LONDON: The UK’s oldest medical union on Saturday hit out at government plans to increase the amount migrant workers pay to use the state health care service, to cover public-sector wage increases.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government this week approved recommendations to boost wages of teachers, doctors and police by between 5.0 to 7.0 percent.
Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the rise but instead said hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees would raise £1 billion.
Doctors in Unite, which represents junior doctors, general practitioners and hospital consultants, said it was “appalled” at the move, as it would see migrants pay double to use the NHS.
Most employees in the UK have National Insurance contributions deducted at source on their salaries, which pays for the National Health Service, as well as state pension and unemployment schemes.
“Just like other workers, migrants contribute to NHS funding through general taxation. Doubling the NHS surcharge to over £1,200 ($1,570) per year is an unjust additional penalty,” Doctors in Unite said.
“Migrants are effectively ‘taxed twice’ to access the same service,” it added, calling the move “immoral and divisive.”
The IHS, initially brought in to prevent “medical tourism,” is now paid by most migrants under tighter post-Brexit entry rules.
It is paid per person in addition to visa fees for stays of more than six months.
Over-18s pay £624 per year while students and under-18s pay £470 per year.
The government has proposed raising the IHS for adults to £1,035, and £776 at the reduced rate.
Work and visit visas will go up by 15 percent, while the cost of student and leave-to-remain visas among others will rise by at least 20 percent.
Net migration in the UK hit a record 606,000 in 2022, according to official figures released in May, heaping pressure on the government, which has pledged to cut dependency on foreign labor.
Sunak has described legal immigration levels as “too high,” and is separately battling record levels of asylum claims from migrants crossing the Channel in small boats.
Critics warn the IHS increases — paid for by individuals or their companies — could worsen under-staffing in many sectors, and prompt high-skilled workers and students to go elsewhere.
Migrant and refugee charity Praxis has accused ministers of treating people born outside the UK as “cash cows” at a time when they were struggling to repay already high visa renewal fees.
Genomics research center The Wellcome Sanger Institute said it spent more than £300,000 in immigration fees for its employees in 2022.
“These proposed increases create further barriers for global talent... and will have a detrimental effect on UK and global science,” said head of policy Sarion Bowers.
UK immigration fee hikes face criticism
https://arab.news/mkmka
UK immigration fee hikes face criticism
- Sunak ruled out tax increases or government borrowing to fund the rise
- Hikes in the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) and visa fees would raise £1 billion
Mosque murder suspect arrested in Italy: French prosecutor
- The suspect, ‘Olivier A.,’ a French national born in Lyon in 2004, ‘surrendered himself to a police station in Pistoia’ near Florence
- A European arrest warrant will be issued for his transfer across the border to France
NIMES, France: A man suspected of stabbing a young Malian to death in a mosque in southern France and filming his victim writhing in agony has surrendered to police in Italy, a prosecutor said on Monday.
The suspect, “Olivier A.,” a French national born in Lyon in 2004, “surrendered himself to a police station in Pistoia” near Florence, on Sunday, Abdelkrim Grini, the prosecutor of the southern city of Ales, who is in charge of the case, said.
“This is very satisfying for me as a prosecutor. Faced with the effectiveness of the measures put in place, the suspect had no option but to hand himself in – and that is the best thing he could have done,” Grini said.
A European arrest warrant will be issued for his transfer across the border to France, the prosecutor said.
More than 70 French police officers had been mobilized since Friday to “locate and arrest” the perpetrator, considered “potentially extremely dangerous,” the prosecutor said.
“After boasting about his act, after practically claiming responsibility for it, he made comments that would suggest he intended to commit similar acts again,” Grini had said on Sunday.
The suspect is from a Bosnian family, unemployed, and with ties to the southern Gard region. He lived in the small town of La Grande Combe which lies north of Ales.
“He was someone who had remained under the radar of the justice system and the police, and who had never been in the news until these tragic events,” Grini had said on Sunday.
In La Grand-Combe, more than 1,000 people gathered on Sunday for a silent march in memory of the victim, Aboubakar Cisse, who was in his twenties.
They marched from the Khadidja Mosque, where the stabbing occurred, to the town hall.
Several hundred people also gathered in Paris later Sunday, including three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, who accused Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau of cultivating an “Islamophobic climate.”
“Racism and hatred based on religion will never have a place in France,” President Emmanuel Macron said on X on Sunday, expressing “the nation’s support” to the victim’s family and “to our Muslim compatriots.”
Myanmar marks month of misery since historic quake
- The magnitude-7.7 tremor was the strongest with an epicenter on Myanmar’s land mass since 1912
- Devastation centered on the second most populous city of Mandalay where apartments, hotels and religious institutes were razed or heavily damaged
YANGON: Myanmar marked one month since suffering its fiercest earthquake in more than a century on Monday, with military bombardments unabated despite a humanitarian truce as thousands of survivors camp in makeshift shelters.
The magnitude-7.7 tremor was the strongest with an epicenter on Myanmar’s land mass since 1912, the United States Geological Survey reported, killing nearly 3,800 according to an official toll still rising daily.
Devastation centered on the second most populous city of Mandalay where apartments, tea shops, hotels and religious institutes were razed or heavily damaged.
“It’s been a month but we are still very busy trying to get back what we lost,” said one Mandalay resident who asked to remain anonymous.
“I am not the only one still in difficulty, it’s everyone around me as well.”
With tens of thousands people still homeless as monsoon season approaches, aid agencies are warning of major challenges to come.
“People are extremely concerned about what will happen in the next few weeks,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Myanmar chief Nadia Khoury said.
Meanwhile she said the organization was planning a two-year relief plan because “the geographical magnitude of this earthquake has been absolutely huge.”
The military – which sparked a civil war by snatching power in a 2021 coup – declared a ceasefire to spur relief efforts starting on April 2.
But since then monitors from the Britain-based Center for Information Resilience have logged 65 air attacks by the junta.
A strike on Wednesday killed five people and wounded eight more in a village on the outskirts of the town of Tabayin, residents said, 100 kilometers (62 miles) northwest of the earthquake’s epicenter.
“I managed to hide immediately after I heard explosions but my elder sister couldn’t,” said 40-year-old Ko Aung.
“She ran randomly in a panic during the strike and a piece of shrapnel hit her head. She died on the spot.”
Cho Tint, 46, said she sheltered in a cow shed as a fighter jet dropped two bombs.
“The military announced a ceasefire for the quake but they broke it already and are still attacking civilians,” she said. “That’s them crossing the line.”
In eastern Myanmar residents also said they were forced from their homes in an offensive by opposition armed groups attempting to seize towns on a lucrative trade route to Thailand during the truce, due to last until Wednesday.
After four years of war, half the population were already living in poverty and 3.5 million were displaced before the quake, which sheared the ground up to six meters (20 feet) in places according to NASA analysis.
Khoury said some of the badly-hit regions already had a high level of humanitarian need because they were hosting people displaced by fighting.
“Now it’s become even higher with this earthquake,” she said.
Ahead of the tremor the nation of more than 50 million was also bracing for the impact of international aid cuts following US President Donald Trump’s campaign to slash Washington’s humanitarian budget.
The World Food Programme had said it would cut off one million from vital food aid starting in April as a result of “critical funding shortfalls.”
Vancouver ramming attack suspect charged with murder as hundreds attend vigils for victims
- Multiple counts of murder on allegations he killed 11 people when he rammed a crowd of people at a Filipino heritage festival
- The festival was in honor of Lapu-Lapu, a national hero who stood up to Spanish explorers in the 16th century
VANCOUVER, British Columbia: A 30-year-old man was charged with multiple counts of murder on allegations he killed 11 people when he rammed a crowd of people at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, as hundreds attended vigils across the city for the victims and the Canadian prime minister visited the site on the eve of a federal election.
Kai-Ji Adam Lo, 30, was charged with eight counts of second degree murder in a video appearance before a judge on Sunday, hours after he was arrested at the scene, said Damienne Darby, spokeswoman for British Columbia prosecutors. Lo has not yet entered a plea.
Investigators ruled out terrorism as a motive and said more charges are possible. They said Lo had a history of mental health issues.
An attorney for Lo was not listed in online court documents and The Associated Press wasn’t immediately able to reach an attorney representing him.
Those killed were between the ages of 5 and 65, officials said. About two dozen people were injured, some critically, when the black Audi SUV sped down a closed street just after 8 p.m. Saturday and struck people attending the Lapu Lapu Day festival. Authorities had not released victims’ names by Sunday evening.
Nathaly Nairn and her 15-year-old daughter carried flowers to one of the vigils. They had attended the festival on Saturday, and Nairn recounted seeing the damaged SUV and bodies on the ground.
“Something really dark happened last night,” Nairn said, as she and her daughter wiped away tears.
Emily Daniels also brought a bouquet. “It’s sad. Really sad,” she said. “I can’t believe something like this could happen so close to home.”
Police Interim Chief Steve Rai called it “the darkest day in Vancouver’s history.” There was no indication of a motive, but Rai said the suspect has “a significant history of interactions with police and health care professionals related to mental health.”
Video of the aftermath showed the dead and injured along a narrow street in South Vancouver lined by food trucks. The front of the Audi SUV was smashed in.
Kris Pangilinan, who brought his pop-up clothing and lifestyle booth to the festival, saw the vehicle enter slowly past a barricade before the driver accelerated in an area packed with people after a concert. He said hearing the sounds of people screaming and bodies hitting the vehicle will never leave his mind.
“He slammed on the gas, barreled through the crowd,” Pangilinan said. “It looked like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins and all the pins are flying into the air.”
Suspect detained by bystanders before the police arrived
Rai said the suspect was arrested after initially being apprehended by bystanders.
Video circulating on social media showed a young man in a black hoodie with his back against a chain-link fence, alongside a security guard and surrounded by bystanders screaming and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry,” the man said, holding his hand to his head. Rai declined to comment on the video.
Prime Minister Mark Carney canceled his first campaign event and two major rallies on the final day of the election campaign before Monday’s vote.
“Last night families lost a sister, a brother, a mother, father, son or a daughter. Those families are living every family’s nightmare,” Carney said. “And to them and to the many others who were injured, to the Filipino Canadian community, and to everyone in Vancouver, I would like to offer my deepest condolences.”
Carney joined British Columbia Premier David Eby and community leaders Sunday evening in Vancouver.
The tragedy was reminiscent of an attack in 2018, when a man used a van to kill 10 pedestrians in Toronto.
Witnesses describe how they leaped out of the way
Carayn Nulada said that she pulled her granddaughter and grandson off the street and used her body to shield them from the SUV. She said that her daughter suffered a narrow escape.
“The car hit her arm and she fell down, but she got up, looking for us, because she is scared,” said Nulada, who described children screaming, and pale-faced victims lying on the ground or wedged under vehicles.
“I saw people running and my daughter was shaking,” Nulada said.
Nulada was in Vancouver General Hospital’s emergency room Sunday morning, trying to find news about her brother, who was run down in the attack and suffered multiple broken bones.
Doctors identified him by presenting the family with his wedding ring in a pill bottle and said that he was stable, but would be facing surgery.
James Cruzat, a Vancouver business owner, was at the celebration and heard a car rev its engine and then “a loud noise, like a loud bang” that he initially thought might be a gunshot.
“We saw people on the road crying, others were like running, shouting, or even screaming, asking for help. So we tried to go there just to check what was really actually happening until we found some bodies on the ground. Others were lifeless, others like, you know, injured,” Cruzat said.
Vincent Reynon, 17, was leaving the festival when he saw police rushing in. People were crying and he saw scattered bodies.
“It was like something straight out of a horror movie or a nightmare,” he said.
Adonis Quita said when he saw the SUV ramming through the crowd, his first reaction was to drag his 9-year-old son out of the area. The boy kept saying “I’m scared, I’m scared,” Quita recalled. Later they prayed together.
His son had just relocated to Vancouver from the Philippines with his mother to reunite with Quita, who has lived here since 2024. Quita said he worries the child will struggle to adjust to life in Canada after witnessing the horrific event.
Vancouver Mayor Kenneth Sim said the city had “suffered its darkest day.”
“I know many of us are fearful and feel uneasy,” said the mayor. “I know it’s hard to feel this way right now, but Vancouver is still a safe city.”
Vancouver’s large Filipino population was honoring a national hero
Vancouver had more than 38,600 residents of Filipino heritage in 2021, representing 5.9 percent of the city’s total population, according to Statistics Canada, the agency that conducts the national census.
Lapu Lapu Day celebrates Datu Lapu-Lapu, an Indigenous chieftain who stood up to Spanish explorers who came to the Philippines in the 16th century. The organizers of the Vancouver event, which was in its second year, said he “represents the soul of native resistance, a powerful force that helped shape the Filipino identity in the face of colonization.”
Eby said the province won’t let the tragedy define the celebration. He urged people to channel their rage into helping those affected.
“I don’t think there is a British Columbian that hasn’t been touched in some way by the Filipino community,” he said. “You can’t go to a place that delivers and not meet a member of that community in the long-term care home or hospitals, childcare or schools. This is a community that gives and gives and yesterday was a celebration of their culture.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued a statement expressing sympathy with the victims and their families.
“The Philippine Consulate General in Vancouver is working with Canadian authorities to ensure that the incident will be thoroughly investigated, and that the victims and their families are supported and consoled,” he said.
Vatican closes the Sistine Chapel to the public and prepares for a papal conclave
- The date for the conclave has not yet been set but it can only begin after a nine-day period of mourning
- For inspiration they will also have the great beauty of the frescos painted by Michelangelo and other renowned Renaissance artists
VATICAN CITY: Exit tourists. Enter cardinals.
The Vatican has closed the Sistine Chapel, where cardinals will gather for the conclave to elect the next pope after the death of Pope Francis on April 21 at age 88.
Francis was buried Saturday after a funeral in St. Peter’s Square that gathered world leaders and hundreds of thousands of others, and a nine-day period of mourning is continuing before the conclave can start.
But the church is at the same time turning its attention to the next steps.
Key is preparing the Sistine Chapel for the red-robed cardinals who will gather at the Vatican in the heart of Rome to choose the next pope in an ancient process fictionalized in the 2024 film “Conclave.”
One key task: installing the chimney where ballots will be burned after votes.
Those visitors who managed to enter on Sunday considered themselves lucky, since there is no telling how long the conclave will last, and how long the gem of the Vatican Museums will remain off-limits.
“I think we felt very lucky to be able to be the last group of visitors to come in today,” said Sumon Khan, a tourist from the United States. “You know, our trip would not have been complete without seeing this beautiful place.”
According to a schedule determined by church law, the conclave can only begin after the nine-day mourning period. It is expected to start between May 5 and May 10.
When it does, the cardinals will enter solemnly to participate in a secretive process said to be guided by the holy spirit that will result in the selection of the next leader of the 1.4 billion-strong Catholic church. The choice will determine whether the next pontiff will continue Francis’ reforms, with his focus on the poor and marginalized and the environment, or whether they will choose a pontiff closer in style to conservative predecessors like Benedict XVI focused on doctrine.
For inspiration the cardinals will also have the great beauty of the frescos painted by Michelangelo and other renowned Renaissance artists. The most recognizable is Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam, showing God’s outstretched hand imparting the divine spark of life to the first man.
The chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV, an art patron who oversaw the construction of the main papal chapel in the 15th century. But it was a later pontiff, Pope Julius II, who commissioned the works by Michelangelo, who painted the ceiling depicting scenes from Genesis from 1508 and 1512 and later returned to paint the Last Judgment on one of the walls.
When the conclave opens, cardinals will chant the Litany of Saints, the solemn, mystical Gregorian chant imploring the intercession of the saints, as they file into the chapel and take an oath of secrecy. The chapel’s thick double doors will close and the master of liturgy will utter the Latin words “Extra omnes,” meaning “everyone out.”
The secretive process is part of a traditioned aimed at preserving the vote from external interference.
The world will then wait for a sign that that a successor to Francis has been chosen. Black smoke coming from the chimney in the Sistine Chapel will indicate that they haven’t achieved the two-thirds majority for a new pope.
But when a pope is finally chosen, white smoke will rise and bells will toll.
Trial begins in Paris over 2016 gunpoint robbery of Kim Kardashian
- Ten suspects go on trial in Paris on Monday over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity Kim Kardashian, which saw some $10 million worth of jewelry stolen from the reality TV star and influencer
PARIS: Ten suspects go on trial in Paris on Monday over the 2016 robbery of the US celebrity Kim Kardashian, which saw some $10 million worth of jewelry stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.
Kardashian, now 44 — who left Paris traumatized hours after the robbery on the night of October 2-3, 2016 — is due to testify at the trial on May 13 in a court appearance that will be a major event in itself.
Those on trial are mainly men in their 60s and 70s with previous criminal records and underworld nicknames like “Old Omar” and “Blue Eyes” that recall the old-school French bandits of 1960s and 1970s film noirs.
Kardashian, then 35, was threatened with a gun to the head and tied up with her mouth taped up. The theft was the biggest against a private individual in France in the past 20 years.
The trial will also go into how the perpetrators received the information as to where Kardashian was staying during Paris Fashion Week, and picked the very moment when her bodyguard was absent, accompanying her sister Kourtney to a night club.
It is thought Kardashian’s frequent posts about her wealth, personal life and whereabouts may have facilitated the perpetrators’ actions. The trial gets under way from 1230 GMT.
The star was staying at an exclusive hotel in central Paris favored by celebrities when two armed and masked men stormed into her room at around 3:00 am after arriving at the establishment by bicycle.
They shouted that they wanted the diamond engagement ring from her now ex-husband, the US rapper Kayne West.
Kardashian had been showing it off on her social media channels — it alone was valued at $4 million (3.5 million euros).
They made off with the ring among $10 million worth of jewels.
The only item recovered was a diamond necklace dropped in the street while the thieves escaped.
It all lasted just 10 minutes, with Kardashian’s bodyguard arriving to rescue his client after he was alerted.
The suspects were arrested three months after the robbery, through DNA evidence.
But the gold seized was apparently melted down and investigators, who took hundreds of thousands of euros from the suspects when they were arrested, believe that much of the stolen haul was sold in Belgium.
Twelve suspects were charged, with 10 going on trial from Monday. One died in March this year and another is to be tried separately for health reasons.
“It wasn’t a major armed robbery” but an “easy” heist, said the main suspect, Aomar Ait Khedache, 68, known as “Old Omar.” His DNA from the scene helped investigators find him and the co-defendants.
He admitted tying up Kardashian, but disputes investigators’ claims that he was the mastermind behind the robbery.
He says he was approached by an unnamed “sponsor” who suggested the scheme on behalf of an “informant” very close to the star, who then gave them the green light.
According to his lawyer, Khedache now has severe hearing and speaking problems and can only express himself in writing.
Another key suspect is Didier Dubreucq, 69, known as “Blue Eyes,” accused of being the second person who stormed into Kardashian’s room. He denies the charges.
Yunice Abbas, 71, meanwhile stayed in the lobby while the two other men went up to her room, it is alleged.
He controversially sought to capitalize on the crime by writing a book titled: “I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian.”
Others on trial are accused of being facilitators and informants, including Gary Madar, the brother of Kardashian’s long-serving Paris driver.
He is accused of supplying information about her movements, which he denies.
Despite the “media hype,” the trial “must allow for calm debates,” warned one of the defense lawyers, Margot Pugliese.
The trial is due to last until May 23.
