BBC News
By Kavita Puri
image captionMits Sahni DJ-ing at Bombay Jungle
One evening in 1993, Mits Sahni was standing in a queue in Leicester Square in central London. He was trying to get into a nightclub - but when he got to the front of the line he was turned away by the bouncer.
It wasn t the first time this had happened. He d tried different approaches - bringing along female friends or wearing smarter clothes. But the result was always the same. The doorman would make up excuse after excuse. And after a while you figured out it was due to racism.
Jan 9, 2021
Birmingham City University has announced it will waive accommodation fees for students unable to return to halls.
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University Locks student accommodation. Pic: Google StreetView.
The university will not charge rent for students unable to use rooms at its University Locks accommodation for the duration of the current period of lockdown.
Students who have already returned to their rooms or remained in the halls over Christmas will be given a discount of £50 per week to cover the period of restrictions.
The changes are being introduced for the initial period of lockdown announced by the government, but will be extended to cover any extension to the current restrictions.
| UPDATED: 13:33, Fri, Jan 8, 2021
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Democrat and lawmakers in Washington DC threatened Donald Trump with impeachment for a second time this week. Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol building on Wednesday did so following a rally hosted by the US President, in which he repeated unfounded claims last year s election was fraudulent. Incensed lawmakers want to draw a line under his presidency before he leaves office on January 20, placing Vice President Mike Pence in charge for the remainder of his term.
Ministers and university leaders are facing calls to offer rent rebates to students amid the lockdown.
The Government has said the majority of university students in England will not be allowed to return to campus until at least mid-February and they will be expected to study from their current residence.
Some universities have taken the decision to move lessons online until even later in the year amid the tighter restrictions announced this week.
The National Union of Students (NUS) has called it “unacceptable” that students are having to pay towards accommodation that they have been told not to travel to on public health grounds.
Universities in Sheffield and Manchester have become the first to scrap student accommodation fees during lockdown - after furious undergraduates threatened rent strikes across the UK.
The National Union of Students (NUS) has insisted it is unacceptable that little support has been made available for those who travelled home for the holidays and have since been told not to return to campus.
Thousands living in university accommodation have since pledged to withhold rent on rooms they cannot use during the latest Covid-19 lockdown in England, with organisers estimating 15,000 are involved.
They are calling for a rebate on rent, despite universities pointing out they only provide around 20 per cent of student housing, the BBC reported.