LONDON (AP) — British police said Saturday that six more people have been charged with violent disorder at a protest over the stabbing death of a university student who was handcuffed by officers as he lay dying.
Police were pelted with chairs, cans, rocks and flares on Tuesday by some of the hundreds of people attending a protest in the English southern coastal city of Southampton, where 18-year-old Henry Nowak was killed in December.
Many in Britain and beyond were angered by police body-worn video showing Nowak being handcuffed moments before he became unconscious and subsequently died.
Nowak’s death has spurred heated debates about policing, race and knife crime in the U.K. Nowak’s killer, Vickrum Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed to police that he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak, who was white. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded man as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.
Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder for stabbing Nowak with a Sikh dagger and sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term. But the case has been seized on by anti-immigration activists and politicians, who claim there is bias against white people in the justice system.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called the street violence in reaction to the case “disgraceful and completely unacceptable. Authorities have urged the public to heed a call by Nowak's family not to use his death to stir up violence and disorder.
In total, police said, 11 people have been charged with disorder at the Southampton protest this week.
On Friday, Starmer's office condemned comments by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who blamed immigration for Nowak's death. Vance said in a post on social platform X that there should be “righteous anger” in response to the murder, which he blamed in part on “the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”
In a statement issued in response to Vance’s comments, Starmer’s office criticized people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”
Tommy Robinson attends a protest outside the police station in Southampton, England, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, concerning December 2025 stabbing victim Henry Nowak, 18. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
In this image taken from PA Video, police and protestors clash during a protest following the death of Henry Nowak, a 18-year-old student stabbed to death with a Sikh kirpan ceremonial by Vickrum Digwa, in Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
In this image taken from PA Video, police and protestors clash during a protest following the death of Henry Nowak, a 18-year-old student stabbed to death with a Sikh kirpan ceremonial by Vickrum Digwa, in Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called a U.S. push for the denuclearization of North Korea an “anachronistic dreams,” saying Sunday the North will steadily expand its nuclear arsenal in the face of U.S.-led threats.
The statement came a day before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits North Korea for talks with Kim Jong Un, in his first visit to the country in seven years.
“The U.S. assertion to backbite the status of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state has no legally binding force and no one will be bound by the U.S. unilateral rhetoric,” said Kim's sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name.
She dismissed as “false information” a U.S. announcement that President Donald Trump and Xi confirmed their shared goal to denuclearize North Korea in their summit in Beijing last month.
“Some officials in the United States have failed to wake from their escapist and anachronistic dreams,” Kim Yo Jong said.
North Korea has been focusing on enlarging its nuclear arsenal since Kim Jong Un's high-stakes diplomacy with Trump collapsed in 2019. Experts say the North Korean leader wants an international recognition as a nuclear state so that he could demand lifting of international economic sanctions on North Korea.
During a visit to a new nuclear materials production plant last week, Kim Jong Un said North Korea would bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.” On Sunday, North Korea's state media reported Kim Jong Un visited a weapons factory the previous day and called for increasing the country's missile production capacity 2.5 times under a five-year plan period.
In her statement, Kim Yo Jong accused the U.S. and South Korea of pushing for “ceaseless arms build-ups," saying her brother's push for “steadily beefing up the nuclear war deterrent for self-defense” is “an irreversible final conclusion to be carried out unconditionally.”
Analysts say Xi's visit to North Korea is largely meant to reassert China's influence over North Korea, whose foreign policy priority has shifted to Russia in recent years. They say Xi will likely refrain from directly raising the denuclearization issue and offer economic assistance programs during his meeting with Kim Jong Un.
North Korea has sent troops and conventional weapons to Russia to back its war efforts against Ukraine. South Korean and U.S. officials say North Korea has received economic and other assistance from Russia in return.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un, front right, visits a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels at an undisclosed place in North Korea Wednesday, June 3, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
FILE - Kim Yo Jong, a sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, attends a wreath-laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, March 2, 2019. (Jorge Silva/Pool Photo via AP, File)
