Pro-Palestinian protest in London sees thousands call for bombing to stop - BBC.com

PA Media

By Thomas Mackintosh & Victoria Bourne in central London

BBC News

Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters have marched in London and across the UK to urge an end to Israel's attacks in Gaza.

Demonstrators gathered on the streets of the capital holding flags and banners as they demanded an end to the bombing.

There have beennine arrests, some of which are being treated as suspected hate crimes.

Protests also took place in Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and other cities.

It follows the recent upsurge in conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Israel has expanded its strikes, three weeks after Hamas launched a cross-border attack that killed 1,400 people and saw 229 people kidnapped as hostages.

Since then, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 7,500 Palestinians have been killed as Israel carried out retaliatory strikes.

Over the past three weekends huge protests have taken place in major UK cities.

EPA

On Saturday afternoon, crowds gathered near the Golden Jubilee Bridge holding signs saying "Gaza, stop the massacre" and "Free Palestine, end Israeli occupation".

A sound system led people to chant "Stop arming Israel. Stop bombing Gaza" and "We are all Palestinian".

Some in the crowd chanted "from the river to the sea", referring to the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean - a chant UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman had previously urged police chiefs to consider interpreting as an "expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world". Israel and most Jewish groups agree.

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and other activists contest this, saying the slogan refers to "the right of all Palestinians to freedom, equality and justice".

During the march in London, an emotional Chrif El Amraoui told the BBC: "Just now marching, I'm crying because children are killed daily. Why? Why do they want more to be killed?"

Abdul Mahfuudi attended the protest with his children and said: "The most important thing for us is for them to stop killing kids. They need to stop."

More than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers were deployed across London.

Of the nine arrests made, seven were for alleged public order offences, a number of which were being treated as hate crimes, and two were for suspected assaults on officers.

Earlier, the Met Police said one person had been arrested in Whitehall for assaulting an officer.

The officer remains in hospital with a laceration to the head, but "is in good spirits & appreciates all your wishes", the Met added, posting a photo of the officer with his head bandaged and doing a thumbs up.

Another man was arrested in Waterloo Road on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence and making threats to kill.

Close to Downing Street, officers appeared to be detaining someone before scuffles broke out with demonstrators, with punches thrown and kicks.

Officers ordered the demonstrators to move away, and one person was carried away to chants of "let him go" from other protesters.

Scotland Yard also issued an appeal to identify two women in connection with an alleged hate crime incident in Trafalgar Square.

Throughout Saturday, the force used public order powers to prevent protesters from gathering outside the Israeli embassy.

It also has put in place extra powers until midnight allowing officers to search a person or vehicle for weapons or dangerous instruments and to require people to remove an item they are wearing "for the purposes of wholly or mainly concealing their identity".

These powers apply across the City of Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea.

On Saturday evening the force said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that officers were monitoring a group gathered at Piccadilly Circus and would use separate powers to disperse anyone causing anti-social behaviour.

Elsewhere in the UK, thousands attended a pro-Palestinian rally outside Manchester's Central Library at St Peter's Square.

On Friday, the region's mayor Andy Burnham joined international calls for "a ceasefire by all sides and for the hostages to be released unharmed".

About 3,000 protesters gathered in Belfast City Centre for a rally which walked along Royal Avenue to City Hall.

A sea of Palestinian flags could be seen in Glasgow, with thousands gathering in George Square in the heart of the city calling for an immediate ceasefire. Some of the crowd clambered onto statues and monuments.

More on Israel-Gaza war

• Follow live: Latest updates
• Explained: What is happening in Israel and Gaza, and why now?
• History behind the story: The Israel-Palestinian conflict
• Bowen: What increased strikes on Gaza could mean
• Hostages: Who are the hostages taken by Hamas from Israel?

Last weekend, similar numbers of officers were involved in policing demonstrations in London and 10 people were arrested on the day.

A video later emerged online of a pro-Palestinian protester chanting "jihad" at a smaller protest near the main march last weekend, but the Met said it "had not identified any offences arising from the specific clip".

It prompted Suella Braverman to question Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley over why arrests had not been made.

Ahead of this weekend's demonstrations, the force said officers would be expected to intervene if protesters use the word "jihad" in chants.

"Jihad" literally means "effort" or "struggle" in Arabic. In Islam the main meaning is an internal struggle, such as a believer's struggle to live in accordance with their faith.

It can also be an outward struggle or war, which in Islamic teaching must be in self defence and within prescribed limits.

Reuters

Demonstrations have been taking place around the world to call for fighting to stop and for aid to be allowed into Gaza.

Protesters demanding a truce flooded Grand Central Terminal in New York, forcing the station to close temporarily.

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Related Topics

• Israel-Gaza war
• London

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2023-10-28 21:46:59Z
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Bristol Airport sees dozens of flights grounded after serious road crash - Wales Online

Flights with enough crew are taking off but most still delayed

Bristol Live reported that with the number of passengers packing into the departure lounge increasing, those flights that are ready and waiting with the crews all there are now beginning to board - if nothing else, to reduce the number of people waiting in the departure lounge.

The flight to Rome, which was due to depart first this morning at 6.05am, is now on 'final boarding', and other flights - the one to Tenerife, Faro, Lanzarote, Dublin, Alicante, Malaga and Budapest are all boarding.

There are a number of logistical issues around the delays caused by the crash outside the airport. Not only does the airport have to take into consideration the fact that passengers are going to be badly delayed by the road outside being closed - with all the queues for the car parks and lack of access to the car parks for people coming from one side of the airport trying to get to the other side.... but there's the fact that the delays on the roads outside also affects staff at the airport and the flight crews themselves.

One main reason for delaying the flights by at least two hours is to give the flight crews the chance to get in to work too - they will have been just as much delayed by the collision and road closure as the passengers. So the flights that are boarding now have their full contingent of flight crew on board and are ready to go - it's just a case of waiting for passengers.

Other flights may be delayed longer, simply because the pilots or flight assistants haven't made it in yet.

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2023-10-28 06:44:43Z
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Former KGB double agent can sue UK crime agency after it revealed his identity - The Telegraph

A former KGB double agent can take legal action against the National Crime Agency (NCA) after accusing it of wrongly disclosing his new identity, the High Court has ruled.

Boris Karpichkov - his former name - alleges he received death threats after his new name and address were given to the Latvian authorities by the UK’s law enforcement agency.

The ex-KGB major maintains he is a “dead man walking”, claiming the Russian state gained knowledge of his new identity and that threats written in Russian were sent to his home.

In a High Court judgment on Friday, Master Victoria McCloud ruled against the NCA’s bid to strike out the claim or request a summary judgment, and said Mr Karpichkov’s case, subject to any appeal, can proceed.

Mr Karpichkov - whose current name cannot be made public and did not appear in the ruling - is claiming damages for breaches under the Data Protection Act 2018 and for misuse of his private information.

He worked for the Russian security services for many years and within the Latvian security services before moving to the UK in 1998 as an asylum seeker with his family, eventually being granted British citizenship and a new identity.

The ruling showed that in a previous British court hearing he was found to be in a “unique position to confirm past collaboration by high-ranking Latvian officials with the KGB”.

He was also “likely to be considered a threat to the Russian intelligence services by virtue of his work as a double agent for the Latvian LSP and against Russian state interests and by his on-going outspoken criticism of Russia... (his) life has been at risk since these allegations were first brought.”

Mr Karpichkov alleges that in 2006-7, before the disclosures in the case, he may have also been the victim of a possible chemical or biological attempt on his life.

Latvia attempted to extradite him from the UK, but the High Court quashed a decision agreeing to this, ruling his life would be in danger from “underworld/rogue government elements if he were returned or extradited”.

In 2018 amid a second extradition attempt, the NCA gave the Latvian authorities Mr Karpichkov’s new identity, after which he alleges he began to receive anonymous threats, and in 2019 they received his address, the judgment said.

The NCA argues it had to disclose Mr Karpichkov’s new name and address, which happened pre-Brexit, due to laws governing exchange of information between EU states relating to criminal suspects.

In dismissing the NCA’s application, Master McCloud said it was arguable that the NCA should have considered whether the disclosures were truly required by law after taking into account Human Rights and EU Charter provisions.

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2023-10-27 22:29:00Z
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Sunak announces UK AI safety institute but declines to support moratorium - The Guardian

Rishi Sunak has announced the establishment of a UK AI safety institute but has declined to support a moratorium on advanced development of the technology.

The prime minister said the institute would be a world first and would test new types of AI for a range of risks from generating misinformation to posing an existential threat.

Announcing the move before next week’s global summit on AI safety at Bletchley Park, Sunak said the institute would “advance the world’s knowledge of AI safety”.

“It will carefully examine, evaluate and test new types of AI so that we understand what each new model is capable of,” he said in a speech at the Royal Society, an association of leading scientists.

He said it would explore “all the risks, from social harms like bias and misinformation through to the most extreme risks of all”.

A prototype of the safety institute, which the government hopes will become a vehicle for international collaboration on AI safety, already exists in shape of the UK’s frontier AI taskforce, which is scrutinising the safety of cutting-edge AI models and was established this year.

Sunak said a pause in developing powerful models was not feasible. Asked after the speech if he would support a moratorium or ban on developing a highly capable form of AI known as artificial general intelligence, he said: “I don’t think it’s practical or enforceable. As a matter of principle, the UK has rightly been an economy and society that has encouraged innovation for all the good that it can bring. And I think that is the right approach.”

The debate over AI safety reached a new peak in March when an open letter signed by thousands of prominent tech figures including Elon Musk called for an immediate pause in the creation of “giant” AIs for at least six months.

Sunak said it was still unclear whether China would attend the summit, despite Beijing receiving an invite to attend along with technology executives, experts and other global leaders. The prime minister said he could not say with “100% certainty” if Chinese officials would join.

Liz Truss, Sunak’s predecessor, added to the pressure over Chinese attendance on Thursday by asking the prime minister to rescind the invitation, warning that Beijing has used technology to attack “freedom and democracy”.

The White House confirmed Kamala Harris, the vice president, will attend the summit. She will deliver a speech on the US approach to AI on 1 November before attending the event on 2 November, when Sunak will convene a smaller group of international partners, companies and experts to discuss what concrete steps can be taken to address AI risks.

UK officials said they did not see the planned speech by Harris as overshadowing the summit.

One potential development in AI that alarms some experts is AGI, the term for a system that can carry out an array of tasks at a human level of intelligence or beyond.

Sunak was speaking after the government released its assessment of AI safety risks including the admission that an existential threat from the technology could not be ruled out.

“Given the significant uncertainty in predicting AI developments, there is insufficient evidence to rule out that highly capable frontier AI systems, if misaligned or inadequately controlled, could pose an existential threat,” said a government document published on Wednesday.

Other threats detailed in the government risk papers included the ability of systems to design bioweapons, mass-produce “hyper-targeted” disinformation and cause substantial disruption to the jobs market.

Sunak said the worst-case scenario of an existential threat from a “superintelligent” system that evades human control was a scenario that divided opinion among experts and might not happen at all. He added, nonetheless, that major AI developers had voiced concerns about existential risks.

“However uncertain and unlikely these risks are, if they did manifest themselves, the consequences would be incredibly serious,” he said.

“And when so many of the biggest developers of this technology themselves warn of these risks, leaders have a responsibility to take them seriously and to act.”

Sunak added that he would the use the two-day summit to call for the formation of an expert AI monitoring group similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“Next week, I will propose that we establish a truly global expert panel nominated by the countries and organisations attending [the summit] to publish a state of AI science report,” he said.

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2023-10-27 01:31:00Z
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Tory MP Crispin Blunt arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of drugs - The Independent

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Tory MP Crispin Blunt has been arrested and questioned by Surrey police over an allegation of rape and possession of controlled substances.

The 63-year-old MP for Reigate has now had the whip suspended by the Conservatives and he has been asked to stay away from the parliamentary estate.

After reports of the arrest of an unnamed Conservative MP first emerged on Thursday evening, Mr Blunt issued a statement on Twitter/X vowing to clear his name.

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt had already announced he will stand down at the next election

The MP for Reigate said he will “co-operate fully” with the ongoing investigation and is “confident” that he will not be charged. He claimed that he had initially been interviewed by police on Wednesday after he reported an alleged extortion.

“It has been reported that an MP was arrested yesterday in connection with an allegation of rape,” Mr Blunt wrote. “I am confirming that MP was me.”

Mr Blunt said: “The fact of the arrest requires a formal notification of the speaker and then my chief whip. I have now been interviewed twice in connection with this incident, the first time three weeks ago, when I initially reported my concern over extortion. The second time was earlier this morning under caution following arrest.”

“The arrest was unnecessary as I remain ready to cooperate fully with the investigation that I am confident will end without charge. I do not intend to say anything further on this matter until the police have completed their inquiries,” the MP added.

A Surrey police spokesman told The Independent: “We can confirm a man was arrested yesterday morning [25 October] on suspicion of rape and possession of controlled substances. He has been released on conditional police bail pending further enquiries.”

Cabinet minister Gillian Keegan insisted that there is no “cultural issue” among Tory MPs following a series of suspensions. The education secretary said Rishi Sunak has been “clear about high standards” and “always follows due process” when asked about the arrest of Mr Blunt.

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt

(PA Media)

“Due to the serious nature of the allegations... he’s had the whip suspended, but the police are involved now so beyond that it’s not really appropriate for me to comment any further,” she told Times Radio.

Asked whether there was a wider cultural problem among Tory MPs, Ms Keegan said: “No, I certainly don’t see a cultural issue among Conservative MPs. I see individual incidents which are all investigated as such.”

Mr Blunt has been the MP for Reigate, Surrey since 1997. Last year he announced he would not be standing for the Conservatives at the next election.

He joined the army aged 18 for officer training at Sandhurst, serving in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars until 1990. He left the army to join the world of politics, though failed to get elected as an MP in West Bromwich East in 1992.

He went on to serve as Malcolm Rifkind’s special adviser during Mr Rifkind’s terms as defence secretary and then foreign secretary, between 1993 and 1997. He was elected as Conservative MP for Reigate on 1 May 1997.

In 2010, while he was prisons minister, he announced he was splitting from his wife Victoria, revealing he had told his family that he had “decided to come to terms with [my] homosexuality”.

A statement from his office at the time said that there was no third party involved and asked the media to respect his family’s privacy. The couple have one daughter and one son.

He has served as opposition spokesperson for Northern Ireland, shadow minister in the Department of Trade and Industry, opposition whip and shadow minister for national security.

Crispin Blunt will not stand in the next election

Mr Blunt’s arrest is the latest in a string of allegations involving sitting Conservative MPs, dealing another damaging blow to Rishi Sunak and his vow to get tough on sleaze.

Former Tory MP Peter Bone was suspended on Wednesday for six weeks for bullying and sexual misconduct against a staff member. MPs approved the lengthy sanction against the MP for Wellingborough, who has been sitting as an independent since losing the Conservative whip.

In September, Tory whip Chris Pincher resigned from his government role after allegations that he had groped two people while drunk.

A standards committee upheld allegations Mr Pincher “groped” two men at London’s exclusive Carlton Club while he was the Conservative deputy chief whip, in a scandal that hastened Boris Johnson’s downfall.

In May 2022, it emerged that a Tory MP in his 50s had been arrested on suspicion of indecent assault, sexual assault, rape, abuse of position of trust and misconduct in public office.

The Tory whips’ office said at the time that the MP had been asked not to “attend the Parliamentary estate while an investigation is ongoing”. The latest extension to his bail is to mid-February.

Last December, another senior Conservative MP was reported to the police over allegations they committed rape and a string of sexual assaults. The MP was reported to the Metropolitan Police by a group of colleagues, themselves Tory MPs.

And a Conservative MP was arrested on suspicion of rape in 2020. He was never identified and police took no further action after an investigation.

The Prospect and FDA unions representing Westminster staff both called for a vote to automatically exclude MPs under investigation for violent and sexual offences from accessing the parliamentary estate.

Mike Clancy, general secretary of the Prospect, said: “How many more cases like this will it take for action to be taken to protect staff and visitors on the parliamentary estate?”

The FDA’s Dave Penman also called for a vote so MPs can “recognise the responsibility they have to protect the staff and visitors”.

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2023-10-27 07:44:44Z
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Two hotels between Long Eaton and Sandiacre will stop being used by asylum seekers in near future - Derbyshire Live

Two hotels near Derbyshire towns will stop being used to house asylum seekers, potentially within the next three months. And if they are not in the first group to be exited, it would be "very soon", according to Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick.

A backlog in the processing of asylum cases and record net migration into the UK last year meant that asylum seekers were placed in hundreds of hotels across the country. These included the Novotel and Best Western hotels on Bostocks Lane - between Long Eaton and Sandiacre - where around 400 people were housed at one stage.

The Novotel was the scene of a protest, against asylum-seekers staying there, earlier this year, although the protestors were outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, who supported the rights of asylum-seekers.

POLL: Do you welcome trick or treaters?

The Government has now announced that it will have stopped using 50 hotels across the country to house asylum seekers by January. Mr Jenrick, who is also the Conservative MP for Newark, confirmed the news in the House of Commons earlier this week, Nottinghamshire Live reports.

He said: "These hotels should be assets for their local communities... not housing illegal migrants at unsustainable costs to the taxpayer. As a result of the progress we've made to stop the boats, today the Home Office wrote to local authorities and MPs to inform them that we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels."

Maggie Throup, the Conservative MP for Erewash, asked Mr Jenrick about the hotels in her constituency by saying: "Will my right honourable friend deliver on a commitment he made to me at the dispatch box on September 5 and confirm that the two hotels on Bostocks Lane are the top of his priority list for closure. If he can't deliver that good news, why not?"

Mr Jenrick replied: "I did make a promise a year ago when I took on this role that we would close hotels and I'm pleased to be able to deliver upon that today. We will be writing to all those who are part of the first tranche today or tomorrow and I'd be very happy to stay in touch with her if she isn't part of that tranche. But if she isn't, then we'll do everything we can to make sure that her hotels are exited very soon."

He added in Parliament that following the first 50 hotels by the end of January, the Government will "not stop there" in exiting more facilities.

We send out the biggest stories in an email every day. Sign up for the main Derbyshire Live newsletter here.

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2023-10-27 03:00:25Z
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Crispin Blunt MP arrested on suspicion of rape and possession of drugs - Evening Standard

It is the latest in a string of arrests of sitting MPs and the latest blow to Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party, which has been hit by a string of sleaze allegations. Tory MP for Wellingborough Peter Bone was suspended on Wednesday from the House of Commons for six weeks after bullying and sexual misconduct claims.

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2023-10-27 00:56:58Z
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