🗣 We always had a multilingual Santa and served beautiful vegetarian food. I think it gave refugee families a moment of respite, a moment to feel honoured and valued in a space that was safe and in which their children could be children and enjoy themselves
🗣 It was at one of these parties I was fortunate enough to meet the boy who would become our son
🗣 Tindy was 16. Wordless, really. He didn’t speak English and he had been kidnapped, forced into child soldiery
🗣 Witnessing Tindy growing up has been a continual lesson in the day-to-day challenges that refugees face — from language and not being able to express yourself, which is a very vulnerable position to be in, to finding the right kind of schooling, to facing everyday racism
🗣 When Tindy was at university there were some shocking incidents of students laughing at his accent and childish racism born out of ignorance and racist taunts in the street. Common enough, sadly
🗣 But he also received some fantastically open-hearted and open-minded support
The combination of help – from the @refugeecouncil, the local authority, the wonderful teachers – was very much part of his recovery
🗣 Tindy has flourished and grown in a million different ways
🗣 On a personal level it is important to say that Tindy has enriched the lives of me, my family, our friends, more than it’s possible to express in this short piece
🗣 On a more spiritual note, I’ll quote the human rights activist @HelenBamber to describe the work of the @refugeecouncil
"It is about finding our reward through the eyes of those to whom we owe nothing. It is about love"
Read Emma Thompson's moving words in full about her son, Tindy
Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, has been injured in a shooting and taken to hospital, according to local reports ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/slovak…
🔺 UPDATE: Slovakia’s populist prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a life-threatening condition after being shot in the street ⬇️
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: The police investigation into Angela Rayner is examining multiple allegations and is not merely limited to potential electoral law offences ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/angela…
At least a dozen officers at Greater Manchester police are investigating the Labour deputy leader over where she lived in the 2010s and the sale of her former council house in Stockport
They are examining tax matters and other issues on top of the question of whether Rayner gave false information for the electoral register when she lived between two former council houses in Stockport in the 2010s
🔺 EXCLUSIVE: top universities recruit foreign students on low grades
Young Britons need straight As to get into Russell Group institutes. But their international classmates may have bought their way in through secret routes thetimes.co.uk/article/cash-f…
Foreign students can buy their way on to highly competitive degree courses with as little as a handful of C grades at GCSE. The courses require British students to have A or A* grades at A-level
Representatives of the elite Russell Group universities were secretly filmed discussing the “back door” routes used to recruit overseas students, who pay much higher fees than their UK counterparts
Ukrainians are resorting to extreme lengths to flee the war as Zelensky wants to lower that age of conscription to 25 as casualties mount in the war with Russia ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
More than 17,100 Ukrainians have been detained by the DPSU trying to leave the country illegally since the Russian invasion thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrain…
Those numbers look set to climb as a contentious new bill seeks to mobilise another 500,000 men for military service
🔷 Could the China outbreak be the start of a new pandemic?
The simple answer is, almost certainly not — but we don’t know for sure
This is how the first days of a new pandemic would look, and the World Health Organisation has already made a request to China for more information on “clusters of pneumonia in children”
In the next few days, 29 motorists will receive warning letters from police reprimanding them for exceeding the speed limit on the cramped streets of a Cornish village
Despite being accused of breaking the law — one of the cars was logged doing 36mph in a 20mph limit — these drivers will not be fined, will receive no points on their licences, and will not be asked to attend a driver awareness course