Britain is in a state of mourning today after British Parliament member Jo Cox was shot and killed shortly after a meeting with her constituents Thursday. Jo Cox was a 41-year-old mother of two who worked at Oxfam before being elected as a Labour MP last year. She was known for her passionate support for Syrian refugees and was a member of Labour Friends of Palestine.
Jo Cox is the first member of the British Parliament to be murdered in over 25 years. Her death came just a week before the major Brexit vote, when British voters will decide whether the country should stay in the European Union. Cox was a vocal advocate for Britain to stay in the EU. During the attack, eyewitnesses said, her assassin, Thomas Mair, shouted “Britain First”—a possible reference to the far-right, anti-immigrant political party of the same name which is pushing for Britain to leave the EU. The Southern Poverty Law Center says Mair is a longtime supporter of the neo-Nazi National Alliance. This comes as today marks the first anniversary of the attack by white supremacist Dylann Roof on the historic AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, that claimed nine lives.
— source democracynow.org