Month: April 2022

Around nine people – including seven police personnel – were injured in the violence, which broke out on Saturday. One of the policemen was hit by a bullet.

The atmosphere in the relatively poor neighbourhood, which has a large Bengali-speaking Muslim population, was still tense a couple of days later.

Eyewitnesses say tensions flared after hundreds of people – including many members of right-wing Hindu organisations – marched to celebrate the birth anniversary of Hindu god Hanuman. Videos show participants dancing and chanting religious slogans, with many holding swords and tridents.

The march passed a mosque, and that’s where the trouble broke out. Stones were thrown, triggering the violence.

Both sides blame the other. The marchers say they came under an organised attack by Muslims, who threw stones and other sharp objects from rooftops.

Muslims deny this, saying that Hindus yelled provocative slogans near the mosque, leading to an argument. The first stone, they allege, came from the other side.

The Delhi police have arrested 23 people, including two minors. The police’s crime branch is still investigating how the violence began. They are also looking into allegations by local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders that “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh” were behind the violence.

The flare-up – the biggest in Delhi since the 2020 riots that killed more than 50 people, mostly Muslims – was similar to others that recently broke out in some other northern Indian states such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

There too, violence began after religious processions to celebrate the Ram Navami festival passed near mosques.

After the Jahangirpuri incident, 13 opposition parties issued a joint statement, expressing shock at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence.

“This silence is an eloquent testimony to the fact that such private armed mobs enjoy the luxury of official patronage,” they said.

Religious polarisation has soared in India since 2014, when Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist government swept to power. Festivals, in particular, have become frequent flashpoints for communal violence.

When BBC Hindi visited Jahangirpuri, residents were glued to mobile phones and news channels, watching and sharing their takes on viral videos and news coverage.

Some of them insisted that this was the first time such religious tensions had broken out in the area. But many local Hindus were angry, saying their procession had been attacked without any provocation.

Sukhen Sarkar, the organiser of Saturday’s march, was at the centre of a group of men sitting opposite the local Hanuman temple.

“We were unarmed and not in a mood to fight. It felt like a shower of stones and glass shards hit us,” he said, showing bruises on his foot.

As he continued speaking, others around him became emotional and agitated.

“The attack was planned. We were surrounded and attacked with stones, swords and knives,” said a furious Gaurishankar Gupta, who was part of the procession.

The men also alleged that the culprits used petrol bombs and pistols and looted a vehicle carrying grains.

A few hundred metres away, near the mosque, the Muslims had a different story to tell.

Mosque manager Mohammed Salahuddin said Muslims reacted only after the marchers threw stones and tried to force their way into the mosque.

“When our boys saw the mosque was under attack, they couldn’t tolerate it,” he said.

He denied allegations that stones were thrown from the mosque’s roof.

Local BJP leaders have alleged for years that Jahangirpuri has a large proportion of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The Muslims deny this, saying they are migrants from West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Most of them work as labourers or scrap sellers for low wages.

“You can check our documents,” said Sazda, a resident, who lamented that Muslims were treated like criminals due to skewed media coverage.

Three people were injured in Norrkoping on Sunday when officers fired warning shots at rioters, police said.

The violence was sparked by a series of rallies organised by the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan.

He says he has burned a copy of Islam’s holy book and wants to do so again.

Muslims consider the Quran the sacred word of God and view any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive.

Saudi Arabia has condemned what it called the “deliberate abuse of the holy Quran by some extremists in Sweden, and provocation and incitement against Muslims”.

Iran and Iraq earlier summoned the Swedish ambassadors to lodge protests.

Sweden’s national police chief, Anders Thornberg, said he had never seen such violent riots following Sunday’s clashes in Norrkoping, which is about 160km (99 miles) south-west of Stockholm, and nearby Linkoping.

The two cites also witnessed riots on Friday, along with the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby and the western city of Orebro. On Saturday, there was a riot in the southern city of Malmo.

On Monday, police said 26 police officers and 14 members of the public had been injured in the violence and that more than 20 vehicles had been damaged or destroyed.

They said that around 200 people had been involved in the violence, adding they believed it was organised by networks of criminal gangs. Some of the individuals are already known to police and Sweden’s security service, Sapo.

Sunday’s violence in Norrkoping came after Rasmus Paludan said he planned to hold a rally there. However, he never showed up in the city.

In a statement posted by his far-right, anti-immigrant Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, Paludan said he cancelled the rally because Swedish authorities had “shown that they are completely incapable of protecting themselves and me”.

He had earlier appeared on Thursday in the central city of Jonkoping, but as he talked into a megaphone while holding a Quran, his words were drowned out by a priest ringing the bells of a local church in protest.

Protests against plans by Stram Kurs to burn the Quran have turned violent in Sweden before. In 2020, protesters set cars on fire and shop fronts were damaged in clashes in Malmö.

Paludan represented Stram Kurs party in the last Danish elections in 2019, where it received 1.8 % of the vote, failing to win a seat.

In 2020, he was jailed in Denmark for a month for a string of offences including racism.

He plans to stand in Swedish elections in September, but he reportedly does not yet have the necessary number of signatures to secure his candidature.

More than 440 people have died, and the search is continuing for 63 people who are still missing.

Some of them were swept away by swollen rivers and mudslides.

The government has declared KwaZulu-Natal a disaster area.

Officials described the floods as some of the worst to ever hit the province.

KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala said that nearly 4,000 homes were destroyed and more than 8,000 were damaged, most in the coastal city of Durban and its surrounding areas.

Both the police and army were involved in the search effort, with six more bodies recovered on Sunday, local media reported.

One woman in Durban, Amanda Acheampong, said the bodies of four of her relatives had been recovered near a river bank while six were still missing.

“The neighbours’ house collapsed first, which then resulted in our family home collapsing and washing everyone into the river. Four bodies were discovered along the riverbank – my sister and her three grandkids. It’s horrible,” Ms Acheampong was quoted by South Africa’s News24 website as saying.

“We’re still looking for the remaining six. We are hopeful they might still be alive, but at this stage it doesn’t look good,” she added.

Another woman, Lethiwe Sibiya, said her niece had not yet been found.

“When the mudslide happened she was washed away. We don’t know where she is. We have tried to get police and their dogs but till today they have not come,” she said.

In a statement, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) said its troops would bolster search and rescue operations, as well as assist in transporting aid to victims.

Army plumbers and electricians would also work in areas that have been without water and electricity for a week, it added.

Some communities are completely cut off because roads and bridges have collapsed.

“We don’t have electricity in many, many areas,” said Imtiaz Syed, the leader of the Active Citizens’ Coalition.

Nearly 300 schools and some health facilities have also been damaged.

Mr Zikalala said that people needed to stop building homes along river banks.

“Many still remain precariously perched on the edge of the river. In reality, no building should ever have been allowed to be erected at such a location,” he said.

During a visit to flood-affected areas last week, South Africa’s President Cyril Rampahosa said the government would “spare no expense” to rebuild the infrastructure and assist all affected families.

Weather experts have said that climate change may be contributing to changing patterns and making such extreme events more frequent.

The rainfall has since eased but the amount of rain which fell last Monday was equal to about 75% of South Africa’s average annual precipitation.

The weather system which triggered the floods saw more than 300mm of rainfall being dumped over a 24-hour period on 11 April – far more than previous serious floods.

In 2019, 165mm fell on in April and 108mm was recorded in October 2017.

These votes and those cast in person at polling places on Thursday 5 May will decide who runs local government and the essential services it provides over the next five years.

From emptying your bins to teaching your children. From running libraries and leisure centres to fixing holes in local roads and pavements. Councils have big responsibilities.

They spend around £12bn a year across 32 local authority areas from East Ayrshire to East Lothian, Aberdeenshire to Argyll and Bute. All council seats are up for grabs – more than 1,200 in total.

While local politics and personalities will determine how some people cast their votes, the decisions of others will be shaped by the wider context in which these elections are being fought.

The war in Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and is making the cost of living crisis worse. The NHS has a huge backlog to clear after two years of covid. The climate emergency has not gone away.

These elections are also the first national test of political opinion since the Scottish Parliament contest a year ago.

The results will be seen, to some extent, as a mid-term verdict on the parties in power at Holyrood and Westminster and those that seek to replace them.

That’s one reason you’ll hear politicians across parties urging you not only to endorse their polices or record but also to send a message to their rivals. To vote for something and against something else.

As well as being the largest party of local government, the Scottish National Party has been in power at Holyrood for 15 years – overseeing the NHS, education and law and order as well as local government.

The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, can trade on her leadership through the pandemic. Ultimately, the buck also stops with her for everything from long waits in accident and emergency to overdue, overbudget ferries.

As first minister, Ms Sturgeon argues she is working with councils to do all she can to ease cost of living pressures – extending free school meals and increasing the new weekly child payment for example.

She is also calling on the UK government to do more. “It’s Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak who hold most of these powers and control most of these resources and they are not doing nearly enough” she said.

The Scottish Conservatives are defending second place in these elections and the record of their party in power at Westminster since 2010 – managing the broad economy, most welfare benefits and a new post-Brexit immigration system.

The Scottish Tory leader, Douglas Ross, is proud to highlight Boris Johnson’s leadership on Ukraine and gives the war as his reason for withdrawing calls for the prime minister to resign over his Covid law breaking.

In this election, Mr Ross is promising to focus on local priorities like catch-up education and filling pot holes and to resist any priority SNP councillors might put on agitating for indyref2.

“Nicola Sturgeon wants another independence referendum as early as next year, therefore their focus will be on supporting her in her efforts to divide the country all over again” he said.

Pushed into third place in the last council elections in 2017 and in opposition at both Holyrood and Westminster, Scottish Labour is looking to win back some of the ground they’ve lost to the big two parties and to overtake the Tories.

They have some eye-catching policies to offset the rising cost of living, like a UK windfall tax on oil and gas giants and an energetic leader in Anas Sarwar who argues neither government is doing enough to cut household bills.

“If we’re going to send a message to the UK and Scottish governments that they need to do more to confront the cost of living crisis, then please vote Labour” Mr Sarwar said.

A persistent danger for Labour is being judged insufficiently unionist by some and insufficiently nationalist by others and getting squeezed in the constitutional battle between the SNP and the Conservatives.

It is worth underlining at this point, that while the overall outcome of this election can have an important effect on momentum in national politics, all it decides directly is the political make up of our local authorities.

As the fourth placed party in this election, the biggest challenge for the Scottish Liberal Democrats is to be seen as relevant and their new leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton is presenting his team as a refreshing, reliable alternative to their rivals.

The Lib Dems are campaigning for local government to have more power and promising councillors with huge commitment.

“You get somebody who’ll fight for your community all year round and not just at election time,” Mr Cole-Hamilton said.

The Scottish Greens had their best ever local elections five years ago, finishing as the fifth biggest party. This is their first electoral test since forming a power-sharing deal with the SNP at Holyrood.

They hope being in government will help rather than hinder their chances in this contest and have ambitions to share power in councils like Glasgow and Edinburgh, where the party’s co-leader, Lorna Slater thinks they are already having an impact.

“Even having a few Green councillors around the table makes such a difference in terms of keeping climate, keeping social justice and fairness on the agenda,” she said.

Other candidates are available including a plethora of independents and those standing for the pro-independence Alba party and the socially conservative, Scottish Family Party.

There are eight wards in Shetland, the Western Isles, Highland, Moray and Inverclyde where the election is already over. Due to a shortage of candidates all those who stood will automatically get in.

Everywhere else it is game on and because turnout tends to be lower than for parliamentary elections and because there’s a proportional voting system with candidates ranked in order of preference 1, 2, 3 – outcomes are hard to predict.

Over 16s are entitled to vote in these elections, including EU nationals. For the first time in a local government contest, some foreign nationals and short term prisoners will also be allowed a say.

To take part in Election 2022 you have to be registered to vote by midnight on Easter Monday, 18 April, as parties prepare to step up their campaigning with just over a fortnight to go until polling day.

Writing in the Times with the Rwandan foreign minister, she said they had proposed an innovative answer to the “deadly trade” of people-smuggling.

No “humanitarian nation” could allow that suffering to continue, they said.

It comes after Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said there were “serious ethical questions” about the plan.

To push the scheme through, Ms Patel issued a ministerial direction – meaning she took responsibility for the policy – after her top civil servant questioned whether it offered value for money.

Ms Patel and Vincent Biruta, Rwanda’s foreign minister, said the global asylum system was “collapsing” under the strain of humanitarian crises and human trafficking.

The plan to transport some asylum seekers who enter the UK unlawfully to Rwanda, where they can apply to settle, will allow people fleeing persecution to find safety, they said.

And they added that the UK’s investment in Rwanda – an initial £120m – would help to address the lack of opportunities which drive economic migration.

“We are taking bold and innovative steps and it’s surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions,” they wrote.

“Allowing this suffering to continue is no longer an option for any humanitarian nation.”

It also emerged that some refugees in Rwanda will be sent to the UK under the terms of the two nations’ agreement.

A UK government source told the BBC that it would be supporting Rwanda to resettle “a portion of the most vulnerable refugees”.

The scheme will initially focus mainly on single men arriving in the UK on small boats or lorries. Those sent to Rwanda will be provided with accommodation while their asylum claims are considered.

If successful they will be able to remain in the east African nation.

Energy minister Greg Hands told Times Radio sending migrants to Rwanda would be a “significant deterrent” to people attempting to cross the Channel in small boats. He said the government was “confident” that the policy would work.

On Easter Sunday, Mr Welby became the latest figure to criticise the plan, accusing the government of “subcontracting our responsibilities” and saying it cannot “stand the judgment of God”.

He was joined by the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who said the policy was “depressing and distressing”, adding: “We can do better than this.”

Opposition parties and some Conservative MPs have also criticised the plan, while more than 160 charities and campaign groups called it “shamefully cruel” and urged the prime minister and Ms Patel to scrap it.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the scheme as “unworkable”, while the Liberal Democrats said the government was “slamming the door” in the face of refugees and the SNP’s Ian Blackford called it “absolutely chilling”.

Among their concerns was Rwanda’s own human rights record, with the UK having raised allegations of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture in the east African nation at the UN last year.

But in their Times article, Ms Patel and Mr Biruta said Rwanda “ranks as one of the world’s safest countries” and has already accommodated 130,000 refugees from multiple countries.

While they said the plan would “deter migrants from putting their lives at risk” by making dangerous journeys, a letter from the Home Office’s top official said evidence for a deterrent effect was “highly uncertain”.

Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft warned the policy had a high cost and would only be value for money if it reduced the number of Channel crossings and other illegal entries to the UK.

While the UK is investing £120m into the “economic development and growth of Rwanda” as part of the deal, the government said funding would also be provided to support asylum operations, accommodation and integration which would be “similar to the costs incurred in the UK for these services”.

The Times has reported a cost of £20,000 to £30,000 for each migrant sent to Rwanda.

Labour’s Dame Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “highly unusual” in the Home Office for a ministerial direction to be issued.

She said if a policy is drawn up “at the last minute” it can be difficult to prove its monetary value but as the idea of processing asylum seekers abroad had been discussed by the government for some time, she said she would be interested to see the “accounting for it”.

Photos show the country’s leader Kim Jong-un smiling and clapping as he watches the new missile’s launch.

Experts believe this is a sign that North Korea is planning to test compact nuclear weapon soon – in other words, a tactical nuclear weapon.

North Korea stopped nuclear testing in 2017.

The following year, it blew up tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear testing site, in a move that was seen to be part of a diplomatic rapprochement with South Korea and the US.

But recent satellite images suggest work is under way to restore the tunnels.

The “new-type tactical guided weapon… is of great significance in drastically improving the firepower of the frontline long-range artillery units and enhancing the efficiency in the operation of tactical nukes,” the North’s official KCNA news agency reported.

It added that Mr Kim had given “important instructions on further building up the defence capabilities and nuclear combat forces of the country”.

South Korea’s military confirmed that two missiles – likely to be short-range – were launched from the North into the sea on Saturday night.

The US said it was monitoring the situation.

Experts say the timing of the test could be seen as a protest against joint US and South Korean military drills, which are due to take place for nine days from Monday.

North Korea has often denounced such drills as a rehearsal for war.

The timing also coincides with events celebrating the anniversary of the birth of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, last Friday.

Just three weeks before the celebrations, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time since 2017.

North Korea is banned from testing them and has been heavily sanctioned for doing so before.

It has been conducting other regular missile tests as part of its weapons development programme.

In a quiet suburb of the Michigan city of Grand Rapids, a collection of flowers, cards and candles has been placed against a tree next to a small front lawn.

This corner of Nelson Avenue and Griggs Street – the intersection of two parallel rows of neat clapboard houses with cars in the driveways and Happy Easter decorations in the porches – could be anywhere in the great American Midwest.

Some of the residents, though, speak of something else far less visible but just as commonplace – a sense of insecurity on account of the colour of their skin.

“Once again we’re at the same question – police brutality, police injustice in our country,” says Terry Roberts, 57.

“I think most black men go through that. We get stopped for no reason at all or just because we’re driving black. That’s just how it is.”

This week, the police released video footage of the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya.

The tragic incident was caught in graphic detail and from multiple angles on a police body camera, a police dashboard camera, an eyewitness’ phone and a doorbell security system from one of those Nelson Avenue homes.

It makes difficult viewing from all of them.

Frame by frame, what began as a routine traffic incident – with Mr Lyoya being questioned by a white police officer over a suspected licence plate violation – unfolds rapidly towards an outcome that has once again put the question of racial injustice and policing firmly in the national spotlight.

Mr Lyoya at times seems confused, and tries to run.

At one point his hand can be seen holding and fending off an electric stun gun while the officer attempts to deploy it from close range.

In the ensuing struggle, Mr Lyoya is forced face down to the ground with the policeman lying on top of him shouting at him to let go of the Taser.

Then, without warning, the officer draws his gun and shoots Mr Lyoya in the head.

A short drive east from Grand Rapids, in the Michigan state capital of Lansing, the same biting wind blows from across the Great Lakes, even in Spring.

But there’s one important difference between the two cities that might, some people believe, offer a way to help prevent more deaths like that of Patrick Lyoya.

“Two years ago, after the George Floyd incident, we wanted to evaluate our policies,” says Lansing Mayor Andy Schor.

The incident in which Mr Floyd died at the hands of a police officer who knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, prompted Mr Schor to outlaw restraint techniques like chokeholds.

But it also led to a wider review in which a decision was made to curtail the range of reasons for which police officers can stop people in cars.

“We put in place a policy that said we’re not going to have our officers pull people over just for non-public safety reasons,” says the mayor.

While offences that pose a danger, like speeding or running stop signs, are still enforced at the roadside, he believes that there are other far more efficient and potentially less confrontational ways to tackle things like cracked taillights or licence plate violations.

Prof Linda Bauld told the BBC there were still high levels of infection due to the BA.2 Omicron variant.

She said public health advice on the virus would be around for “months to come” despite the rule on face masks becoming guidance on Monday.

Traffic jams and rail disruption have already impacted commuters across the UK over the long weekend.

Family gatherings, a rise in church attendance and events including the Musselburgh races are expected to contribute to higher social interaction across Scotland.

Crowds will also have gathered at Hampden for the Scottish Cup semi-finals with Hearts playing Hibs on Saturday and Celtic clashing with Rangers on Sunday.

Earlier this week the Office for National Statistics sampling showed a slight decrease in the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in Scotland for the third week in a row.

However, Prof Bauld said despite the encouraging figures, infection levels were still high due to the highly transmissible BA.2 variant.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: “Reinfections are increasingly common – they’re accounting for around 11% of infections certainly in Scotland.

“So if you’re in indoor places with others you don’t normally live with, of course people may pick it up.

“They’re unlikely to become severely unwell but I think in time when we’ve lifted basically all the protective measures and it’s down to people’s decisions, we still just need to be aware of that.”

On Thursday Public Health Scotland reported 4,196 further cases of Covid-19 and 40 deaths of people who had tested positive.

Fewer people are becoming severely unwell with only 20 patients with Covid requiring intensive care on Friday, although more than 2,000 Covid-positive patients are in hospital across Scotland.

On Monday, the legal requirement to wear face masks in many indoor settings in Scotland will become guidance.

The move had been delayed twice amid record levels of Covid cases and high numbers of people in hospital with the virus.

Speaking about the matter to the PA news agency on Sunday, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she had confidence in the “good sense and responsibility” of people in Scotland.

She said: “We can’t keep things in law beyond a point where that is deemed to be proportionate, so we will move the face covering requirement out of law and into guidance.

“Wearing a face covering is a bit of protection you can give, not only to yourself but to the people you might be around – including people who might be more clinically vulnerable.”

Prof Bauld echoed the Scottish government’s advice for people to continue wearing masks in crowded indoor places and on public transport.

She said: “Wearing a face covering indoors even if it’s not a legal requirement, thinking about being in well ventilated places and finally just making sure everyone is up to date with their vaccines before they travel – this is practical advice we’re going to here around the country for some months to come.

“If you had Delta for example you might pick up Omicron, and you could still become quite poorly even if you don’t become severely unwell.”

Prof Bauld added that new hybrid variants were still being identified through the government’s testing surveillance.

She said: “They certainly are transmissible and in fact some of them may be a little bit more transmissible than what we’ve got at the moment but they’re not causing more severe disease.”