Category Archives: Race

Racist and anti-LGBTQ+ texts target Americans across US, including teens

Posted on by

FBI investigating anti-migrant and anti-gay texts that follow messages sent to Black people after Trump election win

Racist text messages targeting Black people across the US just hours after Donald Trump won a second presidency have now expanded to the Hispanic communities – and homophobic versions have been aimed at LGBTQ+ people, the FBI said on Friday.

Authorities say they are investigating the messages – which now include emails – and that they have not received reports of violent acts stemming from the hateful messages.

Continue reading...

Black people across US receive racist text messages after Trump’s win

Posted on by

FBI investigating after people report texts saying they were selected to pick cotton and go to nearest plantation

Just hours after Donald Trump’s election win on Tuesday, Black people across the US reported receiving racist text messages telling them that they had been “selected” to pick cotton and needed to report to “the nearest plantation”. While the texts, some of which were signed “a Trump supporter”, varied in detail, they all conveyed the same essential message about being selected to pick cotton. Some of the messages refer to the recipients by name.

A spokesperson for the president-elect told CNN that his “campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages”. It is not yet clear who is behind the messages, nor is there a comprehensive list of the people to whom the messages were sent, but social media posts indicate that the messages are widespread.

Continue reading...

Neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant freed on bail as he appeals against one-month jail sentence for Hitler salute in Melbourne

Posted on by

Twenty-five-year-old the first Victorian convicted of intentionally performing the gesture in public

An Australian far-right extremist has walked out of a Melbourne court on bail after being sentenced to one month in jail for performing an illegal Nazi salute.

Last month Jacob Hersant, 25, became the first Victorian convicted of intentionally performing the salute in public.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Senior Labour MPs frustrated at lack of Black officials in No 10

Posted on by

Exclusive: one frontbencher said the absence was a ‘serious embarrassment and a blind spot’ as Tories elect first Black leader

Senior Labour MPs have expressed their frustration at the lack of Black representation in No 10 as the Conservatives elected Kemi Badenoch as their new leader.

Labour sources said the WhatsApp group for Labour MPs of colour contained some furious messages from those who believe the party is not doing enough to represent Black, Asian and other minority ethnic groups at the top of government.

Continue reading...

Tory leadership election live: Kemi Badenoch elected new Conservative leader

Posted on by

Badenoch says Tories need ‘a clear plan to change this country by changing the way that government works’

Here are the results from previous Conservative leadership contests, and from the final MPs’ ballot of this contest, that will help put today’s results in context.

2024 contest

The choice is between two people who each played their part in 14 years of Conservative chaos and decline, and who have refused to apologise it.

Whoever wins, they have learnt nothing.

Continue reading...

South Carolina executes Richard Moore despite objections from judge and jurors

Posted on by

Moore, 59, was killed on Friday evening as the state pursues a rapid spree of killings

South Carolina has executed a man on death row, despite widespread calls for his life to be spared, including from the judge who originally condemned him to death.

Richard Moore, 59, was killed by lethal injection on Friday evening, minutes after the state’s Republican governor, Henry McMaster, announced he would not be granting him clemency.

Continue reading...

Some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, report says

Posted on by

Mississippi’s firearm-related violence rate nearly double that of Haiti, which is plagued by political and gang strife

A new report by the Commonwealth Fund finds some US states have firearm death rates comparable to countries in conflict, and even states with the fewest firearms deaths are far higher than peer developed democracies.

For instance, Mississippi’s rate of firearm-related violence (28.5 per 100,000 people) was nearly double that of Haiti (15.1 per 100,000) in 2021, when mercenaries assassinated the country’s president, unleashing a fresh round of gang warfare which pushed the country into a state of civil war.

Continue reading...

Muslims in Europe experiencing ‘worrying surge’ in racism, survey finds

Posted on by

‘Dehumanising rhetoric’ blamed as almost half of respondents say they recently suffered discrimination

Muslims across Europe are grappling with a “worrying surge” of racism that is being fuelled in part by “dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric”, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as it published a survey in which nearly half of the Muslim respondents said they had recently experienced discrimination.

Published on Thursday by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the survey of 9,600 Muslims across 13 member states found that racism and discrimination threads through most aspects of their lives.

Continue reading...

Jayland Walker’s family receives $4.8m from city of Akron over killing by police

Posted on by

Grand jury declined to indict eight officers who fired 94 bullets at 25-year-old Black man in 2022

The family of Jayland Walker, a Black man killed when eight police officers fired 94 bullets at him after he shot at least one round out his car window, will receive a $4.8m settlement from the city of Akron, the mayor’s office said on Monday.

A grand jury declined to indict the officers last year, but Walker’s family accused the officers in a federal lawsuit of using excessive force and participating in a “culture of violence and racism” within Akron’s police department.

Continue reading...

University in Lisbon suspends plans for course on racism taught by all-white staff

Posted on by

Nova university programme criticised for only having white instructors and for some of its content, such as session on ‘does racism really exist?’

A top university in Lisbon has suspended plans to launch a postgraduate programme on racism and xenophobia after the course was criticised for hiring only white instructors.

The programme, offered by the faculty of law at Nova University in tandem with the government-backed Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia, was also condemned for some of its content, such as a session entitled: “Does racism really exist?”

Continue reading...

Make black history mandatory in England to counter hatred, urges campaigner

Posted on by

Summer riots were a consequence of relegating the subject to just one month, says Black Curriculum founder

Black history must be made mandatory in England to counter hatred and help prevent racist riots, a leading campaigner says.

Lavinya Stennett, who founded the Black Curriculum, warned of the real risks of black history and a diverse curriculum being relegated to just one month, or only being implemented in schools with diverse students and in metropolitan areas.

Continue reading...

Cleverly, Badenoch and Jenrick stay in Tory leadership race as Tugendhat knocked out – UK politics live

Posted on by

Trio face one more round of voting by MPs before party members have their say on final two

The prison system in England and Wales was “teetering on disaster” when Labour came to power, James Timpson, the prisons minister said today.

Speaking at his first Prison Governors’ Association conference in Nottingham since he took on the role, Timpson said:

It has not been easy to rehabilitate offenders in a system teetering on disaster.

We have to take the tough decisions bringing changes to release to ease the pressure on our prisons. It was quite frankly a rescue effort. If we had not acted our justice system would have grinded to a halt – we would have faced a total breakdown of law and order.

Unison said it has given notice to Perth and Kinross Council for strike action by members in schools and early years centres.

The union, which is the largest local government trade union in Scotland, hopes targeting the action in Swinney’s constituency will “bring home to him the importance of finding a fair settlement” to the council pay dispute.

Continue reading...

Assange says he is free because he ‘pled guilty to journalism’ – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed

National weather forecasts

Sticking with the weather, here’s a look at the forecasts across Australia’s capital cities today:

Continue reading...

Criticism as British Australian public servant Aftab Malik appointed new Islamophobia envoy

Posted on by

Some question the appointment of an official who has worked on controversial countering violent extremism programs

The Albanese government has announced British Australian public servant Aftab Malik as the special envoy to combat Islamophobia in Australia after months of delays.

But it has also sparked criticism, with some people within the Muslim community calling into question the thinking behind the appointment.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Florida university to host extremist after DeSantis-led lurch to right

Posted on by

Next month, New College of Florida will welcome activist and writer Steve Sailer, a ‘proponent of scientific racism’

New College of Florida (NCF) will host the extremist writer Steve Sailer, who has been described as a “white supremacist” and a “proponent of scientific racism”, at a college-branded public event next month.

New College has made headlines since January 2023, when the rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, vowed to transform it from a university known for liberal values into a conservative institution, and installed a new board of trustees including the rightwing culture warrior Christopher Rufo. That board in turn appointed DeSantis’s “close ally” Richard Corcoran as the new college president, in which role he makes a $699,000 salary.

Continue reading...

Met police chief hails race action plan as ‘a step in the right direction’

Posted on by

Mark Rowley launches initiative that includes reset of stop and search, but acknowledges ‘there is still a lot to do’

Scotland Yard has launched its latest steps to try to rebuild trust with London’s black community, which the Met police commissioner acknowledged had been let down for many years.

Mark Rowley said “there remains a long way to go and there is a lot more work to do”, but that the force’s race action plan was a step in the right direction.

Continue reading...

Lindsey Graham calls reports of Mark Robinson’s ‘black Nazi’ posts ‘beyond unnerving’

Posted on by

Senator does not call for Robinson to drop out of governor race and says he ‘deserves a chance to defend himself’

The senior Senate Republican Lindsey Graham has said reports that the North Carolina Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, calling himself a “black NAZI!” in posts on the porn forum Nude Africa a decade ago are “beyond unnerving” and should see him end his political career if proven true.

“If they’re true, he’s unfit to serve for office,” the long-serving South Carolina senator said Sunday. “If they’re not true, he has the best lawsuit in the history of the country for libel.”

Continue reading...

Harris condemns ‘hypocrites’ who ban abortion while ignoring maternal health – US politics live

Posted on by

Report details litany of missed opportunities; House votes to investigate second apparent Trump assassination attempt

Kamala Harris will be in Georgia today and is expected to speak about Donald Trump’s role in the abortion bans that now blanket much of the United States, days after news broke that two Georgia mothers died after being unable to access legal abortions and adequate medical care.

The deaths of the Georgia mothers, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, were first reported earlier this week by ProPublica and occurred as a result of Georgia enacting a six-week abortion ban. Georgia’s maternal mortality review committee looked at both women’s cases and deemed their deaths “preventable”, according to ProPublica.

You’re looking at a mother that is broken, the worst pain ever that a mother, that a parent can ever feel.

Continue reading...

Met officer who held Taser to black boy’s neck found guilty of gross misconduct

Posted on by

Jamar Powell says PC Connor Jones should be sacked rather than receiving written warning over traumatising action

A Metropolitan police officer who put a Taser to the neck of an innocent black child after he had been forced to kneel in the street has been found guilty of gross misconduct but allowed to keep his job.

Jamar Powell told the Guardian he had feared he might die during the incident in September 2020, was left traumatised and would struggle to ever trust the police again, having been stopped and searched more than 30 times with nothing ever being found.

Continue reading...

US opens civil rights investigation into Mississippi sheriff’s office after torture of Black men

Posted on by

Six Rankin county officers known as ‘Goon Squad’ were convicted for hours-long attack involving racial slurs

The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into a Mississippi sheriff’s department whose officers tortured two Black men in a racist attack that included beatings, repeated use of stun guns and assaults with a sex toy before one of the victims was shot in the mouth, officials said Thursday.

The justice department will investigate whether the Rankin county sheriff’s department has engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force and unlawful stops, searches and arrests, and whether it has used racially discriminatory policing practices, according to assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke.

Continue reading...