Eleven officers and one police dog were injured after violent clashes between its officers and protesters near where Henry Nowak was stabbed to death in Southampton, Hampshire Police has said.

Missiles including chairs, cans and flares were thrown at police in riot gear after hundreds gathered as part of a demonstration, where far-right activist Tommy Robinson was among those who spoke to the crowd.

Two people have been arrested, with home secretary Shabana Mahmood condemning the violence as “completely unacceptable”.

Chief constable Alexis Boon said some protesters “arrived intent on causing disorder adn trouble” and said that they had been “forced to deal with those determined to spark fear and division”.

Vickrum Digwa, 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 21 years for murdering the 18-year-old finance student in Southampton.

Footage shows that Mr Nowak, 18, was handcuffed while he lay dying after Digwa told officers he had racially abused him. He is heard saying: “I’ve been stabbed,” to which an officer replies: “Don’t think you have, mate.”

An officer involved in the case has resigned, Hampshire Police say, after Sir Keir Starmer said he “felt sick” watching footage of police handcuffing the student as he lay dying.

The force said one of the officers had quit but three were still serving.

What happened on Tuesday evening?

Two people were arrested for assaulting police and possession of a weapon after hundreds gathered outside Southampton Central Police Station on Tuesday where Tommy Robinson – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – and actor and campaigner Laurence Fox were among those who spoke to the crowd.

Hampshire Police said the number of arrests would increase as investigations continue into the disorder.

Violent scenes broke out after a large group walked across town to the area of Portswood.

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Demonstrators chanted “Henry, Henry” as the line of police were pelted with bricks.

Chairs, cans and flares were thrown at police in riot gear, eventually forcing officers and three police vans back from the line they had been holding.

Holly Evans3 June 2026 10:43

Full statement from Hampshire Police after ‘violent scenes’ in Southampton

In a written statement, Hampshire Police chief constable Alexis Boon said: “We understand and appreciate as police officers that we are accountable for our actions. What we ask, however, is that those actions are judged through fair and transparent processes. In this case, that process is already under way with the IOPC conducting their independent investigation.

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“What we, as a society, cannot accept is the violent scenes we saw in Southampton last night.

“Some clearly arrived intent on causing disorder and trouble. We saw bottles thrown, makeshift weapons used, damage caused to the homes and vehicles of innocent residents, and threats and violence directed towards our officers.

“As a result, 11 officers and one police dog were injured, while trying to do their job to protect the communities that we serve.

“While we are forced to deal with those determined to spark fear and division, our finite resources are taken away from those who need it most.

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“I know how intimidating the scenes from last night must have been for those living and working in the area, and to you I must stress we have incredibly experienced teams of officers who are working around the clock to keep you safe – that is our absolute priority.

“You will see more of my officers patrolling your neighbourhoods over the coming days and specialist intelligence teams are supporting those on the front line.

“My officers bravely and robustly faced violence with professionalism and courage last night, and this morning our investigation is under way to identify those responsible for the disorder.

“Last night, we made two arrests and that number will rise as those investigations continue.

“I know that since the release of the body-worn video footage from the night of Henry Nowak’s murder there is a desire for answers and accountability, but that must be done in the right way and not used as an excuse to threaten and intimidate my officers and bring violence to our streets, causing fear and harm to those living and working in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.”

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Holly Evans3 June 2026 10:26

11 officers and one police dog injured in clashes

Hampshire Police said 11 officers and one police dog were injured after violent clashes between its officers and protesters near where Henry Nowak was stabbed to death in Southampton.

Holly Evans3 June 2026 10:16

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Badenoch says Henry Nowak’s killing a moment like Stephen Lawrence murder

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called the killing of student HenryNowak a “seminal moment for Britain” on par with the murder of teenager Stephen Lawrence in 1993.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also described the 18-year-old finance student’s death as “a watershed moment for this country”.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Mrs Badenoch said: “Henry’s murder and the police’s botched response must be a seminal moment for Britain on a par with the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager killed in 1993, which precipitated the Macpherson Report six years later, which found the Metropolitan Police to be ‘institutionally racist’.

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“Stephen’s murder forced the country to confront the intolerable and say: ‘This is not who we are’. Indeed, many battles have been won in making our society better and fairer since then.”

Mrs Badenoch also criticised then Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and his then deputy Angela Rayner for kneeling amid Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while being restrained by a white police officer in 2020.

“Why are they not kneeling now for Henry Nowak?” she asked, saying the police response to the stabbing had “exposed devastating failures”, although she said police in the UK are no longer institutionally racist.

Holly Evans3 June 2026 10:05

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In pictures: Tuesday night’s protests descend into violence

Holly Evans3 June 2026 09:50

Nigel Farage is conducting a culture war over Henry Nowak’s grave

Henry Nowak deserved better. In December, the 18-year-old student was stabbed multiple times while on his way home from a night out in Southampton.

As he lay bleeding on the pavement, he pleaded “I can’t breathe” repeatedly to the attending police officers, who, instead of administering aid, put him in handcuffs and arrested him. The last thing he heard before he died was an officer reading him his rights.

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His assailant had made false claims that Nowak had racially abused him, punched him and knocked off his turban.

Read the full analysis from Festus Akinbusoye here:

Holly Evans3 June 2026 09:32

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Analysis: Farage and Tommy Robinson stoke the political flames of anger over Henry Nowak

Our political editor David Maddox says:

Nigel Farage’s silence on the protests in Southampton over the Henry Nowak murder and the police handling of it is deafening.

The Reform UK leader does everything he can not to be associated with the far right leader Tommy Robinson who was behind those violent protests.

But the two hold common cause in a way, in politicising this tragedy after Farage’s call for “rage” in response to what happened.

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And it has certainly ratcheted up what was already a tense situation. The prime minister Keir Starmer must be concerned that we could see riots again as we did after the Southport murders.

If you look at the measured and thoughtful response from Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, she clearly is worried about that too.

It will be for the government and political establishment to consider whether the anti-racism measures in policing have gone too far.

A simple “we don’t have two tier justice” will not wash with the increasingly angry people on the streets.

More importantly, this is set to become a major issue in the Makerfield by-election where Andy Burnham is hoping to win for Labour en route to becoming PM.

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He needs to articulate answers to a constituency that is 97 per cent white working class and already feels overlooked.

Holly Evans3 June 2026 09:09

Minister unable to say there is no two-tier policing in Britain

A government minister was unable to say there is “no two-tier policing” in Britain in the wake the Henry Nowak murder.

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Policing minister Sarah Jones said instead that in principle “everyone is equal under the law”, but admitted there are “examples of people making the wrong call in different ways”.

Asked if there is two-tier policing in the UK, she told BBC Radio 4: “I would say that the principles are important, that everyone is equal under the law.

“I would say that there are 100,000 999 calls a day, and that in the majority of cases, the police are doing the right thing, making the right decisions in the right way. But I would also say that wherever there are mistakes – and this is I think a case where the country is looking to us to make sure we learn the lessons and put anything wrong right – that we continue to strive to do that.

“But the principles of what our policing by consent foundations are based on, equality under the law, that is the basis of our entire society.”

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Pushed on whether there are examples o two-tier policing she said: “I think we see examples of people making the wrong call in different ways. In the main, that is not what we see. I think to push a certain sort of agenda in this case is not helpful.”

Athena Stavrou3 June 2026 09:00

Watch: Policing minister warns against ‘stirring up division’ following Southampton protests

Holly Evans3 June 2026 08:51

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Kemi Badenoch calls for state institutions to ‘root out all identity politics’

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said “pernicious identity politics” had seen the country “going backwards”.

In a Daily Mail article, she said there was a need to “sweep out a lot of the historic, incoherent nonsense that has been brought in under the guise of anti-racism”.

She said: “I have said that we are going to root out all identity politics from state institutions – from removing diversity requirements from defence procurement to scrapping preferential sentencing for minorities.

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“But it can’t end there. No other political party has a plan for integration and assimilation.”

She added she was “disturbed” by Nigel Farage’s video response, and said that his words were part of a “toxic tribal politics that divides our country”.

Athena Stavrou3 June 2026 08:42

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“Excellent addition to the garden, easy to put together and now full of veg plants”

A raised planter can be a game-changer for any outdoor space, making it easier to grow herbs, flowers and vegetables without having to bend down or take up too much room. For anyone looking to upgrade their setup, we’ve spotted a deal on a popular design that’s endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society.

The VegTrug Raised Wooden Planter Herb Garden is currently £99.99 at Yimbly, the online marketplace owned by this site’s parent company Reach Plc. However, shoppers can reduce it to £90 by using the 10% discount code SUMMER10 at checkout.

The wooden planter features eight separate pockets for herbs, flowers and plants, making it easy to grow a variety of greenery in one compact space. It also includes a handy bottom shelf that’s ideal for storing watering cans, gardening gloves and other essential tools.

Standing at 80cm tall, the raised planter offers a comfortable working height, helping gardeners tend plants without having to crouch. It can hold up to 110 litres of compost, providing ample growing space for herbs and seasonal plants.

And despite its generous capacity, the planter has a compact footprint. It measures 78cm wide, making it a practical option for smaller outdoor areas such as balconies, patios and courtyards.

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£99.99

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Shoppers can use the code SUMMER10 for a discount.

Otherwise, for those on a tighter budget, Gardening Express has this Raised Bed Garden Planter for £27.99. It’s made from durable corrugated steel with a cream metal finish for versatility.

Meanwhile, Nkuku’s Kubo Ceramic Planter (£90) is as stylish as it is practical. This large stoneware piece is ideal for indoor and outdoor use, with a reactive glaze that showcases unique earthy tones.

Back to Yimbly, the VegTrug Raised Wooden Planter Herb Garden has had some great reviews online. This happy reviewer shared: “Good sturdy planter with good-sized pockets for herbs, etc.

“There are liners supplied for each section, which keep damp compost off the wood, thereby protecting it. Easy to assemble with a sturdy screwdriver and reasonable strength in one’s hands.”

Meanwhile, a shopper via John Lewis said: “This herb planter is great for keeping all my favourite herbs together in one place. I can maintain and harvest the herbs easily and place the planter in a sunny position.”

However, someone noted via Robert Dyas: “It’s well made and fits together well. Very easy to assemble. However, I do wonder whether it will last very long; the wood is very soft, and I suspect it will only last a year or two before it rots.

On a brighter note, this VegTrug fan piped up: “Excellent addition to the garden, easy to put together and now full of veg plants. Really happy with the result – perfect size and great price too.” And another customer simply added: “Looks good. Sturdy.”

Aston Villa forward Kirsty Hanson is set to join Tottenham following an impressive season in the Women’s Super League.

The Scotland international finished as the league’s third highest goalscorer with 12 goals in 22 matches – only Khadija Shaw and Alessia Russo scored more.

Villa’s top scorer was named their player of the year and she scooped up WSL Football’s goal-of-the-season award for her strike against West Ham.

In May, BBC Sport reported that Spurs were pursuing Hanson and it is now believed they have had a bid accepted by Villa and are set to bring her in this month.

Personal terms are being finalised as Hanson – who has scored five goals in 44 Scotland appearances – prepares to join Tottenham in what will be another boost to Martin Ho’s squad.

The 28-year-old had a year remaining on her contract at Villa and it is unknown what fee Tottenham have agreed to sign her for.

She will reunite with Spurs manager Ho, who she worked with at former club Manchester United while he was assistant coach.

Tottenham had a strong campaign in 2025-26, finishing fifth in the table in Ho’s first season in charge after joining from SK Brann.

They will be ambitious in the transfer window and have already secured the signings of West Ham forward Shekiera Martinez and Dutch defender Caitlin Dijkstra.

Although he has a degree in political science, Pratt is a political outsider who has never held public office. He has campaigned on a message of fixing a broken Los Angeles, casting the city at times as unsafe and unclean, and advocating mandatory drug treatment to help combat homelessness in the city.

Times Radio’s Kate McCann broke down live on air while discussing the footage of Henry Nowak being handcuffed by police as he lay dying.

In body-worn camera footage from the incident, Mr Nowak can be heard repeatedly saying: “I’ve been stabbed,” to which an officer replies: “Don’t think you have, mate.”

Discussing the video with co-host Stig Abell on Times Radio Breakfast, McCann said: “I think I, I watched that footage this morning and I just, I found that, even, I found that really, I found that really upsetting to listen to in audio because you can hear him.”

She paused and became tearful before adding: “Sorry… you can hear him, he can’t breathe, you can hear him saying ‘I can’t breathe’. How could you not…’

McCann later said: “However you look at it you can’t deny that that’s an 18-year-old boy who is clearly in difficulty, and exactly as you said there, you could look at it and just separate everybody, the scene is not complicated or fraught. But for that to be the last thing you hear, I just think that’s unforgiveable.

“And what’s worse is that some of these officers were allowed to resign their positions before there was any investigation into this.”

Acceptance of same-sex marriage and relationships in the U.S. has flattened after more than two decades of steadily increasing support, with an ongoing decline among Republicans, according to a new Gallup poll.

About 65% of U.S. adults believe same-sex marriage should be legal, down slightly from 71% in 2022 and 2023.

Most of the change is due to dropping acceptance among Republicans. In the new survey, which was conducted in May, only 37% of Republicans say same-sex marriage should be legally valid, while 35% say gay and lesbian relations are “morally acceptable.”

The views of Democrats and independents are largely stable in the findings released Wednesday, with most in both groups saying same-sex marriage should be legal and that gay or lesbian relations are moral.

The widening partisan divide is also reflected in policy around LGBTQ+ issues across the U.S., particularly regarding transgender people, and a rising push in some states to ban same-sex marriage.

Recent shifts have been subtle and partisan

The downtick in support for same-sex marriage, while slight, is still striking because of how dramatically American views on the issue have shifted over the past few decades.

According to Gallup’s trend data, only 27% of U.S. adults supported legal same-sex marriage in 1996. Since then, support for same-sex marriage rose steadily until a few years ago, when it peaked with around 7 in 10 U.S. adults saying same-sex marriage should be legal.

Opinion about the morality of same-sex relationships followed the same pattern. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults said same-sex relations were morally acceptable in 2001. That increased nearly 30 percentage points over the next two decades.

Over the past few years, Gallup’s data has shown signs of a shift in the other direction. In addition to the slight decline on same-sex marriage, the new poll also found that 62% of U.S. adults view gay and lesbian relations as morally acceptable, down from 71% in 2022.

Same-sex marriage remains recognized nationwide

Same-sex marriage has been recognized nationally since a 2015 Supreme Court ruling. That case capped a 12-year run in which court rulings and state laws recognized it in most states.

By last year, there were more than 800,000 married same-sex couples, according to data compiled by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law.

The pushback has never stopped, though. A call to overturn the 2015 reached the Supreme Court last year, invoking the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has called for undoing it. The court turned away the appeal without comment.

Last year, the Southern Baptist Convention overwhelmingly called for reversing the ruling that led to nationwide marriage recognition and imposing a ban.

Lawmakers in at least 11 states introduced legislation for their current or most recent sessions calling on a ban on same-sex marriage, according to an Associated Press analysis of bills compiled by the legislation tracking service Plural. Most didn’t pick up momentum. But the Tennessee House passed a measure to allow private citizens and organizations not to recognize the unions; Idaho’s House passed a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to undo the 2015 decision.

A similar number of states have had measures aimed at protecting same-sex marriage introduced recently.

Most Republican-controlled states have adopted laws in the last five years to bar gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors, restrict which school bathrooms transgender people may use and bar transgender girls and women from some sports competitions.

Trump has signed executive orders seeking some of the same policies on a federal level.

This week, one of those policies suffered a blow when a court ruled that the military illegally banned transgender troops.

___

The Gallup poll, conducted May 1-17, was based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,001 U.S. adults. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.

The trial heard that McCullagh concocted an alibi that he had been live-streaming himself playing computer games on his YouTube channel when Ms McNally was murdered on December 18 2022.

But police experts discovered the six-hour stream had actually been filmed four days before, and broadcast as live on December 18.

Mr MacCreanor KC said the murderer had put on a “staged performance” in the aftermath of the killing.

He said Ms McNally had sustained serious and extensive injuries in a “brutal assault”.

He said this included the compression of her neck, as well as stab wounds to her neck and blunt force trauma to her head consistent with at least five heavy blows.

He said either the compression or the stab wounds could have caused her death on their own, but there was difficulty in determining the final sequence of events.

Mr MacCreanor told the court that McCullagh had put forward an “orchestrated show” as the person who raised the alarm about her death, and the police initially considered him to be overwhelmed.

He added: “That of course was all a staged performance by him, one that he may have thought he had gotten away with.”

Building on the success of 2025, when the SPOA supported six sports teams and groups, a total of £6,000 is available in 2026 for youth sports teams and clubs to purchase new strips or training kits.

As the Scottish national football team prepares for the FIFA World Cup this month, the Scottish Plant Owners Association (SPOA) has renewed its commitment to support under-16s sports clubs across Scotland with the launch of its Youth Sports Sponsorship programme for 2026.

Building on the success of 2025, when the SPOA supported six sports teams and groups, a total of £6,000 is available in 2026 for youth sports teams and clubs across Scotland to purchase new strips or training kits.

Speaking about the Youth Sports Sponsorship programme, David Jarvie, President of the SPOA, said: “The SPOA is delighted to renew our commitment to support under-16s sports clubs across Scotland.

“SPOA members are based all over Scotland and lots of them already do their bit to support grassroots sport for young people.

“New strips and training kits can be expensive for clubs that rely on volunteers and goodwill, so we are happy to help by providing that funding.

“Last year, we were very proud to see the progress of the teams we supported through the Youth Sports Sponsorship programme.

“Hearing about their achievements and getting to know the clubs gave us plenty to smile about. One of our Executive Committee members even got a curling taster session from Team Kay Curling!

“It is perhaps fitting that we have launched the 2026 Youth Sports Sponsorship programme just as Scotland looks forward to seeing our national team play in the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 28 years.

“Grassroots sports is just as important as ever and whether it’s football or frisbee, the SPOA is offering £6,000 for youth sports teams and clubs across Scotland to purchase new strips or training kits.”

In 2025, Youth Sports Sponsorship programme supported a series of clubs including the North Lanarkshire Chiefs Basketball Club.

The deadline to apply is July 31 and the funding is available to clubs of all sports and locations across Scotland.

In return for SPOA sponsorship, the SPOA requests that its logo features at the club either on the team’s new kit, the youth club’s website or at the grounds, clubhouse or training venue where the club is based.

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