the massive port explosion in 2020 and he was terrified the city was either experiencing a new explosion or that it was under attack.

But as he was racing out of the restaurant, a man from a nearby shop stopped him and explained that Beirut wasn’t being bombed. The sound, Kaylough discovered, was a sonic boom, a thunderous noise caused by an object moving faster than the speed of sound.

Israeli jets have been increasingly triggering these sonic booms over Lebanon since October 7 last year, following the attack on southern Israel by Hamas. But the booms which sounded over Beirut on Tuesday were the loudest that had been heard in the city, several residents told Al Jazeera.

Kaylough said that it was the first time that he had heard one since Israel tends to launch sonic booms in other parts of the country and city.

“The sound was terrifying and I really thought we were under attack,” Kaylouh told Al Jazeera on Thursday evening at the restaurant, where he was back working a shift. “I remember putting on my hat and grabbing my bag and I was ready to close up shop.”

Since October, the Lebanese armed group, Hezbollah, and Israel have been engaged in a low-level conflict. On Friday, Israel stepped up its attacks, killing Hamas official Samer al-Hajj in a drone attack on the coastal city of Sidon, about 50km (30 miles) from Lebanon’s southern border.

Throughout the Gaza war, however, Israel has been launching sonic booms by flying jets at low altitudes over Lebanon in an apparent effort to intimidate and terrify the population, analysts and residents told Al Jazeera.

“We are concerned about the reported use of sonic booms by Israeli aircrafts over Lebanon that has caused great fear among the civilian population,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Parties in armed conflict should not use methods of intimidation against a civilian population.”

Indeed, sonic booms heard earlier this week occurred just two days after the anniversary of the August 4, 2020 Beirut-port explosion, which devastated large swaths of Beirut, killed more than 200 people and injured thousands. The blast was caused by a fire in a warehouse where a stockpile of highly combustible ammonium nitrate was being stored.

Tuesday’s sonic boom was triggered just moments before Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was about to begin a speech. Last month, tensions between the foes escalated after Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s senior commander, Fuad Shukr, in Lebanon and Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital Tehran.

Civil defence workers extinguish a fire in a car after it was hit by an Israeli strike, killing a Hamas official, in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon, on Friday, August 9, 2024 [Mohammed Zaatari/AP]

Systematic use of ‘sound terror’

The use of sonic booms is part of a broader trend of psychological warfare that Israel wages against the Lebanese population, according to Lawrence Abu Hamdan, a sound expert and the founder of Earshot, a nonprofit that conducts audio analysis to track human rights abuses and state violence.

Abu Hamdan said that since the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war, which lasted 34 days and left 1,100 Lebanese nationals and 165 Israelis dead, Israel has routinely violated Lebanese airspace with its fighter jets to scare civilians.

“Since the truce of 2006, there have been more than 22,000 Israeli air violations of Lebanon. In 2020 alone, there were more than 2,000 [air violations] with no response from Hezbollah, Abu Hamdan told Al Jazeera.

Abu Hamdan believes that, since last October, Israel has also been using sonic booms as an “acoustic reminder that [Israel] can turn Lebanon into Gaza at any point”.

He said Israel’s increasing use of sonic booms reflects the escalation in conflict with Hezbollah over the past several months.

“There is an escalation and we are seeing that escalation in sound. The next phase to the escalation is, of course, material destruction,” Abu Hamdan said.

Beirut resident Rana Farhat, 28, said Israel’s scare tactics are having the desired effect. She heard the August 6 sonic booms while having dinner with her family at a restaurant in a town north of Beirut.

They were startled when they heard the sound of an explosion, but her parents tried to reassure her and her siblings that Beirut was not being attacked. Everyone quickly checked their phones to find out what was going on.

“We were all checking the news to see if it was an explosion or not,” Farhat, 28, said, while smoking shisha in a Beirut cafe on Thursday night. “There were little children in the restaurant and they were clearly scared. They don’t understand what such sounds mean.”

Recurring trauma

The murmur of fighter jets and other blast-like noises can re-traumatise populations that have survived previous explosions and wars, Abu Hamdan said.

Over the long term, recurring jet and blast sounds can even increase the risk of stroke and deplete calcium deposits in the heart, according to medical studies he cited.

“Once you have been exposed to [jet or blast] sounds that have produced the sort of fear that they have in this country, then whenever you hear it – even quietly – it will produce the same stress response [in an individual],” Abu Hamdan explained.

Kaylough said that the sonic booms he heard on Tuesday this week transported him back to the Beirut port explosion. That day, he was working in a mall when a sudden blast shattered the glass around him and blew the doors off the hinges of the store he was working in.

“The sound was so loud. I remember people were screaming, but I couldn’t hear them,” he told Al Jazeera.

After the initial shock, Kaylough felt a sudden pain and realised that a large piece of metal was wedged into his lower leg. He was rushed to hospital and eventually treated by doctors.

While Kaylough suffered no long-term physical injuries, he says the sonic booms are triggering the trauma he experienced that day.

“The [sound from] the sonic boom did take me back to the moment of the blast, but I’m just trying not to think about it,” he said.

Farhat said the sonic booms also remind her of the 2006 war.

At the time, her neighbourhood was not directly being hit, but she remembers watching coverage of the war on television with her parents. As a 10-year-old, she realised that the scenes of collapsed buildings and rubble she was seeing were being filmed just a short drive from her home.

She also recalls hearing the sound of Israeli fighter jets flying over Beirut to bomb the southern suburbs. While Farhat does not know if another war is looming over Beirut right now, she insisted that Israel’s scare tactics won’t compel her to leave her beloved city.

“They are just trying to scare us, but I take it as a sign of weakness,” she told Al Jazeera. “Whatever happens, I don’t want to leave home and I won’t. I was born here, raised here and I will stay here.”

Source: Al Jazeera

Keep reading

‘Bloody massacre’: Reactions to Israeli attack on Gaza school

Harris tells pro-Palestine protesters ‘now is time for ceasefire’ in Gaza

Israeli strike on Gaza school kills more than 100 people

US to provide $3.5bn more in military aid to Israel amid war on Gaza

 

A vaping cessation text message program for adolescent e-cigarette users

JAMA Network

About The Study: A tailored, interactive text message intervention increased self-reported vaping cessation rates among adolescents recruited via social media channels.

Quote from corresponding author Amanda L. Graham, PhD:

“Health care providers, teachers, and parents have been asking how to help teens quit vaping. This study is a critical breakthrough that demonstrates the power of a behavioral intervention for vaping cessation. Text messages serve as powerful reminders of an initial commitment to quit and can deliver proven behavior change support right to a young person’s phone.

“We also did not see evidence that teens who quit vaping transitioned to smoking. The intervention was effective in reducing dual use (smoking and vaping) and keeping teens in this study from starting to smoke.”

Contact information for Amanda L. Graham, PhD: email Megan Kelley (mkelley@truthinitiative.org).

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jama.2024.11057)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.11057?guestAccessKey=52355ac8-73a4-4e2b-b400-3cf946de795c&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=080724

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Journal

JAMA

Some e-cigarette chemicals mimic nicotine, possibly bypassing regulation

Products also use flavors and sweeteners like those preferred by people who are younger or using e-cigarettes for the first time, raising concerns about unknown health risks

Duke University Medical Center

DURHAM, N.C. – In what appears to be an effort to bypass public health regulations covering vaping products, some tobacco companies have begun replacing nicotine in e-cigarettes with related chemicals that have similar properties but unknown health effects, Duke Health researchers report.

In a research letter appearing Aug. 7 in JAMA, study authors at Duke and Yale University also found that the quantity of these chemicals, known as nicotine analogs, are not accurately disclosed on the packaging.

“Vaping products containing nicotine are subject to federal laws that prohibit sales to people  under the age of 21,” said study co-author Sairam V. Jabba, D.V.M., Ph.D., a senior research scientist at Duke University School of Medicine.

“Nicotine analogs are currently not subject to the FDA process and have not been studied for their health effects,” Jabba said. "Our analysis of some of these analog-containing vaping products sold in the U.S. found significant and concerning inaccuracies in the ingredients these products claim to contain and what they actually contain. Further, it’s possible manufacturers are attempting to avoid FDA tobacco regulation.”

One chemical, known as 6-methyl nicotine, has been shown in rodent experiments to be far more potent than nicotine in targeting the brain’s nicotine receptors and more toxic than nicotine. Another, called nicotinamide, is marketed as targeting the same brain receptors as nicotine, despite evidence it does not bind to these receptors.

The nicotine analogs were included in flavored e-cigarettes, which prior research has indicated are preferred by youths and those who vape for the first time.

Jabba and colleagues, including co-senior author Sven Eric Jordt, Ph.D., analyzed an e-cigarette product sold under the brand name Spree Bar, which comes in at least nine flavors and is listed as containing 5 percent 6-methyl nicotine. Study results showed the actual amount of the chemical was about 88% less than labeled. The e-cigarettes also included an artificial sweetener that is up to 13,000 times sweeter than table sugar, and an artificial coolant that mimics menthol’s effects.

A second brand of e-cigarettes -- marketed as Nixotine, Nixodine, Nixamide and Nic-Safe – contained a nicotine analog called nicotinamide, also at levels lower than the labels indicated, and combined with undisclosed amounts of 6-methyl nicotine. This brand did not include sweeteners or coolants.

“These products appear to be designed to circumvent the laws and regulations in place to protect people -- especially children -- from the harmful effects of smoking and tobacco use,” Jordt said. “We do not know what these chemicals do when they are heated and inhaled. These are questions that should be answered before we allow products on the market.”

In addition to Jordt and Jabba, study authors include Hanno C. Erythropel, Peter Silinski, Paul T. Anastas, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin and Julie B. Zimmerman.

Yale’s Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science received funding support for the study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (U54DA036151), and the Center for Tobacco Products of the FDA. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or the FDA.

 

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JAMA

ECOCIDE

‘Miseries of the Balkhash’: Fears for Kazakhstan’s magical lake


By AFP
August 7, 2024


A teenager jumps into the water near the huge Kazakhmys copper plant on the shores of Lake Balkhach in Kazakhstan - 

Copyright AFP Ruslan PRYANIKOV

Bruno KALOUAZ

Seen from the sky, with its turquoise waters stretching out into the desert expanses in the shape of a crescent, you can see why they call Lake Balkhash the “pearl of Kazakhstan”.

But pollution, climate change and its overuse are threatening the existence of one of the most unique stretches of water in the world.

One side of the Balkhash — the biggest lake in Central Asia after the Caspian Sea — has salt water, but on the other it is fresh. In such a strange environment, rare species have abounded. Until now.

“All the miseries of the Balkhash are right under my eyes,” fisherman Alexei Grebennikov told AFP from the deck of his boat on the northern shores, which sometimes has salty water, sometimes fresh.

“There are fewer and fewer fish, it’s catastrophic, the lake is silting up,” warned the 50-year-old.

A dredger to clear the little harbour lay anchored, rusting and unused, off the industrial town of Balkhack, itself seemingly stuck in a Soviet timewarp.

“We used to take tourists underwater fishing. Now the place has become a swamp,” said Grebennikov.

In town, scientist Olga Sharipova was studying the changes.

“The Balkhash is the country’s largest fishery. But the quantity of fish goes down when the water level drops, because the conditions for reproduction are disrupted,” she told AFP.

And its level is now only a metre from the critical threshold where it could tilt towards disaster.

There was an unexpected respite this spring when unprecedented floods allowed the Kazakh authorities to divert 3.3 million cubic metres of water to the Balkhash.

The Caspian also got a six-billion-cubic-metre fill-up


– China ‘overusing’ water –


But the few extra centimetres has not changed the longterm trend.

“The level of the Balkhash has been falling everywhere since 2019, mainly due to a decrease in the flow of the Ili River” from neighbouring China, said Sharipova.

All the great lakes of Central Asia, also known as enclosed seas, share a similar worrying fate.

The Aral Sea has almost disappeared, the situation is alarming for the Caspian Sea and Lake Issyk-Kul in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan.

Located on dry lands isolated from the ocean, they are particularly vulnerable to disturbances “exacerbated by global warming and human activities”, according to leading scientific journal Nature.

Rising temperatures accelerate evaporation, as water resources dwindle due to the melting of surrounding glaciers.

These issues are compounded by the economic importance of the Balkhash, which is on the path of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project also known as the New Silk Road.

A 2021 study by Oxford University scientists published in the journal “Water” concluded the lake’s decline resulted from China’s overuse of the Ili River which feeds it for its agriculture, including cotton.

“If the hydro-climatic regime of the Ili for 2020–2060 remains unchanged compared to the past 50 years and agriculture continues to expand in China, future water supplies will become increasingly strained,” the study said.

Beijing is a key economic partner for Kazakhstan but it is less keen to collaborate on water issues.

“The drafting and signing of an agreement with China on the sharing of water in transborder rivers is a key issue,” the Kazakh Ministry of Water Resources told AFP.

“The main objective is to supply the volumes of water needed to preserve the Balkhash,” it said.

– Heavy pollution –

The water being syphoned away adds to “pollution from heavy metals, pesticides and other harmful substances”, authorities said, without citing culprits.

The town of Balkhash was founded around Kazakhstan’s largest copper producer, Kazakhmys.

Holidaymakers bathing on Balkhash’s municipal beach have a view of the smoking chimneys of its metal plant.

Lung cancer rates here are almost 10 times the regional average, which is already among the highest in the country, health authorities said.

Despite being sanctioned for breaking environmental standards, Kazakhmys denies it is the main polluter of the lake and has vowed to to reduce pollution by renewing its equipment.

“Kazakhmys is carrying out protective work to prevent environmental disasters in the Balkhash,” Sherkhan Rustemov, the company’s ecological engineer, told AFP.

In the meantime, the plant continues to discharge industrial waste into another huge body of water, right next to the lake.

UK WHITE RIOT 

‘That’s my car, you fascist thugs’: far-right rampage engulfs Middlesbrough

Mark Brown North of England correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Sun, 4 August 2024 

Rioters torched cars and smashed the front windows of terraced homes as a protest in Middlesbrough turned violent.Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer


Incredibly, it began with a two-minute silence for the victims of the Southport knife attack.

What followed was angry, often racist and mindless violence during which front windows of homes were smashed in, cars torched, residents terrified and police repeatedly attacked with missiles.

Related: Rioters try to torch Rotherham asylum seeker hotel amid far-right violence


Middlesbrough resembled a battle zone on Sunday afternoon, the latest place to be chosen as a venue for far-right led violence.

About 300 people gathered at Middlesbrough’s cenotaph at the gates to Albert Park at 2pm. They had been encouraged to turn up by posts on social media. A striking number were men and women in their 50s and 60s.

“We’re fucking angry,” said one woman in her 60s. “I know we’re only plebs from a poor town.”

Another shouted: “This is our way of life that’s at stake.”

One elderly couple took time to go to admire the Brian Clough statue in the park before returning to find somewhere to sit.

But shortly before the crowd set off, a large group of younger masked men walked up to the cenotaph. Things began to feel more sinister and scary.

A man in a blue T-shirt, an organiser, couldn’t get his megaphone to work so yelled instead that it was a protest not about race or religion but about the children who were killed.

By the end, they seemed like hollow words.

The gathered people walked down Linthorpe Road into the city centre. Almost every business along the road had closed early and put the shutters down. A Wetherspoons stayed open but wasn’t letting anyone in.

Police stopped marchers from going down terraced streets off the main road which led to angry confrontations; furious, red-faced men bellowing at officers that their civil rights were being ignored.

Two of the streets had mosques on or near them, a reason marchers wanted to go down them. The police kept shouting “keep moving, keep moving” as the march made its way into the town centre.

It was starting to get ugly. There were racist chants. Windows were smashed, including one which, with grim irony, had a sign on it: “Middlesbrough – moving forward.”

A young girl, probably 12, was on the march with her mother and siblings. She was red-faced and tearful. “I don’t like it mam, I want to go home.”

The marchers headed back towards the cenotaph, this time snaking through terraced streets to the west of Linthorpe Road. Several homes of working-class people had their front windows smashed for no discernible reason.

At least two parked taxis had all their windows broken. Other parked cars were chosen randomly to have their windscreen smashed. One car owner bravely and furiously confronted them: “That’s my car,” she shouted. “You fascist thugs!”

Children used bricks and stones to smash windows of a new development of affordable homes.

The main body of the march made its way back to the cenotaph where there was a standoff with riot police with shields. People threw bricks, bottles and metal bars. At one point burning wheelie bins were pushed towards them.

It was proving impossible to keep everyone in one place. As police dealt with rioters at the cenotaph a large group of dozens of masked children cycled and ran away from a car they had overturned and set on fire in Borough Road. Another car was later torched on Parliament Road.

The police and crime commissioner for Northumbria, Susan Dungworth, has expressed fears that police will be exhausted if they have to keep on dealing with such protests in the coming weeks. When it was possible for officers to take a break, to chat amongst themselves, many looked exhausted. And haunted.

For Cleveland police this is the second time in a week they have had to deal with riots after a night of disorder in Hartlepool on Wednesday.

The force said nine arrests had been made on Sunday and urged people to avoid the area. By 4.30pm the crowds had largely dispersed from the cenotaph but no one was betting that might be the end of it. An hour later Middlesbrough still echoed to sirens and the constant thrum of a police helicopter overhead.

Masked rioters break into hotel housing asylum seekers as violence leaves 10 police officers injured

Sky News
Updated Sun, 4 August 2024

Chairs have been hurled at police and windows were smashed as masked anti-immigration rioters broke into a hotel housing asylum seekers in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Objects including long pieces of wood were thrown at the Holiday Inn Express and at police officers who lined up in front of the building as they tried to protect it.

At least 10 officers were injured, including one who was left unconscious, in violent scenes as the prime minister vowed rioters would "regret" engaging in "far-right thuggery".


UK protests latest: Masked group smash windows at hotel

At least one injured officer in riot gear was carried away by colleagues.

Hotel employees and residents were "terrified", but no injuries to them were reported.

Police, including some on horseback, had been trying to separate the crowd from the hotel entrance, but a large group forced their way inside after smashing a nearby glass door.

After breaking in, the rioters attempted to set the hotel on fire, before blockading the exit with bins. Riot police were able to move them away from the entrance, but the group moved around the side, throwing rocks and debris at the windows.

Masked men also sprayed fire extinguishers at officers.

Several men attacked police cars, including with a riot shield, stolen from an officer. Police have now formed a line around the hotel, preventing any of the group from getting inside.

Officers in riot gear have been moving back a large crowd who were gathered outside the building, but they have been coming under attack from people throwing stones and large pieces of wood.

One person has been arrested on suspicion of public order offences. Police are continuing to disperse the group from the area.

Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield, of South Yorkshire Police, said: "Today in Rotherham we have seen our officers attacked and at least 10 injured, significant damage caused and a fire set outside a hotel full of terrified residents and staff.

"The mindless actions of those today have achieved nothing other than sheer destruction and leaving members of the public and the wider community in fear."

Addressing the nation, Sir Keir Starmer said that those involved in the unrest today and in recent days in parts of England and Northern Ireland will "regret" it and will "face the full force of the law".

BUF BRIT

'Utterly appalling'

He condemned the disorder as far-right thuggery, saying: "I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves.

"This is not a protest, it is organised, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online."

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the deliberate torching of a hotel where people were known to be inside was "utterly appalling" and South Yorkshire Police have government backing to take "the strongest action".

Violence in Middlesbrough

Bricks and other objects have been thrown at a line of police in riot gear by a group, including some masked, in Middlesbrough.

They also pushed burning wheelie bins at officers with shields, leaving the road strewn with smoking rubbish.

Cleveland Police said "a number of arrests" have been made since the protest started in Middlesbrough at around 2pm.

More than 300 people marched in the town carrying a banner saying: "Tom Jones is Welsh, Axel Rudakubana [Southport stabbings suspect] isn't" while chanting "We want our country back" as they made their way through the town centre.

At one point, police used dogs to keep the group back and stop them breaking through and running ahead of the officers patrolling the march.

At least two people were taken away in handcuffs within the first half hour, while several pieces of slate were thrown, along with vapes and full plastic bottles.

Some people kicked bollards into the road so that police vehicles driving ahead of the group could not get through, and one man sat on the bonnet of a police car to stop it from moving.

Businesses, including McDonalds, locked their doors as hundreds walked down the streets.

There was violence on Saturday in towns and cities such as Hull, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester, Blackpool and Belfast which saw several police officers injured.

Police given extra powers

It comes as a Section 34 dispersal notice was put in place in Bolton, giving officers extra powers to deal with anyone causing anti-social behaviour.

Read more:
Should the EDL be banned under terror laws?
'We took beer bottles to our helmets': Bristol riots

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) put a Section 34 in place in parts of Manchester on Saturday, as did police in Liverpool, Southport and Blackpool.

Sir Keir has given police his "full backing" to take any action necessary to respond to "extremists" attempting to "sow hate" after scenes of disorder in England and Northern Ireland this week.

He said: "The police will be making arrests. Individuals will be held on remand, charges will follow and convictions will follow."

More than 100 people have been arrested after riots broke out in the wake of the death of three young girls at a dance studio in Southport.

The Home Office has announced that mosques will be offered greater protection with new "emergency security" that can be rapidly deployed to respond to violent disorder.

Far-right rioters set fire to hotel hosting asylum seekers in Rotherham
Ross Hunter
Sun, 4 August 2024 at 8:02 am GMT-6·2-min read


Far-right rioters clash with police outside a Holiday Express in Manvers (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire.)


FAR-RIGHT rioters have set fire to hotel in Rotherham which is being used to house asylum seekers.

A large group of people draped in Union flags with some wearing balaclavas smashed the windows of a Holiday Express hotel in Manvers, South Yorkshire before setting the building on fire.

Police clashed with the group after bricks were thrown at the building as guests peered down from top floor windows.


Photographs show police officers in riot gear attempting to stop groups of men entering the building.

However, footage posted on social appears to show that some of the men were able to enter the hotel.

READ MORE: Tommy Robinson spreads disinformation about stabbing in Scottish city

It's believed the fire started after a wheelie bin was set on fire and thrown through the window of the hotel.

The Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, described the behaviour as "criminal disorder".

She said: “I’m extremely concern at the escalating violence we are seeing at Holiday Inn, Manvers.

“The people causing damage and attacking police do not represent our town and I am disgusted by their actions.

This is criminal disorder and intimidation - not protest.”

It comes after dozens of people were arrested following riots across numerous cities in England enflamed by disinformation spread by far-right agitators such as Tommy Robinson on social media.

Indeed, Robinson attempted to increase tensions in the Scottish city of Stirling after a woman was stabbed by a man on Saturday.

Police in riot gear face off with a far-right mob outside a Holiday Express being used to house asylum seekers (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire.)

Robinson claimed the attacker was an “alleged Muslim” before Police Scotland issued a statement confirming they had arrested a white man who was local to the area.

John Swinney has since hit out at “unhelpful speculation” on the isolated incident, which police say poses no further threat to the public.

Far-right rioters loot shops and set fire to library and food bank in shameless day of disorder

Jabed Ahmed
Sun, 4 August 2024 

Looters have raided shops across the UK as they took advantage of the disorder caused by violent far-right demonstrations in cities across the country.

Several locations in England and Northern Ireland saw violent clashes involving far-right demonstrators, with dozens of police officers left injured, missiles thrown and shops broken into on Saturday. Home secretary Yvette Cooper said people involved in the clashes “will pay the price” and that “criminal violence and disorder has no place on Britain’s streets”.

Click here for our live coverage of the riots.

A Shoezone in Hull was looted and set on fire on Saturday (X/Twitter)


A man leaves an o2 store being looted in Hull (X/Twitter)

Rioters stole wine, shoes and phones; some shops were then torched during the chaos.

In footage from Liverpool, a group of rioters could be heard shouting “Get the phones! Get the phones!” as they ransacked a phone repair and vape shop in the city centre.

Have you been affected by looting? Email jabed.ahmed@independent.co.uk

Smashed glass and empty phone packaging could be seen on the streets after rioters kicked in the shutters, breaking their way into the business.

In another incident in Liverpool, thugs torched a recently renovated library and food bank on Saturday night. The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide support for one of the most deprived communities in the country, suffered severe damage.

A police car is set on fire in Sunderland on Friday night (Getty Images)

A group protest outside Leeds Town Hall (PA)

Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram condemned the mob who tried to prevent firefighters from accessing the blaze.

“Devastated to see this wonderful community asset ravaged by thugs,” Mr Rotheram said in a post on X.

A Shoezone in Hull was badly damaged after rioters shattered the glass storefront, looted the store and set it on fire. Footage showed a blaze inside the shop with shoes scattered on the path outside, while a Greggs and a Specsavers had also been targeted by masked men throwing stones and bricks.

Humberside Police said officers “faced eggs and bottles being thrown” as windows were smashed at a nearby hotel that has housed migrants.

A supermarket manager in Belfast said his store was reduced to ashes as rioters deliberately targeted immigrant-owned businesses.

“People attacked this place, racism against Islam and Muslims, especially the Muslim community,” Bashir said. “All of that happened and the police did nothing, I am telling you the truth. What kind of police are letting the people burn everything down?”

Across the road from the supermarket, the Bash Cafe, selling Arabic coffee and falafels, was badly damaged by fire.

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said it had attended a shop and a cafe on fire on the Donegall Road on Saturday night. It said the cause of both fires had been determined as deliberate.

A supermarket manager said his store was reduced to ashes (PA)

A fire-damaged Citizen’s Advice Bureau in Sunderland (PA)

Masked men in Manchester chanted “England” and “Oh Tommy, Tommy!”, a reference to the founder of the far-right English Defence League Tommy Robinson, as they ransacked a Sainsbury’s local in Picadilly Gardens, leaving with expensive wines.

In footage of the incident, one man can be heard further encouraging the looters, shouting: “Go get the beers!” The men were chased by riot police before being detained.

Rioters in Sunderland set an overturned car on fire, set alight a disused police building and torched a Citizen’s Advice Bureau, while others targeted a mosque and chanted Islamophobic insults.

The far-right has drawn widespread condemnation as the organising force behind the scenes of disorder in the wake of the killings of three young girls in Southport.

False claims had spread online that the suspect, later identified as 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana from Lancashire, was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat.


Dozens arrested in violent clashes across UK as government warns rioters ‘will pay the price’

Robin McKie, James Tapper, Michael Savage and Olivia Lee

 THE GUARDIAN
Sat, 3 August 2024


Police clash with right wing protesters in Piccadilly Gardens on 3 August in Manchester.Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images


Rioters will “pay the price” for the wave of violent clashes that has spread across the UK, ministers warned on Saturday, after a day in which police battled rival groups of demonstrators in the worst outbreak of civil disorder in Britain for more than a decade.

Dozens of arrests were made after the scenes of disorder, with police warning that further violence is likely in the coming days.

Multiple towns and cities saw clashes between anti-immigration demonstrators and counter-protesters, with police officers attacked and injured, and many more arrests promised.

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the police would have the government’s full support to take the strongest possible action. “Criminal violence and disorder have no place on Britain’s streets,” she said.

Related: Rioting ‘flooding across major cities and towns’ as police brace for further disorder across UK – live

“Anyone who gets involved in criminal disorder and violent thuggery on our streets will have to pay the price and they should expect there to be arrests, prosecutions, penalties and the full force of the law including imprisonment and travel bans. There are consequences for breaking the law.”

The widespread clashes pose the first big challenge to Keir Starmer’s new government, which is facing demands to introduce emergency powers to stop further violence and to recall parliament.

On Saturday bricks were hurled at police officers in Stoke-on-Trent, fireworks were thrown amid tense exchanges between an anti-Islamic group and an anti-racism rally in Belfast, and windows of a hotel which has been used to house migrants were smashed in Hull, where three police officers were injured and four people arrested. Later video footage on social media showed shops on fire. Several officers were also injured during “serious disorder” in Liverpool city centre, where bricks, bottles and a flare were thrown and two officers needed hospital treatment and six arrests were made. Greater Manchester police said a dispersal notice had been authorised for the city centre. Scuffles broke out as opposing groups faced each other in Nottingham’s Old Market Square with bottles and other items thrown from both sides.

About 150 people carrying St George’s Cross flags, shouting “you’re not English any more” and “paedo Muslims off our street”, were greatly outnumbered in Leeds by hundreds of counter-protesters shouting “Nazi scum off our streets”. Skirmishes broke out between demonstrators and punks – in town for a festival – in Blackpool, with bottles and chairs thrown.

In Bristol, police kept protesters and counter protesters apart before a group headed to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.

The need for urgent political intervention was stressed by the government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, Lord Walney, who told the Observer that new emergency powers may be needed. “The system isn’t set up to deal with this rolling rabble-rousing being fuelled by far-right actors,” he said.

“I think home office ministers may want to look urgently at a new emergency framework – perhaps temporary in nature – that enables police to use the full powers of arrest to prevent people gathering where there is clear intent to fuel violent disorder.”

Keir Starmer held a meeting of senior ministers on Saturday in which he said police had been given full support to tackle extremists who were attempting “to sow hate by intimidating communities”. He made clear that the right to freedom of expression and the violent scenes over recent days were “two very different things”.

Last week’s riots followed the killing of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport on Monday. Axel Rudakubana, 17, from Lancashire, is accused of the attack, but false claims were spread online that the suspect was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat. In the wake of these messages, far-right protesters – guided by social media – gathered in cities across the country.

A key factor in this spread of online disinformation involved Elon Musk’s decision to allow rightwing activists such as Tommy Robinson back onto his social media platform X, said Joe Mulhall, director of research at Hope not Hate, the anti-fascism organisation. “The initial disinformation and anger was being perpetrated by individuals on Twitter, for example, that have been previously deplatformed,” he said. “And now they’ve been replatformed.”

Robinson was permanently banned from the platform (then called Twitter) in March 2018, then reinstated in November last year, after Musk bought it. “We hadn’t seen any significant numbers at any demonstrations since 2018,” Mulhall added.

An example of the danger posed by the misuse of social media was revealed in Stoke-on-Trent, where police were forced to deny there had been a stabbing, countering claims made on social media. “There is growing speculation that a stabbing has taken place as a result of the disorder today. We can confirm this information is false and no stabbings have been reported to police or emergency responders, despite videos fuelling speculation on social media,” police said.

The danger of such intervention was stressed by Ben-Julian “BJ” Harrington, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for public order, who condemned social media disinformation as a cause of last week’s disorder.

He said: “We had reports today that two people had been stabbed by Muslims in Stoke – it’s just not true. There’s people out there, not even in this country, circulating and stoking up hatred, division and concerns in communities that they don’t care about, don’t know and don’t understand.”

Harrington, who was also the NPCC’s gold commander in charge of national strategy for Saturday’s disorder, said that “yobs and thugs and criminals” were responsible. “This isn’t about protests,” he said. “This is about violent disorder. This is about people who are descending into communities and causing damage – throwing bricks and bottles and things at cops who work within those communities.”

Forces across England brought officers back from leave to deploy an extra 130 police support units – about 2,000 officers, he revealed. “Of course there is a limited number of officers, and every one that is taken from a community is not out there solving burglaries.”

Echoing concerns about the dangers of social media, shadow home secretary James Cleverly called for tech companies to be hauled into Downing Street to ensure they were acting to stop the spread of disinformation on their platforms. However, he was criticised for issuing a statement in which he said Starmer taking the knee had sent “completely the wrong message” to protesters, adding that there was “never a justification for disorder like this”.

There was also further condemnation of Nigel Farage’s role in inciting the violence with his comments about the Southport killings, in which he questioned “whether the truth is being withheld from us” after the attack on Monday. Robert Jenrick, one of the favourites in the Tory leadership race, said that the Reform leader’s comments did not “make the situation better”.

Last week’s clashes spread four days ago, when more than 100 protesters were arrested on Whitehall, where bottles and cans were thrown at police, while violence also broke out in Hartlepool and in Manchester.

On Thursday, Starmer announced a new “national” response to the disorder linking police forces across the country through shared intelligence and the expanded use of facial recognition.

Then, on Friday, about 500 people, including some parents with their children, gathered in Sunderland city centre, responding to far-right social media posts to turn up and demonstrate. The gathering quickly descended into violence, with masked boys and men throwing missiles, including bricks, stones, beer barrels and scaffolding poles, at riot police.

Ten people were arrested and four policemen taken to hospital, one seriously injured. A police station was ransacked and a Citizens Advice Bureau set alight. By Saturday morning, the acrid smell of fire still hung in the air. Shoppers stopped to express their shock at what had happened, with hundreds of residents of all ages gathering on the city’s streets with brushes, litter pickers, buckets, bin bags and dust pans.

The Sunderland Central Labour MP, Lewis Atkinson, said a link could be drawn between the disorder and the ashes of the English Defence League (EDL), which was founded by Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. The EDL has disbanded but its supporters remain active, and Atkinson said evidence suggested a neo-Nazi offshoot of the group was involved in Friday’s violence.

A priest at Sunderland Minster said yobs tried to smash a gravestone to use as missiles during the disorder that gripped the city. “It’s an act of sacrilege to disturb someone’s gravestone,” said Rev Jacqui Tyson. “It’s also remarkably lacking in common sense – have you tried to pick up a gravestone?”


Thugs will ‘pay the price’, Government warns amid fears of more disorder to come

George Lithgow, PA
Sat, 3 August 2024 at 8:55 pm GMT-6·5-min read

Thugs who engage in criminal disorder on the streets will “pay the price”, the Government has said, amid warnings that further violence is likely in the coming days.

Towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland saw clashes between anti-immigration demonstrators and counter-protesters on Saturday, with police officers attacked and injured and a number of arrests made, with many more promised.

The string of violent incidents over the past few days began on Tuesday in Southport, after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said people involved in the clashes “will pay the price” and that “criminal violence and disorder has no place on Britain’s streets”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the police have his “full support” to take action against “extremists” attempting to “sow hate” by intimidating communities as he held emergency talks with ministers over the unrest in parts of England.

The far right has drawn condemnation from MPs across the political spectrum after disorder in London, Manchester, Southport and Hartlepool came before Saturday’s violence.

Police in Liverpool (James Speakman/PA)

Arrests have been made across the country with police warning of more to come once CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage has been scoured.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told ministers “the whole justice system is ready to deliver convictions as quickly as possible”, a Downing Street spokesperson said, which could see courts sitting for 24 hours a day as they did for the 2011 riots, according to one report.

There was violence on Saturday in towns and cities such as Hull, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester, Blackpool and Belfast which saw several police officers injured.

It followed a riot in Sunderland on Friday evening.

A protest in Sunderland city centre (Scott Heppell/PA)

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said anyone who attacks police “should be ashamed”.

She wrote on X: “I cannot thank our local police enough for everything they’re doing to keep people safe.

They were among the first on the scene when the horrendous incident unfolded in Southport.

They run into danger to keep us safe, and those who attack them should be ashamed.”


Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said “violence is not acceptable”.

“Northern Ireland must always be a place that protects the right to protest, the right to have a view and to express it”, she posted on X.

“Let’s be VERY clear – violence is not acceptable. It never was and it is not now. No one, NO ONE, has the right to express hate and violence. Stop it now.”

In Liverpool, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder on County Road, Walton, which included community facilities being set on fire.

The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide a much needed on stop shop for one of the most deprived communities in the country, has suffered severe damage to the ground floor.

Police said rioters tried to prevent firefighters accessing the fire, throwing a missile at the fire engine and breaking the rear window of the cab.

A total of 23 people were arrested on Saturday, including 12 arrests for the disorder in the city centre, nine arrests for the disorder on County Road and two arrests in connection with disorder in Southport.

One officer was kicked and knocked off his motorcycle by a demonstrator and others tried to kick riot shields.

In a post on X, Liverpool City Council urged people to “stay away from the area” and let police “deal with this ongoing situation in Walton”.

Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss called the behaviour of protesters “deplorable”, adding: “The impact of the disorder will be devastating for the people of Walton, but I promise that we are doing everything in our power to arrest those involved and bring them to justice.”

Merseyside Police also said a 58-year-old man has been charged with two offences following the violent disorder in Southport on Tuesday.

Derek Drummond of Pool Street, Southport, has been charged with violent disorder and assault on an emergency worker. He will appear at Wirral Magistrates Court on Monday, August 5, police said.

In Hull, Humberside Police said there were 20 people arrested, three police officers injured and shops looted and burned after a mob attacked a hotel housing asylum seekers.

Assistant Chief Constable Mike Walker said: “The right to lawful protest is a part of democracy, which my officers upheld, however, we will not accept the senseless vandalism, antisocial behaviour and sheer violence that has been brought to our streets.”

Businesses were targeted in Belfast where police mounted a significant security operation during a lengthy confrontation between anti-Islamic protesters and those taking part in an anti-racist rally at Belfast City Hall during which fireworks and other missiles were thrown.

A vehicle is set alight in Belfast (David Young/PA)

In Bristol, police made 14 arrests because of violent disorder in the city centre which Avon and Somerset Police described as “completely unacceptable”.

Lancashire Police said more than 20 people were arrested and dispersal orders were issued in parts of Blackpool, Preston and Blackburn.

And Staffordshire Police said 10 people were also arrested following disorder in Stoke-on-Trent.

Further protests are planned for Sunday and more trouble is likely in the coming days, police said.

“We know people will try and do this again and policing has been and will continue to be ready,” said Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who speaks on public order for the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

“There are 130 extra units in place across the country, meaning almost 4,000 extra public order-trained officers to deploy.

“So if you’re planning to cause trouble and disorder our message is very simple – we’ll be watching you.”


Mapped: Violent protests grip the country with fears of more to come

Jabed Ahmed
Sun, 4 August 2024

Around 90 people were arrested following violence and disorder across the country in another night of rioting on Saturday, with police warning that further violence is likely in the coming days.

Several towns and cities in England and Northern Ireland saw violent clashes involving far-right demonstrators, with dozens of police officers left injured.

There was unrest in Manchester, Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool and Belfast, with missiles thrown and shops looted.

The string of violent incidents over the past few days began on Tuesday in Southport, after three girls were killed in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer added the police have his “full support” to take action against “extremists” attempting to “sow hate” by intimidating communities as he held emergency talks with ministers over the unrest in parts of England.

The interactive map below shows the towns and cities where there was disorder and the number of arrests made.

The far right has drawn condemnation from MPs across the political spectrum after disorder in London, Manchester, Southport and Hartlepool came before Saturday’s violence.

False claims had spread online that the suspect, later identified as a 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana from Lancashire, was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the UK by boat in 2023.

Arrests have been made across the country with police warning of more to come once CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage has been scoured.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said people involved in the clashes “will pay the price” and that “criminal violence and disorder has no place on Britain’s streets”.

In Liverpool, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder on County Road, Walton, which included community facilities being set on fire.

Police said rioters tried to prevent firefighters from accessing the fire, throwing a missile at the fire engine and breaking the rear window of the cab.

Police officers face protesters in Liverpool (James Speakman/PA Wire)

A total of 23 people were arrested on Saturday, Merseyside Police said. One officer was kicked and knocked off his motorcycle by a demonstrator and others tried to kick riot shields.

Lancashire Police said more than 20 people were arrested and dispersal orders were issued in parts of Blackpool, Preston and Blackburn.

Further protests are planned for Sunday and more trouble is likely in the coming days, police said.

“We know people will try and do this again and policing has been and will continue to be ready,” said Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who speaks on public order for the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

“There are 130 extra units in place across the country, meaning almost 4,000 extra public order-trained officers to deploy.

“So if you’re planning to cause trouble and disorder our message is very simple – we’ll be watching you.”

Lumpenproletariat

Roughly translated as slum workers or the mob, this term identifies the class of outcast, degenerated and submerged elements that make up a section of the population of industrial centers. It includes beggars, prostitutes, gangsters, racketeers, swindlers, petty criminals, tramps, chronic unemployed or unemployables, persons who have been cast out by industry, and all sorts of declassed, degraded or degenerated elements. In times of prolonged crisis (depression), innumerable young people also, who cannot find an opportunity to enter into the social organism as producers, are pushed into this limbo of the outcast. Here demagogues and fascists of various stripes find some area of the mass base in time of struggle and social breakdown, when the ranks of the Lumpenproletariat are enormously swelled by ruined and declassed elements from all layers of a society in decay.

The term was coined by Marx in The German Ideology in the course of a critique of Max Stirner. In passage of The Ego and His Own which Marx is criticising at the time, Stirner frequently uses the term Lumpe and applies it as a prefix, but never actually used the term “lumpenproletariat.” Lumpen originally meant “rags,” but began to be used to mean “a person in rags.” From having the sense of “ragamuffin,” it came to mean “riff-raff” or “knave,” and by the beginning of the eighteenth century it began to be used freely as a prefix to make a range of perjorative terms. By the 1820s, “lumpen” could be tacked on to almost any German word.

The term was later used in the Communist Manifesto (where it is translated as “dangerous classes”) and in Class Struggles in France, and elsewhere.

https://www.marxists.org/