Established 1961 7 Wednesday, July 1, 2020 International Racism in UK: The effects of a ‘hostile environment’ Floyd’s death sparks a wave of Black Lives Matter protests

LONDRES: Ijeoma Moore came to Britain from Nigeria as a toddler and is now 25. “I have lived here since I was two. I feel very much British,” she said. But two years after a scandal involving the “Windrush” generation of 500,000 Caribbean migrants who came to Britain after World War Two, race and identity remain hot topics. The death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, during a US police arrest has sparked a wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the country. And there have been calls to take down colonial-era statues to figures who were involved in, or profited from, the interna- tional slave trade. Moore said she cannot remember having studied colonialism at school and was shocked at the treatment of some of the Windrush migrants. They were LONDON: Performers in costume enact a Windrush-inspired performance on the LONDON: A protester makes a Black Lives Matter fist at a demonstration in Trafalgar supposed to have been granted British cit- main Parade day of the Notting Hill Carnival in west London. — AFP Square in central London. — AFP izenship but still had to prove every year they had a right to remain, under threat of expulsion. “If that happened to them, what ernment immigration policies. “They (the promised to “right the wrongs” suffered by vironment” towards immigrants by succes- I speak,” said Moore. But next year, the first could happen to me?” she asked. Cur- government) should not look at black peo- the Windrush migrants from its former sive governments and said it was grounded permanent sculpture celebrating the Win- rently, Moore herself has only a lim- ple or migrants like they are bad things but colonies, many of the victims are still bitter. in racism. The report’s author said earlier drush generation will be unveiled in Lon- ited right to remain in Britain, which “We don’t matter,” said Anthony Bryan, this month there was a “grave risk” of sim- don, based on archive photographs from means she has to renew her papers 63, who arrived in Britain in 1965. Several ilar failures happening again if the govern- the time and people’s stories. every 30 months. decades later, he found himself placed in ment did not implement a series of its Sculptor Thomas J Price, 39, said the It takes 10 years to get permanent detention twice and threatened with de- recommendations. bronze, three-metre (10-foot) piece will resident status, and then another year Group tackles portation. But at the very last moment, show “what it means to descend from the to apply for British nationality in what lawyers managed to secure his release. Face history Windrush generation and to live in Britain she said was a “very complicated” - hostile policies The experience left him traumatized, he For many, British society has been too today”. It will stand outside Hackney Town and expensive - process. “I think I paid said, and he is still waiting for compensa- slow to change. In Bristol, southwest Eng- Hall, in the northeast of the capital. Price, £1,500 ($1,840, 1,640 euros) the last tion. But he has at least received his British land, anti-racist campaigners toppled a whose grandmother was a nurse and came time I made my application back in passport, which meant he could visit his controversial statue of 17th-century mer- to Britain from Jamaica, said the sculpture 2017. The next one is this year and the mother in Jamaica in 2018, the first time he chant and slave trader Edward Colston and would give people “a sense of visibility” and fees have increased again,” she said. had left the country in 53 years. threw it in the port, after years of inconclu- a “sense of belonging”. The removal of Col- “I am looking to pay at least £3,000 for my see how much they contribute to society,” With other activists, he recently brought sive wrangling about its future. Statues to ston’s statue was a good thing, he said, as it next application.” She is now a member of she added. a petition signed by more than 130,000 leading Black, Asian and minority ethnic fig- “raised awareness” of the issue. “The UK the We Belong group of young migrants, people to Downing Street, calling on Prime ures are few and far between, increasing needs to face its history, the disparities, how born abroad but who have grown up in ‘Right the wrongs’ Minister Boris Johnson to act. In March, a alienation. “Some people will always see me black people have been treated. We can’t Britain, and have had to battle “hostile” gov- Although the British government has damning report denounced the “hostile en- like a foreigner, no matter what I say or how move forward until it’s done.”— AFP

one of the rare moments where he faced UK locks down US-Russia severe criticism within Republican ranks, Trump appeared to take Putin at his word during a 2018 summit that Leicester after tension soars Russia did not meddle in the election. virus flare-up once again ‘Superficial’ plan with Putin Every US president since the end of the Cold War has taken office seeking LEICESTER: Britain has imposed a strin- WASHINGTON: Donald Trump has better relations with Russia - but with gent lockdown on the English city of Leices- spent much of the past four years mus- mixed results. James Jay Carafano of ter following a local flare-up of the novel ing about warmer ties with Russia. But the conservative Heritage Foundation, coronavirus just as Prime Minister Boris explosive new allegations show that re- who served on Trump’s presidential Johnson attempts to nudge the United King- lations may only get worse. Top De- transition team, said Trump’s Russia dom back to normality. The United Kingdom mocrats have demanded answers and promises in 2016 were “just as superfi- has been one of the world’s worst-hit areas, even some Republicans have urged re- cial as everybody else’s.” “He didn’t taliation after reports, first published by with more than 54,000 suspected deaths, LEICESTER: People walk by an electronic billboard displaying a government message have a secret plan to have better rela- , that a Russian though infections have been waning in re- reminding people to wear face coverings on public transport as a precaution against tions with Russia,” Carafano said. “If unit offered rewards to Taliban-linked cent weeks and Johnson is rolling back na- spreading COVID-19 in the centre of Leicester. — AFP you want a better relationship with tionwide restrictions to revive the economy. militants to kill US-led forces in Russia you would need a different However, in Leicester, in the eastern Mid- Afghanistan. The furor comes weeks Putin. And this is the problem every- lands of England, the seven-day infection Schools close “Policing it is going to be something of a after Trump again offered an olive body has, is you don’t get a different rate was 135 cases per 100,000 people, The Leicester lockdown was overshad- challenge until we know actually what the branch to President Vladimir Putin, Putin,” he said. three times higher than the next highest city. owing a major speech by Johnson later on area is to be policed.” Schools in the city, speaking of inviting him to an ex- Putin, a Soviet-era intelligence offi- Leicester accounted for 10% of all positive Tuesday in Dudley, just 50 miles away, in where the remains of King Richard III of panded summit of the Group of Seven, cer who has spoken of restoring lost cases in England in the past week, the gov- which he will detail plans to rebuild the England were found under a car park in from which Russia was kicked out over Russian glory, has been president or ernment said. “We will be bringing forward British economy after it was battered by the 2012, will close from Thursday with Hancock its 2014 takeover of Crimea. House prime minister since 1999 - and a ref- a legal change very shortly, in the next cou- coronavirus lockdown. Hancock said the saying there had been an unusually high in- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Demo- erendum Wednesday could let him stay ple of days, because some of the measures government was still analyzing the exact rea- cidence of infections in children there. “In crat in Washington, said that with in power until 2036. “There’s nothing that we’ve unfortunately had to take in sons behind the rise of cases in Leicester. the very significant testing that we’ve Trump, “all roads lead to Putin.” that we really need from the Russians Leicester will require a legal underpinning,” However, city mayor Peter Soulsby said it had brought into Leicester ... We have seen a Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican that we can’t live without. And there’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Sky. been hard to get details from the government number of positive cases in the under 18s in a tight re-election bid, said he would nothing that Russians can really do for Asked if some aspects of the lockdown and even the exact boundaries of the lock- and that’s why we took the decision with a push to declare Russia a state sponsor us that is worth bargaining for,” would be enforced by the police, he said: down. “It’s obviously going to be quite a heavy heart to close schools in Leicester,” of terrorism - a designation with far- Carafano said. Reports said US intelli- “Yes, in some cases.” challenge enforcing it,” Soulsby told Sky. Hancock said. — reaching legal implications. Trump said gence was assessing the Russian unit’s he was not briefed on the Afghanistan motivations in Afghanistan, from seek- charges. He has scoffed in the past at ing to bog down the United States in a US intelligence, particularly its finding war that Trump is seeking to end, to re- Suspect pleads guilty that Russia interfered to sway the 2016 taliation for US attacks on Russian election to him over Hillary Clinton. In mercenaries in Syria. — AFP to 13 , President Donald Trump. “We’ve en- SACRAMENTO: An elderly was held in a Sacramento univer- Facebook advert tered a totally new era of digital ac- ex-policeman confessed on sity ballroom, rather than a court- tivism,” said Greg Sterling, a digital Monday to being the violent se- house, to allow for socially boycott enters a marketing analyst and contributing edi- rial prowler known as the distanced seating amid the coro- tor at Search Engine Land. “Golden State Killer,” pleading navirus pandemic. The defendant new phase “Non-profit groups are appealing to guilty to 13 murders and admit- and his attorneys wore medical- advertisers to police social media, given the general reluctance or refusal of the ting to dozens of rapes and style, clear plastic face shields. WASHINGTON: The advertiser boy- companies to do so themselves. Indeed, break-ins that terrorized Califor- DeAngelo, dressed in orange jail cott of Facebook has morphed into a all social media will be compelled to re- nia during the 1970s and ‘80s. garb, sat expressionless and global digital activist campaign aimed at examine and adjust or adopt new poli- Joseph James DeAngelo, 74, en- slack-jawed in a wheelchair In this file photo Joseph James DeAngelo, the suspected ‘Golden curbing hateful and toxic content on the cies that don’t permit hate and racism to tered the pleas as part of a throughout the seven-hour pro- State Killer’, appears in court for his arraignment on April 27, 2018 social media giant. But its impact re- proliferate.” Michelle Amazeen, a Boston broader deal with prosecutors ceeding. He spoke in a weak, in Sacramento, . — AFP mains unclear. The unprecedented move University professor of communication, sparing him from a potential raspy voice only to give yes and has been joined by major brands like said the latest action “suggests that so- death sentence in return for his no answers to procedural ques- Unilever, Starbucks, Levis and Coca- cial media need to take this issue seri- admission to all of the offenses he tions from the judge, and later to mated conversation with him- than 40 years of investigation Cola, with nearly 200 firms pausing ad- ously or it’s going to affect their bottom stood accused of - charged and answer “guilty” when Bowman self, referring to an apparent that authorities finally solved vertising on the world’s leading social line.” Amazeen added that the move- uncharged - in 11 California asked his plea to each of 13 alter ego named “Jerry,” whom through DNA evidence and data network, and has wiped out billions in he described as being “in my from commercial genealogy ment highlights that “long overdue pres- counties. Under terms of the un- counts of first-degree Facebook’s market value. Some compa- sure is finally mounting on social media head” and compelling him to websites. The breakthrough usual plea agreement, approved and . nies have signed on to the #StopHate- platforms to be accountable gatekeep- “do those things.” came about two months after the by Superior Court Judge Michael He also replied “I admit” to ForProfit campaign organized by social ers and stop promoting hate and vio- case gained renewed national at- Bowman at Monday’s hearing, dozens of allegations of , justice activists, while others have sim- lence for profit.” ‘Not afraid to face him’ tention in the bestselling book, DeAngelo faces life in prison robbery, and other crimes as ply acted on their own to avoid the toxic The wave of announcements last One of many surviving victims “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.” A TV without the possibility of prosecutors took turns present- atmosphere of Facebook. week sent Facebook shares tumbling, who attended the hearing, Kris documentary series spawned by rather than a potential death sen- ing “factual-basis” statements Ford, for example said it would pause leading to a loss of some $50 billion in Pedretti, said she felt satisfied the book premiered by coinci- tence. Prosecutors said the deal graphically detailing every mur- all social media advertising to “re-eval- market value, with a partial bounceback with the outcome of DeAngelo’s dence on HBO on Sunday. Be- ensured that aging survivors and der, sexual assault and uate our presence on these platforms,” on Monday. Facebook appeared to re- plea, telling Reuters during a sides the 13 murders and victims’ relatives lived to see the with which DeAngelo was ac- adding that “content that includes hate spond Friday by announcing it would break, “I do think he is owning it.” , prosecutors said case resolved, sparing them fur- cused. His admissions encom- speech, violence and racial injustice on ban a “wider category of hateful con- ther legal proceedings likely to passed a total of 161 uncharged Pedretti, who was 15 when sexu- DeAngelo was tied to nearly 50 social platforms needs to be eradi- tent” in ads. Chief executive Mark have dragged on for 10 years. crimes, prosecutors said. Pros- ally assaulted, said she and other rapes and more than 120 home cated.” The boycott gained momentum Zuckerberg said Facebook also would “The time for justice stands in ecutors also revealed that on the survivors “want people to know invasions - mostly in and around amid the latest civil unrest as activists add tags to posts that are “newsworthy” front of us now,” said Amy Holli- day of his arrest, while alone in that there’s hope and that we’re Sacramento, the eastern San have pressed Facebook to be more ag- but violate platform rules - following the day, deputy district attorney for an interview room, DeAngelo not afraid to face him.” DeAn- Francisco Bay area and Southern gressive in curbing racism and inflam- lead of Twitter, which has used such la- Sacramento County. The hearing was overheard having an ani- gelo’s arrest in 2018 capped more California. — Reuters matory content, including from bels on tweets from Trump. — AFP