15/09/2025

MONDAY | SEPT 15, 2025

9

110,000 turn out for far-right protest in London

Germans rally for diplomacy BERLIN: A large demonstration against Germany’s involvement in conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine took place in Berlin, with protesters calling on the German government to engage in diplomacy. The protest, organised by the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (Reason and Justice Party), took place at the Brandenburg Gate. The protesters were speaking out against Germany’s policy towards Ukraine and the Middle East. Several thousand concerned people brought Palestinian flags, combined Russian-German flags, and banners calling for an end to the killing of civilians in the Gaza Strip. Party co-founder Sahra Wagenknecht and a number of German cultural figures took part in the demonstration. The slogan of the action is “Stop the genocide in Gaza! No weapons in war zones! Peace instead of an arms race!” Several speakers spoke from the stage at the Brandenburg Gate. In addition to stopping all German arms deliveries to war zones, the organisers are calling on the German government “to honestly and seriously take part in peace negotiations”. They oppose the resumption of conscription and the deployment of US missiles in Germany. – Bernama MOSCOW: Two trains in separate parts of Russia’s western Leningrad region derailed early yesterday, leaving a train driver dead and disrupting railway traffic. The incidents came hours after an explosive device detonated on a section of rail track in Russia’s western Oryol region on Saturday, killing three people. “Recovery efforts are under way following the derailment of a single diesel locomotive near Semrino station in Leningrad’s Gatchina district,” governor Alexander Drozdenko said. “The train driver was killed. He was trapped in the cabin and died in an ambulance after being rescued.” A freight train carrying 15 empty tank cars derailed on a section of track further south, but there were no casualties, he said in an earlier post. Russia’s railway network has been repeatedly rocked by derailments, blasts and fires that authorities blame on Ukrainian sabotage. – AFP UNIVERSITIES SEVER TIES WITH TEL AVIV TEHRAN: A growing number of universities and academic bodies are severing formal links with Israeli institutions over concerns about their complicity in military actions in Gaza. The movement reflects deepening unease within the global academic community about ties between Israeli universities, the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies. In 2023, the Federal University of Ceara in Brazil cancelled a planned innovation summit with an Israeli university. Similar actions followed in Norway, Belgium and Spain. The trend has continued this year, with Trinity College in Dublin also cutting links. Separately, the European Association of Social Anthropologists said it would cease all collaboration with Israeli institutions and urged its members to do the same. – Bernama TWO TRAINS DERAIL IN LENINGRAD

BR I E F S

LONDON: More than 100,000 people massed on Saturday in central London for a march and rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, as anti-racism campaigners held a smaller counter-protest. Huge crowds, many draped in English and British flags, gathered through the morning just south of Westminster for what Robinson, a veteran of UK far-right organising, has branded the country’s “biggest free speech festival”. His latest “Unite the Kingdom” event saw attendees march over Westminster Bridge before rallying near Downing Street for speeches by far-right figures from across Europe and North America. “The silent majority will be silent no longer. Today is the spark of a cultural revolution,” Robinson told the crowd. UK police said an estimated 110,000 people attended, noting it used a combination of CCTV and police helicopter footage for its estimate. About 5,000 people attended a Stand Up to Racism march a mile or so to the north, as police deployed about 1,000 personnel to keep the rival groups apart. The duelling demonstrations come amid growing anti immigration sentiment, as Brexit supporter Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK leads in polls and protesters target hotels used to house asylum seekers. Robinson, 42, who has a string of criminal convictions and a big online following after years o Speakers highlight free speech concerns TEL AVIV: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said eliminating Hamas leaders would end the war in Gaza. “The Hamas chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza. They blocked all ceasefire attempts to endlessly drag out the war,” Netanyahu said on X. “Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.” The talk of a ceasefire, still out of reach after months of failed negotiations, came with Israel intensifying its campaign in the Gaza Strip. In recent days, it has ramped up efforts to seize control of Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban area, telling residents to evacuate and blowing up high-rise buildings it said were being used by Hamas. While thousands of people have evacuated the city, according to the Israeli military and Hamas, many more remain. As of late August, the UN estimated that about one million people were living in the city and its surrounding areas, where it has

Robinson gestures as he marches with supporters. – AFPPIC

“It’s an invasion,” said 28-year old Ritchie, who only gave his first name. “They don’t understand we want our country back,” he said of the ruling centre-left Labour government and its Conservative predecessors, calling Robinson “a hero”. At the anti-racism event, veteran Labour lawmaker Diane Abbott accused Robinson and his allies of spreading “nonsense” and

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military. Netanyahu and his government have defied international criticism throughout the nearly two-year war, but it continued to mount this week. Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, said US was unlikely to push Israel toward a ceasefire. “There is an alarming passivity in actually getting to a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Katulis, who worked on Middle East policy under former president Bill Clinton. “The administration seems to be listening more to its own base of Huckabees and other evangelical Christians,” he said, referring to the US Ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, a Baptist pastor. “Their views are far from the mainstream of Arab states,” Katulis said, despite Trump pursuing a Saudi-Israeli diplomatic normalisation deal. – AFP “dangerous” lies that asylum seekers were a threat. “We need to be in solidarity with asylum seekers, and we need to show that we are united,” she told Sky News. London police, who drafted in officers from other forces to manage the crowds, have placed conditions on the protest routes and timings, insisting they end at different times and that both conclude by evening. – AFP

spearheading a fervent anti-migrant agenda, increasingly fuses the theme with claims that Britain is now hostile to free speech. “Everyday in the papers you read things and you’re being left stunned – arresting people because they dared to talk about immigration or gender issues,” said Philip Dodge, a retired baker from Sheffield. Other attendees, which included women and young people, said they were worried about migration.

Netanyahu wants to end war by killing Hamas leaders

A couple with an infant walking with other displaced Palestinians evacuating southbound from Gaza City on Saturday. – AFPPIC

35-year-old father of four. “All the occupation has done is force people to crowd into places with no basic services and no safety.” Gaza’s civil defence agency said 32 people had been killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.

declared a famine it blamed on Israeli aid restrictions. Bakri Diab, who fled western Gaza City for the south, said Israeli strikes continued there as well. “Bombing happens here too – the south isn’t safe either,” said the