Police attacked as Northern Irish violence spreads to another town
Violence first flared on Monday after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town. The charges were read via a Romanian interpreter to the boys, whose lawyer told the court they denied the charge, the BBC reported.
One of a number of anti-immigration protests on Thursday was held in Portadown, 50 kilometres from the capital Belfast. A large policing operation of officers in riot gear and armoured vans closed off a number of roads in advance.
Debris was strewn across streets and wheelie bins were set on fire.
Other protests passed off without major incident, including in Ballymena, the primary flashpoint of the first two nights of more intense violence, local media reported.
Paul Frew, a member of the regional assembly from Ballymena, said that while some people gathered on the streets again amidst a big police presence, it was much quieter and that heavy rainfall had helped keep people away.
"Hopefully we're through the worst of it," Frew, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, told the BBC.
(Reporting Clodagh Kilcoyne and Ben Makori in Portadown, Amanda Ferguson in Belfast; Writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
27 minutes ago
- New York Post
JD Vance raises $4M for Republican National Committee during UK trip
WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance raked in $4 million for the Republican National Committee during his jaunt to the United Kingdom last week, adding more cash to the GOP pot ahead of next year's midterms, The Post has learned. The VP met with several RNC donors living overseas as he traveled across Britain, including stops in the Cotswolds and Scotland, according to a source familiar with the discussions. Federal rules allow Americans living or travelling abroad to contribute to political organizations and campaigns. The UK trip was the latest fundraising sojourn Vance has made since being tapped as RNC finance chair in March. Vice President JD Vance speaks during a meeting with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy at Chevening House in Kent, England, Friday, Aug. 8, 2025. AP The veep previously raised money in Houston, Dallas, Manhattan, Atlanta, Nashville, San Diego, Nantucket, Jackson Hole, and Big Sky, Montana. Vance's first big donor dinner was held in New York City where tickets ran as high as $250,000 per head, The Post previously reported. He then raked in $3 million at his fundraiser in Nantucket last month. Those close to the White House believe Vance's RNC post, an unprecedented position for a vice president to hold, will boost him in his near-certain bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2028. Trump told reporters Aug. 5 that Vance was the 'most likely' heir to the 45th and 47th president's Make America Great Again movement. U.S. Vice President JD Vance plays golf at Trump Turnberry golf course, during his holiday, in Turnberry, Scotland, Britain, August 14, 2025. REUTERS 'Last year, President Trump won an historic election victory, taking back the White House and helping Republicans regain control of the Senate and retain control of the House,' Vance said in a statement at the time of his appointment. 'But to fully enact the MAGA mandate and President Trump's vision that voters demanded, we must keep and grow our Republican majorities in 2026.' During his visit, Vance also spoke to British officials and successfully convinced the UK to drop its demand to access personal cloud data storage, which could have impacted the privacy of American citizens. On Aug. 8, the 41-year-old went trout fishing with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy in England ahead of a discussion of US-UK relations, Gaza and Ukraine.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. jailed in Mexico after US deportation
MEXICO CITY, Aug. 19, (Reuters) — Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. has entered a prison in the northern Mexico state of Sonora after his arrest in the United States in July, Mexico's national arrest registry showed on Tuesday. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in her daily press conference said the 39-year-old been deported. She previously said there was a warrant for his arrest for charges of arms trafficking and organized crime, and that prosecutors were working on the case. More: Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has had many ups and downs in two decade career The Mexican attorney general's office declined to comment. Chávez Jr, the son of a legendary former world champion boxer Julio César Chávez, was detained by U.S. immigration authorities shortly after losing in a sold-out match to American influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul. Mexican prosecutors allege he acted as a henchman for the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which Washington designated a foreign terrorist organization earlier this year. Chávez Jr's lawyer and family have rejected the accusations. Archives: Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Andy Lee and the Sun Bowl fight cartel controversy Mexico's national arrest registry showed that the boxer was arrested at a checkpoint in the Mexican border city of Nogales at 11:53 a.m. local time, and transferred to a federal institution in Sonora's capital of Hermosillo. Chávez Jr. was wearing a black hoodie and red sneakers, it said. Chávez Jr. won the WBC middleweight championship in 2011, but lost the title the following year. His career has been overshadowed by controversies including a suspension after testing positive for a banned substance in 2009, and a fine and suspension after testing positive for marijuana in 2013. This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr. jailed in Mexico after US deportation
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Fed dissenters appeared alone in favoring rate cut at July meeting, minutes show
By Dan Burns and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The two Federal Reserve policymakers who dissented against the U.S. central bank decision's to leave interest rates unchanged last month appear not to have been joined by other policymakers in voicing support for lowering rates at that meeting, a readout of the gathering released on Wednesday showed. "Almost all participants viewed it as appropriate to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 4.25% to 4.50% at this meeting," the minutes of the July 29-30 meeting said. Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Christopher Waller both voted against the decision to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged, favoring instead a quarter-percentage-point reduction to guard against further weakening of the job market. It was the first time since 1993 that more than one Fed governor dissented against a rate decision. Not even 48 hours after the conclusion of last month's meeting, data from the Labor Department appeared to validate the concerns of Bowman and Waller when it showed far fewer jobs than expected were created in July, a rise in the unemployment rate and a drop in the labor force participation rate to the lowest level since late 2022. More unsettling, though, was an historic downward revision for estimates of employment in the previous two months. That revision erased more than a quarter of a million jobs thought to have been created in May and June and put a hefty dent in the prevailing narrative of a still-strong-job market. The event was so angering to President Donald Trump that he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data since then, however, has provided some fodder for the camp more concerned that Trump's aggressive tariffs risk rekindling inflation to hold their ground against moving quickly to lower rates. The annual rate of underlying consumer inflation accelerated more than expected in July and was followed by an unexpectedly large jump in prices at the producer level. The minutes showed officials continued an active debate on the effects of tariffs on inflation and the degree of restrictiveness in their policy stance. Several policymakers commented that the current level of the federal funds rate may not be far above its neutral level, where economic activity is neither stimulated nor constrained. Fed policymakers assessed that the effects of higher tariffs had become more apparent in some goods prices but that the overall effect on the economy and inflation remained to be seen, the minutes showed. Looking ahead, participants noted they may face difficult tradeoffs ahead if elevated inflation proved more persistent while the job market outlook weakened. TRUMP'S PRESSURE CAMPAIGN Heading into the release of the minutes, CME's FedWatch tool assigned an 85% probability of a quarter-percentage-point reduction in the Fed's policy rate at the September 16-17 meeting. That rate has been unchanged since December. The minutes were released just two days before a highly anticipated speech from Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the annual economic symposium near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is hosted by the Kansas City Fed. Powell's keynote speech on Friday morning - set to be his last such address as head of the central bank, with his term expiring next May - could show whether he has joined ranks with those sensing the time has come for steps to shield the job market from further weakening or if he remains in league with those more wary of inflation in light of its moves away from the Fed's 2% target. The lack of rate cuts since Trump returned to the White House has agitated the Republican president, and he regularly lashes out at Powell for not engineering them. Trump is already in the process of screening possible successors to Powell. After the unexpected resignation earlier this month of one of the seven Fed governors, Trump has a chance to put his imprint on the central bank soon. The president has nominated Council of Economic Advisers Chair Stephen Miran to fill the seat recently vacated by former Fed Governor Adriana Kugler, a term that expires at the end of January. It is unclear whether Miran will win Senate confirmation before the Fed's next meeting. On Wednesday Trump demanded that Fed Governor Lisa Cook resign from the central bank over allegations of wrongdoing connected to mortgages on properties she owns in Georgia and Michigan.
