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A week of riots, with violence against the police, threats to Muslims, burning of vehicles and looting (Greggs, Shoezone, Sainsbury’s Local) broke out in Liverpool, Sunderland, London, Hartlepool, Manchester, Hull, Aldershot, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol, Bolton, Tamworth, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Leeds, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Blackpool, Plymouth and Belfast. The Northern Ireland Assembly was recalled. Rioters attacked hotels where asylum-seekers were living. They threw fencing, beer kegs, glass bottles and furniture at police, wounding scores. Activity was coordinated on social media.
The anger of most rioters was directed against Muslims in general and hotels housing asylum-seekers. ‘Save our children’ was one of the chants. This in part followed a misapprehension about the person arrested after fatal stabbings in Southport last week. A judge at Liverpool Crown Court ruled that the name of the 17-year-old charged with murder in Southport, Axel Rudakubana, should be made public. His parents are from Rwanda, and he is not Muslim. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said in a television broadcast on Sunday: ‘I won’t shy away from calling it what it is – far-right thuggery.’ After a meeting of Cobra he said ministers and police chiefs had agreed to form a ‘standing army’ of specialist officers to deal with incidents. At Yardley in Birmingham a mob of young men of Asian background attacked the Clumsy Swan pub. Elon Musk mocked Sir Keir as ‘#TwoTierKeir’ for policing different groups differently. Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, when asked by a Sky News journalist in Whitehall about two-tier policing, knocked his microphone to the ground. Malaysia and Nigeria issued warnings to travellers to Britain. In the seven days to 6 August, 797 migrants arrived in small boats.
The Bank of England cut interest rates to 5 per cent from 5.25 per cent. The stock market fell, reflecting fears about the United States economy. Britain won dozens of medals in the Olympics. Graham Thorpe, an outstanding former England batsman, died aged 55. Eluned Morgan was made First Minister of Wales. Floating mats of cyanobacteria, often called blue-green algae, returned to Lough Neagh, giving off a horrible smell.
Abroad
Russia released 16 hostages in return for eight prisoners held in the West. Among those flown to America were Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter arrested in March 2023, and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine arrested in 2018. Others released to the West were Russian dissidents. Among those returned to Russia was Vadim Krasikov, a former colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service who was serving a life sentence in Germany for the murder in 2019 of an exiled Chechen commander in a Berlin park. Ukraine received its first American-made F-16 fighter jets. Ukraine said it had destroyed the Rostov-on-Don, a Russian submarine, in Sevastopol, where it was being repaired after a Ukrainian attack last September.
America, Britain and France urged citizens to leave Lebanon. Iran had promised ‘severe’ retaliation against Israel for the death in Tehran of Ismail Haniyeh, the political head of Hamas. Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, launched dozens of rockets against Israel and Israel struck targets in southern Lebanon. Lloyd Austin, the US Defence Secretary, revoked a pre-trial agreement made last week with men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks; it would have spared them the death penalty. Kamala Harris, the Democratic party candidate, chose Tim Walz as her running mate. A US district judge ruled that Google had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on online searches. Mount Etna erupted.
Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister of Bangladesh, fled the country after anti-government protests. Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader barred from standing in last month’s presidential election, addressed a crowd in Caracas; Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said there was ‘overwhelming evidence’ the opposition won the election. In Nicaragua at least 11 priests and deacons were reported kidnapped by agents of the regime. Imane Khelif exclaimed ‘I am a woman!’ after winning a boxing medal in the Olympics; she had previously been disqualified from boxing as a woman by the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, itself banned from the Olympics. CSH
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