Latest news with #CatarinaDemony
Japan Today
02-08-2025
- Japan Today
UK ninja sword ban begins as 1,000 weapons surrendered in knife crime crackdown
FILE PHOTO: Martin Cosser sits on a memorial bench with a plaque honouring Charlie, Cosser's son, who was killed in a knife attack, at Devil's Punch Bowl, in Surrey, England, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Catarina Demony/File Photo By Catarina Demony At least 1,000 weapons have been surrendered under a British government amnesty launched last month to combat knife crime, the interior ministry announced on Friday, as a new ban on ninja swords came into effect. Overall, knife crime in England and Wales has risen 87% over the past decade, with 54,587 offenses recorded last year alone, a 2% rise from 2023 and among the highest rates in Europe. On July 29, 2024, teenager Axel Rudakubana attacked a Taylor Swift-themed children's dance event in the northern English town of Southport, killing three girls and stabbing 10 people in one of Britain's most harrowing knife assaults. Since then, the government has pledged tougher age checks for knife buyers, warned social media firms they could face fines for failing to curb sales and promotion of weapons, and banned zombie-style knives, machetes and ninja swords. Over the month of July this year, the government urged young people to drop off weapons, including bladed ones, at "amnesty" bins or a mobile van - part of efforts to control knife crime, particularly when it involves youths. The government said at least 1,000 weapons have been handed in. A mobile van will be deployed at the Notting Hill Carnival in London later this month in response to past knife-related violence by a small number of attendees. It is unclear whether the "amnesty" bins will stay in place once the month-long campaign comes to an end. The interior ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Charities and experts call the government's efforts a step forward but say they fail to address the root causes. The interior ministry said that knife-related robberies have fallen in seven highest-risk areas, dropping from 14% of all robberies in the seven highest-risk areas in the year ending June 2024 to 6% in the same period to June 2025. The ban on buying and selling ninja swords is part of the government's pledge to introduce Ronan's Law, named in honor of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was fatally stabbed with a ninja sword in 2022. Campaigner Martin Cosser, whose son was killed in a knife attack two years ago, previously told Reuters that the issue was not just about the weapon itself, but about the "emotional drivers" that lead people to carry knives in the first place. © (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
The Star
01-08-2025
- The Star
UK ninja sword ban begins as 1,000 weapons surrendered in knife crime crackdown
FILE PHOTO: Martin Cosser sits on a memorial bench with a plaque honouring Charlie, Cosser's son, who was killed in a knife attack, at Devil's Punch Bowl, in Surrey, England, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Catarina Demony/File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -At least 1,000 weapons have been surrendered under a British government amnesty launched last month to combat knife crime, the interior ministry announced on Friday, as a new ban on ninja swords came into effect. Overall, knife crime in England and Wales has risen 87% over the past decade, with 54,587 offences recorded last year alone, a 2% rise from 2023 and among the highest rates in Europe. On July 29, 2024, teenager Axel Rudakubana attacked a Taylor Swift-themed children's dance event in the northern English town of Southport, killing three girls and stabbing 10 people in one of Britain's most harrowing knife assaults. Since then, the government has pledged tougher age checks for knife buyers, warned social media firms they could face fines for failing to curb sales and promotion of weapons, and banned zombie-style knives, machetes and ninja swords. Over the month of July this year, the government urged young people to drop off weapons, including bladed ones, at "amnesty" bins or a mobile van - part of efforts to control knife crime, particularly when it involves youths. The government said at least 1,000 weapons have been handed in. A mobile van will be deployed at the Notting Hill Carnival in London later this month in response to past knife-related violence by a small number of attendees. It is unclear whether the "amnesty" bins will stay in place once the month-long campaign comes to an end. The interior ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Charities and experts call the government's efforts a step forward but say they fail to address the root causes. The interior ministry said that knife-related robberies have fallen in seven highest-risk areas, dropping from 14% of all robberies in the seven highest-risk areas in the year ending June 2024 to 6% in the same period to June 2025. The ban on buying and selling ninja swords is part of the government's pledge to introduce Ronan's Law, named in honour of 16-year-old Ronan Kanda, who was fatally stabbed with a ninja sword in 2022. Campaigner Martin Cosser, whose son was killed in a knife attack two years ago, previously told Reuters that the issue was not just about the weapon itself, but about the "emotional drivers" that lead people to carry knives in the first place. (Reporting by Catarina Demony; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Angolans, Cape Verdeans want Portugal to return looted artefacts, poll shows
By Catarina Demony (Reuters) -A majority of respondents in Angola and Cape Verde believe Portugal should apologise for its colonial past and return artefacts and other items looted during that era, according to a survey released on Tuesday. Pollsters from Lisbon's Catholic University, in partnership with public broadcaster RTP and a commission commemorating the fall of Portugal's fascist dictatorship in 1974, surveyed more than 3,000 people across Angola, Cape Verde and Portugal. In Angola, 58% of respondents said Portugal should return artefacts such as masks, sculptures and ritual objects taken from its former colonies. Support was higher in Cape Verde at 63%. The survey showed 54% of the Portuguese supported the return of such items, but 58% said Portugal did not owe its former colonies an apology. In Angola, 59% thought Lisbon should apologise with 58% in Cape Verde. Portugal's colonial history, which spanned Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Brazil and East Timor, as well as parts of India, remains contentious. From the 15th to the 19th century, nearly six million Africans were forcibly transported by Portuguese ships and sold into slavery, primarily to Brazil. Little is taught about it in schools. Most respondents in all three countries - 58% in Angola, 83% in Cape Verde and 78% in Portugal - do not think monuments related to colonialism should be taken down. In Portugal, 58% of respondents said a memorial to victims of transatlantic slavery should be built. A long-delayed memorial to slavery victims, planned for Lisbon's riverside, has been embroiled in controversy at a time global calls for reparations and reckoning with past wrongs - including within the African Union - continue to gain momentum. Portugal's far-right Chega party, which became the main opposition in parliament in May, has vowed to prevent any return of artefacts and payment of reparations.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scottish parliament approves assisted dying bill in key vote
By Catarina Demony LONDON (Reuters) -The Scottish parliament voted on Tuesday in favour of a bill that would allow people living in Scotland with a terminal illness to take their own lives, bringing the proposal a step closer to becoming a reality in the country. Ahead of a final vote, the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill will move to a committee stage where it will be scrutinised and amended by members of the Scottish parliament. If the legislation is passed, Scotland would join countries such as Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, Austria and Ecuador in allowing assisted dying in certain circumstances. It comes after a historic vote last year in the British parliament in which lawmakers backed a bill to allow assisted dying in England and Wales. The Scottish bill would give mentally competent adults who have been diagnosed with a terminal condition the right to end their life, assisted by health professionals. The legislation would include safeguards such as independent assessments by two doctors and a 14-day cooling-off period. There would be a requirement for those requesting an assisted death to have lived in Scotland for at least a year. Individuals would need to self-administer the substance that would end their life. The bill was proposed by Liberal Democrat member of the Scottish parliament Liam McArthur in 2021, and it is the third time that lawmakers in Scotland have voted on such legislation. The last vote was in 2015. Ahead of the vote, McArthur joined supporters outside the Scottish parliament and said he believed the "political mood has shifted dramatically over the last 10 years". Polls show a majority of Britons back assisted dying and supporters say the law needs to catch up with public opinion. Opponents say the bill would fail to safeguard those most vulnerable. Campaign group Better Way said on its website it was concerned the bill, as drafted, could lead to injustices against people with disabilities, those living with dementia and others. "People would feel pressure to die due to inequality; coercion of vulnerable people could not be ruled out; and eligibility criteria would be challenged in the courts," said Better Way spokesman Miro Griffiths.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Enough talk, time for action, CARICOM official says on slavery reparations
By Catarina Demony (Reuters) - The push for slavery reparations is at a defining moment, a Caribbean Community official said on the second day of a United Nations forum, adding it was time to step up actions to hold former colonial powers to account for past wrongs. "Enough talk, time for concrete results," said Hilary Brown on Tuesday, representative of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, at the fourth session of the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent in New York. Calls for reparations are longstanding but have been gaining momentum worldwide, particularly among CARICOM and the African Union. Backlash against it has also been growing. CARICOM has a reparations plan, which, among other demands, calls for technology transfers and investments to tackle health crises and illiteracy. The AU is developing its own plan. CARICOM and the AU have in recent years joined forces in the fight for reparations, and Brown said that partnership put the movement at a "defining moment" as they can use one voice to demand action. Brown said together they could advance the reparations agenda at the UN and other intergovernmental bodies, co-sponsor a joint UN resolution on reparations and advocate for a high-level political forum on the issue. "CARICOM is ready to take this agenda to the next level, and we welcome the partnership of the AU and other coalitions that share the vision and conviction necessary to ensure that Europe is held to account," Brown said. Many of Europe's leaders have opposed even talking about reparations. At least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and sold into slavery from the 15th to the 19th centuries. Opponents of reparations argue, among other things, that contemporary states and institutions should not be held responsible for their past. But advocates say action is needed to address the legacies, such as systemic and structural racism, and say that contemporary states still benefit from the wealth generated by hundreds of years of exploitation.
