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Yvette Cooper warns hostile states could be whipping up rioters
Yvette Cooper today warned hostile states may be ‘amplifying’ online misinformation blamed for whipping up riots in the wake of the Southport stabbing attack.
The Home Secretary did not rule out foreign interference as one of the factors behind the outbreak of violent disorder on Britain’s streets.
But, following a fresh night of chaos across the country, Ms Cooper insisted the Government’s immediate focus was on clamping down on local groups.
She also issued another demand for social media companies to remove criminal material and hate-filled misinformation from their sites.
The Home Secretary called for tech bosses to hold ‘a sense of responsibility towards communities’ amid the far right violence.
Yvette Cooper warned hostile states may be ‘amplifying’ online misinformation blamed for whipping up riots in the wake of the Southport stabbing attack
A car burns on Parliament Road in Middlesbrugh after it was set alight by far right thugs
A man dressed in England and Union Jack flags faces police officers in Middlesbrough
Lord Walney, the Government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, has said far right actors are ‘almost certainly’ being ‘aided and abetted’ by hostile states.
He claimed they had helped ‘in creating and planning disinformation to put out false narratives’.
James Cleverly, Ms Cooper’s predecessor as home secretary, has also said the riots have ‘all the hallmarks’ of something that has partly been stoked from abroad.
Appearing on Sky News this morning, Ms Cooper was asked if she had similarly determined whether foreign states could be involved in helping sow the chaos.
‘We know that there can be amplification of social media activity,’ she replied.
‘I think our focus right now is on local groups and organisations, including some of those who are fulled by far right extremists.
‘But also those who were just local looters who came to join in and committed crimes and that is our focus right now.
‘To make sure they pay the price for their crimes.’
She added: ‘There is also an issue about the online criminality that we’ve seen and social media has clearly put rocket boosters under some of the organisation, the inflaming of tensions, and also the misinformation that was spread as well.
‘So we do also expect to see action against those who were posting criminal material online as well, and also to make sure the social media companies take some responsibility for this.
‘Because they have terms and conditions they have to meet in terms of both misinformation and also criminal material that is available online.’
Pressed about what action social media firms should be taking, the Home Secretary said it was ‘not acceptable’ they had scaled down efforts to tackle misinformation following the conclusion of the general election campaign.
‘They did have arrangements in place around removing misinformation during the general election campaign,’ she said.
‘Some of that has stopped – that’s not acceptable, they have terms and conditions that they should be meeting.
‘Some of this is around criminal material that they should be removing.
‘But they also actually just have to have a sense of responsibility towards communities where we’ve seen the consequences in certain towns and cities.
‘So we will be pursuing this with the social media companies.’
Mr Cleverly said, when he was home secretary, he knew of a ‘very pernicious online culture’ had been ‘amplified’ from beyond Britain’s borders.
‘I was well aware of a very pernicious online culture perpertrated by the far right, amplified both within the UK and beyond our borders,’ he told the TV news channel.
‘This has all the hallmarks of something which has been stoked by that.’
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli military strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, as Israeli forces deepened their incursion into Beit Hanoun town in the north, forcing most remaining residents to leave.
Residents said Israeli forces besieged shelters housing displaced families and the remaining population, which some estimated at a few thousand, ordering them to head south through a checkpoint separating two towns and a refugee camp in the north from Gaza City.
Men were held for questioning, while women and children were allowed to continue towards Gaza City, residents and Palestinian medics said.
Israel’s campaign in the north of Gaza, and the evacuation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the area, has fueled claims from Palestinians that it is clearing the area for use as a buffer zone and potentially for a return of Jewish settlers.
A Palestinian man inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
© Thomson Reuters
“The scenes of the 1948 catastrophe are being repeated. Israel is repeating its massacres, displacement and destruction,” said Saed, 48, a resident of Beit Lahiya, who arrived in Gaza City on Wednesday.
“North Gaza is being turned into a large buffer zone, Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing under the sight and hearing of the impotent world,” he told Reuters via a chat app.
Saed was referring to the 1948 Middle East Arab-Israeli war which gave birth to the state of Israel and saw the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their home towns and villages in what is now Israel.
NO PLANS FOR SETTLERS’ RETURN
The Israeli military has denied any such intention, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he does not want to reverse the 2005 withdrawal of settlers from Gaza. Hardliners in his government have talked openly about going back.
A Palestinian firefighter works to extinguish fire following an Israeli strike on tents of displaced people, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Ahmed Mustafa
© Thomson Reuters
It said forces have killed hundreds of Hamas militants in Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun during its new military offensive, which began more than a month ago. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad armed wing claimed killing several Israeli soldiers during ambushes and anti-tank rocket fire.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
© Thomson Reuters
On Tuesday, the United States stressed at the United Nations that “there must be no forcible displacement, nor policy of starvation in Gaza” by Israel, warning such policies would have grave implications under U.S. and international law.
Medics said five people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit a group of people outside Kamal Adwan Hospital near Beit Lahiya, while five others were killed in two separate strikes in Nuseirat in central Gaza Strip where the army began a limited raid two days ago.
In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, one man was killed and several others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike, while three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City, medics added.
Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel last October, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past year, Palestinian health officials say, and Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland of wrecked buildings and piles of rubble, where more than 2 million Gazans are seeking shelter in makeshift tents and facing shortages of food and medicines.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip November 13, 2024. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
© Thomson Reuters
BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The Israeli military carried out at least five airstrikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut on Tuesday, after Israel’s defence minister ruled out any ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel’s goals had been met.
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
© Thomson Reuters
Smoke rose over Beirut as blasts shook the capital around mid-morning. The explosions followed an Israeli military warning posted on social media identifying 12 sites in the southern suburbs and saying it would take action against them soon. It warned residents they were located near Hezbollah facilities.
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
© Thomson Reuters
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the latest strikes. Residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing the area in September.
In Israel, air raid sirens sounded in parts of the north, sending residents running for shelter, and the military said a number of “suspicious aerial targets” were launched from Lebanon. There were no reports of injuries.
Ignited by the Gaza war, the conflict at the Lebanese-Israeli border had been rumbling on for a year before Israel went on the offensive in September, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
Israel has dealt heavy blows to Hezbollah over the last seven weeks, killing many of its top leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, flattening parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, and causing vast destruction in border villages in south Lebanon.
People gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub, Lebanon November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim
© Thomson Reuters
Meeting with Israel’s general staff for the first time, Israel’s newly appointed Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals.
“Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel’s right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own, and meet the goals of the war in Lebanon – disarming Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes.”
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Saar had said earlier on Monday there had been “a certain progress” in ceasefire talks, whilst adding the war against Hezbollah was not yet over.
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs, after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Baabda, Lebanon November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
© Thomson Reuters
The main challenge facing any ceasefire deal would be enforcement, he said.
Hezbollah has said it is ready for a long war against Israel and has kept up rocket fire.
SOUTH OF THE LITANI
The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on the full implementation of a U.N. Resolution that ended a war between the group and Israel in 2006.
Lebanese Red Cross members look for remains of bodies at the site of an Israeli airstrike on the northern Lebanese town of Ain Yaaqoub, Lebanon November 12, 2024. REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim
© Thomson Reuters
The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani to be free of all weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanon and Israel have accused each other of violating the resolution.
Israel’s offensive has driven more than 1 million people from their homes in Lebanon in the last seven weeks. Since hostilities erupted a year ago, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed 3,243 people and injured 14,134, the Lebanese health ministry said. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Hezbollah attacks have killed roughly 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon over the last year.
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