Barbed wire and looking over your shoulder: Middlesbrough residents fearful after riots
Parliament Road in Middlesbrough feels a world away from the establishment it shares a name with, but for one Sunday in August, the terraced streets of central Middlesbrough were at the centre of national attention.
That afternoon, what was advertised as a peaceful protest, turned into a riot, with hundreds of people, many of them wearing masks, targeting livelihoods and businesses in one of the city’s most diverse areas.
They lit fires, smashed windows and clashed with the police.
Hundreds of arrests have been made and dozens of those people sentenced, but months on, the impact of that day can still be felt.
Not just in the cracked windows and debris still on the street, but in the deeper fabric of a community who are concerned about not just those events, but bigger issues they feel have blighted the area for far longer.
One of those people is Pervaz Akhtar, who has lived in Middlesbrough for more than three decades and runs a phone shop on Parliament Road.
After having his stock burgled on more than half a dozen occasions in two years, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Mr Akhtar protects his shop with razor wire
Every evening he spends more than half an hour unrolling a ring of razor wire, to cover both the shop floor and the counters.
“I’ve got the police alarm, I’ve got the CCTV cameras, I’ve got the shutters, everything.”
“But I think this is the best thing to do,” he says, gesturing to the razor wire, which he has to fold into wooden crates every morning while wearing protective gloves.
That process, which has become a daily routine, takes him around 40 minutes.
‘I’m depressed’
Rioters jumping on Mr Akhtar’s car
Even with a deterrent in place however, he still feels unsafe and is now considering leaving the business altogether.
“I just put the shop up for sale now,” he says.
“I think, before I’m not giving up, but (now) I’m depressed, because all the time I never know when somebody will come and show me a knife and take the phones away.”
Mr Akhtar’s discontent only deepened this summer when his home and car were damaged by rioters.
In footage he shared with Sky News, a group of young men climbed on top of the vehicle, smashing the windscreen.
The shop owner says his whole family were impacted by what happened.
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His wife, who is a carer, needed to find another vehicle to get to work, while one of his two young sons has been left fearful about the prospect of more disorder.
“About one week later, he saw about 10, 12 people playing in the park, he ran back and said, ‘Dad, they’re coming again’,” recalls Mr Akhtar.
Another person living in the area and impacted by the disorder that day is John, who moved to Middlesbrough from Ghana and shares a house with three others from the West African country.
John’s window is still boarded up
More than two months on, the front window of the property was still boarded up.
“I was quite surprised to see that there could be damage, because I was expecting a peaceful demonstration,” he says before sighing and looking at the front of the house.
“Whilst that is not in the original state, for sure that will frustrate me, but I have hope in the police department that once they said it is going to be fixed, it will be fixed,” he adds.
Once the damage is repaired, there are deeper community issues that will linger.
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Streets Ahead For Information are a charity who describe themselves as a “one stop shop” for people who live in the area, offering vital services for residents in one of Middlesbrough’s most diverse communities.
Twice a week, they organise a low-cost food shop, which is always in high demand.
Residents line up outside, before filling their baskets with items like eggs, fruit and vegetables, largely costing under £1 each.
The people the charity support are from a range of backgrounds. Some are asylum seekers, others have lived in the area for years.
Many of them still have concerns about the disorder that spilled onto Parliament Road.
One woman from Romania, called Diana, says she was away on holiday at the time, but watched the scenes on TikTok.
Now she has concerns about the place she and her children call home. “I look all the time on my back,” she says.
For Streets Ahead and the operations manager Kim May, the work in the coming weeks and months will be twofold.
The charity is still advising people who had their homes and livelihoods impacted by the riots, but she is hoping the uncomfortable spotlight placed on Middlesbrough will encourage more people to support a voluntary sector working to solve people’s day to day problems, many of which she sees first hand.
“It’s the community issues that are more important. We can fix windows, we can fix cars, we can do that. But fixing people’s state of mind is a completely different thing,” she says.
“We have a lot of mental health issues in our area. We need to get the hospital sorted out. We need to take care of poverty in these areas, we need to take care of health in these areas.
“It’s a much wider range of things than people actually imagined it could ever be. And for some people, it’s about having somebody to see them, to listen to them.”
Newcastle United have won their first domestic trophy in 70 years after beating Liverpool 2-1 in the Carabao Cup.
Tens of thousands of Magpies fans flooded the capital to watch their team end their drought against last year’s winners at Wembley.
TV presenters Declan Donnelly and Ant McPartlin were among fans rejoicing in the stands, while celebrations erupted across Newcastle.
The club lifted the European Inter-City Fairs Cup in 1969 but haven’t won a domestic trophy since their 1955 FA Cup victory.
Newcastle win Carabao Cup. Pic: PA
TV presenters Declan Donnelly and Ant McPartlin celebrate in the stands. Pic: Reuters
Fans celebrate in a pub in Newcastle. Pic: Reuters
Liverpool, who have won 38 major trophies since the Black and Whites last got their hands on any silverware, went into the match as heavy favourites.
The last time the teams met, in the league last month, Liverpool eased to a 2-0 win – and they sit comfortably top of the Premier League table, seemingly headed for the title.
But Newcastle had the best of the first half and got their reward as local hero Dan Burn headed home from a corner just before half time, sending supporters into dreamland.
They found the back of the net again early in the second half, but the celebrations were cut short as the goal was disallowed for offside.
Dan Burn (left) and Fabian Schar celebrate winning the Carabao Cup. Pic: PA
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Minutes later, Alexander Isak struck and this time it did count, doubling Newcastle’s lead and sending the Geordie faithful in the crowd wild once more.
Liverpool gave themselves a lifeline in stoppage time with a goal from Federico Chiesa – after a tense VAR check – but Newcastle held on to secure the win.
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe celebrates. Pic: PA
Bruno Guimaraes (left) and Anthony Gordon celebrate. Pic: PA
‘For them it’s like the World Cup’
Eddie Howe, who became the first English manager to win a domestic trophy since Harry Redknapp in 2008 in front of a crowd of 88,513, told Sky Sports he was “very emotional”.
“We just knew what was at stake today for all the people here, all the people back in Newcastle and we just wanted to do them proud,” he said.
“We were desperate to try and win the trophy after all the years of hurt. I’m so pleased not just with the result, but with the performance. I thought we deserved the win today.”
Bruno Guimaraes described his side’s win as “one of the best days” of his life, telling Sky Sports: “It’s a lot for these fans, they deserve everything.”
“For them this is like the World Cup. People have not seen Newcastle as champions. We are here to make history and I’m very happy. We deserve this, this is unbelievable.”
Liverpool’s League Cup loss comes just days after the Premier League leaders were knocked out of the Champions League by Paris St Germain (PSG) on penalties.
It’s more than 40 years since British forces fought a brief but bloody campaign to retake the Falkland Islands after their invasion by Argentina.
On the windswept hills around the capital Port Stanley you can still see evidence of battle.
The wreckage of destroyed helicopters, discarded military hardware and shell casings scattered on once strategically important rocky outcrops and boggy valleys.
These relics are quietly rusting away.
But for the few thousand residents of an island archipelago half the size of Wales, memories of the conflict don’t fade.
The wreckage of an Argentinian Chinook
‘I’m not going to speak with a gun at my back’
On 1 April 1982, Patrick Watts was broadcasting news of the unfolding invasion from the studio of Falklands Radio when jubilant Argentinian soldiers burst in.
The live recording of his exchange with the invaders is now part of the historical record of the invasion.
“I’m not going to speak with a gun in my back,” says Watts to the Argentinian commander.
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Sky’s Tom Clarke with former DJ Patrick Watts
Speaking to us 43 years later in the same studio, Patrick clearly recalls his mood that morning.
“For them, the islands, they have always said belong to them. And it’s expressed in their emotions when they come up the passage shouting at each other and they open the door and they come in, they have guns,” he says.
“I then become quite belligerent.”
On the recording, he can be heard ordering the Argentinian commander to tell his men to take their guns outside, to stop shouting and smoking.
“I hate smoking. No smoking in my studio. And he tells them and of course, they’re still shouting and screaming. And then you can hear him shouting, ‘Silencio, silencio’.”
Mr Watts’s calm defiance has come to define the collective attitude of this British Overseas Territory ever since.
A bust of Margaret Thatcher in Port Stanley
But given Argentina has never relinquished its territorial claim to the Falklands, it’s not necessarily the population’s overwhelming desire to remain British that has kept them that way.
‘The threat hasn’t changed’
Since the end of the conflict there has been a UK military presence on the islands.
A 2,000-strong garrison of troops and a squadron of fighter jets and transport aircraft based around the main airport at Mount Pleasant.
A deterrent to Argentina – little more than 200 miles away – not to exercise its continued claim over the Falklands.
Leona Roberts
However, the UK is more than 7,000 miles away and in a world newly dominated by strong men with territorial ambitions.
And the UK’s expensive military commitment to the Falklands comes at a time when the government is under pressure to prioritise defence, and defence spending closer to home.
Walking across the rugged landscape you get a sense of how remote and, to an outsider at least, how inhospitable these islands are.
With military tensions escalating in Europe as US President Donald Trump presses for an end to the war in Ukraine, it’s reasonable to ask whether Falkland Islanders feel less secure than they have done for the past 40 years.
Tributes on the hill at Mount Longdon
“Argentina is always a bit of a shadow over our shoulder,” says Leona Roberts, a member of the Falkland Islands legislative assembly.
“The threat and the situation… has not changed.”
But she is confident the UK will continue its protection of the Falklands. Successive governments, including Sir Keir Starmer‘s, have continued to support the current military presence.
‘We take nothing for granted’
But could it change?
“We take nothing for granted,” she says. “We’re very grateful for the UK’s continuing support.”
Though remote, the Falkland Islands, she argues, are strategically important as a gateway for research and maritime operations around Antarctica and the vast South Atlantic region, as well as politically stable in an increasingly unstable world.
“A little rock of democracy and stability in what is otherwise a pretty volatile region,” she says.
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The perils of chasing penguins
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, an ally of Mr Trump, has said he will not relinquish the claim to sovereignty over the Falklands, but nor will he seek conflict with the UK.
People here hope their strong desire to remain British will always outweigh the physical distance between them and their protector.
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