LONDON: British Muslim MP Zarah Sultana has accused Good Morning Britain presenter Ed Balls of attempting to patronize her during a Monday morning interview about the recent far-right riots in the UK.

Labour’s Sultana engaged in a heated debate with the presenter and former politician, emphasizing the importance of labeling the far-right violence as “Islamophobic.”

“The sneering contempt of ‘journalists’ will never stop me from calling out racism and Islamophobic hate,” Sultana wrote on X.

During the interview, Balls repeatedly interrupted Sultana, accusing her of not answering the questions.

“If you want to answer the questions, you can but you don’t have to,” Balls told Sultana.

A sneering Ed Balls (husband of Home Sec) and panel of white people take umbrage at Zarah Sultana asking govt to call riots across country racist/Islamophobic. Look at them laughing at her. @GMB just allowed presenters to belittle a Muslim MP on air.

pic.twitter.com/lMJ4kmAWdE pic.twitter.com/ykt3jbMZU6

— Teri (@mettlesome_teri) August 5, 2024

In a tense exchange, co-presenter Kate Garraway asked Sultana why it was important to use the term “Islamophobic” alongside “racist” and “thuggery” to describe the events. Balls interrupted again, stating: “They definitely said racist over the weekend.”

As Sultana explained how protesters attacked a mosque over the weekend, Balls interjected once more, saying: “But Keir Starmer has condemned that,” to which Sultana replied: “I’m just finishing the question if that’s OK.”

The incident has sparked online criticism, with some calling the episode “unacceptable and deeply uncomfortable,” and accusing Balls of being “reckless” for his repeated interruptions of the MP.

Balls and ITV faced scrutiny for interviewing his wife, UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, on the same program, raising questions about the impartiality of the interview.

The UK has been grappling with a wave of far-right violence, including attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers.

The unrest follows a stabbing rampage at a dance class in Southport that left three girls dead and several injured, fueled by false online rumors that the 17-year-old suspect was a Muslim immigrant.

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BEIJING: A Chinese state-owned enterprise is close to launching the first batch of satellites for a megaconstellation designed to rival US company Space X’s Starlink’s near-global Internet network, a state-backed newspaper reported on Monday.
A successful launch would mark an important step in Beijing’s strategic goal of creating its own version of Starlink, a growing commercial broadband constellation that has about 5,500 satellites in space and is used by consumers, companies and government agencies.
The competition to occupy Earth’s lower orbits also has military implications, with the potential to affect the balance of power between warring countries.
The launch, led by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology (SSST), will take place at Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, one of China’s main satellite and missile launch centers, located in the northern province of Shanxi, the China Securities Journal reported.
The launch is part of SSST’s “Thousand Sails Constellation” plan, also known as the “G60 Starlink Plan,” which began last year and aims to deploy more than 15,000 low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.
SSST did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.
LEO satellites usually operate at altitudes of 300km to 2,000km from the Earth’s surface and have the advantage of being cheaper and providing more efficient transmission than satellites at higher orbits.
Starlink, operated by billionaire Elon Musk, has tens of thousands of users in the United States so far and plans to add tens of thousands more satellites to its system, which is the largest of its kind.
Chinese researchers in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have over the past two years studied the deployment of Starlink in the war in Ukraine and repeatedly warned about the risks it poses to China, should the country find itself in a military conflict with the United States.
In January, an op-ed published in a PLA mouthpiece described the deployment of Starlink as a “serious threat to the security of space assets of various countries.”
SSST’s “Thousand Sails constellation” is one of three “ten-thousand star constellation” plans China is hoping will allow it to close the gap with SpaceX.
SSST’s plan is to launch 108 satellites this year, 648 satellites by the end of 2025, provide a “global network coverage” by 2027, and get to 15,000 satellites deployed before 2030.