More than 70 arrests at protests over Palestine Action ban
Protesters gathered for the second week in a row in central , where the Metropolitan Police made 42 arrests.
Other demonstrations took place around the UK, including in , where police said 16 arrests were made, and in Cardiff, where South Wales Police arrested 12 people.
In London, two groups of protesters gathered underneath statues of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in Parliament Square, shortly before 1pm.
They wrote the message "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action" on pieces of cardboard and silently held the signs in the air as they were surrounded by police officers and members of the media.
Some demonstrators could be seen lying on top of each other on the floor as police searched their bags, and took their ID cards and signs.
Officers then carried away a number of protesters, lifting them off the ground and into waiting police vans.
The last protester was lifted from the Nelson Mandela statue shortly after 2.30pm.
Forty-one of the 42 arrests at the London protest were for showing support for a proscribed organisation, while one person was arrested for common assault, the Met Police said.
Read more:
Palestine Action's terror group designation means membership of, or support for, the group is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Greater Manchester Police said it had arrested 16 people under the Terrorism Act 2000 after responding to a protest in St Peter's Square at around 2.30pm.
South Wales Police confirmed 13 people were arrested on suspicion of offences under the same act in the vicinity of Central Square in Cardiff.
The Met Police at a similar protest last weekend.
Read more from Sky News:
Scotland Yard has said its stance remains that officers will act where criminal offences, including support of proscribed groups or organisations, are committed.
It added that this includes "chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos".
The move to ban Palestine Action came after at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire last month.
Police said the incident caused around £7m worth of damage.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
27 minutes ago
- Fox News
UK to roll out red carpet in ‘unprecedented' second Trump visit hosted by King Charles
In an unprecedented announcement on Sunday, the British royal family said its September invitation to President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump has been accepted. The meeting will mark the first time a U.S. president has been invited to the United Kingdom for a second state visit – a move that signifies the value London is placing on the U.S.-U.K. partnership amid escalated security concerns. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also meet with Trump in Scotland during his previously planned "private" visit to his Aberdeenshire-based golf resort later this month, reports first confirmed last week. While the Trump-Starmer meeting is still significant, it is not an official state visit that is accompanied by ceremonial events, and King Charles III is not expected to meet with the president during the July meeting. It is not uncommon for U.S. presidents to make the trip to the U.K. multiple times throughout their presidency. Both of Trump's two-term predecessors, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, visited Britain multiple times, though both were issued just one state visit. The reason for the visit – which will take place from Sept. 17-19 at Windsor Castle as Buckingham Palace continues to undergo massive renovations – has not been explicitly revealed and could be because Trump's previous invitation was issued under the King Charles III's mother, Queen Elizabeth II, prior to his accession to the throne. However, it also comes amid escalated security concerns as Russia continues to pummel Ukraine, and European nations remain steadfast in their concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin's war ambitions extend beyond Kyiv. "The unprecedented nature of a second state visit for President Trump reflects the reality that global turbulence means it is natural for the U.K. to want to keep its friends close," Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, an international affairs think tank based in London, told Fox News Digital. "In an ever-changing security environment, the one constant we know will act to underpin our way of life is the transatlantic alliance." "Extending this invitation therefore shows that the U.K. is serious about its own commitment to our enduring relationship, but also reminds the U.S. that we have always been an indispensable partner in its global leadership," he added. Since Trump re-entered office, the U.K. has worked to maintain its strong ties with Washington despite some geopolitically challenging moves by Trump that have strained other international relations. Fox News Digital could not immediately reach Buckingham Palace for comment.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Mass protests planned in London and Windsor for Trump's state visit
Anti-Trump campaigners are to stage a mass demonstration in central London on the first day of the US president's state visit to the UK. The Stop Trump Coalition is also planning further protests, including one near Windsor Castle, during Donald Trump's high profile trip in two months' time. Buckingham Palace confirmed on Monday that the King is to host the controversial American leader at the Berkshire royal residence from September 17-19, when he will be feted with a ceremonial welcome and a state banquet. The trip will be Mr Trump's second state visit to the UK – an unprecedented gesture for a US president – with his last one in 2019 seeing thousands of people turn out on the streets in London in opposition. A 20ft Trump baby blimp also took to the skies above Parliament Square, just as it did during a previous visit by the billionaire-turned politician in 2018. The Stop Trump Coalition has yet to confirm whether the famous inflatable effigy, which depicts the US president as an angry baby in a nappy clutching a mobile phone, will make a reappearance. The original was donated to the Museum of London in 2021. Other inventive creations by protesters in 2019 included a 16ft talking robot of Mr Trump sitting on a gold toilet, which said the phrases 'No collusion', 'You are fake news' and 'I'm a very stable genius' in audio of Mr Trump's own voice; and Handmaids Against Trump – women draped in red with white hoods in homage to Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel about a crackdown on reproductive rights. On September 17 – the first day of Mr Trump's visit – demonstrators will assemble at London's Embankment at 2pm and march to a 5pm rally at an as-yet-undisclosed location. Further protests, including one near Windsor Castle, are set to be confirmed once more details of Mr Trump's visit is known. Security is expected to be at peak levels for the American leader, who survived an assassination attempt last year. The Stop Trump Coalition's spokesperson Seema Syeda said: 'This will be a massive protest against Trump's state visit. 'Trump and his authoritarian politics are not welcome here. Keir Starmer should not be rolling out the red carpet for Trump. 'They are already running scared. They have chosen the first possible date that stops Trump from being able to address Parliament. 'We know that Trump is deeply unpopular with the public. 'We mobilised hundreds of thousands of people against Trump during his first term, and he has only got worse since then. 'We are working at speed to bring together all the movements – for democracy, for equality, against climate change, for a free Palestine – to show our unity against Trump.' The House of Commons will not be sitting at the time of Mr Trump's visit as it will be in recess for party conference season, meaning the president will not be able to address Parliament as French President Emmanuel Macron did during his state visit last week. However, the House of Lords will be sitting. Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now which is part of the coalition, accused Mr Trump of being a bully and suggested there was a growing global resistance against him. 'Trump is engaged in economic warfare against both friend and foe,' he said. 'He's bullying countries, including the UK, to give in to the demands of American multinational corporations. 'And he's taking his own country down an increasingly fascist path – crushing the rights of Americans, ignoring the courts, threatening the media and universities.' Mr Dearden added: 'Why on earth would we want to accord this man a second state visit? 78% of Britons have a negative view of Trump, and with good reason. 'If Starmer won't stand up to Trump, we will – by taking to the streets as part of the growing global resistance against Trump and the oligarchs that surround him.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Prosecutor reflects on ‘long road' to justice for baby Victoria
A senior prosecutor has reflected on the 'long road' to justice for baby Victoria, saying nothing was too much for the child unable to 'stick up' for herself. On Monday, Victoria's parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, were convicted of her manslaughter following two lengthy trials spanning two years. Samantha Yelland, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS London, told the PA news agency: 'I feel that justice has been done. 'It's been a long road, it's been a lot of work, but, you know, no work is too much when anyone's died, but particularly a young child who wasn't able to stick up for herself or fight for herself.' Last year, a jury failed to reach verdicts on whether the defendants were responsible to Victoria's death but did convict them of concealing her birth, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice by hiding her body in a shed. Ms Yelland sought a retrial on charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing Victoria's death in the public interest, even though it meant a second six-month trial. Explaining the decision, she said: 'A baby died in circumstances which she absolutely didn't need to and could have been avoided. 'That is why it's serious and it needs to be prosecuted. Obviously none of us expected it to take this long.' Dealing with a case involving the death of a baby is 'always upsetting' even for an experienced team, she said. Ms Yelland said: 'I consider it a privilege to prosecute baby cases. It is very upsetting, it could be harrowing, but usually the people charged with their killing is someone who is supposed to look after them. 'Some of the evidence in is not very nice, but we're just looking at the whole picture and wanting to get justice for the person who has died.' Images of Victoria's body found rotting amid rubbish in a Lidl bag in a shed near Brighton have stuck in her mind throughout the case. She said: 'I've seen what baby Victoria looks like inside of that bag. I've seen the post-mortem photos. 'We didn't subject the jury to that because that is not a nice thing to see. But the baby is in that bag, which we know she was carried around in when she died, but also when she was alive. It is probably what stays with me the most. And what was on top, the rubbish, the Coke can and the sandwich wrapper. 'And the two police officers finding it. You can see how moved they are when they realise that they found it. Obviously, that had been a manhunt been going on for a couple of days by that stage.' On the defendants' actions after four other children were taken into care, Ms Yelland said: 'We never said that they didn't love their children, but when it comes to decision making, it's the prosecution view that they think of themselves above the children. 'And that's why they got themselves into the predicament they did. And that's why Victoria died, and that's why they continued to keep her there in that bag for however long it was after she died and not go to the police and not explain the situation. 'And that's why I charged perverting the course of justice rather than preventing the lawful for burial, which is another offence I could have considered. 'For me, it was more than that because they kept it for such a long time that the state that she was in was such that we couldn't be sure if there had been an injury – not that we're saying there was for a minute – but we wouldn't have been able to tell because at the amount of time that she'd been in there. 'I do accept that there were experts that said that everyone grieves differently and everyone deals with things differently, but I think the whole theme of this case is that they think about themselves more than they think about their children and other people.' Ms Yelland said the case had presented multiple challenges for the prosecution before baby Victoria was found dead on March 1 2023. Discussions had already started about charging Gordon and Marten even in the absence of a body. The CPS pressed ahead with charges despite a post-mortem examination failing to ascertain exactly how Victoria died. With no pathological cause of death, the jury was asked to look at other evidence that Victoria died from hypothermia or smothering, as the defendants claimed. Ms Yelland said: 'We decided that although there were two distinct ways in which she may have died, our main case is that she died of hypothermia. 'The defendants raised that she was smothered and in response to that, we say, while we don't accept that, even if that were to be the case, the circumstances in which she was smothered are such it still amounts to grossly negligence manslaughter. 'It's our case that hypothermia would have been heavily involved in any smothering anyway, because she's been subjected to very cold conditions with the items that she was wearing and would not have been as healthy.' In a change from the original trial, an expert replicated cold and damp conditions in the tent where Victoria died and examined her inadequate clothes pointing to hypothermia being the likely cause. Other challenges involved piecing together and assessing sightings of the defendants from across England in the seven weeks they were on the run with baby Victoria. Mr Yelland said that the prosecution was able to narrow the timeline in the second trial although the prosecution still asserted Victoria survived for longer than the defendants had said. Towards the end of the retrial, Gordon, who by then was representing himself, provided the prosecution with the chance to lift the lid on his 1989 rape conviction in the United States after he gave a misleading impression of his childhood. When he refuted the convictions, the prosecution moved swiftly to produce an embossed certificate from a Florida court to prove it.
