‘Shameful’ that black boys in London more likely to die than white boys, says Met Police chief
It is “shameful” that black boys growing up in London are “far more likely” to die than white boys, Metropolitan Police chief Sir Mark Rowley has told Sky News.
The commissioner told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips that relations with minority communities “is difficult for us”.
Sir Mark, who came out of retirement to become head of the UK’s largest police force in 2022, said: “We can’t pretend otherwise that we’ve got a history between policing and black communities where policing has got a lot wrong.
“And we get a lot more right today, but we do still make mistakes. That’s not in doubt. I’m being as relentless in that as it can be.”
He said the “vast majority” of the force are “good people”.
However, he added: “But that legacy, combined with the tragedy that some of this crime falls most heavily in black communities, that creates a real problem because the legacy creates concern.”
Sir Mark, who also leads the UK’s counter-terrorism policing, said it is “not right” that black boys growing up in London “are far more likely to be dead by the time they’re 18” than white boys.
“That’s, I think, shameful for the city,” he admitted.
The Met Police chief’s admission comes two years after an official report found the force is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
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Police chase suspected phone thief
Baroness Casey was commissioned in 2021 to look into the Met Police after serving police officer Wayne Couzens abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.
She pinned the primary blame for the Met’s culture on its past leadership and found that stop and search and the use of force against black people was excessive.
At the time, Sir Mark, who had been commissioner for six months when the report was published, said he would not use the labels of institutionally racist, institutionally misogynistic and institutionally homophobic, which Casey insisted the Met deserved.
However, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who helped hire Sir Mark – and could fire him – made it clear the commissioner agreed with Baroness Casey’s verdict.
After the report was released, Sir Mark said “institutional” was political language so he was not going to use it, but he accepted “we have racists, misogynists…systematic failings, management failings, cultural failings”.
A few months after the report, Sir Mark launched a two-year £366m plan to overhaul the Met, including increased emphasis on neighbourhood policing to rebuild public trust and plans to recruit 500 more community support officers and an extra 565 people to work with teams investigating domestic violence, sexual offences and child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Watch the full interview on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
UK health experts and officials have pushed back on Donald Trump’s claim that paracetamol is linked to autism, saying there is “no evidence” for it.
The US president said on Monday that there had been a “meteoric rise” in cases of autism and suggested that the use of Tylenol – an American-branded version of paracetamol – during pregnancy is a potential cause.
His claims have been widely corrected by officials, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who said that “I trust doctors over President Trump, frankly, on this”.
Read more: What is autism?
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Trump links autism with paracetamol
Speaking on ITV’s Lorraine, Mr Streeting said: “I’ve just got to be really clear about this: there is no evidence to link the use of paracetamol by pregnant women to autism in their children. None.”
The health secretary then referenced a major study in Sweden last year that involved 2.4 million children, adding it “did not uphold those claims”.
He added: “I would just say to people watching, don’t pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine.
“In fact, don’t take even take my word for it, as a politician – listen to British doctors, British scientists, the NHS.”
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Trump’s ‘not so careful’ autism claims
WHO says links ‘inconsistent’
Patient safety minister Dr Zubir Ahmed MP echoed this on social media, saying: “For the avoidance of any doubt, Paracetamol remains the safest painkiller to take during pregnancy.”
Dr Alison Cave, chief safety officer at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, also said that “there is no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children”.
She added that paracetamol “remains the recommended pain relief option for pregnant women when used as directed,” and that the MHRA’s advice “is based on rigorous assessment of the best available scientific evidence”.
The British officials were supported by the European Medicines Agency, which said there was no new evidence that would mean its recommendations for the use of paracetamol during pregnancy would change.
Tarik Jasarevic, a World Health Organisation spokesperson, added at a press briefing that the links between the use of the drug and autism “remains inconsistent”.
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Paracetamol & autism: Evidence examined
Trump: Tylenol ‘not good’ for pregnant women
During a press conference with US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Mr Trump urged pregnant women to stop taking Tylenol.
After saying that Mr Kennedy Jr “wants to be very careful with what he says,” the US president added: “Taking Tylenol is not good. All right. I’ll say it. It’s not good.
“For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. That’s, for instance, in cases of extremely high fever, that you feel you can’t tough it out. You can’t do it. I guess there’s that.”
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Mr Trump then said key vaccinations for newborn babies should be delayed, that combined measles, mumps and rubella jabs should be given separately, and suggested that they are linked to autism.
“They pump so much stuff into those beautiful little babies, it’s a disgrace,” he added. “I don’t see it. I think it’s very bad.”
Mr Jasarevic pushed strongly back on that claim, saying: “We know that vaccines do not cause autism. Vaccines, as I
said, save countless lives.
“So this is something that science has proven, and these things should not be really questioned.”
The new Solana-based Evo stablecoin pegged to Kazakhstan’s national currency, the tenge, aims to bridge the crypto market with traditional finance.
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says the Federal Reserve won’t cut rates until inflation cools, and adds he is “not particularly worried” about stablecoins.
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