Why is a family being evicted over Christmas? Plus: Black charities winning big & Stephen Lawrence
Your weekly 'In Focus' Black news round up is here!
Hi everyone,
This week’s edition brings together reporting, context and perspective, cutting through noise to focus on what actually matters and why.
Thanks, as always, for reading and for supporting independent Black British media.
We’re thinking of the Chambers family as Jamaica prepares to say a final farewell to legendary singer & actor Jimmy Cliff today.
Every week, In Focus will bring you:
The biggest headlines affecting Black and marginalised communities, which mainstream media often underreport or miss
Good news, highlights and achievements worth celebrating
Good news
UK rappers and entrepreneurs Krept & Konan announced that they’ve become investors and creative directors at Smacks, a fast-growing burger brand
The African Caribbean Community Initiative charity, based in the Midlands, wins £75k prize at international award
University agrees settlement after legal challenge over suspended Black history degree
‘Often overlooked and written off’: SEGA opens its doors to Black teens with tech and gaming workshop
Brixton Soup Kitchen launches Christmas gift drive with the Ritzy Cinema for local children. It’s running until this Friday (19 December)
East London siblings face eviction from family home at Christmas after mother dies of cancer
Siblings facing eviction from their childhood home in East London after their mother’s sudden death from cancer have appealed to the council for “fairness and compassion”.
Hackney Council has told Joanne Thompson, 44, and her brother Calvin Gray, 55, they must leave the home they have lived in for over 40 years, saying their late mother’s tenancy cannot be passed on.
Ghanaian students in UK face deportation as funding crisis deepens
Students from Ghana studying at UK universities say they face the risk of deportation after being left without promised scholarships and tuition fee payments from their own government.
A group representing more than 100 doctoral students has petitioned Downing Street and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, urging him to press the Ghanaian government to clear a multimillion-pound backlog in tuition fees and living allowances.
Tommy Robinson’s ‘Christ in Christmas’ rally draws just 1,000, police say
Far-right activist Tommy Robinson led a carol concert in London on Saturday, billed as an effort to “put the Christ back into Christmas”.
The Metropolitan Police said attendance peaked at around 1,000 people, a sharp drop from the estimated 110,000 who turned out for his last rally in the capital.
David Norris denied parole for racist murder of Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence murderer David Norris has been denied parole after seeking release more than a decade into his life sentence for the 1993 racist killing.
Baroness Doreen Lawrence said he remains “a dangerous racist who should never be let out of prison”.
Woman sexually assaulted at knifepoint following racially aggravated abuse
Police in Leeds are searching for four masked men after a woman was sexually assaulted with a knife held to her neck on a footpath in Belle Isle.
West Yorkshire Police say the victim had previously been targeted in five racially aggravated incidents in the weeks leading up to the attack, believed to involve the same group.
What else we’re reading
‘It’s not a coincidence’: journalists of colour on being laid off amid Trump’s anti-DEI push
Exclusive | Met Police admits officers helped Windrush exhibition attacker clean vandalism amid catalogue of failings
Young care leaver facing homelessness was ‘left to own devices’
Home Office urged to be transparent about deaths of asylum seekers in its care
‘Ordinary’ named ‘Racist Word of the Year 2025’ - here’s why
Ethiopian imperial hairpin taken in 1868 by British troops to be returned after 150 years
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