Video of a police officer in London having a heated discussion with a woman about the offensiveness of swastikas has circulated across social media.
The video was taken on Saturday during a massive pro-Palestinian rally that the Metropolitan Police were monitoring. In the video, a visibly upset woman confronted the officer about an anti-Israeli participant who allegedly showed off a swastika.
The officer did not seem to agree that swastikas are offensive symbols that threaten public order. He cited the Public Order Act 2023, which he said outlines and limits what police handle at protests.
“Under what context is a swastika not disrupting public order?” the woman argued. She repeated her question multiple times.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SILENT OVER HAMAS’ USE OF GAZA HOSPITAL AS TERROR HQ
Lines of police keep the Ceasefire Now protest and the pro-Israel counter demonstration apart on March 30, 2024, in London, England.
“I haven’t said anything about it, that it is or it isn’t,” he replied. “Everything needs to be taken into context, doesn’t it?”
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“Yeah, but it’s a context of a hateful march,” another woman chimed in, while the first woman shot back, “Why does a swastika need context?”
“Why is a swastika not immediately antisemitism?” the woman added. “Why does it need context? This is what I’m confused about. This isn’t even about Israel. In what context is a swastika not antisemitic and disruptive to public order?”
“I don’t have an in-depth knowledge of signs and symbols,” the officer said. “I know the swastika was used by the Nazi Party during their inception and their period of being in power in Germany.”
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS DISRUPT BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING, HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE VOTE: ‘END ISRAEL’
Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags as they gather for a protest in Trafalgar Square in central London on March 30, 2024, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Hamas conflict.
The two continued arguing before the officer acknowledged that some symbols produce “mass alarm.”
“Now, if you came up to me and you felt mass alarm and distressed about a symbol that someone was…,” he said before being interrupted.
“I’m extremely distressed. I’m very alarmed,” the woman responded.
On X, the Metropolitan Police posted a statement about the incident that implied the video had been taken out of context.
“The video is a short excerpt of what was a 10-minute conversation with an officer,” the response read. “During the full conversation, the officer establishes that the person the woman was concerned about had already been arrested for a public order offence in relation to a placard.”
Protestors on the Ceasefire now protest react to a pro-Israel counter demonstration on March 30, 2024 in London, England.
“The officer then offered to arrange for other officers to attend and accompany the woman to identify any other persons she was concerned about amongst the protestors, but after turning to speak to his supervisor, she then unfortunately left.”
After the video was posted, social media users criticized the police officer’s responses to the woman’s arguments.
“That officer is qualified to be an Ivy League university president,” one X user joked.
“Our police force have reached a new low,” a British commentator wrote.
“And his grandfather probably risked his life fighting the Nazis in World War II. What a shame,” another speculated.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Metropolitan Police for additional comment.
Original article source: London police officer sparks outrage after suggesting swastikas should be ‘taken into context’ to Jewish woman
Ripley’s Aquariums plan to take up to six smalltooth sawfish into their facilities. A spokesperson said that a majority of the company’s animal care team will help with the effort, including by transporting sawfish to its Marine Science Research Centers and caring for them.
The Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium said in a release that it, too, is eager to help, with quarantine facilities ready for rescued sawfish.
“Attempts to solve this mystery call for robust collaboration,” said Kathryn Flowers, a Mote postdoctoral research fellow and the lead scientist for the initiative.
The issue is affecting many kinds of fish off Florida’s coast, according to Dean Grubbs, the associate director of research at Florida State University’s coastal and marine laboratory.
“It’s been species all the way from the very small bait type fish, like pin fish, all the way up to things like groupers and even some stingrays,” he said.
There are some theories about what’s happening, Brame said, but it’s difficult to arrive at a quick answer in these types of events.
“To some degree, I’ve heard it described as trying to find a needle in a haystack,” he said. “But there’s so many different possibilities that it’s really difficult to isolate which one it could be.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said on Wednesday that it had found evidence to rule out some potential causes. The fish did not appear to be suffering from a communicable disease or bacterial infection, it said, and other factors like oxygen, salinity and temperature were not suspected to be factors, either.
The commission’s hotline for sawfish sightings, which has been around for years, has seen an uptick in calls over the last month.
Sea Mckeon, director of marine programs at the American Bird Conservancy, said his organization is monitoring the fish situation closely as well, but it has not yet seen a link to any bird mortality. To help scientists figure out the underlying causes, he said, members of the public can record instances of strange fish behavior that they see out on the water, and upload videos or photos to community science sites like iNaturalist.org.
Grubbs said the issue seems to have gotten worse since February.
“It’s extremely distressing to see these sawfish dying, as we’ve spent the last 15 years studying them,” he said. “And it’s hard. It’s hard on my students to see it, my graduate students — it’s definitely distressing. We want to get to the bottom of it and figure out a way to come back from this.”
Marissa Parra
Marissa Parra is a national correspondent for NBC News based in Miami, Florida.
For weeks, hundreds of people online have spread conspiracy theories, posted memes and cracked jokes in an attempt to answer one question: Where is Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales?
Kensington Palace repeatedly said that Kate was recovering from a planned January abdominal surgery. Still, official responses, as well as an edited image posted to the palace’s social media channels, only fueled more unsubstantiated rumors.
But many people who had partaken in the online frenzy found themselves expressing regret after the princess broke her silence on Friday. In a video message to the public, the 42-year-old wife of Prince William, Britain’s future king, announced she was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.
Actress Blake Lively was among the first to make a statement online apologizing for her now-deleted Instagram post, a Photoshop joke inspired by the manipulated Mother’s Day photo released by Kensington Palace.
“I’m sure no one cares today but I feel like I have to acknowledge this,” Lively wrote in an Instagram story. “I made a silly post around the ‘photoshop fails’ frenzy, and oh man, that post has me mortified today. I’m sorry.”
That sentiment dominated much of the reaction on social media, where users said they wished they hadn’t poked fun at the princess.
“Yeah i definitely feel bad about laughing at all the ‘KateGate’ memes. wishing her a speedy recovery,” wrote Saint Hoax, an influencer who has amassed a following of 3.4 million on Instagram, where they post memes related to current events.
The fervor around Kate’s whereabouts — and subsequent online remorse — has underscored a pattern in which the absence of information provides perfect fodder for creators chasing relevance on algorithm-driven social media platforms.
“Everybody’s trying to jump in to get a piece of the viral pie, so to speak,” said Jessica Maddox, an assistant professor of digital media technology at the University of Alabama. “When we look at the intersection of conspiracy theories and social media, particularly content creators, everybody wants to have the hottest take, especially when information isn’t known.”
But Maddox said she hasn’t seen such remorse before in any online conspiracy culture. Usually when internet sleuths are proven wrong, she said, they double down by shifting the goalposts to further deny new evidence and justify their actions.
Many online said Kate’s news also serves as a reminder to stop making assumptions about people’s personal lives.
It’s a sentiment that’s popped up online before, particularly when celebrities and public figures are overly scrutinized or become the subject of unsupported claims by their followers.
Some fans of actor Chadwick Boseman expressed similar regret about commenting on his weight loss when it was revealed after his death that he had been quietly battling colon cancer for years. In April 2023, pop star Ariana Grande spoke out about the public’s “concerns” about her body, saying “you never know what someone is going through.”
The Kate news has also highlighted the tension between the public’s desire to know every detail about the royal family and the royals’ desire to keep their health struggles private. The princess’ father-in-law, King Charles III, was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. Charles has canceled public engagements while he receives treatment.
Reshma Saujani, CEO of nonprofit Girls Who Code, which empowers and equips young girls to pursue careers in STEM, said she felt “disgusted with the internet” when she heard about Kate’s news.
“Disgusted with the internet and even disgusted with myself because I fell into the trap,” Saujani wrote in an Instagram post. “This is a classic example of what we do to women, of how when a woman takes time to prioritize her health and take care of her family, we second guess it to the point of coming up with conspiracy theories to explain her self care.”
With Kate’s news now public, Jessica Myrick, a Pennsylvania State University professor who studies the psychology of media use, suggested that the online chatter surrounding Kate may wind down.
But, Myrick doesn’t think that social media users will stop creating conspiracy theories online in general, despite expressing some remorse over the Kate news.
“There are not a lot of consequences for sharing memes on social media, and if anything, the likes that people got, the laughs, the comments … that’s probably reinforcing and will probably mean we’ll do it all again,” Myrick said.
In her message on Friday, Kate asked people to respect the family’s privacy.
“We hope that you will understand that, as a family, we now need some time, space and privacy while I complete my treatment,” she said. “My work has always brought me a deep sense of joy and I look forward to being back when I am able, but for now I must focus on making a full recovery.”
LONDON — On a crisp but sunny morning outside Buckingham Palace, the saga surrounding Kate, the Princess of Wales, had given way Saturday to a wave of warm wishes after she announced that she was undergoing treatment for cancer.
“We were all very shocked,” said Sheema Riaz, a teacher who was visiting London with her sister Shanaz, 18, and her 19-year-old brother Abdullah. “It must be difficult for her family too,” said Riaz, 29, from Leicester, a city around 100 miles north of London.
Riaz noted that it was Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, “so of course as Muslims we shall definitely be praying for all of them.”
Kate, the 42-year-old wife of Prince William, Britain’s future king, shared her diagnosis in a rare video message on Friday after weeks of speculation.
She said she was undergoing chemotherapy, thanked the public for support and asked for privacy. Her announcement has led to outpourings of sympathy from the public, media and world leaders. For many, this support has been matched by a re-evaluation of the past few weeks, putting the frenzied saga surrounding Kate’s health into a very different light.
Shanaz said that she had known about Kate’s surgery, “but the news it was cancer was still shocking.”
Kate regularly polls as the most popular royal in Britain, but the uncertainty and what many experts saw as public relations missteps by the palace had fueled intense and at times negative coverage. On Saturday, the picture was very different, with the front page of the popular U.K. tabloid The Sun asserting “KATE, WE ARE WITH YOU.”
That sentiment was shared by those outside the palace in central London early Saturday.
Vicky Daniels, 49, said she “thought she was really brave to speak out like that, especially as she’s still recovering.”
Asked about the online speculation, Daniels, from Gloucestershire in southwest England, said it was “absolutely horrible.”
“I just wish they would leave them alone. I wish they’d leave all the royals to just get on with it. What really gets on my nerves is it’s often people who don’t know what they’re on about anyway,” she said. “It goes without saying that we wish her well, and the kids too.”
On Saturday, a Kensington Palace spokesperson said, “The Prince and Princess are both enormously touched by the kind messages” they had received in response to Kate’s video.
“They are extremely moved by the public’s warmth and support and are grateful for the understanding of their request for privacy at this time,” the spokesperson said.
For the royal family, Kate’s diagnosis adds to a difficult few months.
King Charles III, who said Friday he was proud of Kate’s “courage in speaking as she did,” was himself diagnosed with cancer last month and has also been undergoing treatment.
“No matter how you look at this news, it is clear that the royal family is in crisis,” said NBC News royal commentator Daisy McAndrew on Friday.
“This not only is a crisis for a family, a family of human beings — a grandfather, a son, parents — but this is a crisis for the royal family as an institution.”
Back outside Buckingham Palace, after watching a group of riders on horseback make their way past, Sandra Martinez, 50, said she too wanted to wish Kate well “and we hope her whole family are OK.”
Zainab Saidu is worried about what might happen to her family in Niger if there is military action
Niger’s military junta has just hours to restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum to power or face the possibility of military action from the regional bloc Ecowas.
Last Sunday, West African leaders gave the coup leaders a week to comply with its demands or it would “take all measures… [which] may include the use of force”.
But in Niger’s neighbour, Nigeria – where the bulk of the troops are likely to come from – voices against the involvement of the military are growing louder.
The two countries also have close ethnic and historical ties.
On Saturday, the Nigeria’s senate urged the government to look at “political and diplomatic options”.
And in the northern Nigerian city of Sokoto, bordering Niger, which is home to the army’s 8 Division, the anxiety is increasing.
It sits on a major junction on the road leading to Niger and is likely to be a mustering point for troops before any military action.
The serenity of Sokoto’s residential neighbourhoods belies the heightened tension in the city and the wider north-western state.
One aspect feeding this is that – according to locals – one in every five residents in Sokoto is from Niger or has connections with the country.
Sokoto city’s sprawling suburb of Sabon-Gari Girafshi is predominantly inhabited by people from Niger. They fear that military intervention by Ecowas could greatly affect their family members and even jeopardise their own security here in Nigeria.
Sulaiman Ibrahim has been desperately trying to reach one of his wives who is living in Niger
Fifty-one-year-old jewellery maker Sulaiman Ibrahim lives in one of the fenced and gated compounds.
One of his wives and some of his children are in Niger’s capital, Niamey, trapped there because of last month’s coup.
“Now I want to call my wife Fatima to hear from her, because since the day of that coup, I have not heard from her,” he tells the BBC, gripping his phone in his left hand.
He scrolls through his contacts and dials the wife’s number again.
Each call returns with the same message: “The number you are calling is not available at this time.”
“Every time I called, this is what they’re telling me, either no service or whatever, I don’t know,” he says in anguish, unable to hide his concern.
“If military action is going to be taken on Niger, this will bring more anxiety. I’m in terrible situation because my family is not with me and I don’t have any information about them.”
He opens the photo app on his phone to show his 18-year-old son and one of his siblings.
“Here is my son Mustapha, he’s currently in Niger. This is his younger brother, he’s six years old, they’re with their mother.”
Sulaiman is not alone.
Daily he meets with other neighbours from Niger to check if anyone has got news from home.
Mohamdu Ousman 43, echoed the sentiments of many here that the use of force to restore the ousted president in Niamey could be catastrophic.
“For Ecowas to go to Niger with the intention to take back power from the military to civilians, we don’t wish for that, God forbid. It’s like erasing our history,” he told the BBC.
Sabon-Gari Girafshi is home to a large number of people who are either Nigerien or have connections to the country
Zainab Saidu, 59, hails from the Nigerien city of Dosso, but has lived most of her life in Sokoto after getting married to a Nigerian man. Her youngest son is currently in Niger and she fears for his safety.
“I’m disturbed, I swear we’re in fear all of us, everyone who is from Niger. Everybody is terrified most especially when we heard that Nigeria [might] go to Niger for a war purpose,” she says.
On Friday, West African military chiefs said they had agreed a plan for possible military intervention, but Ecowas continues to push for a diplomatic solution.
In an effort to apply other pressure, the regional bloc has also imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and closed the borders into Niger. In addition, Nigeria has cut electricity supplies to its northern neighbour.
But this has meant that those on the Nigerian side of the border are also affected.
Lorries have been stuck at the Nigeria-Niger border
One border town that is feeling the impact is Illela, about 135km (85 miles) from Sokoto city.
It’s a commercial hub, but is currently wearing the look of a community under economic stress.
At its entrance, there are long lines of stranded vehicles, mainly large lorries with their loads covered with tarpaulin to shelter them from the rain and the sun.
Gathered in the shade of the lorries are drivers either sleeping or sitting with their phones or radios, waiting for news of the latest developments about the border.
Driver Abdullahi is running out of money
One of the drivers, Abdullahi, dressed in a T-shirt and faded blue jeans, is holding a sachet of water.
“I have been stranded here for the past three days,” he says.
“I have exhausted myself financially. Now I don’t have any money. A friend bought food for me this morning. That’s why you see me holding the water. I have been calling my boss to explain my plight and to let me know that the border closure has affected me, but he’s not responding to my calls.”
His colleagues also look tired and resigned.
They could face a long wait and the goods that they are carrying could perish, costing the business owners huge sums of money.
Others whose businesses have been seriously hit include Ado Garba Dankwaseri.
Ado Garba Dankwaseri is now not able to supply others in the town with ice after the border closed
The 42-year-old often travels into Niger to buy ice blocks to supply to traders in Illela selling water and soft drinks who need to keep things cool.
But Ado Garba’s business has been hit hard and he is unable to make the trips to Niger for his supplies.
“I make 100,000 naira ($130; £100) a day with my supplies. But right now, I cannot cross the border. There are soldiers, police and custom and immigration officers stationed everywhere. You cross the border at your own peril,” the ice trader says.
Customs officials met some of the business people in Illela on Friday to try to address their concerns and talk about why the closure was necessary.
“There’s no sacrifice too big as long as they are able to achieve peace and democracy within the sub-region. The community understands the reason behind the border closure,” says Bashir Adewale Adeniyi from the customs service.
But the patience of people in Illela and elsewhere in Sokoto is being tested – and so far, there has been little obvious sign that Niger’s coup leaders are willing to back down.
HONG KONG — The summer dominance of “Barbenheimer” has driven millions across the world to see two very different movies and delight in a rare moment of cultural confluence. But in Japan, the light-hearted conflation of the two blockbusters has stirred anger from those who view it as trivializing the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the U.S. dropped atomic bombs in 1945.
Internet memes and mashups of Barbie’s pink wonderland with nuclear mushroom clouds have been embraced by the official Twitter account for the Barbie movie, which initially responded positively to the mashups.
Margot Robbie in “Barbie” and Cillian Murphy in a scene from “Oppenheimer”. Warner Bros Pictures / Universal
“It’s going to be a summer to remember,” a now-deleted tweet from the account said in response to a mashup poster that showed Margot Robbie, who plays Barbie, on the shoulder of Cillian Murphy, who plays Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
“We’re always thinking PINK,” the studio said in another tweet, which was still online as of Tuesday morning, in reply to a poster showing Robbie and Ryan Gosling (Barbie’s Ken) driving the iconic pink car away from a nuclear explosion.
Memes about the two films, which were released on the same day in most countries, have been catching on for weeks, but once the official studio account joined in, they enraged fans in Japan, with the hashtags #StopBarbieRelease and #NoBarbenheimer trending as people called for a boycott.
Barbie’s Japanese account said Monday that the postings by the main Barbie account, operated by Warner Bros. headquarters, were “extremely regrettable,” urging its American counterparts to take prompt action, in a rare public display of internal corporate division.
“Neither this movement nor these activities are officially sanctioned,” it added, referring to the “Barbenheimer” trend.
The studio has now apologized.
“Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology,” Warner Bros. Film Group told NBC News in a statement.
However, the apology may do little to win back Japanese fans.
Maki Kimura, 43, who lives in Kanagawa, said in an interview that despite her excitement it was now “impossible” for her to watch “Barbie.”
“I loved Barbie so much,” Kimura said. “But we cannot remain silent about the atomic bomb. Even if our favorite people or things want us to change our opinions.”
That Barbie is scheduled for release in Japan on Aug. 11, two days after the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, only further disappointing fans.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti — The fate of an American nurse and her daughter kidnapped in Haiti last week remained unknown Tuesday as the U.S. State Department refused to say whether the abductors made demands. Around 200 Haitians marched in their nation’s capital on Monday, meanwhile, to show their anger over the abduction — the latest example of the worsening gang violence that has overtaken much of Port-au-Prince.
Alix Dorsainvil of New Hampshire was working for El Roi Haiti, a nonprofit Christian ministry, when she and her daughter were seized Thursday. She is the wife of its founder, Sandro Dorsainvil.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that Dorsainvil was working in the small brick clinic when armed men burst in and seized her. Lormina Louima, a patient waiting for a check-up, said one man pulled out his gun and told her to relax.
“When I saw the gun, I was so scared,” Louima said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to see this, let me go.'”
Search continues for U.S. mother and child kidnapped in Haiti
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Some members of the community said the unidentified men asked for $1 million in ransom, a standard practice of the gangs killing and sowing terror among Haiti’s impoverished population. Hundreds of kidnappings have occurred in the country this year alone, figures from the local nonprofit Center for Analysis and Research in Human Rights show.
Dorsainvil first visited the country soon after the 2010 earthquake and “fell in love with the people,” according to El Roi Haiti, which said the pair were taken “while serving in our community ministry.”
Originally from New Hampshire, Dorsainvil has lived and worked as a nurse in Port-au-Prince since 2020 at the school run by El Roi Haiti, which aims to expand access to affordable education and teaches a faith-based curriculum, according to the organization.
The same day Dorsainvil and her daughter were taken, the U.S. State Department advised Americans to avoid travel in Haiti and ordered nonemergency personnel to leave, citing widespread kidnappings that regularly target U.S. citizens.
New documentary “Fighting for Haiti” examines gang violence, political crisis in the country
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The violence has stirred anger among Haitians, who say they simply want to live in peace. Protesters, largely from the area around El Roi Haiti’s campus, which includes the medical clinic, a school and more, echoed that call as they walked through the sweltering streets wielding cardboard signs written in Creole in red paint.
“She is doing good work in the community, free her,” read one.
Local resident Jean Ronald said the community has significantly benefitted from the care provided by El Roi Haiti. Such groups are often the only institutions in lawless areas, but the deepening violence has forced many to close, leaving thousands of vulnerable families without access to basic services like health care or education.
Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders announced it was suspending services in one of its hospitals because some 20 armed men burst into an operating room and snatched a patient.
As the protesters walked through the area where Dorsainvil was taken, the streets were eerily quiet. The doors to the clinic where she worked were shut, the small brick building empty. Ronald and other locals worried the latest kidnapping may mean the clinic won’t reopen.
“If they leave, everything (the aid group’s programs) will shut down,” Ronald worried. “The money they are asking for, we don’t have it.”
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller wouldn’t say Monday if the abductors had made demands or answer other questions.
“Obviously, the safety and security of American citizens overseas is our highest priority. We are in regular contact with the Haitian authorities. We’ll continue to work with them and our U.S. government interagency partners, but because it’s an ongoing law enforcement investigation, there’s not more detail I can offer,” Miller wrote in a statement Monday.
In a video for the El Roi Haiti website, Alix Dorsainvil described Haitians as “full of joy, and life and love” and people she was blessed to know.
