'In all my years in York I have never seen any hatred, only kindnesses'
'Living in York I have never seen hatred, only kindnesses'
THE author of this advert believes that hatred exists in York, but fails to say who hates, and what or whom they hate.
In all my years in York I have never seen any instances of hatred, only kindnesses.
Poster in York. Our reader says he has never encountered hate in York, only kindness (Image: Supplied)
I have fallen twice, and was immediately attended by helpful women. I once felt faint in Goodramgate, clutched at a door handle, and at once two ladies came to help me.
One even offered to escort me home.Young people at the Foss Islands gym I go to come up to me to chat, an old man.
At the churches I go to I meet nothing but smiles and welcomes.
This ad traduces the decent citizens of York. It is a friendly city and I thank God live here.
So grateful to report good news on our doorstep
WITH so much violence reported in the news, it is good to be able to report some good news.
I went to the local surgery to request a prescription on Saturday.
About half an hour after returning home a couple with their dog rang the door bell to return my wallet which I had not even noticed I had lost.
Unfortunately I did not ask their names but it was so good of them to go out of their way to return it.
What do you think?
FEEL strongly about an issue?
Send your views by email to: letters@thepress.co.uk
Write no more than 250 words and please provide your full name, address and mobile number.
Are we all Nazis?
I AM cancelling my Private Eye and RHS subscriptions to save money, winter fuel payments used to help with all our costs.
The money saved is for the next Starmer give away that will increase our taxes even more.
Now the Chagos are gone I fear he will give lots of money to Argentina to take the Falklands off our hands.
The massive increase in boat people and criminals not being deported will not help stop taxes going up even more.
I am obviously a Nazi according to the Labour Party as I too am sick of European judges dictating that we cannot do as our courts decide.
The majority of my neighbours agree with me so they must be Nazis too!---
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
‘They are in shock': Indian students fear Trump has ended their American dream
For weeks, Subash Devatwal's phone has not stopped ringing. Some of the calls have been from distressed students, at other times it is their panicked parents, but all have the same question – is their dream of studying in the US still possible? Devatwal runs an education consultancy in Ahmedabad, the main city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is one of thousands of such organisations that exist across the country, helping Indian students achieve what many consider to be the ultimate symbol of success: getting into an American university. It has long been a booming business for Devatwal. Families in India will often invest their entire life savings to send their children to study in the US and last year there were more than 330,000 Indians enrolled at American universities, more than any other foreign nationality, overtaking Chinese students in numbers for the first time in years. But this year the situation looks drastically different. As Donald Trump's administration has taken aim at international students – first implementing draconian screening measures over political views and then last week ordering all US embassies globally to indefinitely pause all student visa interviews – many Indian students and their families have been left in limbo. Trump's unilateral decision to block Harvard University from admitting international students, which was later blocked by the courts, also caused widespread panic and stoked fears that foreign students at other universities could get caught in the president's crosshairs. 'The students are in shock. Most of them spend several years preparing to study in the US,' said Devatwal. He said many of his clients were now hesitant to pursue a US degree, given the high levels of turmoil and uncertainty following the Trump administration's new policies. Indian students can expect to pay between $40,000 to $80,000 (£29,500 to £59,000) a year on tuition alone to study in the US. In previous years, Devatwal's organisation sent more than 100 students to American universities but this year he said the number had dropped to about 10. Instead, families were shifting their focus to the UK and other European countries. A recent analysis by the Hindu newspaper estimated a 28% drop in Indian students going to the US in 2025. 'Families contribute their savings, take out loans from banks and borrow from relatives, all in the hope that the student will secure a good job abroad, repay the debt, and build a promising future,' said Devatwal. 'In such uncertain circumstances, parents are understandably reluctant to let their children take such a risky path.' Brijesh Patel, 50, a textile trader in Surat, Gujarat, said he had been saving money for over a decade to make sure his son could go to a US university, including selling his wife's jewellery and borrowing money from relatives. 'Everyone in the family wanted our son to go to the US for his studies and make something good of his life,' said Patel. His 21-year-old son, who he asked not to be named for fear of retribution by the US authorities, had secured a place at two American universities for his master's degree and Patel had already paid 700,000 rupees (£6,000) to consultancies who helped with the applications. But amid the turmoil under Trump, Patel said his son was being advised not to even apply for his student visa, due to the uncertainty and high probability of rejection. 'We simply can't take that risk. If our son goes now and something goes wrong, we won't be able to save that kind of money again,' he said. However, Patel said he was not willing to give up on the family dream just yet. 'I am an optimist, and my son is willing to wait a year,' he said. 'We're hoping that things improve by then. It's not just my son who will be living the American dream, it's all of us: my wife, our relatives and our neighbours. I've struggled my whole life – I don't want my son to face the same struggles here in India.' The fear among prospective and current students was palpable. Several Indian students studying in the US declined to speak to the Guardian, fearing it could jeopardise their visas. In India, a student selected in December to be one of this year's Fulbright-Nehru doctoral fellows – a highly competitive scholarship that pays for the brightest students to study abroad at US universities as part of their PhD thesis – said the applications of their entire cohort had recently been demoted back to 'semi-finalists'. The student, who asked to remain anonymous over fears it would affect their application, said they had invitation letters from top Ivy League universities for the fellowship, which is considered one of the most prestigious scholarships in the US, but now everything was up in the air. 'We are supposed to start in October and our orientation was scheduled for May, all the flights and hotels were even booked, but then it all got cancelled. Now we've been informed all our applications are under review by the Trump administration,' said the student. They said it had caused 'huge panic and anxiety' among those accepted. 'I know a lot of people are going back through their social media, deleting things and doing a lot of self-censoring.' Piyush Bhartiya, a co-founder of the educational technology company AdmitKard, said many parents who had been set on sending their children to the US were rethinking their plans. He cited one example of a student who had been admitted to New York University for the coming year but was instead planning to go to the London School of Economics after the US visa interviews were paused. Bhartiya said Indian students primarily went to the US to study Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths – and so the focus had shifted to other countries strong in these areas. 'Germany is the main country where students are shifting to for Stem subjects,' he said. 'Other countries like Ireland, France, the Netherlands, which are also gaining substantial interest in the students. At the undergraduate level, the Middle East has also seen a lot of gain in interest given parents feel that it is close by and safer and given the current political environment they may want their kids closer to the home.' Among the Indian students forced to abandon their plans is Nihar Gokhale, 36. He had a fully funded offer for a PhD at a private university in Massachusetts, but recently received a letter saying the funding was being withdrawn, as the university faced issues under the Trump administration. 'It was quite shocking. I spoke to people at the university, and they admitted it was an exceptional situation for them too,' said Gokhale. Without the funding, the US was financially 'out of the question' and he said he had an offer from the UK he now intended to take up. 'For at least the next three or four years, I'm not considering the US at all,' he said. • This article was amended on 4 June 2025 to correct a conversion error. An earlier version said that 700,000 rupees was £68,000 instead of saying £6,000.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump scorns Merkel legacy during new German chancellor's White House visit
Donald Trump has heaped criticism on the former German chancellor Angela Merkel for opening up her country to refugees, telling her successor: 'I told her it shouldn't have happened.' During an appearance with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, on Thursday, Trump was asked about the sweeping travel restrictions on 19 countries that he announced the previous day. 'We want to keep bad people out of our country … of course, you have a little problem too with some of the people that were allowed into your country,' Trump said to Merz, in an apparent reference to a number of attacks in Germany involving refugees. Merz replied: 'Yes we do,' before Trump continued: 'It's not your fault … It shouldn't have happened. I told her it shouldn't have happened, but it did. But you have your own difficulty with that, and we do.' He was referring to Merkel, but did not call her by name. The former chancellor visited the White House in 2017, during Trump's first term of office, when she was given a grilling by Trump over her so-called open-door policy, which allowed around 1 million refugees – mainly from Syria and Iraq – into Germany. Merz's highly anticipated visit had been viewed with trepidation in Berlin, amid fears that the German leader may face another Oval Office ambush, such as those endured by Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa. In the end, all the criticism was levied at Merkel, a former political rival of Merz. Trump also made a dig about Merkel's enthusiasm for the building of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which brought gas from Russia to Europe. During the 35-minute press conference, Merz struggled to get a word in, though as German commentators noted, that was probably to the relief of his advisers, who feared there were a number of issues on which Trump might have pilloried him, from defence spending to immigration. When he did manage to speak, the former corporate lawyer mostly focused on Ukraine and the need to end the conflict, in particular by bringing the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to account. Merz also pushed back several times on Trump's narrative that Ukraine and Russia were equally to blame for the war. Related: Trump says it may be better to let Ukraine and Russia 'fight for a while' 'I'm here, Mr President, to talk to you later on how we could contribute to that goal [to end the war]. We are all looking for measures and for instruments to bring this terrible war to an end,' Merz said. He compared the US role in ending the conflict with the part US troops played in defeating the Nazi dictatorship. He noted that Friday will mark the 81st anniversary of D-day, in which tens of thousands of US troops joined allied troops in invading Normandy. The US, he said, was 'again, in the very strong position to do something' about ending the war. Trump, he said, was the 'key person in the world' who could stop the war 'by putting pressure on Russia'. Trump praised Germany for having agreed to boost its defence spending to 5% of GDP, after years-long demands from Washington for it to do so. Asked by a German journalist whether Berlin was 'doing enough on defence', Trump said: 'I know you're spending more money on defence now. Quite a bit more money. That's a positive.' But to some nervous laughter in the room, he quipped that he was 'not sure if Gen MacArthur would have said it's positive,' a reference to the supreme commander for the allied powers, among whose focuses was postwar demilitarisation. Merz prepared for the visit in part by talking to other leaders who have met Trump in recent months to gather tips about the best way to handle him. Merkel has said that she prepared for her first Trump visit – when he was less well-known as a politician – by reading a 1980s interview with him in Playboy and watching episodes of The Apprentice. Merz was put up for the night in the official government guest house, Blair House, which his advisers said was a signal that the two leaders – who refer to one other by their first names – were on a good footing. Merz presented Trump with a gold-framed birth certificate of his grandfather, Friedrich Trump, who emigrated from Germany in 1885, as well as a book titled News from the Land of Freedom – German Immigrants Write Home, which is a collection of letters written by German émigrés in the US to their families back in Germany. 'It is a small present to remind him of his family,' Merz said. He has also invited Trump to Germany to visit his grandfather's home village.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hegseth says Nato allies ‘very close' to raising defence spending target to 5%
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said Nato allies were 'very close, almost near consensus' to an agreement to significantly raise targets for defence spending to 5% of GDP in the next decade. The Trump administration official indicated he expected the increased target to be agreed at a summit in The Hague later this month – and confirmed that the headline figure was to be split into two parts. 'This alliance, in a matter of weeks, will be committing to 5%: 3.5% in hard military and 1.5% in infrastructure and defence-related activities. That combination constitutes a real commitment,' he said. Hegseth was speaking at a press conference at Nato headquarters in Brussels after the morning session of an all-day meeting of defence ministers from the 32-country transatlantic military alliance. 'I'm very encouraged by what we heard in there,' Hegseth told reporters. 'Countries in there are well exceeding 2% and we think very close, almost near consensus, on a 5% commitment to Nato.' Nato's current target level for military spending, agreed at a summit in Cardiff in 2014, is 2% of GDP, but Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that European allies and Canada do not spend enough compared with the US. In an attempt to avoid Trump wrecking the first Nato summit of his second term, the alliance's new secretary general, Mark Rutte, proposed a 3.5% plus 1.5% target, though there is some ambiguity about the target date. Initial reports suggested that Rutte wanted allies to hit the target from 2032, though earlier this week British sources suggested the date could be 2035. Sweden's defence minister said he would like to see the target hit by 2030. Only Poland currently exceeds the 3.5% target for hard military spending at 4.32%, according to Nato figures, while the US defence budget, the largest in the alliance, amounts to 3.4% of GDP, at $967bn (£711bn). The UK spends 2.33% of GDP on its military, but has pledged to increase that to 2.5% by 2027 and to 3% some time in the next parliament. Earlier this week the prime minister, Keir Starmer, declined to set a firm date for the UK achieving 3% as he unveiled a strategic defence review. Related: Why is defence such a hard sell? The same reason Starmer is struggling in the polls | Martin Kettle Rutte will visit London on Monday to meet Starmer before the summit. Downing Street said the prime minister and the secretary general would 'talk about how we ensure all allies step up their defence spending now in order to respond to the threats that we face now'. Germany's defence minister, Boris Pistorius, said Berlin would need up to 60,000 additional troops to meet new Nato targets for weapons and personnel. 'We are stepping up to our responsibility as Europe's largest economy,' the minister said on Thursday. Germany, which currently spends 2.12% of GDP on defence, had been singled out by Trump as a laggard in spending, though until Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Berlin had been reluctant to be a leader in European military spending, partly due to the memories of the militarism of the second world war.
