George, Amal Clooney give $1m to combat hate groups

Actor George Clooney and his humanitarian lawyer wife, Amal Clooney, have donated $1 million (Dh3.7 million) to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a US non-profit that monitors extremists and domestic hate groups, in response to protests in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this month.

An August 12 rally in the town organised by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists led to counter-protests and the death of a woman when a car ploughed into the crowd.

“What happened in Charlottesville, and what is happening in communities across our country, demands our collective engagement to stand up to hate,” the Clooneys said in a joint statement.

The donation comes from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, which the couple established in 2016 to promote justice in classrooms and courtrooms around the world.

Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen thanked the Clooneys for “standing with us at this critical moment in our country’s fight against hate.”