Police in London have launched an investigation into allegations of a racially aggravated assault after a group of men were said to have attacked members of a mosque.
Worshippers were allegedly attacked by a gang armed with bottles and hockey sticks outside the Sri Lankan Muslim Centre in East London as they went inside for iftar. A bin containing paper was set on fire outside the mosque in Pilgrims Way, East Ham. Several people incurred minor injuries in the incident on Tuesday evening, but did not require medical treatment. The Metropolitan Police sent officers to the scene, but no trace of the suspects was found. The force said patrols in the area have been stepped up in light of the alleged attack and is appealing for anyone with information to come forward. No arrests have been made and enquiries continue. “Police are investigating a report of racially aggravated common assault following an incident outside a mosque in East Ham,” the Met Police said in a statement. “Police were called at 21:06hrs on Tuesday, 19 April, to reports that a group of men in Pilgrims Way, armed with bottles and hockey sticks, had attacked members of the mosque. “One suspect is said to have set alight some paper in a bin outside the mosque. “The suspects fled prior to the police’s arrival. Officers searched the area but found no trace of the suspects.” Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons defence select committee, branded the alleged incident "shameful". Has Ahmed, a Conservative candidate in the upcoming local council elections in Redbridge, East London, called the attack appalling. "Appalled by this attack on innocent worshipers who were just leaving prayers in Ramadan," he tweeted. "That could have been any one of our family members. Hope those sick individuals are caught and feel the full force of the law." Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Tweet @MetCC, quoting CAD 7482/19APR. To give information anonymously call the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
0 Comments
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his forces to blockade the last pockets of Ukrainian resistance at a steelworks in Mariupol “so that a fly cannot pass through”.
Mr Putin ordered his Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to scrap plans to storm the Azovstal steel plant after being told there were more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters still holed up in its tunnels. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader whose forces are fighting in Ukraine, had predicted on Thursday the Azovstal plant would be under Russian control “before lunchtime, or after lunch”, completing the capture of Mariupol. But Mr Putin, who described the rest of Mariupol as having been liberated by Russian troops, said in a televised exchange with Mr Shoigu that “there is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground” at the plant. “I consider the proposed storming of the industrial zone unnecessary,” he said. "Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through." The seizure of Mariupol would be Russia’s most significant strategic and symbolic victory of the eight-week war in Ukraine, giving it a land corridor between annexed Crimea and occupied territories in the eastern Donbas region. Western officials say the protracted struggle for the port, which has prompted hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee, has tied up Russia’s troops and equipment and bogged down its wider offensive in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about a thousand civilians were sheltering behind troops defending Mariupol. The two sides blamed each other for faltering efforts to establish humanitarian escape routes. “Our warriors have hundreds of wounded,” said Mr Zelenskyy, who said the situation in Mariupol was deteriorating. “Protecting ordinary civilians with their backs, they lose their lives.” Britain’s Defence Ministry said in a regular intelligence update that Russian forces were advancing on Kramatorsk, another city, from staging areas in the Donbas as it focuses its offensive on the south and east. It said the speed and force of Russian attacks could intensify as it aims for a military and propaganda triumph by the time of the May 9 Victory Day parade in Moscow. Mr Zelenskyy likewise said the situation in the south and east “remains as severe as possible” as Russia seeks “something they can feed their propagandists”. Ukraine said Russia had lost 21,000 troops as of Thursday, as well as 830 tanks, 170 aircraft, 150 helicopters and scores of other vehicles and pieces of equipment. Moscow has acknowledged significant casualties and is believed by western officials to have turned to mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private company widely thought to have close links to the Kremlin. One European official was quoted by The Guardian as saying between 10,000 and 20,000 fighters had been drafted in from Libya, Syria and other theatres where Wagner has a presence. These troops were being used as infantry forces and did not bring heavy equipment or vehicles with them, the official said. Russia, meanwhile, insists the invasion it calls a special military operation is running as planned despite setbacks such as its failure to overpower Kyiv and the loss of its Black Sea flagship Moskva. The offensive will end when the aims of demilitarising and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine, eliminating threats to Russia and protecting the largely Russian-speaking population of the Donbas are achieved, foreign ministry official Alexey Polishchuk told Tass news agency. Mr Zelenskyy said more than 900 towns in Ukraine had been recaptured from Russian forces, with local government and police restored to their posts in many of those settlements. But he told people returning to their homes to watch out for mines and tripwires left behind by Russian forces and to wait for inspections by the Ukrainian authorities. Queen Elizabeth is getting her own Barbie doll two months after marking her 70th year on the throne.
Mattel revealed Wednesday the $75 Platinum Jubilee doll on its website. “This collectible doll wears an elegant ivory gown and blue riband adorned with decorations of order. A stunning crown and matching accessories complete her regal ensemble,” the company wrote. “Barbie celebrates the longest ruling monarch in British history, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, whose extraordinary reign has seen her lead with an immeasurable devotion to duty and a life of service,” it added. The 95-year-old Queen officially marked 70 years on the throne on Feb. 6. For her celebration, she was at her Sandringham residence hosting community groups while wearing a light blue dress. The queen cut her own cake and had a curry and mayonnaise-based dish for the occasion. The celebration came after Queen Elizabeth had missed multiple public events due to health concerns. he queen has still carried out her royal duties, but has scaled back public appearances since a hospital visit in 2021. She has sat on the throne since 1952, after her father, King George VI, died. Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the Ukrainian city of Mariupol will fall to Moscow’s forces on Thursday.
Kadyrov, the head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, predicted the last stronghold in the city will collapse, leaving the city completely under Russian control, Reuters reported. “Before lunchtime, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation,” Kadyrov said, referring to a steel plant that has been a final holdout after weeks of attacks and shelling. Ukrainian Maj. Serhiy Volyna, who is leading the small number of troops left in the city and protecting civilians at the plant, pleaded to the world for help in a video from Mariupol. “We appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us. We ask them to use the procedure of extraction and take us to the territory of a third-party state,” he said, NBC News reported. Vadym Boichenko, the mayor of Mariupol, said in a TV interview Wednesday around 100,000 people still remain in Mariupol amid the fighting, according to the BBC. Ukrainian and European officials have also been predicting Mariupol’s imminent seizure, in what would be the largest city overtaken by Russia since the war began on Feb. 24. Volyna, who commands Ukraine’s 36th Separate Marine Brigade, said the city has a few hours to a few days left before it will collapse. “The enemy units are dozens of times larger than ours, they have dominance in the air, in artillery, in ground troops, in equipment and in tanks,” he said. A European official warned on Tuesday that Mariupol would fall within days. “The Russians will continue to use artillery and bombings, and at the same time they will push civilians out of the city. So at the end of the day, we do expect a complete destruction of the city and many civilian casualties in Mariupol,” the official said. Russia has been accused of various war crimes in the city, and throughout Ukraine, as thousands of Ukrainian civilians have died due to Russian forces’ actions. Early reports from Mariupol, under siege from Russia for two months, documented atrocities and alleged war crimes such as Russian bombing of a maternity hospital; shelters marked as housing children, and civilian infrastructure. Satellite imagery has reportedly showed about 90 percent of the city destroyed, and Ukrainian city officials estimate that civilian casualties are in the tens of thousands, through a combination of suffering under military attacks and starvation, with lack of access to food, water and electricity. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday he would be willing to exchange Russian prisoners of war for civilians in Mariupol as the situation gets more desperate, The Washington Post reported. Water systems have been devastated and food supplies have dwindled for citizens throughout the war, with Russia reportedly shooting at humanitarian vehicles and civilians in bread lines. While Russian forces demand surrender, Ukraine has called for talks about humanitarian and evacuation corridors. President Biden has called Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians “genocide,” while his administration has sent billions of dollars in aid and weapons to Ukraine to bolster its fight against Russia. More than 40 percent of the U.S. population — or 137 million people — are living in areas with unhealthy levels of particle pollution or ozone, according to the American Lung Association’s newest “State of the Air” report card.
That’s 2.1 million people living in counties with unsafe air compared to last year’s report card — and 8.9 million more people impacted by daily spikes in potentially deadly particle pollution, the authors found. “‘State of the Air 2022’ shows that an unacceptable number of Americans are still living in areas with poor air quality that could impact their health,” Harold Wimmer, national president and CEO of the American Lung Association, said in a statement. The report card is an annual publication from the Lung Association that tracks and grades exposure to particle pollution and ground-level pollution, or smog, and to short-term spikes in particle pollution, or soot. Each report card covers a three-year period: 2018-2020 in the latest version and 2017-2019 in the previous edition. While the 2022 report shows long-term air quality improvements — which the authors attributed to emissions reductions — such efforts were offset by the negative impacts of hotter, drier conditions caused by climate change. Western wildfires were also responsible for the sharp rise in particle pollutions in several states, the authors noted. Fine particulate matter — particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns, also known as PM 2.5 — can be especially deadly, the report warned. These microscopic particles, which can come from wildfires, wood-burning stoves, coal-fired power plants and diesel engines, can trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes, and also potentially cause lung cancer. The State of the Air report assigned two grades for particle pollution: one for short-term exposure, or daily spikes, and a second for annual averages in a specific location. In general, the regions that fared the worst in both categories were located in California. The report found that a total of 63.2 million people lived in the 96 counties that earned an “F” for unhealthy spikes in short-term particle pollution. The top five offending regions: 1. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, Calif.; 2. Bakersfield, Calif.; 4. Fairbanks, Alaska; 4. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.; and 5. Redding-Red Bluff, Calif. More than 20.3 million people live in one of the 21 counties where annual particle pollutions exceeded national air quality limits, according to the report. The top five offending regions: 1. Bakersfield, Calif.; 2. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, Calif.; Visalia, Calif.; 4. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Calif.; and 5. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif. The State of the Air report also found that more than 122.3 million people live in the 156 counties that earned a failing score with respect to ozone pollution. Ground-level ozone contamination, the authors explained, constitutes “a powerful respiratory irritant whose effects have been likened to sunburn of the lung.” Exposure to ozone, which is more likely to form in a warming climate, can lead to shortness of breath, coughing and asthma attacks — and ultimately may shorten life, the report warned. While the 122.3 million figure is actually 860,000 less than the number of people in last year’s report, it includes millions of people at an increased risk of harm from ozone, such as 27.8 million children and 18.5 million seniors, according to the report. The top five offending regions for ozone: 1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, Calif.; 2. Bakersfield, Calif.; 3. Visalia, Calif.; 4. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, Calif.; and Phoenix-Mesa, Az. Close to 19.8 million people reside in one of the 14 counties that failed in all three categories, according to the report. And of these 19.8 million, 14.1 million were people of color. “Communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air,” Wimmer said, noting that people of color were 61 percent more likely than white people to live in a county with a failing grade for at least one pollutant, and 3.6 times as likely to live in a county that failed on all three. “The burden of living with unhealthy air is not shared equally,” the authors stated. While pinpointing the most problematic pockets of the U.S. and emphasizing the disproportionate nature of air pollution’s impacts, the report also shed light on which areas of the country are performing the best. The authors identified the cleanest regions — or those places that experienced no high ozone or particle pollution days and ranked among the 25 areas with the lowest annual particle pollution levels. Some of the cleanest spots, in alphabetical order: Bangor, Maine.; Burlington-South Burlington-Barre, Vt.; Charlottesville, Va.; Elmira-Corning, N.Y.; Harrisonburg-Staunton, Va.; Lincoln-Beatrice, Neb.; Roanoke, Va.; Urban Honolulu, Hawaii; Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Va.-N.C.; and Wilmington, N.C. Going forward, the American Lung Association called upon the Biden administration to bolster national limits on both short-term and year-round particle pollution. “Stronger standards will educate the public about air pollution levels that threaten their health and drive the cleanup of polluting sources in communities across the country,” the authors added. Shyam Maheshwari is the Partner at SSG Capital Management. Shyam Maheshwari, Associate Member at The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, explains about the covid battered Indian market and economy. As India’s pandemic battered businesses and economy emerge into a still uncertain next normal, there is an increasing focus on private credit as a fuel to drive business expansion and sustainable long-term growth. This along with traditional lenders such as banks especially PSU banks which have done Yeoman service for the country during the difficulties of 2020 will be facing greater pressure in 2022 and beyond. According to Shyam Maheshwari, the Indian credit market has been dominated by banks and non-bank financial companies for a long period. “It started with primarily dominance of PSU banks and then the private sector banks. Still, the credit to GDP ratio is relatively modest and low for the stage of growth of the country. As the economy develops credit intensity, it would probably increase initially and the need for credit is very much out there. The challenges the banks and non-banks face, as it is rightly pointed out is that, they may not be able to fulfil that requirement and that’s where the private credit demand is extremely apparent and necessary for the growth”, says Shyam Maheshwari. Shyam Maheshwari SSG thinks that flexibility also emanates from the regulated players which have been dominating the market for a long time whether it is a bank or a non-bank. One is regulated and the second is leveraged. The leverage platforms have certain constraints which were shown when IFS has happened in terms of whether it is LLM or it is provisioning norms. Shyam Maheshwari points out that there is creditor protection which is increasing and improving over time.He affirms that the access to the market remains open and is undergoing improvement but still a lot could be done. “It is pretty encouraging to see the signs that it has been opening up in the last decade or so”, says Shyam Maheshwari. Lawyers for actress say ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ star’s denials lack credibility because of past excessive alcohol and drug use A longtime friend and next-door neighbour of Johnny Depp testified on Wednesday that the actor’s former wife, Amber Heard, told him the star threw a phone at her and hit her inside the couple’s Los Angeles penthouse. But Isaac Baruch said he never noticed any evidence of abuse on Heard’s face when he first saw her in the hallway or the next day in the sunlit lobby of their art deco-style building. “She’s got her face out like this to show me and I’m looking, and I inspect her face,” Mr Baruch said of the encounter in May 2016. “And I don’t see anything … I don’t see a cut, a bruise, swelling, redness.” He is the second witness called in the trial over Depp’s allegations that Heard falsely portrayed him as a domestic abuser. Depp says that an opinion piece Heard wrote for The Washington Post in 2018 indirectly defamed him. Heard calls herself in the article as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. It does not name Depp. But his attorneys say it clearly referred to a restraining order that Heard sought in May 2016, right after Depp told her he wanted a divorce. Depp denies abusing Heard. Mr Baruch, a painter, has been friends with Depp since 1980. He also worked at the Viper Room when the Pirates of the Caribbean actor partly owned the famed Los Angeles club. Mr Baruch said Depp had financially supported him, providing him with places to live and giving him about $100,000 over the years. He testified that he noticed no makeup on Heard’s face when she said Depp hit her. But in cross-examination, Mr Baruch conceded he did not know if Heard had applied any concealer, foundation, powder or tint. At one point, he became emotional, saying Heard should “take responsibility and move on”. Mr Baruch said he never saw violence from Depp. “His family has been completely wrecked by all of this stuff, and it’s not fair,” he said. “It’s not right, what she did … it’s insane.” Heard’s lawyers have said the evidence will show that Depp physically and sexually assaulted Heard on more than one occasion. They say that his denials lack credibility because he frequently drank and used drugs to the point of blacking out and failing to remember anything he did. The first witness called for the trial was Depp’s older sister, Christi Dembrowski, who faced a barrage of questions from Heard’s lawyers about Depp’s alcohol and drug use. Her lawyers zeroed in on a text exchange between Heard and Ms Dembrowski in February 2014. “Ms Heard says, ‘JD is on a bender,’ and your response is, ‘Where are the kids?’ — correct?” Benjamin Rottenborn asked. Ms Dembrowski said that was correct. She also confirmed a 2014 email exchange she had with a doctor who treated Depp’s addiction to pain medication. Depp and Heard are expected to testify at the trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court, scheduled for six weeks, along with actors Paul Bettany and James Franco, and billionaire Elon Musk. To Know More:https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2022/04/13/johnny-depps-friend-says-heards-accusations-wrecked-actors-life/ Death toll is expected to rise as many people are still missing Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 341 people in South Africa’s eastern KwaZulu-Natal province, including the city of Durban, with more rainstorms expected in the coming days. Officials expect the death toll to rise as scores of people, including whole families, are still missing. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday visited victims of the devastating east coast floods. “You are battling one of the biggest incidents we have seen and we thought this only happens in other countries, like Mozambique or Zimbabwe,” Mr Ramaphosa told victims. The damage to Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area is estimated at $52 million, eThekwini Mayor Mxolosi Kaunda said on Thursday. Officials temporarily closed all schools in the province, after at least 18 pupils and one teacher from different schools died in the floods, Education Minister Angie Motshekga said. The persistent rains have wreaked havoc in the province, destroying homes, collapsing buildings and washing away major roads. Mozambique has also suffered a series of devastating floods over the past decade, including one last month that killed more than 50 people. Scientists predict global warming could mean Africa’s south-east coast is hit harder by such weather systems over the next few decades. These most recent rains have been described as not tropical, but rather caused by a weather system called a cut-off low that had brought rain and cold weather to much of the country. Meanwhile, police used stun grenades to disperse residents in the Reservoir Hills areas of Durban who were protesting against the lack of official assistance, according to South African media reports. The South African National Defence Force has sent troops to assist with rescue and mop-up operations. The floods have knocked out water and electricity to large parts of Durban and the surrounding eThekwini metropolitan area and it will take at least a week to restore those services, officials said. The storm also forced Sub-Saharan Africa’s most important port to halt operations, as a main access road suffered heavy damage. Sections of other roads were washed away, leaving behind gashes in the earth bigger than large lorries. To know More:https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/2022/04/15/floods-in-south-africa-kill-more-than-340/ The founder of Tesla and SpaceX is the richest person in the world, with a personal fortune of $259bn Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX, is the world’s richest person, with a current net worth of $259 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Mr Musk’s enormous fortune far exceeds that of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — the world’s second-wealthiest person, with a net worth of $180bn — by $79bn. The 50-year-old was first crowned the world’s richest person in January this year, when his net worth was valued at $273.5bn by Bloomberg, which compared his wealth with John D Rockefeller. “Mr Musk reached the level of riches, inflation-adjusted, achieved by modern history’s wealthiest person,” Bloomberg said at the time. However, a combination of volatile stock markets, the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic has taken a toll on Mr Musk’s net worth, which has fallen by 4.1 per cent — or $11bn — since the beginning of the year, according to Bloomberg. Just last week, Mr Musk was also declared the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine in its annual 2022 World Billionaires List with a personal fortune of $219bn. The Forbes list used stock prices and exchange rates from March 11 to calculate Mr Musk’s net worth, whereas the Bloomberg Billionaires Index is updated daily. “Even after selling billions of dollars of Tesla stock late last year, and owing taxes on gains from those sales, Musk is an estimated $68bn richer than a year ago,” Forbes said in the report. Meanwhile, the relative value of Mr Musk’s net worth of $259bn means he could buy 132 million troy ounces (4.1 million kilograms) of gold, while it is the equivalent of 3.34 per cent of the total wealth of the 500 richest people in the world and 3.84 million times the median US household income, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It also means that Mr Musk could afford to buy Twitter six times over his current offer of roughly $43bn. On Thursday, Mr Musk offered to buy 100 per cent of the microblogging social media platform at $54.20 per cent per share. His offer price represents a 38 per cent premium on the closing price of Twitter’s stock on April 1, the last trading day before his investment of 9.2 per in the company was publicly announced. Last week, Mr Musk became Twitter’s single largest shareholder following his acquisition of about 73.5 million shares of the social media giant valued at about $3bn. The South African born, Canadian-American businessman, who has seven children, owns about 17 per cent of Tesla, according to a February 2021 regulatory filing. His stake in privately held SpaceX is valued at about $40.3bn, according to Bloomberg. Mr Musk has a history of posting market-moving tweets to stoke interest in his ventures, which has drawn the ire of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In March, Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin were given a quick boost after he tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell. In response, Bitcoin, which had fallen as much as 2.9 per cent before Mr Musk’s tweet, wiped out its losses then retreated again. Ether was also up as much as 2.3 per cent before giving up some gains, while Dogecoin rose 3.8 per cent. In November, Tesla’s shares fell as much as 4.5 per cent at the start of trading in New York, having dropped nearly 7 per cent in premarket trading after Mr Musk asked his more than 80 million followers on Twitter whether he should sell 10 per cent of his holdings in the electric vehicle maker. A clear majority (58 per cent) of the 3.5 million Twitter users who voted said yes. Mr Musk made his first millions in the 1990s, when he sold his first company, Zip2, for more than $300m. He then launched X.com, an online payment system that eventually became PayPal, which he sold to eBay for $1.5bn in 2022, according to Bloomberg. To Know More:https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/money/2022/04/14/what-is-elon-musks-net-worth/ The festival is marked on April 15, and signals the start of Malayali New Year he Hindu festival Vishu will be celebrated in parts of India and the world on Friday, marking the first day of Medam, the ninth month of the solar calendar followed in Kerala. The festival is observed by Malayalis, people originating from the state of Kerala, as well as the Tuluva people in southern India, and falls on either April 14 or 15 each year. It has been celebrated since 844 AD, during the time of ruler Sthanu Ravi Varma. The spiritual meaning of Vishu Marking the start of the Malayali New Year, Vishu signifies new beginnings, hopes and aspirations for the year ahead. People spend the day sending prayers and well-wishes to their loved ones for prosperity and health. How is Vishu celebrated? On the day of Vishu, people usually wake up early in the morning, and bathe, before sitting down to pray. People then view the Vishu kani, which is an assortment of items arranged together, believed to bring good luck for the year ahead when they are the first things viewed on the day of Vishu. The Vishu kani is usually set up by family elders the night before the festival or very early on the morning of. Traditionally, a Vishu kani consists of cucumber, rice, areca nuts, betel leaves, gold ornaments, new clothes, coins, mangoes, jackfruit, a metal mirror, and a lemon, along with a lit metal lamp. Each member of the family should then look at all of these items before they begin their day. A special feast, called the sadhya, is then traditionally prepared and eaten in Malayali households. The meal, enjoyed together by families, consists of rice, sambar, chips, pickle, aviyal, rasam, and different types of sweets and payasams. People also usually buy new clothes to wear during Vishu, which they will usually debut during a trip to their local temple ToKnowMore: https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/2022/04/15/vishu-2022-how-the-traditional-indian-festival-is-celebrated-and-what-it-means/ |
MichaelMichael is Professor of Political Science and Head of Department. His research is on public administration and administrative reform, core executives, the role of civil servants in a transformed state, Archives
May 2024
|