LONDON: At a London sports ground, Maya Hassan looks on with pride as around 30 women, nearly all Muslims and from ethnic minorities, join a self-defense class that she organized in response to a wave of riots that saw violent, racist attacks on Muslims and migrants.
The 28-year-old martial arts expert said she wanted to help women of color to learn how to deal with abuse and build connections and confidence after more than a week of unrest aimed at mosques, asylum seeker hotels and the police.
“It gives you a little bit more confidence,” she said. “You kind of know what to look for, how to be socially aware, how to spot things and how to get out of a really bad situation.”
Muslim and ethnic minority communities have expressed shock over the disorder which was sparked by false information online that the suspected killer of three young girls in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England, was an Islamist migrant.
Martial arts instructor Stewart McGill said he had seen more women signing up for classes since the unrest started. He told them how to defend themselves with tactics including kicks and impromptu weapons such as belts.
One attendee, Elza Annan, 24, said she felt more confident.
“I obviously don’t want to have to use these techniques but it is useful and beneficial to have them ... especially because of recent events of far-right racists coming out and targeting people of color,” she said.
The riots have largely targeted migrants, Muslims, and Asian people, spreading fear through ethnic minority communities and casting a light on Britain’s record of integration.
Tell MAMA UK, a group that monitors anti-Muslim incidents, said hate directed at Muslims had been growing in Britain for some time, and especially since Oct. 7 last year, the start of the conflict in Gaza.
Since the riots began, it had received more than 500 calls and online reports of anti-Muslim behavior across Britain.
Sunder Katwala, director of the think-tank British Future, which focuses on migration and identity, said at its best, Britain is a “confident multi-ethnic democracy.”
But he said successive governments had lacked a strategy for integrating different communities. While those arriving recently from Ukraine and Hong Kong were given government support, that did not happen to all.
The asylum system faced particular pressures, with a huge backlog of applications and some Britons concerned about pressure on housing, health care and education.
“With asylum you’ve got a visible lack of control, and that can feed into fear,” he said.
The riots have largely stopped since thousands of anti-racism protesters turned out to protect potential targets such as immigration advice centers, mosques, and hotels housing asylum seekers.
Hassan, who wears a hijab and is a Swiss national of Somali origin, moved to Britain in 2008, partly because she felt it was more welcoming to ethnic minorities than many parts of Europe. She is considering organizing more classes.
A similar event was planned for Manchester, northern England, and a campaign group, The Three Hijabis, held a large online conference call with Muslim women this week to discuss the psychological impact of Islamophobic violence.
Shaista Aziz, the group’s director, said some women feared that the violence could unleash confrontations or abuse, prompting many to stay close to home.
“Today I advised a sister I dearly love to consider removing her hijab to stay safe as she travels through the Northeast ...” she said on X during the riots. “Across the country British Muslims are having these same conversations.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has ordered extra protection for the Muslim community, described rioters as “far-right thugs” and almost 800 people have been arrested, with some fast-tracked through the courts and jailed.
The anti-racism protests are likely to continue.
For Maki Omori, 23, who identifies as non-binary, Saturday’s class would help her prepare for counter protests.
“I found it really intimidating, thinking about how I would defend myself,” Omori said. “I want to make sure that if something happens, I feel ready.”
UK women of color learn self-defense in response to racist riots
https://arab.news/6gvug
UK women of color learn self-defense in response to racist riots
- Martial arts instructor Stewart McGill said he had seen more women signing up for classes since the unrest started
Judge says Trump cannot detain Columbia protester Khalil, but delays release order
- Khalil was the first known foreign student to be arrested as part of Trump’s bid to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that swept US college campuses
NEW YORK: A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot use US foreign policy interests to justify its detention of Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, but said his order would not take effect until Friday.
Khalil was arrested on March 8 after the State Department revoked his green card under a little-used provision of US immigration law granting the US secretary of state the power to seek the deportation of any noncitizen whose presence in the country is deemed adverse to US foreign policy interests.
He has since been held in immigration detention in Louisiana.
Khalil was the first known foreign student to be arrested as part of Trump’s bid to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that swept US college campuses after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent military assault.
Peanuts or almonds? Rice or millet? Planet-friendly grocery shopping choices go beyond cutting meat
- Plant-based proteins like legumes, beans and nuts all boast a much lower climate impact
It’s one of the most impactful climate decisions we make, and we make it multiple times a day.
The UN estimates about a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, the main driver of climate change, come from food. That pollution can come from several links in the food supply chain: how farmland is treated, how crops are grown, how food is processed and how it’s ultimately transported.
Maybe you’ve already heard the short answer to minimizing your diet’s impact on the planet: eat more plants and fewer animals. The data backs up that suggestion. Emissions from meat-rich diets are four times higher than that of vegan diets.
But so much focus on meats overshadows many other food choices that also impact the environment and can contribute to global warming. Here is a look at other important grocery store decisions:
Proteins
Swapping one serving of chicken per day for beef cuts a diet’s emissions nearly in half. Ruminant animals such as cows, sheep and goats are the top drivers of emissions.
Those animals “are associated not only with nitrous oxide emissions, but they’re also related to direct methane emissions because they burp them up while they digest food,” said Marco Springmann, professorial research fellow in climate change, food systems and health at University College London.
Springmann said processed animal products have a higher impact on the planet, too: “You need 10 times the amount of milk to make one unit of cheese.” So — and this is true of most food groups — the less processed the food, the smaller the environmental impact.
Plant-based proteins like legumes, beans and nuts all boast a much lower climate impact.
Grains
The standout here is rice, and not in a good way.
“Rice uses a ton of water. It uses gobs of fertilizer. There’s flooded rice paddy fields, and that water actually breeds all kinds of bacteria, and those bacteria produce methane gas,” said eco-dietitian nutritionist Mary Purdy.
Purdy said the most planet-friendly alternative is just eating a bunch of different grains.
“The wheat, corn and soy world is very, very familiar to us because we’ve been seeing it. It’s been heavily marketed. When was the last time you saw a commercial for millet or buckwheat?” she asked.
Diverse diets, Purdy said, incentivize biodiverse agriculture, which is more resilient to erratic weather — a hallmark of climate change — and makes healthier soil.
Fruits and vegetables
When it comes to produce, minimizing impact is less about choosing between foods and more about buying based on the way that food was grown.
Conventionally grown produce “very likely is using pesticides, fertilizer, and maybe more water because the soil isn’t healthy,” said Purdy.
Purdy said organic labels, such as Regenerative Organic Certified, indicate those foods had a smaller climate impact when they were grown. The tradeoff is that organic food has a lower yield, so it requires more land use and is often more expensive.
Local and “in season” foods also have a smaller climate impact, but not just for one of the reasons you may be thinking of: emissions from international shipping. Every day, thousands of large ships transport goods, including produce, around the world, and the fuel they use is heavily polluting.
However, “it’s mostly those local emissions on trucks that are actually impactful, not the international shipping emissions,” Springmann said.
Also, food grown nearby tends to be grown in a way that fits with the local climate and is less harmful to the environment.
“We’re not trying to grow oranges in some place in a greenhouse,” Purdy said.
Butter and oil
Plants win out over animals, again. Vegetable oils are less impactful than butter or lard. Springmann also said tropical oils are healthiest in moderation, such as those from coconuts or palms, because they have a higher fat content. Plus, palm oil is associated with deforestation.
As for nut butters, almonds might be a great option for limiting carbon emissions, but they require a lot of water. One study out of Tulane University found that a serving of peanuts has an emissions footprint similar to almonds but 30 percent less impact on water use.
Don’t waste food
Throwing less food away might sound obvious, but roughly a third of food grown in the US is wasted.
Meal planning, freezing leftovers and checking the fridge before heading to the grocery store all help cut waste.
“The climate impact, the embedded water use, all of the labor and different aspects that went into producing that food, that all gets wasted if we don’t eat it,” Nicole Tichenor Blackstone, a professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.
Police detain more than 20 people during Los Angeles protest curfew
- Officers used rubber bullets to break up hundreds of protesters demonstrating against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown
- Officials said curfew was needed to stop vandalism and theft by agitators after five days of protests
LOS ANGELES: Police detained more than 20 people, mostly on curfew violations, on the first night of restrictions in downtown Los Angeles and used crowd-control projectiles to break up hundreds of protesters demonstrating against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, officials said Wednesday.
But there were fewer clashes between police and demonstrators than on previous nights, and by daybreak, the downtown streets were bustling with residents walking dogs and commuters clutching coffee cups.
Officials said the curfew was necessary to stop vandalism and theft by agitators after five days of protests, which have mostly been concentrated downtown. Demonstrations have also spread to other cities nationwide, including Dallas and Austin in Texas, and Chicago and New York, where thousands rallied and more arrests were made.
LA’s nightly curfew, which the mayor said would remain in effect as long as necessary, covers a 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section that includes an area where protests have occurred since Friday in the sprawling city of 4 million. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers).
“If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our streets, I would imagine that the curfew will continue,” Mayor Karen Bass said.
The tensions in LA and elsewhere emerged as immigration authorities seek to dramatically increase the number of daily arrests across the country.
Bass said the raids spread fear across the city at the behest of the White House.
“We started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons, gang members, drug dealers,” she told a news conference. “But when you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you’re not trying to keep anyone safe. You’re trying to cause fear and panic.”
Referring to the protests, she added: “If you drive a few blocks outside of downtown, you don’t know that anything is happening in the city at all.”
Some 2,000 National Guard soldiers are in the city, and about half of them have been protecting federal buildings and agents, said Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, head of Task Force 51, which is overseeing the deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles.
About 700 Marines will soon join the Guard troops, but they are still undergoing training and will not be mobilized Wednesday, Sherman said. Another 2,000 Guard troops should be on the streets by Thursday, he said.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused Trump of drawing a “military dragnet” across the nation’s second-largest city with his escalating use of the National Guard, which Trump activated, along with the Marines, over the objections of city and state leaders.
Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents. The assistance includes some guardsmen now standing protectively around agents as they carry out arrests.
A judge set a hearing for Thursday, giving the administration several days to continue its activities.
The change moves the military closer to engaging in law enforcement actions such as deportations, as Trump has promised as part of his immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests would be made by law enforcement.
The president posted on the Truth Social platform that the city “would be burning to the ground” if he had not sent in the military.
Meanwhile in New York City, police said they took 86 people into custody during protests in lower Manhattan that lasted into Wednesday morning. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful.
A 66-year-old woman in Chicago was injured when she was struck by a car during downtown protests Tuesday evening, police said. Video showed a car speeding down a street where people were protesting.
In Texas, where police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators Monday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said Texas National Guard troops were “on standby” in areas where demonstrations are planned.
Guard members were sent to San Antonio, but Police Chief William McManus said he had not been told how many troops were deployed or their role ahead of planned protests Wednesday night and Saturday.
Authorities announce arrests in protests
Two people accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at police during the LA protests over the weekend face charges that could bring up to 10 years in prison, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. No one was injured by the devices.
One of the suspects is a US citizen, and the other overstayed a tourist visa and was in the US illegally, authorities said.
“We are looking at hundreds of people,” US Attorney Bill Essayli said. “If you took part in these riots and were looking to cause trouble, we will come looking for you.”
Trump, Newsom locked in a war of words
Trump has called the protesters “animals” and “a foreign enemy” and described Los Angeles in dire terms that the governor says is nowhere close to the truth.
Newsom called Trump’s actions the start of an “assault” on democracy.
“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,” he said.
The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids.
Despite the protests, immigration enforcement activity has continued throughout the county, with city leaders and community groups reporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement present at libraries, car washes and Home Depots. School graduations in Los Angeles have increased security over fears of ICE action, and some have offered parents the option to watch on Zoom.
Los Angeles police detained 200 people related to the protests throughout the day on Tuesday, including 67 who were occupying a freeway, according to the city’s chief.
The majority of arrests since the protests began have been for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting and vandalism. At least seven police officers have been injured.
Bangladesh’s Yunus says will step down after polls
- Yunus has long said elections will be held before June 2026, but says the more time the interim administration had to enact reforms, the better
LONDON: Bangladesh interim leader Mohammed Yunus said Wednesday that there was “no way” he wanted to continue in power after elections he has announced for April, the first since a mass uprising overthrew the government.
The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt ousted then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, ending her 15-year rule.
Speaking in London, Yunus, asked if he himself was seeking any political post, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner said there was “no way,” waving his hands in the air for emphasis.
“I think none of our Cabinet members would like to do that, not only me,” he said.
Yunus was answering questions after speaking at London’s foreign policy think tank Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
He also said he wanted to unveil a “big package” of proposals next month that he dubbed a “July Charter” — one year on since the students launched the demonstrations that toppled Hasina.
The aim of the package, he added, was to overhaul democratic institutions after Hasina’s tenure.
“We want to say goodbye to the old Bangladesh and create a new Bangladesh,” Yunus said.
The charter is being drafted by a government “consensus commission,” talking to political parties to “find that which are the recommendations they will accept,” he added.
Yunus has long said elections will be held before June 2026, but says the more time the interim administration had to enact reforms, the better.
But after political parties jostling for power repeatedly demanded he fix a timetable, he said earlier this month that elections would be held in April 2026.
“Our job is to make sure that the transition is managed well, and that people are happy when we hand over power to the elected government,” he said.
“So we want to make sure that the election is right, that is a very critical factor for us. If the election is wrong, this thing will never be solved again.”
Yunus is also expected to meet in London with Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is widely seen as likely to sweep the elections.
Rahman, 59, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has lived in London since 2008 after being sentenced in absentia under Hasina — convictions since quashed.
He is widely expected to return to Dhaka to lead the party in polls.
Child labor ‘may continue for centuries at current pace’
- One of the main factors, free compulsory education, not only helps minors escape child labor, but also protects children from vulnerable or indecent conditions of employment when they grow up, she said
NEW YORK: Nearly 138 million children were still working in the world’s fields and factories in 2024, the UN said on Wednesday, warning that given the slow pace of progress, eliminating child labor could be delayed by “hundreds of years.”
Ten years ago, upon adopting the so-called Sustainable Development Goals, the world’s countries set themselves the ambitious target of putting an end to child labor by 2025.
“That timeline has now come to an end. But child labor has not,” UNICEF and the International Labor Organization said in a joint report.
Last year, according to data published every four years, 137.6 million children aged 5-17 were working, or around 7.8 percent of all children in that age group.
The figure is equivalent to twice the total population of France.
FASTFACT
Last year, 137.6 million children aged 5-17 were working, or around 7.8 percent of all children in that age group. The figure is equivalent to twice the total population of France.
This nevertheless represents a drop since 2000, when 246 million children were forced to work, often to help their impoverished families.
After a worrying rise between 2016 and 2020, the trend has now reversed, with 20 million fewer children working in 2024 than four years prior.
“Significant progress” has been recorded in reducing the number of children forced into labor, UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said.
“Yet far too many children continue to toil in mines, factories, or fields, often doing hazardous work to survive.”
According to the report, nearly 40 percent of the 138 million child laborers were employed in 2024 doing particularly hazardous work “likely to jeopardize their health, safety, or development.”
Despite some rays of hope, “we must not be blindsided by the fact that we still have a long way to go before we achieve our goal of eliminating child labor,” ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo said.
At the current rate of reduction, “it will take hundreds of years,” said UNICEF expert Claudia Cappa.
Even if countries quadruple the pace of progress recorded since 2000, “we will already be in 2060,” she added.
Progress for the youngest children is particularly slow, the report found. Last year, nearly 80 million children aged five to 11 were working — about 8.2 percent of all children in that age group.
And yet the societal elements that reduce child labor are well-known, according to Cappa.
One of the main factors, free compulsory education, not only helps minors escape child labor, but also protects children from vulnerable or indecent conditions of employment when they grow up, she said.
Another, she added, is “universalizing social protection” as a way to offset or ease burdens on families and vulnerable communities.
But global funding cuts “threaten to roll back hard-earned gains,” UNICEF’s Russell said.
According to the report, agriculture is the sector making the most use of child labor (61 percent of all cases), followed by domestic work and other services (27 percent) and industry (13 percent, including mining and manufacturing).
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit, with around 87 million child laborers.
Asia-Pacific has seen the greatest progress, with the number of working children falling from 49 million in 2000 to 28 million in 2024.
