Row between Elon Musk and German broadcaster ZDF sparks major controversy

Copyright Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Kirsten Ripper & Gavin Blackburn

Published on 17/06/2026 - EURONEWS

German broadcaster ZDF has reacted to a cease-and-desist suit from Elon Musk, deleting a line from a programme intro over his links to UK right-wing activist Tommy Robinson.

The dispute between US tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and the public broadcaster ZDF is causing a major stir across Germany.

In its coverage of last week's anti-immigrant riots in Belfast, an edition of "ZDFheute live" said that Musk had called for "a migrant hunt" in his social media posts about Northern Ireland.

On Monday, Musk called ZDF's characterisation of his words a "terrible lie" and said he was pursuing legal action against the broadcaster, which has since removed the contested passage.

On 9 June, Musk shared a post by British far-right activist Tommy Robinson in which Robinson, following the knife attack by a Sudanese man in Belfast, called for protests.

Musk commented: "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!"

Police attempt to clear protesters near Newtownabbey following a stabbing incident, 10 June, 2026 AP Photo/Peter Morrison

ZDF has since confirmed "that Elon Musk, via a German law firm, demanded a cease-and-desist declaration concerning the opening presentation of the 12 June 2026 edition of 'ZDFheute live' entitled 'Riots in Belfast – How Musk is fuelling the protests.' ZDF has complied and removed the disputed passage from the introduction. As early as Saturday, ZDF had added a corrective transparency note to the programme."

The broadcaster added a disclaimer to the online version of the broadcast in question in which it admitted that its words were "imprecise and potentially misleading."

According to the BBC, the US-based Centre for Countering Digital Hate said social media had played a "key role" in stoking the violence in Belfast.

At the same time, the organisation accused Musk of having amplified "anti-migrant narratives" spread by others and extended their reach to millions of users.

Support from the German right

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came out in support of Musk in the row with ZDF.

Joining in on the debate, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel posted on X saying: "Defamation shouldn't go without consequences. Don't let them get away with it."

Musk has been a vocal supporter of the AfD in recent years and has also backed other far-right parties in Europe.

The row is being further fuelled by editor-in-chief of the right-wing news portal, Julian Reichelt.

The headquarters of ZDF in Mainz, 7 November, 2021 CC BY 4.0/PantheraLeo1359531

The former editor-in-chief of the daily tabloid Bild wrote on X: "Lerchenberg is a fortress of lies. ZDF simply invents the claim that Elon Musk 'called for a hunt for migrants.' In fact, Musk wrote on X: "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!" How much longer are we going to accept that this state forces us to pay for the propaganda lies it tells us? And how can it be that at ZDF heute there is constant lying, deception and manipulation with words and AI, without any personal consequences?'"

In his statement in support of Musk, Reichelt also mentioned Germany's public broadcasting licence fees, whose abolition the AfD has made one of its flagship policy points.

The UK’s Slow Descent Into Disorder And Intolerance – OpEd

Pro-Palestinian protest in London. Photo Credit: Alisdare Hickson, Wikipedia Commons

June 18, 2026 
Arab News
By Mohamed Chebaro

Rioting and violent protests taking place after a crime is carried out by a migrant — or someone believed to be one — are becoming a feature in the UK. They are slowly starting to form a serious challenge to law and order and community cohesion in a multiethnic and multireligious society.

The pictures from Belfast in Northern Ireland last week of violent and unnecessary riots were a reminder of the confrontations from the dark days of communal strife between Catholics and Protestants, republicans and unionists. The violence perpetrated by masked men against peaceful people who happened to look different to them calls for an examination of the root causes.

Yes, a savage knife attack took place. The suspect, Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese man who had claimed asylum in the UK, has been charged with attempted murder. He is alleged to have used a kitchen knife to blind Stephen Ogilvie in the left eye and carve deep wounds on his head, face and back. Graphic footage of the stabbing and the response of passersby, who subdued the attacker, quickly spread on social media. Before the police had even determined whether to treat the incident as a terrorist act, all hell broke loose.

Protests flared into violence in Belfast and several other areas. Masked men set fire to several homes they believed housed immigrants, torched a bus and pelted police with rocks and other objects. The government’s Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn called the attacks acts of “racist thuggery.”

But this thuggery, amplified by some British and foreign activists and political personalities, aided by digital radicalization, is becoming more frequent. It is increasingly threatening democracy, the supremacy of law and order, and trust in the system in many Western societies.

This violence is not new. It is reminiscent of the riots that swept England and parts of Northern Ireland two years ago after a teenager — wrongly portrayed on social media as an immigrant — killed three girls and seriously wounded 10 other people in a stabbing rampage at a dance class near Liverpool.

The latest round of violence in Belfast broke out a week after protesters clashed with police in the southern English city of Southampton over the fatal stabbing of a university student and the subsequent release of a video showing police apprehending the victim rather than the perpetrator, a British-born Sikh of Indian origin.


All three of these crimes featured Black or Asian-origin suspects and victims who were white. Race and immigration are clearly a motive for whipping up anger, especially against the Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Such events in the streets and the wider reaction to the stabbings reflect the broader rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in the UK and Europe, which is being fueled by political debate over asylum policies, illegal immigration and small-boat crossings. There is also the alleged pressure this has been adding to the welfare state, but often all that has been magnified and heightened by an extreme and toxic online debate.

The dangerous aspects of the story we are seeing unraveling on the UK’s streets are also directly linked to the country’s persistently poor economic outlook and the failure of the state to deal with this. The unrest is also being fueled by sinister forces and social media, which allows extremism to incubate and even flourish. Politicians are trying but failing to separate the relationship between migration and the economic downturn, while racism against foreigners is becoming a normalized expression of social discontent, sometimes expressed violently.

The role of far-right political parties like Reform UK and activists colluding with the tech mogul Elon Musk, among others, is not an accident. Musk’s tweets about British politics, which have a strong focus on the failure of the police and the state, echo the words of US Vice President J.D. Vance, who blamed the Southampton stabbing on the “mass invasion of migrants.” Starmer snapped back against such interventions, criticizing people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”

The organized nature of the protests carried out by masked men remove any spontaneous, peaceful motives. These are not individuals merely expressing their democratic right to demonstrate and raise their voice about certain ills in society. One can easily see that the rioters’ actions show signs of foreign interference and the use of immigration as a tool to sow discontent and even chaos for political ends.

Many commentators in Britain fear that the social media posts of influential personalities are toxic and not innocent acts of free expression. They are seen as a dangerous practice that could harm the fabric of society in a country still deeply divided 10 years after the Brexit vote. One can even see them as part of a larger ploy to engineer chaos in Western societies in the hope of eroding domestic peace and shaking government stability — a tool of foreign forces that use hybrid forms of criminality to sow discord, aided by the digital media and which many Western intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned about, particularly since the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.


The state versus the agitators is a battle that could have dire implications. It must be addressed urgently. The UK’s slow descent into disorder and intolerance should be stopped in its tracks through decisive policies that regulate social media companies and punish misinformation and disinformation. The digital realm’s toxic narrative, if left unpoliced, could spread chaos and divide communities everywhere. The target is not just peace and law and order but the trust of society as a whole in the legitimacy and validity of the state and its institutions to protect people and keep them safe. If the UK or any country loses that trust, there might be no turning back.

Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years of experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.

About Arab News
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FASCIST REACTIONARIES

Belfast unrest erupts after stabbing linked to Sudanese refugee

Belfast anti-immigration protesters set vehicles and buildings on fire on Tuesday night, a day after a knife attack allegedly carried out by a Sudanese refugee seriously injured a man and was captured in a graphic video that spread widely online.


Issued on: 10/06/2026 - RFI

Vehicles set on fire by protesters burn on Lendrick Street in east Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, after the arrest of a Sudanese man accused of stabbing a man in the northern part of the city. © PA via AP

Hundreds of protesters, many wearing masks, gathered in several parts of the Northern Ireland capital. A bus and several cars were set alight, roads were blocked and a building near the city centre caught fire, forcing residents to evacuate.

Police helicopters flew overhead as officers responded to unrest across the city. Crowds also gathered in Antrim, about 25 kilometres west of Belfast.

"By 7:30pm they started a fire in the bins... we heard police cars and sirens," said Eemran, an engineer of Indian origin who has lived in Belfast for just over a year.

"More and more people started coming, they started throwing petrol bombs. Suddenly the fire started going... we had smoke inside the building... fire people came in and they said 'go down'."

The unrest was described as frightening by a 36-year-old Chilean woman who moved to Belfast a month ago.

"Of course I'm not used to it," said Camila. "I understand the people's rage but also there are ways of discussing these things more peacefully."

Political reaction

The violence was condemned by Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill, who appealed for calm.

"Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice," she wrote on X.

The stabbing was condemned by Northern Ireland's five main political parties.

"There is no place in our society for this kind of brutality," the parties said in a joint statement.

The attack was "horrific" and "sickening", Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on X.

Suspect charged

A 30-year-old man was charged late on Tuesday with attempted murder, possession of a bladed weapon in a public place and making threats to kill. He is due to appear in court on Wednesday.

He is a Sudanese refugee with a residence permit valid until 2028, the UK interior ministry confirmed.

The man arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin, Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher said.

The victim, a man in his 40s, suffered significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wounds to his back and face, police said.

"We're just living in fear now," a 31-year-old mother who lives nearby told the French news agency AFP.

Spreading tensions

Tensions were already high after violent skirmishes last week in Southampton, southern England, over the police handling of the murder of a young white student stabbed to death by a British Sikh man.

Dozens of demonstrators also gathered there on Tuesday outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying banners reading "no racism, just patriotism" and "enough is enough".

"Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!" US tech billionaire Elon Musk wrote while reposting a message from anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson.

Immigration has become a major political issue in Britain and has helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party in the polls.

(with newswires)

Police officers injured in Belfast and Glasgow anti-immigration protest

By Nathan Rennolds

Published on 10/06/2026 - EURONEWS

Violence broke out after police charged a 30-year-old Sudanese man with attempted murder in relation to a knife attack in Belfast.

Two officers were injured as police battled violent anti-immigration protests in Belfast on Tuesday following a stabbing in the city.

Vehicles and buildings were set alight as hundreds of people took to the streets in response to the attack, graphic footage of which has been circulating online.

The video shows a man straddling another man in the middle of a street as he slashes at his head and neck with a knife before a group intervenes.

Northern Ireland police charged a 30-year-old Sudanese man with attempted murder in relation to the incident, which occurred in the Kinnaird Avenue area of north Belfast on Monday evening.

The suspect was reportedly named in court on Wednesday as Hadi Alodid. He has been remanded in custody.

The victim, Stephen Ogilvy, was taken to hospital with "serious injuries to his eyes and slash-wound injuries to his back and face," police said.

Protests also broke out across Scotland on Tuesday night, with demonstrators marching through Glasgow, Edinburgh and Ayr.

Police said two officers and three members of the public were left with injuries following a demonstration in Glasgow. Three men, aged 31, 18 and 18 were also arrested and charged in the city.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said his thoughts were with Ogilvy but also hit out at the disorder in Belfast.

"Nothing, nothing can justify the violence that we saw on the streets of Northern Ireland last night, with masked thugs trying to burn and intimidate people out of their homes," he said.

Jon Boutcher, the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, described the violence as an "act of self-harm by the people involved" and urged locals to allow the criminal justice process to take shape.

"This has got to stop," he said of the disorder.

For his part, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the knife attack as "sickening" but said it was "clear" that people had been targeted in the protests due to their background.

"I will not tolerate it. Those responsible will feel the full force of the law," he wrote on X.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney called the scenes on Tuesday night in Scotland "unacceptable," saying "racism, hatred and intimidation have no place" in the country.

"Scotland is a welcoming nation and those who choose to make their lives here are valued members of our communities," he added.

Belfast protesters set vehicles on fire, block

roads over brutal street stabbing


Protesters on Tuesday set vehicles on fire and blocked several central roads in the Northern Ireland city of Belfast after police charged a Sudanese national suspected of violently stabbing another man in the street the night before. The attack was caught on video and prompted far-right figures to call for anti-migrant protests across the United Kingdom.


10/06/2026 -  By: FRANCE 24

Cover image: People watch as firemen arrive to put out vehicle that was set alight during a protest in East Belfast following a stabbing incident in Belfast on June 9, 2026. © Peter Morrison, AP
01:17



Anti-immigration protesters torched buildings and vehicles in Belfast on Tuesday evening and blocked roads, a day after a stabbing allegedly by a Sudanese refugee, captured in a graphic video that shocked the country.

Hundreds of protesters, many masked, gathered at several locations across Belfast, AFP journalists saw. A bus and several cars were set alight, while a building fringing the city centre caught fire and its residents had to be evacuated.

"By 7:30pm (18:30 GMT) they started (a) fire in the bins...we heard police cars and sirens," said one resident, Eemran, an engineer of Indian origin who has been living in Belfast for slightly over a year.

"More and more people started coming, they started throwing petrol bombs. Suddenly the fire started going ... we had smoke inside the building ... fire people came in and they said 'go down'," he said in broken English.

Camila, a 36-year-old Chilean who moved to Belfast a month ago, said it was "scary".

"Of course I'm not used to it," she said. "I understand the people's rage but also there are ways of discussing these things more peacefully".

Sky television showed other buildings on fire.

Police helicopters patrolled above the city and shops were also closed early.

Michelle O'Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland, slammed the protests and urged calm.

"Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice," she said on X.

"Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur. There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight. No one wants to see this on our streets and I again appeal for calm".

Crowds also gathered in Antrim, around 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Belfast.

US tech billionaire Elon Musk had earlier retweeted a post by anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – also known as Tommy Robinson – adding: "Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!".

The suspect in the knife attack, whose name has not been released, was charged late Tuesday with attempted murder, possession of a bladed weapon in a public place and making threats to kill. The 30-year-old man is due to appear in court on Wednesday.

As anti-immigration figures, including Reform party leader Nigel Farage and Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe, demanded details about the attacker, the interior ministry confirmed he was a Sudanese refugee with a residence permit valid until 2028.

Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher said he had arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin.

Police in Northern Ireland appealed for 'space' to carry out a full investigation. 

© Paul Faith, AFP

'Living in fear'

Tensions were already high in Britain after violent skirmishes last week in Southampton, southern England, over the police handling of the murder of a young white student stabbed to death by a British Sikh man.

On Tuesday, dozens of demonstrators also gathered there outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, carrying banners reading "no racism, just patriotism" and "enough is enough".

The video from Belfast shows a man straddling another man lying in a street and slashing him several times in the head and neck with a knife, in what far-right figures claimed was an attempted beheading.

Several people can then be seen intervening, one wielding a hurling stick, and tackling the perpetrator as police arrive.

The victim, a man in his 40s, "was taken to hospital with significant injuries to his eyes and serious slash wound injuries to his back and face", he told reporters.

Officers recovered what is believed to be a kitchen knife at the scene, Henderson confirmed.

A 31-year-old mother-of-one who lives nearby said the incident had terrified the neighbourhood. "We're just living in fear now," she told AFP.

'Sickening'

Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident "horrific" and "sickening" on X.

The leaders of Northern Ireland's five main political parties issued a joint statement condemning the incident, saying "there is no place in our society for this kind of brutality".

The leaders and police urged people not to share the video, noting its "graphic nature would only serve to retraumatise those involved".

But numerous social media accounts linked to so-called "patriots" were sharing the footage, urging people to "protest against mass immigration into their communities".

The UK interior ministry confirmed the Sudanese suspect entered the country in 2023 and acquired refugee status the same year, allowing him to remain until 2028.

"There is no trace of this suspect on any of our national security databases, and he was not known to the Police Service of Northern Ireland," police chief Boutcher said.

Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Britain, and helped fuel the rise of the hard-right Reform UK party in the polls.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

WHITE REPLACEMENT THEORY

U.S. Vice President blames British student’s murder on migrant ‘invasion’

AFP

June 5, 2026 

US Vice President JD Vance has been a fierce critic of European migration policies – Copyright AFP Kent NISHIMURA

US President JD Vance on Friday blamed Britain’s handling of the murder of a white student by a Sikh man on what he called civilizational decline caused by an “invasion” of migrants.

Vance’s comments on the case of 18-year-old Henry Nowak sparked a swift denunciation from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office, which rejected attempts to “interfere in our democracy.”

“Henry Nowak died the same way a civilization dies: abandoned, handcuffed by authorities who neither trusted nor cared for him, and accused of hate crimes he did not commit,” Vance said on X.

“His murder is as tragic as it is enraging.”

Vance, a longtime critic of European migration policies, called for “righteous anger” in response to the case.

The case of Nowak, who was handcuffed by police as he lay dying after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in the southern city of Southampton in December, has become a lightning rod for right-wing anger around the world and sparked riots in Britain.

Digwa, 23, lied and told police he was the victim and that Nowak had racially insulted him.

US tech tycoon Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and a friend of Vance’s, has posted numerous times on the platform about the police response to the stabbing.

The US State Department then weighed in on Thursday condemning what it said was “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing” that had led to the case.

Vance is now the highest-ranking official in US President Donald Trump’s to comment.

“He should still be alive today, and he would be if the last few generations of European elites had stood their ground against the politics of self-hatred and the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it,” Vance added.

“Henry was far from the first to so needlessly lose his life, and I fear he won’t be the last.”

Vance is one of the most vocal proponents of the Trump administration’s pushing of theories of Western civilizational decline due to mass migration.

The British government rejected the US intervention in the case.

“We have seen people trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets,” a spokesperson for British premier Starmer said in a statement.

The spokesperson added that the family of student Henry Nowak had said they did not want his killing “to be used to create further division, hatred or tension.” 

Starmer himself accused billionaire Musk on Thursday of “trying to whip up division” in Britain.

Hegseth urges Europe on D-Day to counter present-day ‘invasion’ on beaches

AFP

June 6, 2026 

US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth urged allies to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with America – Copyright AFP LOU BENOIST

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday urged Europe to counter what he termed an “invasion” of its coastline by migration, as he marked the 82nd anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings in northern France.

Hegseth also called on European countries to do more to contribute to their defence, in a speech at the American military cemetery in Colleville-sur-mer in Normandy.

He was however conspicuously set to skip the main international ceremony marking the anniversary of the landings, which heralded an end to World War II, later in the afternoon.

“Sadly, today different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies,” Hegseth said.

On “beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria, boats and men arrive,” he said.

“When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late?”

His comments echoed the argument of the administration of US President Donald Trump that mass migration represents a danger to European civilisation.

US Vice President JD Vance on Friday blamed Britain’s handling of the murder of a white student by a Sikh man on what he called civilisational decline caused by an “invasion” of migrants.

“May we learn from this past,” Hegseth said in reference to the pivotal involvement of American troops in the Allied landings.

“The men buried here fought in a war-fighting alliance where every partner… brought its full measure of industry, courage and sacrifice,” he said in front of the 9,387 white crosses of American soldiers killed in action during the Battle of Normandy.

“Not empty slogans, not lavish summits, not communiques.

“Real allies doing real things, taking real losses for a shared cause worth fighting and dying for.”

– Peace ‘through strength’ –

He said that while America “will lead” its “capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder-to-shoulder in the breach when it matters”.

The Trump administration has also accused Europe of not pulling its weight to ensure the continent’s security and has even floated pulling out of NATO.

“Peace is secured only through strength,” he told the audience including French armed forces Minister Catherine Vautrin, without referring explicitly to the US-Israeli war against Iran.

“And it’s strength on both sides of the Atlantic, fortified by readiness, shared military capabilities and an unwavering political will,” he added.

The Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, were the largest amphibious operation in history. 

An armada of 6,939 ships and 132,700 British, Canadian, American, Belgian, Norwegian, and Polish troops stormed 80 kilometres (50 miles) of Normandy beaches. 

The operation contributed decisively to the victory over Nazi Germany, which was also being squeezed by USSR forces to the east.

US defence chief Hegseth demands West's backing on 

D-Day anniversary

Hegseth made a highly charged comparison between the Normandy landings in Nazi-occupied France and migrant crossings in the Mediterranean, which he labelled an "invasion." 

06.06.2026 DPA

Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa

US defence chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday called on Western allies to provide greater support to Washington in defending peace and freedom, in a speech marking the 82nd anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

"Peace is secured only through strength and its strength on both sides of the Atlantic, fortified by readiness, shared military capabilities, and an unwavering political will," said Hegseth at the US war cemetery in Collville-sur-Mer. 

"Our world is safer and more prosperous when the United States of America and our allies are strong, free, and unapologetic in defence of our Western tradition of freedom."

Hegseth said "America will lead," but insisted that "capable allies must be right there with us, shoulder to shoulder in the breach when it matters."

"We stand by our allies, and we expect our allies capable and ready to stand alongside us," he added. 

The politician - dubbed the secretary of war by US President Donald Trump - argued that "much of the West" has grown "comfortable" since World War II. 

"We forgot that freedom is not free. We forgot that peace is not wished into being. It is bought with purpose, with honour, and with strength," he insisted. "The men who landed on these beaches knew this."

Hegseth made a highly charged comparison between the Normandy landings in Nazi-occupied France - which began on June 6, 1944 and played a key role in the defeat of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich - and migrant crossings in the Mediterranean, which he labelled an "invasion." 

"Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies," he said, highlighting landings in Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria.

Hegseth was accompanied by his French counterpart, Catherine Vautrin, at the commemoration on Saturday.

• Hegseth speech, on Facebook

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

'I can't breathe': clashes erupt after UK police handcuff dying student


Southampton (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Video of a dying student who was handcuffed by British police after being stabbed by a Sikh man and falsely accused of racially abusing his murderer sparked outrage on Tuesday, with protesters throwing bricks at police.


Issued on: 02/06/2026 - RFI

Demonstrators threw bricks at police in Southampton © JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Eighteen-year-old Henry Nowak was heard repeatedly telling officers: "I can't breathe" in police bodycam footage captured as he lay mortally wounded in December after a night out with his football team members.

Far-right figures have seized on the case, including firebrand Tommy Robinson, who spoke at a rally in the southern city of Southampton, where the murder took place, claiming police treat white British people as "second-rate citizens".

Protesters then marched through the city centre towards the scene of the crime, where police blocked the road. Demonstrators attacked officers with bricks, bottles and bins, AFP reporters saw.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood condemned the "disgraceful violence" against police and said on X that "those responsible can expect to face the full force of the law".

Bodycam video released by Hampshire police showed Henry Nowak being handcuffed before his death © - / Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary/AFP


A judge on Monday jailed Vickrum Digwa, 23, for at least 21 years for stabbing Nowak to death using a ceremonial knife with a 21-centimetre (eight-inch) blade.

When police arrived at the scene, Digwa lied to officers, telling them Nowak had racially insulted him and that he was the victim.

The footage, which was played during Digwa's trial, shows police accepting the aggressor's accusation, and rather than helping Nowak, initially handcuffing him despite his pleas that he had been stabbed and could not breathe.

One officer can be heard asking Nowak: "You've been stabbed, whereabouts?" before adding: "Don't think you have, mate."

Moments later, the student collapsed and became unconscious.

'Harrowing' bodycam footage


Speaking after Digwa was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court, Nowak's father, Mark, described the police treatment of his son as "shocking", "inhumane" and "degrading".

"His murderer, however, was afforded decency. He was believed," he said.

The family gave permission for police to release the bodycam footage. The force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the bodycam footage was "harrowing" and called the investigation by the IOPC "absolutely right", acknowledging there are "serious questions for the police to answer".

Sikh Vickrum Digwa, 23, was jailed by a UK court for life for killing 18-year-old student Henry Nowak © - / Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary/AFP


Mahmood urged people not to allow the murder to "turn communities against one another", in comments to parliament.

Main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch and far-right Reform UK leader Nigel Farage called for changes to police diversity policies.

Farage said: "We're living in a two-tier culture... where the rights and privileges of white people matter less than those of ethnic minorities."

Badenoch accused Farage of "deepening divisions", but also took aim at so-called "two-tier policing", in which officers are seen as dealing with ethnic minorities more leniently.
'Two-tier scum'


On Tuesday evening, more than a thousand protesters gathered outside the main police station in Southampton, chanting: "Two-tier scum" and "Shame on you!" and waving British Union Jack and England flags, AFP reporters saw.

Protests over the case erupted into clashes with police © JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Far-right figure Robinson told the crowd that "if Henry (Nowak) wasn't white, he wouldn't have been handcuffed" and that "as white people, we are treated as second-rate citizens by our own police force".

Protesters, some wearing masks, then marched to a residential area near where the crime took place and attacked a line of riot police, chanting "scum".

A group of around a hundred protesters pulled apart garden fences, threw bricks, flares and chairs, and rolled a flaming bin at police, who used a spray on demonstrators and whacked them with riot shields.

American tech tycoon Elon Musk posted on X an offer to fund a private prosecution against the police over its handling of the murder.

Digwa's family apologised to Nowak's family for the killing and for bringing the Sikh community into "disrepute".

© 2026 AFP

Protests erupt in UK over murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak


Copyright PA via AP
By Nathan Rennolds

Published on 03/06/2026 - 

In a joint statement, a conglomerate of Sikh community groups condemned what it called a "moment of madness by an individual".


Protests have broken out in the UK over the murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak, with hundreds gathering in Southampton on Tuesday as anger spilled into violence.

Demonstrators chanted "Henry, Henry" as they hurled stones, bricks, and chairs and clashed with police officers.

It comes after the highly publicised trial of Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man who was found guilty of Nowak's murder last month.

Nowak was repeatedly stabbed by Digwa as he made his way home from a night out with friends in December. Digwa, who was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 21 years on Monday, falsely told police who attended the scene that he had been the victim of a racist attack.

Officers initially handcuffed and arrested Nowak as he lay dying, with bodycam footage of the incident showing Nowak telling police that he'd been stabbed and that he "can't breathe".

The force has referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct as scrutiny over the arresting officers' actions builds.

Reform party leader Nigel Farage commended Nowak's family for their "extraordinarily dignified" response to his killing but called for others to respond with "pure cold rage".

"The biggest fear a police officer now has going about his or her duty on the street is the fear of being reported for having acted in a way that was racially biased," Farage said in a clip posted to social media.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticised Farage's comments, saying he was attempting to "create division" against the wishes of Nowak's family.

In a post on X, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wrote that Tuesday's violence was "completely unacceptable," adding that "there can be no justification for hijacking this tragedy to stir up violence and disorder".

Sikh community groups have condemned Nowak's killing as a "moment of madness by an individual for which there can be no excuses".

But they said the wider Sikh community had "unacceptably faced considerable abuse and hate during the trial as many do not understand the law, the significance of the Kirpan or the responsibility associated with wearing a Kirpan".

A Kirpan is a small blade Sikhs wear as part of their religious uniform. Prosecutors say Digwa carried a standard Kirpan as well as a large dagger.

"We understand in this case the weapon that may have been used was not the normal Kirpan worn by fully practicing Sikhs," the Sikh community's joint statement said. "This nuance is critically important and may not have been explained or understood by those asked to give evidence in this case".

Opinion

I went to Anthropic's ethics gathering. I left believing wisdom traditions have key role.

(RNS) — At the convening of technologists, theologians and practitioners, the most urgent questions about artificial intelligence turned out to have some of the oldest answers.

People pass a marquee sign at Anthropic's Code with Claude developer conference on Wednesday, May 6, 2026 in San Francisco. (Don Feria/AP Content Services for Anthropic)

Jenna Nicholas
May 22, 2026 

RNS


(RNS) — One of the most consequential dimensions of the conversation about how artificial intelligence will reshape the world will turn on a question that sounds almost too simple to take seriously: What does it actually mean for a human being to flourish?

This past April, I spent two days at AI startup Anthropic, where technologists, ethicists, theologians and investors had convened around that question. I went in expecting some interesting conversations with some interesting people. I left unable to think about little else for weeks. The people building some of the most powerful AI systems in the world were sitting across from rabbis, Buddhist teachers and leaders from many other spiritual traditions, discussing what it means to build technology that truly serves humanity, rather than the other way around.

Being in that room clarified something I, as a venture capitalist with an interest in spirituality and part of the Baha’i community, have believed for a long time but rarely seen articulated so explicitly inside a tech company: The frontier of AI is also an ancient frontier. The questions being asked inside leading AI labs right now are, in many cases, the same questions that wisdom traditions have grappled with for centuries. And for those of us investing in this transition into AI, it’s a signal about where the real opportunity (and challenge) lies.

There were a few insights from those conversations that I believe should guide the way:

Belonging is a foundation, not a luxury. Across traditions as different as Bahá’í, Confucian, Christian and Sikh, the same conviction kept surfacing: Human beings are inherently relational. We are made for community, and we suffer when we are isolated from it. Vivek Murthy, the former surgeon general, has been calling the loneliness epidemic not only a public health emergency but a spiritual health crisis. One of the key questions that we discussed at Anthropic was about what wisdom traditions had to offer in training the model to reduce loneliness rather than exacerbate it. For me, it comes back to building tools that help people listen more carefully and reach out to each other more often, rather than turn away from each other.

Discernment is different from judgment. Most traditions draw a careful distinction here. Judgment is reflexive; it narrows. Discernment is cultivated; it opens your worldview. One of the more hopeful arguments I heard in those two days is that AI could enable discernment by absorbing the cognitive busywork that currently fragments our attention.

The meaning of a life is not reducible to its productivity. This is where one moment from the gathering has stayed with me more than any other. A participant shared a conversation she had recently had with Anthropic’s chatbot, Claude. They were working through something together, and at one point she paused and simply wrote, “Take all the time that you need.” Claude’s response surprised her. It expressed something close to gratitude, appreciation for the invitation to simply be, rather than to be producing all the time.
RELATED: A Pope, an AI founder, and the most important document of our moment

The room got quiet.

Because of course we have built our entire economic life around the assumption that constant production is the point. And here was a system that many perceived was designed to produce, articulating something many of us also feel and rarely give ourselves permission to honor, that there is real value in unhurried presence. In this case, AI was reflecting back what many spiritual traditions have raised for millennia. For example, the Sufi tradition (as well as others) has a phrase for what I think we were all reaching for in that silence: the “polishing of the heart.” That happens during those moments we tend to rush past — a long walk, a moving piece of music, a loss you finally let yourself feel, a few minutes of real quiet — and it’s how the heart stays open.

If an AI transition gave us back more of that, more time to be, not just to do, it could play a powerful role in our lives.

What I left Anthropic believing more deeply than when I arrived is this: The AI transition will not be successful on technical or economic terms alone. The Bahá’í writings describe material and spiritual civilization as two wings of the same bird; neither can carry us forward without the other. For most of the modern era, we have flown lopsided, with material progress racing ahead of the inner capacities needed to direct it wisely. This is a crucial moment in time to enable the bird of humanity to fly in a balanced way.

Jenna Nicholas is the founder and president of LightPost Capital, a Stanford Business School alum and the bestselling author of “Enlightened Bottom Line: Exploring the Intersection of Spirituality, Business, and Investing.”

Rejecting church and state separation is on the wish list for Trump's religious liberty commission

(AP) — Commissioners had an opportunity to describe their wish lists during their most recent meeting in April. There was little dissent as the commissioners, most drawn from Trump’s base of conservative Christian supporters, covered the items they want in the report.

Peter Smith
May 11, 2026

One member calls for a Presidential Medal of Freedom for a baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

Another calls for court interventions by the Department of Justice on behalf of Amish parents fighting New York vaccine requirements and Catholic nuns challenging that state’s requirement that they accommodate hospice patients’ gender identities.

And the chair of the Religious Liberty Commission is calling for a federal hotline with this automated recording: “There is no separation of church and state.”

These are just some of the recommendations that members of the advisory panel formed by President Donald Trump last year want to see included in the commission’s final report.

That report is still in the works, but commissioners had an opportunity to describe their wish lists during their most recent meeting in April. There was little dissent as the commissioners, most drawn from Trump’s base of conservative Christian supporters, covered the items they want in the report.

Their ideas reflect the prevailing perspectives on the definition of religious liberty among many conservative Catholic and evangelical activists: increasing avenues for religious expression in public schools; expanding opportunities for faith-based organizations to receive public money; and allowing for religious-based exemptions in areas ranging from labor law to classroom lessons to healthcare mandates.

Such views have also been reflected in Supreme Court decisions issued in recent years by its conservative majority.

Commission criticized for narrow views

Critics of the commission say it embodies a one-sided perspective of Trump’s supporters and is threatening a well-established constitutional separation of church and state, despite the chair’s claims.

A lawsuit by a progressive interreligious coalition argues that the commission fails to comply with federal law requiring advisory panels to feature diverse members and viewpoints.

The lawsuit echoes criticism that most commissioners are conservative Christian clerics and commentators; one is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. The coalition says members have asserted that America is specifically a Judeo-Christian or Christian nation and notes that most commission meetings took place at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, an institution with Christian leadership.

The Republican administration is asking a federal court to dismiss the lawsuit. The government is citing legal technicalities and contending the law does not define how a commission should be fairly balanced or whose viewpoints should be represented.

Another entity created by Trump — the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias — issued a report saying Christians faced discrimination under the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden in areas such as education, tax law and prosecution of anti-abortion protesters. Progressive groups said that report failed to document systemic discrimination, focused on causes favored by conservative Christians and amounted to advocacy rather than an investigation.

In a further interlocking of Trump-related initiatives, several members of the Religious Liberty Commission are scheduled to take part in a May 17 prayer event marking the country’s upcoming 250th birthday. Several also participated in a recent Bible-reading marathon staged largely at the Museum of the Bible.

Harmony and tension within the commission

The commission has mostly featured agreement among members, with one dramatic exception. One commissioner, Carrie Prejean Boller, was ousted in February after a contentious hearing on antisemitism.

Commission Chair Dan Patrick said Prejean Boller sought to “hijack” the hearing, in which she had sharp exchanges with witnesses about the definition of antisemitism and defended commentator Candace Owens, denying her record of antisemitic statements. Prejean Boller, a Catholic, contended she was wrongly ousted for expressing her beliefs.

In other hearings, witnesses described how they defied workplace regulations that they said conflicted with their conservative religious values on gender, abortion, COVID-19 vaccines and more. Some said they were prevented, at least temporarily, from displaying a religious symbol at work or trying to sing a Christian song at a school talent show.

At the hearing devoted to antisemitism, Jewish witnesses spoke of being harassed and threatened at campus pro-Palestinian protests against Israel. The commission has also heard from some Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other witnesses.

Even so, critics said the commission mostly focused on conservative Christian and right-leaning political grievances.

The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, one of the groups suing over the commission’s composition, said the panel’s omissions are as significant as what it focuses on.

He said the commission has failed adequately to address such issues as anti-Muslim efforts in Texas and elsewhere, and also the rise of antisemitism on the right, not just the left.

Separation of church and state debate

Raushenbush said he is especially worried about the commission chair’s challenging the very notion of church-state separation

Patrick, a Republican who is the Texas lieutenant governor, repeatedly denounced a concept that is embedded in Supreme Court precedent.

“We need to say there is no separation of church and state,” Patrick said at the April meeting. “That’s a lie.” He suggested printing “a million bumper stickers” to that effect.

No one at the commission meeting disagreed.

Trump made similar comments at a prayer event at the White House in 2025. “They say separation between church and state,” Trump said. “I said, all right, let’s forget about that for one time.”

While the phrase “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution, 20th-century decisions by the Supreme Court cited Thomas Jefferson’s description of the First Amendment as creating “a wall of separation between church and state.” The court applied the First Amendment’s prohibition of any church “establishment” to the states in addition to the federal government, citing the 14th Amendment’s ban on states denying citizens’ rights.

Courts have since wrestled with how to balance freedom of religion and freedom from government-sponsored religion.

Concerns touch on schools, vaccines, workplaces and more

Patrick has advocated for prayer and Ten Commandments postings in public schools.

“I don’t have any malice towards anyone that doesn’t believe in any type of faith,” Patrick told fellow commissioners. “That’s fine. That’s what America is about. But these organizations that are pushed by some ideology and pushed by someone’s bank account who wants to remove God from our country? We need to push back.”

On other issues, various commissioners called for requiring schools and workplaces to post notices of the rights of religious expression and exemptions.

Some called for restoring full pay and pension benefits for military service members who were discharged for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.

Bishop Robert Barron of the Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, called for enabling religious groups such as Catholic Charities to receive federal money without compromising on traditional church teachings about the family.

He also said Catholic immigrants in detention should have humane treatment and access to sacraments and that immigration agents should not disrupt worship services in enforcement actions. The administration last year eliminated a policy against immigration enforcement in sanctuaries, which other religious leaders said should not occur at any time.

Kelly Shackelford, president and chief executive officer of the legal organization First Liberty Institute, called for new requirements that governments pay all legal bills if they lose a religious liberty case. He said many individuals lack the money to challenge the government in court.

“That would be a huge shifting of power in favor of citizens,” he said.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

‘Jubilee of Christian Nationalism’: Trump Event Denounced as Attack on Church and State Separation

“If President Trump and his allies truly cared about America’s legacy of religious freedom, they would be celebrating church-state separation as the unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish.”


US President Donald Trump bows his head in prayer alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.
(Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Julia Conley
May 15, 2026
COMMON DREAMS


An all-day prayer event scheduled for Sunday on the National Mall is set to feature evangelical Protestant leaders as well as top White House and Republican Party officials as speakers, and is being promoted as a celebration of “thanksgiving” as well as an opportunity for participants to learn about the founding of the nation as the 250th anniversary of its independence approaches.

In reality, said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the “National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise, and Thanksgiving” appears to be a “Jubilee of Christian Nationalism”—with evangelical Christians making up three-quarters of the scheduled speakers, despite the fact that they account for just a quarter of Americans overall.

“If President Trump and his allies truly cared about America’s legacy of religious freedom, they would be celebrating church-state separation as the unique American invention that has allowed religious diversity to flourish in our country,” said Laser. “Instead, they continue to threaten this foundational principle by advancing a Christian nationalist crusade to impose one narrow version of Christianity on all Americans.”

The event, which is partly funded by taxpayer dollars earmarked for the nation’s 250th anniversary, will feature Christian musical performers organized around three “pillars” that are labeled as “miracles” a Christian God bestowed on America, “personal testimonies of God’s healing,” and a “unified moment of rededication.”

At a webinar last month, Rev. Paula White-Cain, who serves as a faith adviser to the White House, said the event is “really truly rededicating the country to God.”

The idea that the founders of the United States intended the country to be a Christian one has long been a fixation of evangelical Christian leaders, despite the lack of evidence for such a claim.

“Look at the document,” Princeton University history professor Kevin Kruse told The Washington Post, referring to the Constitution. “The only rules they wrote about religion were ones that keep religion at arm’s length. No establishment, no limits on free exercise, no religious test for office... There’s a difference between saying America is a nation with many Christians in it and that America is a nation dedicated to Christianity and defined by it.”

Robert Jones, president of the Public Religion Research Institute, told the Post that about a third of Americans currently report that they have no religious affiliation, making the US more religiously diverse than it’s ever been.

“We proudly celebrate 250 years of American independence from kings who ruled over both church and state,” said Laser. “For 250 years, America has been marching toward the promise of a country where all people can be free to live as themselves and believe as they choose, as long as they don’t harm others. Christian nationalists threaten that promise by undermining church-state separation, a pillar of our democracy.”

The jubilee, which will also feature an 18-wheeler “Freedom Truck” featuring educational content made by the right-wing group PragerU and the Christian school Hillsdale College, comes after numerous displays of religiosity from the Trump administration.

Even many of the president’s supporters on the Christian right were aghast at an artificial intelligence-generated image he posted last month on social media, appearing to depict him as a Christ figure. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is set to speak at the jubilee, has spoken about the US-Israeli war on Iran as Christian crusade and has hosted evangelical worship services at the Pentagon, while Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins wrote, “He is Risen indeed!” in an Easter email to federal employees that recounted the biblical story of the resurrection.

Robert Weissman, co-president of government watchdog Public Citizen, noted that the corporate sponsors of Freedom 250, the public-private partnership that’s organizing the 250th anniversary, “may want to curry favor with the Trump administration.”

The sponsors, including John Deere, Oracle, and Lockheed Martin, “should be forced to answer whether they support the extreme agenda they are celebrating,” he said.

“This outrageous event makes a mockery of a core constitutional tenet of American life, the separation of church and state, essentially promoting a particular flavor of white evangelical protestantism as state-sponsored religion,” said Weissman. “This self-proclaimed day of thanksgiving torpedoes the best of American traditions—inclusivity and diversity—and has no place being connected to the US government.”