Black women mins from giving birth denied care, teens kill dad, missing man appears & other stories from Black, Asian & Arab communities you shouldn't have missed - curated by Melissa Sigodo
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Thank you for subscribing to The Source.
I tweeted the below at the start of the week and I really hope you were all able to take my advice considering the latest announcements by the new Home Secretary which include taking the jewellery of asylum seekers and making legally settled migrants wait 20 years to live in the UK permanently.
You will have seen that The Source published some positive news stories this week that I have also recapped in the newsletter today to hopefully remind you that there is still decency, kindness and compassion in this world.
In other less important news, the reason this newsletter is coming to you today instead of yesterday is because I was battling the flu. Thanks to this holy trifecta though, which I am told is very Everybody Hates Chris coded - I am now on the mend.
So without further ado, here’s what you shouldn’t have missed this week.
The 20
Two teenagers who stabbed a 38-year-old father to death in an unprovoked attack where they racially abused him were “fuelled by drink and rage”, a court has heard. The two defendants, aged 16 and 17, who cannot be named because of their age are accused of murdering Kamran Rasool Aman in Wales who had just delivered shopping to his mum. Read the full story by Colette Hume at BBC.
Missing people
A man missing since 2020 and was last seen leaving his workplace reappeared five days after a murder investigation was launched this week. Ismail Ali turned up at the police station and West Yorkshire Police says it is working to understand the full circumstances of his disappearance. Read the full story by Natasha Meek at Asian Image.
Crime
Police are investigating after pig trotters were thrown at a children’s home in a suspected racist incident. A 54-year-old woman and a 27-year-old man, both from Faversham have been arrested on suspicion of racially or religiously aggravated harassment. Read the full story by Brad Harper at Kent Online.
British Transport Police say a couple sought following a racist attack are no longer in the UK. Police say they believe Trump supporter Melissa Rein Lively and financier Philip Ostermann “left the UK on Tuesday 14th October and the woman on Friday 24th October, before our media appeal was published.” Read the full story by Matt Watts and Anthony France at The Standard.
Prisons
A London prison has been slammed after placing a British Asian man in a cell with a known racist who then murdered him. A report by The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman found that HMP Belmarsh ‘failed to consider’ Stevie Hilden’s character when they assigned Sundeep Ghuman as his cellmate at HMP Belmarsh. Read the full story by Josh Bolton at Asian Image.
Policing
The Metropolitan Police has apologised to Doreen Lawrence for having undercover officers spy on her family who were campaigning to have the murderers of her teenage son Stephen Lawrence prosecuted. Read the full story by Matt Watts at The Standard.
A police officer who referred to takeaway staff as P***s and N*****s was reinstated to her role by Scotland’s most senior police officer before the ruling was reversed at The High Court. Read the full story by John Ferguson at The Daily Record.
Housing
Legendary children’s programme presenter Floella Benjamin says that neighbours called the police on her family while they viewed a house in Beckenham, London, because they ‘could not believe Black people lived in the area.’ Read the full story (behind a paywall) at The Telegraph.
Politics
A Reform UK councillor, Tom Pickup has been suspended from Nigel Farage’s party after taking part in a WhatsApp group where a member allegedly called for a “mass Islam genocide.” Read the full story by Josh Halliday at The Guardian.
Immigration and Asylum
A woman who was denied indefinite leave to remain in the UK despite her father and brothers being given the status must now have her case reconsidered by the Home Office, the court of appeal has said. Read the full story by Harriet Sherwood at The Guardian.
Hurricane Melissa
A 14-year-old sickle cell sufferer left stranded in a storm beaten church for a week without pain relief while having a crisis following Hurricane Melissa was rescued after a sickle cell advocate Jenica Leah took to social media and saved the boy’s life. Read the full story by Arike Idris at The Source.
Health
Up to 50,000 migrant nursing staff could leave the UK if the government moves ahead with plans to extend the period to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain, new research from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has revealed. The RCN is instead urging the government to offer nursing staff settled status on arrival in the same way as competitor nations such as New Zealand and Canada. Read the full story by RCN.
A soul legend feared he would never sing again after his voice ‘suddenly disappeared’ while performing. Junior Giscombe says he was terrified as he had no sound coming out of his mouth but that staff at St George’s hospital saved his 50-year long career. Read the full story by Melissa Sigodo at The Source.
23,000 lives could have been saved had the government recognised the urgency of the Covid pandemic and taken “certain actions sooner”, an inquiry report has found. The UK repeatedly did “too little, too late” in its early response to the virus and there was a “toxic and chaotic culture” under former prime minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government. Read the full story by Adam Goldsmith at BBC.
World News
Two pregnant Black mothers “minutes from giving birth” were denied maternity care in Texas. One hospital says that the nurse and doctor involved have now been fired. Black women in the US are more likely to die while pregnant compared to other groups. Read the full story by Zinhle Essamuah and Alicia Victoria Lozano at NBC.
Over 300 children and staff are said to have been kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in central Nigeria. Nigerians are calling for stronger measures to protect children. Read the full story by Alex Smith, Chris Ewokor and Elettra Neysmith at BBC.
Multiple warehouses in Jordan filled with critical aid intended for Gaza have been blocked by Israel. The majority has been sitting since March this year. Read the full story by Alex Crawford at Sky News.
Gender based violence and femicide have been classed as a nation disaster by South Africa following protests by NGO Women for Change. Read the full story by Jessie Williams at The Guardian.
An asylum seeker who fled imprisonment and torture waited 17 years before he was finally granted an eVisa confirming his right to remain in the UK. The man who goes by the name Ussu says the Home Office destroyed his life. Read the full story by Diane Taylor at The Guardian.
Thousands of Sudanese people are arriving in Chad as the situation in the country continues to deteriorate. According to the United Nations, more than 4.3 million Sudanese have fled to neighbouring countries in the world’s worst displacement crisis. Read the full story by Al Jazeera.