Britain is on Alert for Further Unrest Even after Anti-Racism Campaigners Faced Down the Far Right

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a press conference, following clashes after the Southport stabbing, at 10 Downing street in central London, Britain, August 1, 2024. Henry Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a press conference, following clashes after the Southport stabbing, at 10 Downing street in central London, Britain, August 1, 2024. Henry Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
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Britain is on Alert for Further Unrest Even after Anti-Racism Campaigners Faced Down the Far Right

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a press conference, following clashes after the Southport stabbing, at 10 Downing street in central London, Britain, August 1, 2024. Henry Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech during a press conference, following clashes after the Southport stabbing, at 10 Downing street in central London, Britain, August 1, 2024. Henry Nicholls/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

British authorities said Thursday they were preparing for the possibility of further unrest, even as they applauded the efforts of anti-racism campaigners and police officers who largely stifled a threatened wave of far-right demonstrations overnight.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer sounded the note of caution after a week of anti-immigrant violence that has scarred communities from Northern Ireland to the south coast of England. Starmer spoke to reporters at a mosque in Solihull, near Birmingham, where demonstrators shut down a shopping center on Sunda, The Associated Press said.
“It’s important that we don’t let up here,” Starmer said.
At an emergency meeting with law enforcement officers at his office, Starmer said on Thursday evening that police need to remain on “high alert,” Britain’s Press Association reported. He credited strategic police staffing and swift justice for rioters in the courts for creating a deterrent that kept trouble at a minimum the night before.
Police across the United Kingdom had braced for widespread disorder on Wednesday, after far-right activists circulated a list of more than 100 sites they planned to target, including the offices of immigration lawyers and others offering services to migrants.
But those demonstrations failed to materialize as police and counter-protesters filled the streets.
Carrying signs saying “Refugees Welcome” and chanting “Whose streets? Our streets,” people turned out in force to protect asylum service centers and the offices of immigration attorneys.
The government also declared a national critical incident, putting 6,000 specially trained police on standby to respond to any disorder. Police said that protests and counter-protests were largely peaceful, though a small number of arrests were made.
“The show of force from the police and, frankly, the show of unity from communities together defeated the challenges that we faced,” said Commissioner Mark Rowley, the head of London’s Metropolitan Police Service. “It went off very peacefully last night, and the fears of extreme right disorder were abated.”
But tensions remain high after right-wing agitators fueled the violence by circulating misinformation about the identity of the suspect in a knife attack that killed three young girls in the English seaside town of Southport last week. The last child hospitalized in the July 29 stabbing has been released, police said Thursday.
Nearly 500 people have been arrested around the country after anti-immigrant mobs clashed with police, attacked mosques and overran two hotels housing asylum-seekers. Among them was a man in his 50s, arrested on suspicion of “encouraging murder.” The arrest came after a local Labor councilor allegedly called for far-right protesters’ throats to be “cut.''
The Labor Party suspended Ricky Jones, who is alleged to have made the remark at a London demonstration Wednesday.
The government has pledged to track down and prosecute those responsible for the disorder, including people who incite violence online.
In an effort to dissuade people from taking part in future unrest by showing that rioters will face swift justice, TV cameras were allowed into Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday as Judge Andrew Menary sentenced two men to 32 months in prison.
During the hearing, prosecutors played video of rioters pelting police with bricks and setting garbage cans on fire. One of the suspects was in the middle of a group that ripped the bumper off a police vehicle and threw it at officers as onlookers cheered.
“It seems to me there were hundreds of people observing, as if this was some sort of Tuesday night entertainment,” Menary said. “All of them should be frankly ashamed of themselves.”
Northern Ireland’s regional legislative assembly convened Thursday to respond to the unrest. Minister for Justice Naomi Long said the violence and racist attacks in recent days were “not reflective” of the people of Northern Ireland.
The government is also considering imposing sanctions other than jail time, including banning rioters from soccer matches. Home Office minister Diana Johnson told LBC Radio that there should be consequences for those implicated in disorder.
“I think all options are being looked at, to be honest, and I am pretty clear that most football clubs do not want to be seen to have football hooligans and people carrying out criminal acts on the streets of the local communities in their stands on a Saturday,″ she said.



Trump Tells Iran’s Supreme Leader: ‘You Got Beat to Hell’

 US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)
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Trump Tells Iran’s Supreme Leader: ‘You Got Beat to Hell’

 US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Democratic Republic of the Congo's Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner and Rwanda's Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington DC, June 27, 2025. (Reuters)

President Donald Trump on Friday scoffed at Ali Khamenei’s heated warning to the US not to launch future strikes on Iran, as well as the Iranian supreme leader's assertion that Tehran "won the war" with Israel.

Trump, in remarks to reporters and later in an extended statement on social media, said Khamenei’s comments defied reality after 12 days of Israeli strikes and the US bombardment of three key nuclear sites inflicted severe damage on the country's nuclear program. The president suggested Khamenei's comments were unbecoming of Iran's most powerful political and religious figure.

"Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth," Trump said of Khamenei. "You got beat to hell."

The US president spoke out a day after Khamenei insisted Tehran had delivered a "slap to America’s face" by striking a US air base in Qatar and warned against further attacks by the US or Israel on Iran. Khamenei’s pre-recorded statement, which aired on Iranian state television, was the first time that Iranians had heard directly from the supreme leader in days.

The heated rhetoric from Trump and Khamenei continued as both leaders face difficult questions about the impact of the strikes.

Trump and his aides have pushed back vociferously after an early damage assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency became public and indicated that the US bombardment likely only set back Tehran's nuclear program by months. The 86-year-old Khamenei, the most powerful figure in Iran's theocracy, meanwhile, has appeared intent on demonstrating his authority and vigor amid speculation about his health and how involved he was in making Iran's wartime decisions through the 12-day conflict.

In a social media post Friday, Trump also appeared to refer to a plan presented to the White House by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in the first days of the Israel-Iran conflict to try to kill Khamenei. Trump vetoed that plan, according to a US official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life," Trump posted on Truth Social. "I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, "THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!"

Trump, after the US airstrikes, sent chilling warnings via social media to Khamenei that the US knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, "at least for now."

After launching the US strikes — including with US-made bunker-buster bombs — Trump has been insistent that Iran's nuclear sites have been "obliterated." Administration officials have not disputed the contents of the DIA report but have sought to focus on a CIA statement and other intelligence assessments, including those out of Iran and Israel, that said the strikes severely damaged the nuclear sites and rendered an enrichment facility inoperable.

Trump also said that he expects Iran to open itself to international inspection to verify it doesn’t restart its nuclear program.

Asked if he would demand during expected talks with Iran that the International Atomic Energy Agency or some other organization be authorized to conduct inspections, Trump told reporters Iran would have to cooperate with the IAEA "or somebody that we respect, including ourselves."

White House officials have said they expect to restart talks soon with Iran, though nothing has been scheduled.

US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this week said there has been direct and indirect communication between the countries. A sixth round of US-Iran negotiations was scheduled for earlier this month in Oman but was canceled after Israel attacked Iran.

Trump expressed confidence that Iran's nuclear ambition has faded.

"Can I tell you, they’re exhausted. And Israel’s exhausted, too," Trump said. He added, "The last thing they’re thinking right now is nuclear."