Latest news with #BritishAuthorities
Al Bawaba
3 days ago
- Politics
- Al Bawaba
Palestine Action: 60 supporters to face trial in UK after group ban
Published August 16th, 2025 - 10:50 GMT ALBAWABA - British authorities announced plans to prosecute at least 60 individuals accused of supporting Palestine Action, an anti-Israel movement that was formally outlawed in July after being designated a terrorist organization. The Metropolitan Police confirmed on Friday that arrangements have been put in place to handle large-scale investigations and that prosecutions could proceed on a weekly basis. Since the ban, more than 700 people have been detained, including 522 during a single protest last weekend — the highest number of arrests ever recorded at one demonstration in London. Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said the decision reflects the sheer number of recent arrests and added that further cases are expected in the coming weeks. Earlier this month, three individuals were charged under terrorism laws for their involvement with the banned movement after participating in a July protest. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the government's actions, insisting that 'national security and public safety in the United Kingdom must always remain top priorities.' The government's move to proscribe Palestine Action came on July 7, days after the group claimed responsibility for storming a Royal Air Force base in southern England in protest of Britain's military support for Israel's war in Gaza. 🔴 It follows the arrest of more than 700 people since the group's proscription on July 7 Read more ⬇️ — The Telegraph (@Telegraph) August 16, 2025 Founded in 2020, Palestine Action rose to prominence for targeting factories and businesses linked to Israeli defense firms. One of its most notable actions was disrupting drone production at Elbit Systems' plant in Bristol, a subsidiary of the Israeli arms manufacturer. The group gained further visibility following Israel's war on Gaza that began in October 2023, describing its activities as direct action against what it calls genocide. The ban and subsequent arrests have drawn criticism from human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the United Nations, which argued that the government's measures 'overstepped legal boundaries' and warned that the crackdown threatens freedom of expression in the UK. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
Washington Post
07-08-2025
- Washington Post
UK authorities detain 1st group of migrants under plan to thwart small boats crossing from France
LONDON — British border authorities have detained the first group of migrants under a pilot plan that will send some who cross the English Channel on small boats back to France. The migrants were detained Wednesday, the day the program came into force, and will be held at immigration removal centers until they are returned to France, the Home Office said on Thursday.
Irish Times
30-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Worldwide interest expected as 19th-century Irish census records recovered and put online
The fire that destroyed the Public Records Office during the Irish Civil War also destroyed 700 years worth of records. Chancery records detailing British rule in Ireland going back to the 14th century and grants of land by the crown along with thousands of wills, title deeds and parish registers were incinerated when a fire broke out in the grounds of the Four Courts, which held the PRO, on June 30th, 1922. By common consent the worst loss of all was the pre-famine 19th-century census records. In an act of unparalleled archival vandalism the British authorities had destroyed the 1861 and 1871 census records so that they could not be used for the 'gratification of curiosity'. The 1881 and 1891 censuses were pulped during the first World War because of the shortage of paper. The British saw the censuses as purely a numbers game, not a valuable archive for future research. That left the pre-famine censuses of 1821, 1831 and 1841 still intact, but these were almost entirely destroyed in the fire. READ MORE The Virtual Treasury project was set up to try to recover as many of the lost documents as possible. Hundreds of thousands of documents have been retrieved where copies have been found in archives elsewhere, but the census records were always the priority. Thanks to years of work on the part of Brian Gurrin, the treasury's population and census specialist, some 60,000 names and counting have been recovered from 19th-century censuses. Four volumes from the 1821 census survived the fire, including the entire records for the Aran Islands, and have been in the National Archives of Ireland since. The Aran Islands was entirely Irish-speaking at the time, but the names are all recorded in English. They were available previously on microfilm, but that necessitated a visit to the National Archives. 'Brian's detective work has given them a whole new lease of life,' said Zoë Reid, the keeper of manuscripts at the National Archives of Ireland. They have now been digitised. Other copies have been found from diligent genealogists who would copy census records for research purposes. 'We talk about 60,000 names, but there are many, many more to go in. We haven't finished the process,' said Mr Gurrin. Virtual Record Treasury co-director Ciarán Wallace added: 'When we go to county libraries as part of a roadshow, the first question is, 'have you found the census yet?'. We have put a huge effort into finding anything we can of the censuses,' he said All the census names have been looked at individually and entered by hand. No machine learning or AI was used. All the census data has been consolidated in the population portal. Everywhere that a name or names have been recovered is denoted with a pin where users can zoom in to reveal the details. The interest is not only within Ireland. Tens of millions of people, especially in the United States, are descended from 19th-century Irish emigrants. Half of all visitors to the virtual treasury come from abroad. The census records are part of 175,000 new historical records that will be available from Monday, June 30th, the 103rd anniversary of the Public Records fire. The project has been led by Trinity College Dublin and supported by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and the National Archives of Ireland. Also included in the release is the Age of Revolution portal which includes contemporary accounts from the Irish House of Commons about the American revolution and the 1798 rebellion, five million words of Anglo-Norman (1170-1500) Irish history translated into English and more than 10 million words on governing Ireland in the dramatic years following Cromwell's death. Virtual Record Treasury academic director Dr Peter Crooks described the recovery of 60,000 census names as a 'tremendous achievement. What we have uncovered after years of painstaking archival work will help families across the world trace their story deeper into the Irish past.' He added: 'The scale, scope and significance of these materials is remarkable. They will be of huge interest to anyone exploring Ireland's story as a global island.'
The Sun
20-06-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
UK readying charter flights to rescue trapped Brits from Israel as Iranian missiles fall & US weighs strikes
UK nationals are to be evacuated from Israel by emergency chartered flights from Tel Aviv. British authorities are scrambling to arrange the planes after they were slammed for being too slow as the crisis spirals. 2 2 The UK government is working with the Israeli authorities to arrange transport after Sir Keir Starmer urged all sides to reach a diplomatic outcome. is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video. Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun.
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Alleged display of Hizbullah ensign at Kneecap gig may prove costly for rapper
The charging of Kneecap rapper Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (27) with a terrorism offence by British authorities specifically relates to the alleged display of a flag associated with Lebanese armed group Hizbullah last November at one of the band's gigs in Kentish Town, north London. Under British law, it is an offence to show public support for proscribed groups named on a specific list. Hizbullah, an Iran-backed Shia Muslim group, is part of the government in Lebanon but its private military wing has also fought several wars against Israel. It is named on the list of proscribed groups that is maintained and regularly updated under UK terrorism legislation. Parts of Hizbullah have been proscribed in the UK since 2001. Its military wing, the Jihad Council, has been banned in Britain since 2008. In 2019, the entire Hizbullah movement was added to the UK's list after authorities said they could no longer distinguish between its military and political arms. The British government has accused the Islamist group of fomenting terrorism in Syria and Iraq. READ MORE In video footage widely circulated online last month, a man was filmed onstage at Kneecap's gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town on November 22nd, draped in a yellow cloth, which it is alleged was the Hizbullah ensign. In the footage, a man's voice was also heard to shout, 'Up Hamas! Up Hizbullah!' In the wake of criticism that followed the circulation of that footage, Kneecap released a statement last month saying the band 'do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hizbullah ... We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay.' At the time of the gig, Israel was in a fierce military battle with Hizbullah in Lebanon and was also pounding the country with air strikes. The Israelis had invaded southern Lebanon the previous month after a year of border skirmishes between the two sides, which started soon after the October 7th attack on Israel by Palestinian group Hamas. A ceasefire was reached on November 26th. When London's Metropolitan Police announced this week that Ó hAnnaidh had been charged, they cited the alleged wearing of the flag under section 13, part 1 (b) of the UK's Terrorism Act 2000. This outlaws the wearing, display or carrying of any item that would 'arouse reasonable suspicion' that the person 'is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation'. This specific legal provision has been used on several occasions over the last 20 months to convict people who have shown support for groups such as Hamas, which is also on the proscribed list. In October 2023, a week after the Hamas attack on Israel, three women were spotted at a pro-Palestinian march in London with pictures of paragliders taped to their backs. Hamas's attack a week earlier included scores of militants who paraglided over the border fence to land at the Nova music festival, where they killed 380 people. The three women in London were convicted in February 2024 at the non-jury Westminster magistrates court, where they received 12 month conditional discharges – a conviction with no sentence. Seven weeks after the Hamas attack, a man was arrested at another pro-Palestinian march in London wearing a green Islamic headband of the type often worn by Hamas fighters. He argued he was wearing it as 'an item of Saudi Arabia and a statement of my faith'. He was convicted at Westminster magistrates' court, where he also received a three-month conditional discharge and no fine. The maximum sentence under the provision used to charge Ó hAnnaidh is six months imprisonment and a fine of up to £5,000 (€6,000). He is due to appear at Westminster magistrates' court on June 18th. After he was charged, the band released a statement saying it was 'political policing' to distract from Israel's war in Gaza, which Kneecap has repeatedly criticised.
