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Army put on standby as UK Police hand in weapon

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• UK police officer holding his firearms
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The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence is offering soldiers to support armed police in London after dozens of police officers stood down from firearms duties, BBC reports.

More than 100 officers have turned in permits allowing them to carry weapons, a source told the BBC, in support of a fellow officer who has been charged with murder over the fatal shooting of a young Black man, Chris Kaba.

The officer, named only as NX121, who appeared in court last week, has been charged over the death of Chris Kaba in September 2022.

Kaba died hours after he was struck by a single gunshot fired into the vehicle he was driving in the Streatham area of South London.

It later emerged that the Audi Mr Kaba was driving, which did not belong to him, had been linked by police to a gun incident the day before.

His death prompted a number of protests and renewed allegations of racism within the force.

The Ministry of Defence said it received a request, known as Military Aid to the Civil Authorities, from the Home Office to “provide routine counter-terrorism contingency support to the Metropolitan Police, should it be needed”.

A MACA is offered to the police or the NHS in emergency situations. The military helped medical staff in the Covid pandemic and covered for striking border staff and paramedics last year.

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The Met said it was a “contingency option” that would only be used “in specific circumstances and where an appropriate policing response was not available”.

Military staff would not be used “in a routine policing capacity”, it added.

On Saturday, the Met said its own officers still make up the vast majority of armed police in the capital but they were being supported by a limited number of firearms officers from neighbouring forces.

Announcing the review, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the public “depend on our brave firearms officers to protect us”.

“In the interest of public safety they have to make split-second decisions under extraordinary pressures.”

She said that officers have her “full backing”.

“I will do everything in my power to support them,” she added.

In his letter to the home secretary, the Met Police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said that a system where officers are investigated for “safely pursuing suspects” should not have been allowed to develop.

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Sir Mark said he would “make no comment” on any ongoing legal matters, but “the issues raised in this letter go back further”.

He said firearms officers are concerned that they will face years of legal proceedings, “even if they stick to the tactics and training they have been given”.

“Officers need sufficient legal protection to enable them to do their job and keep the public safe, and the confidence that it will be applied consistently and without fear or favour,” he wrote.

But in instances where officers act improperly, Sir Mark said the system “needs to move swiftly” rather than “tying itself in knots pursuing good officers through multiple legal processes”.

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Trump unveils ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ Task Force

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•US President Donald Trump speaks during the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton in Washington, DC, on February 6, 2025. (Photo by Ting Shen / AFP)
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US President Donald Trump announced Thursday the creation of a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias” in government, intensifying a right-wing crackdown since returning to power.

The Republican billionaire said he was putting new Attorney General Pam Bondi at the head of the force to end “persecution” of the majority religion of the United States.

Trump said its mission would be to “immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination” in the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and other government agencies.

He also said it would prosecute “anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society.”

“We will protect Christians in our schools, in our military and our government, in our workplaces, hospitals and in our public squares,” Trump told a national prayer breakfast at a Washington hotel.

He also announced the creation of a “White House faith office” led by his spiritual advisor, the televangelist Paula White.

The announcements came amid a wider purge of the federal government at the start of Trump’s second term.

Trump has unveiled a slew of orders backing a conservative agenda, including several targeting diversity programs and transgender people.

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Despite a criminal conviction for hush money payments in a porn star scandal and sexual assault allegations, Trump has long made himself a champion of right-wing Christians.

Trump’s cabinet contains several members with links to Christian nationalists, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

And while Trump is not seen as particularly religious, he said he had become more so after surviving an assassination attempt at an election rally in June 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“It changed something in me, I feel even stronger. I believed in God, but I feel much more strongly about it,” Trump told a separate prayer breakfast at the US Capitol on Thursday.

“We have to bring religion back.”

Trump said in his inauguration speech on January 20, referring to the assassination attempt, that he had been “saved by God to Make America Great Again.” (AFP)

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More than 100 women raped and burned alive in DR Congo, says UN

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Footage from the jailbreak shows people fleeing from the building as black smoke rises into the air
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More than 100 female prisoners were raped and then burned alive during a jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma, according to the UN.

Hundreds of prisoners broke out of Munzenze prison last Monday, after fighters from the M23 rebel group began to take over the city.

Between 165 and 167 women were assaulted by male inmates during the jailbreak, an internal UN document seen by the BBC says.

The report states that most of the women were killed after the inmates set fire to the prison.

The BBC has not been able to verify the reports.

Goma, a major city of more than a million people, was captured after the Rwanda-backed M23 executed a rapid advance through eastern DR Congo.

The city was plunged into chaos, with bodies lying in the streets and missiles reportedly flying over residential homes.

In a separate video, people believed to be the escaped prisoners, filed through Goma’s streets.

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The UN says at least 2,900 people were killed during the fighting, with 2,000 bodies buried and another 900 still in the city’s morgues.

Earlier this week, the rebels announced a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds.

However, the M23 launched a new offensive on Wednesday, sources say, reportedly capturing the mining town of Nyabibwe.

Nyabibwe is about 100 km (60 miles) from Bukavu – the east’s second-largest city, and the reported target of the rebels’ most recent advance.

The Congolese authorities have enlisted hundreds of civilian volunteers to help defend Bukavu.

Meanwhile, Malawi has announced it will start preparations for a withdrawal of its peacekeeping forces from the country. This follows the killing of three of its soldiers in the fighting around Goma.

They were part of a southern African force, led by South Africa. Although 14 South Africans have been killed, President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to keep his forces in the country.

Back in Goma, where residents are adapting to life under the M23, there are fears of a cholera outbreak.

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Stephan Goetghbuer, a regional lead from the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said: “Access to water has been cut for days, corpses have been lying in the streets and waterborne diseases such as cholera are a real threat.

“Some of our cholera treatment centres are full and have been expanded.” (BBC)

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Ten family members stranded after trekking to US border and denied asylum

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• Polanco and nine other members of her family who trekked for days to get to the US border, and were not allowed to enter the United States
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The main room in the El Buen Samaritano shelter in Ciudad Juarez, a city along the US-Mexico border, is quiet for most of the day.

Rows of bunk beds stretch from wall to wall, each separated by thin curtains or hanging sheets. The mismatched mattresses are occupied by men, women, and children – all migrants who intended to reach the United States but haven’t completed their journey.

It’s the mid-morning of a cold Tuesday, most are resting or scrolling through their phones, the only noises in the room come from sporadic coughs, two children playing, and the subtle sounds from a video playing on a phone. The scene feels like a loop.

“Kids, guys, it’s almost lunchtime,” she yells as she gets up and puts on a coat. They’re indoors but the walls are penetrated by the winter cold.

“Everyone up, let’s get ready,” she says.

Her husband, her three kids, and five other relatives, all start getting ready enthusiastically. Soon after, a shelter worker announces the food is ready to be served.

“I’m hungry, finally!” her 9-year-old son Abel Jesus, says.

Polanco and the other nine members of her family are among thousands of asylum-seekers who were stopped in their tracks by US President Donald Trump’s January 20 decision to cancel all CBP One appointments for people seeking asylum from violence or persecution.

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Their appointment had been set for January 21. Now, they are stranded in the shelter in Juarez with no money and full of uncertainty. From here, they can see across the border into the US – but they have no idea where to go now.

‘We laugh to keep from crying’

After lining up, the family – whose members range in age from 5 to 40 – head to the shelter’s dining hall. They sit together and occupy most of a communal table.

As soon as they sit, they seem to put all their problems aside and focus on one another, on talking and enjoying the warm meal. The day’s menu: chicken soup and a small dish of rice and beans with canned tuna.

“The most delicious soup does exist,” 9-year-old Abel Jesus says with his mouth half-full and soup dripping from the edge of his mouth.

“I heard appointments until January 30 will be reinstated,” Luis Alfonso Polanco, 30, says of a rumor that later proved to be untrue. “That’s what a friend in the US told me.”

On the other side of the table, his partner Yelitza Olivero talks to two other migrants from Ecuador and shares the rumor about the app with them.

At times, the family’s border chatter turns into laughter and jokes about one another.

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“We try to make jokes about each other, it’s a way of distracting from the news we received on January 20, it was very sad,” Lucymar’s cousin, 18-year-old Estiven Castillo, says.

“The point is to support one another, so one makes a joke, and we laugh, and we try to make a nice moment, otherwise, if we just focus on our situation, we’d all get depressed, so we laugh to keep from crying,” Lucymar tells CNN.

Lucymar and her family say they fled the Venezuelan state of Lara due to political persecution from authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

“We were part of an opposing political party,” she says. “My family, my parents, everyone there, and the government knew that, and we’d constantly be threatened.”

“I was set to receive a house from a program run by the government but after they found out who I voted for in prior elections, they took that benefit away from me,” she says holding back tears.

Prior to leaving Venezuela, both Lucymar and her brother, Luis Alfonso, worked in the beauty industry. “I was a barber in Venezuela, but things were so bad that at times I cut hair in exchange for food,” Luis Alfonso says.

Lucymar’s husband, Jesus Caruci, 40, worked as a mechanic, and Yelitza, who’s married to Luis Alfonso, worked in sales. The rest of the traveling family, all young adults or children, were in school before leaving the country.

Their journey began a little over two years ago. They spent a few months in neighboring Colombia to later trek through several countries. They crossed the treacherous Darien Gap safely – but were kidnapped by a cartel after arriving in southern Mexico.

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“When we entered Tapachula, they were waiting for us,” Luis Alfonso recalls.

“They tricked us, they forced us into a vehicle and said they were taking us to a safe place (…) but they took us to a farm and held us there for six days.”

Luis Alfonso says the criminal group only released after they paid $900 – all that they were carrying.

“Ever since we’ve survived with some money our family has sent us or that we’ve had to borrow,” he says.

fter sobremesa, the family goes to the shelter’s patio to get some sun and continue to chat. They gather several plastic chairs that are spread out through the uneven and cracked shelter pavement and form a circle. The little kids decide to run around and play in an outdoor playset.

“I understand Trump,” says 19-year-old Beyker Sosa as the family stays quiet.

“There have been crimes done by illegal migrants, I understand the measures, they are meant to keep the country safe,” he adds. “But we aren’t criminals, I wish he (Trump) would have compassion, we are humans just like him.”

CNN asked the family if they ever considered entering the US illegally and in chorus, they all said “no.”

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“We never considered entering illegally, we never want to hide from authorities, we wanted to be able to walk free,” Beyker says. “It’s very sad to have done things right, the legal way, only to have Trump shut the app down, but I guess God doesn’t want us there.”

The family says their smartphones and conversation are their only form of entertainment in the shelter. “We can’t even go out, we were warned that migrants are targeted in this area, so we just stay in, especially after already being kidnapped,” Lucymar says.

Still, with kids to entertain, snacks are a must. Luis Alfonso and Estiven go to a store around the corner to buy cookies and soda.

They rejoin the conversation and start passing around Oreos and a plastic cup with orange soda.

“Trump should clean up Venezuela, we are good people, but he should up take out the bad ones, especially those in the government, take them out, Trump, and then take our country and call it Venezuela of America,” Beyker jokes as he refers to Trump’s bid to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Nearly two hours later, the family is back in the main room of the shelter with each settling into their beds again.

“This is all we do, we are either in our beds, on our phones, we wonder what could’ve been,” Lucymar says. (CNN)

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