UK leader Starmer condemns attack on asylum-seeker hotel as far-right violence spreads

LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer strongly condemned an attack Sunday on a hotel housing asylum seekers that saw at least 10 police officers injured, one seriously, describing it as “far-right thuggery."

In a statement from 10 Downing Street on Sunday afternoon, the prime minister vowed that the authorities will “do whatever it takes to bring these thugs to justice" and that justice will be swift.

Starmer's statement came as more violence broke out across the country in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded.

“I guarantee you will regret taking part in this disorder, whether directly or those whipping up this action online and then running away themselves," he said. "This is not a protest, it is organized, violent thuggery and it has no place on our streets or online.”

Starmer was speaking after another day of far-right violence, which was particularly acute in the north of England town of Rotherham where police struggled to hold back hundreds of rioters who sought to break into a Holiday Inn Express hotel being used as accommodation for asylum-seekers.

Before bringing the riot under some sort of control, police officers with shields had faced a barrage of missiles, including bits of wood, chairs and fire extinguishers. A large bin close to a window of the hotel was also set alight but the small fire was extinguished.

South Yorkshire Police, which is responsible for Rotherham, said at least 10 officers have been injured, including one who was left unconscious.

“The behaviour we witnessed has been nothing short of disgusting. While it was a smaller number of those in attendance who chose to commit violence and destruction, those who simply stood on and watched remain absolutely complicit in this," said Assistant Chief Constable Lindsey Butterfield. "We have officers working hard, reviewing the considerable online imagery and footage of those involved, and they should expect us to be at their doors very soon.”

Far-right agitators have sought to take advantage of last week's stabbing attack by tapping into concerns about the scale of immigration in the U.K., in particular the tens of thousands of migrants arriving in small boats from France across the English Channel.

Tensions were also running high Sunday in the northeastern town of Middlesbrough, where some protesters broke free of a police guard. One group walked through a residential area smashing the windows of houses and cars. When asked by a resident why they were breaking windows, one man replied, “Because we’re English." Hundreds of others squared up to police with shields at the town's cenotaph, throwing bricks, cans and pots at officers.

Starmer said anyone targeting people for the color of their skin or their faith is far-right.

“People in this country have a right to be safe, and yet we’ve seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street, attacks on the police, wanton violence alongside racist rhetoric, so no, I won’t shy away from calling it what it is: far-right thuggery,” he said.

The violence over the past days, which has seen a library torched, mosques attacked and flares thrown at a statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill, began after false rumors spread online that the suspect in the dance class stabbing attack was an asylum-seeker, fueling anger among far-right supporters.

Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but the judge in the case ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation. Rudakubana has been charged with three counts of murder, and 10 counts of attempted murder.

Hundreds of people have been arrested in connection with the disorder and many more are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage. However, police have also warned that with widespread security measures in place, with thousands of officers deployed, other crimes may not be investigated fully.

With so many arrests, the courts will face a challenge in processing all the charges at a time when the criminal justice system is overstretched, following years of austerity and the COVID pandemic. In May, the National Audit Office warned that the courts faced a backlog of more than 60,000 cases, while the government said last month that thousands of inmates would have to be released early to ease prison overcrowding.

Stephen Parkinson, director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, said extra lawyers have been deployed over the weekend and will work “around the clock” over coming days to ensure justice is served. He said he has directed prosecutors to make immediate charging decisions where key evidence is in place.

“I am determined that we will act swiftly and robustly, giving the courts maximum ability to pass sentences that reflect what has occurred," he said.

Many of the demonstrations over the past week were organized online by far-right groups, who mobilize support with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.”

Rallying cries have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, near the scene of the stabbing attack.

Yaxley-Lennon, 41, was banned from Twitter in 2018 but allowed back after it was bought by Elon Musk and rebranded as X. He has more than 800,000 followers. He currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the U.K. last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.

Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform U.K., has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment. He has sought to link many of the problems the country faces, such as in health and housing, on the big annual increases in the country's population.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed to this report.

Firefighters extinguish a burning car on Parliament Road, during an anti-immigration protest in Middlesbrough, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

A car burns after being overturned during an anti-immigration protest in Middlesbrough, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

A car burns during an anti-immigration protest in Middlesbrough, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

A car burns on Parliament Road during an anti-immigration protest in Middlesbrough, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

Police officers face protesters during an anti-immigration demonstration outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A car burns during an anti-immigration protest in Middlesbrough, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)

People watch from a window inside the Holiday Inn Express as an anti-immigration demonstration takes place outside the hotel, in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Protesters gather outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. The violence erupted earlier this week in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of Monday's mass stabbing in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Southport attack. False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A police officer is injured as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Police officers face protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. The violence erupted earlier this week in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of Monday's mass stabbing in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Southport attack. False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Police officers face protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. The violence erupted earlier this week in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of Monday's mass stabbing in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Southport attack. False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A chair is thrown at police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A chair is thrown at police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A chair is thrown at police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A chair is thrown at police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Objects are thrown as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Police officers with protesters as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Police officers tend to a wounded colleague inside the hotel as seen through a smashed window as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A fire is extinguished by police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Demonstrators smash windows as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Fire extinguishers are used on police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Objects are thrown as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Demonstrators face police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A police officer walks past a fire as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A protester uses a fire extinguisher on police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A chair is thrown at police officers as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Police officers chase a protester as trouble flares during an anti-immigration protest outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, England, Sunday Aug. 4, 2024. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

A man with blood on his hand speaks to a police officer during a protest in Nottingham Market Square, England, Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Police face protesters in Liverpool, England, Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (James Speakman/PA via AP)

Rubble lies at the feet of police officers thrown by protesters in Liverpool, England, Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (James Speakman/PA via AP)

A demonstrator throws a brick during a protest in Liverpool, England, on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, following Monday's stabbing attacks in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (James Speakman/PA via AP)

People counter demonstrate in Nottingham, England's Market Square on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, following Monday's stabbing attacks in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Police officers face protesters during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, following Monday's stabbing attacks in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

A man is detained by police officers during a protest in Nottingham Market Square, England, Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Police officers detain a woman during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Police officers detain a woman during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

A woman is detained by police officers during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

A police officer holds onto a woman during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

A man swings a length of wood as people protest in Blackpool, England, Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Michael Holmes/PA via AP)

A fight breaks out between anti-fascists, left, and other people protesting in Blackpool, England, Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Michael Holmes/PA via AP)

Police officers face a lone protester carrying English and British flags during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Police Service of Northern Ireland officers stand guard at a roadblock in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following an anti-Islamic protest outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (David Young/PA via AP)

Police Service of Northern Ireland officers stand guard at a roadblock in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following an anti-Islamic protest outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (David Young/PA via AP)

A man tries to clean up a supermarket damaged by fire on Donegall Road following anti-immigration protests in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024. The violence erupted earlier this week in cities and towns across Britain, ostensibly in protest of Monday's mass stabbing in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Southport attack. False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. (Jonathan McCambridge/PA via AP)

A vehicle is set alight in Belfast, Northern Ireland, following an anti-Islamic protest outside Belfast City Hall on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (David Young/PA via AP)

A man is detained by police officers during a protest in Nottingham, England Market Square on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, following Monday's stabbing attacks in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

Police officers detain a woman during a protest in Nottingham, England's Market Square Saturday Aug. 3, 2024, following the stabbing attacks on Monday in Southport, in which three young children were killed. (Jacob King/PA via AP)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — One month after a judge declared Google's search engine an illegal monopoly, the tech giant faces another antitrust lawsuit that threatens to break up the company, this time over its advertising technology.

The Justice Department, joined by a coalition of states, and Google each made opening statements Monday to a federal judge who will decide whether Google holds a monopoly over online advertising technology.

The regulators contend that Google built, acquired and maintains a monopoly over the technology that matches online publishers to advertisers. Dominance over the software on both the buy side and the sell side of the transaction enables Google to keep as much as 36 cents on the dollar when it brokers sales between publishers and advertisers, the government contends in court papers.

They allege that Google also controls the ad exchange market, which matches the buy side to the sell side.

“It's worth saying the quiet part out loud,” Justice Department lawyer Julia Tarver Wood said during her opening statement. “One monopoly is bad enough. But a trifecta of monopolies is what we have here.”

Google says the government's case is based on an internet of yesteryear, when desktop computers ruled and internet users carefully typed precise World Wide Web addresses into URL fields. Advertisers now are more likely to turn to social media companies like TikTok or streaming TV services like Peacock to reach audiences.

In her opening statement, Google lawyer Karen Dunn said, “We are one big company among many others, competing millisecond by millisecond for every ad impression.”

Revenue has actually declined in recent years for Google Networks, the division of the Mountain View, California-based tech giant that includes such services as AdSense and Google Ad Manager that are at the heart of the case, from $31.7 billion in 2021 to $31.3 billion in 2023, according to the company's annual reports.

The trial that began Monday in Alexandria, Virginia, over the alleged ad tech monopoly was initially going to be a jury trial, but Google maneuvered to force a bench trial, writing a check to the federal government for more than $2 million to moot the only claim brought by the government that required a jury.

The case will now be decided by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who was appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton and is best known for high-profile terrorism trials including that of Sept. 11 defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. Brinkema, though, also has experience with highly technical civil trials, working in a courthouse that sees an outsize number of patent infringement cases.

The Virginia case comes on the heels of a major defeat for Google over its search engine, which generates the majority of the company's $307 billion in annual revenue. A judge in the District of Columbia declared the search engine a monopoly, maintained in part by tens of billions of dollars Google pays each year to companies like Apple to lock in Google as the default search engine presented to consumers when they buy iPhones and other gadgets.

In that case, the judge has not yet imposed any remedies. The government hasn't offered its proposed sanctions, though there could be close scrutiny over whether Google should be allowed to continue to make exclusivity deals that ensure its search engine is consumers' default option.

Peter Cohan, a professor of management practice at Babson College, said the Virginia case could potentially be more harmful to Google because the obvious remedy would be requiring it to sell off parts of its ad tech business that generate billions of dollars in annual revenue.

“Divestitures are definitely a possible remedy for this second case,” Cohan said “It could be potentially more significant than initially meets the eye.”

In the Virginia trial, the government's witnesses are expected to include executives from newspaper publishers including The New York Times Co. and Gannett, and online news sites that the government contends have faced particular harm from Google's practices.

“Google extracted extraordinary fees at the expense of the website publishers who make the open internet vibrant and valuable,” government lawyers wrote in court papers. “As publishers generate less money from selling their advertising inventory, publishers are pushed to put more ads on their websites, to put more content behind costly paywalls, or to cease business altogether.”

Google disputes that it charges excessive fees compared to its competitors. The company also asserts the integration of its technology on the buy side, sell side and in the middle assures ads and web pages load quickly and enhance security. And it says customers have options to work with outside ad exchanges.

Google says the government's case is improperly focused on display ads and banner ads that load on web pages accessed through a desktop computer and fails to take into account consumers' migration to mobile apps and the boom in ads placed on social media sites over the last 15 years.

The government's case “focuses on a limited type of advertising viewed on a narrow subset of websites when user attention migrated elsewhere years ago,” Google's lawyers wrote in a pretrial filing. “The last year users spent more time accessing websites on the ‘open web,’ rather than on social media, videos, or apps, was 2012.”

The trial, which is expected to last several weeks, is taking place in a courthouse that rigidly adheres to traditional practices, including a resistance to technology in the courtroom. Cellphones are banned from the courthouse, to the chagrin of a tech press corps accustomed at the District of Columbia trial to tweeting out live updates as they happen.

Even the lawyers, and there are many on both sides, are limited in their technology. At a pretrial hearing Wednesday, Google's lawyers made a plea for more than the two computers each side is permitted to have in the courtroom during trial. Brinkema rejected it.

“This is an old-fashioned courtroom,” she said.

FILE - A sign at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. is shown on Oct. 8, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Google faces new antitrust trial after ruling declaring search engine a monopoly

Google faces new antitrust trial after ruling declaring search engine a monopoly