
No further action to be taken over Kneecap's Glastonbury set
A criminal investigation was launched by Avon and Somerset Police shortly afterwards.
It said it had appointed a senior detective to investigate whether comments made on stage amounted to a criminal offence after reviewing footage.
Today we informed Kneecap no further action will be taken after an investigation into comments made at Glastonbury Festival.
Enquiries continue to be carried out into separate comments made on stage during Bob Vylan's performance.
Full statement 🔽 https://t.co/tZecsjM0GF
However, they said that no further action would be taken as there was "insufficient evidence" for a conviction.
Avon and Somerset Police said in a statement: 'An investigation has been carried out into comments about a forthcoming court case made during Kneecap's performance at Glastonbury Festival on Saturday 28 June.
'Detectives sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service during their enquiries and after that advice, we have made the decision to take no further action on the grounds there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction for any offence.'
Kneecap are known for making pro-Palestinian and political comments during their live performances.
🚨 We are on GENERAL SALE 🚨
We expect many shows to sell out today so be quick! 💥
🎟️ https://t.co/xD4zNTcr3c pic.twitter.com/J9942Cmmbp
Band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who performs under the name Mo Chara, was charged with a terrorism offence earlier this year.
This was for allegedly displaying the flag of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hezbollah at a gig. He has denied the charge.
On Friday (July 18), the group posted a screenshot to social media from an email that appeared to be from a senior investigating officer.
In their caption, they wrote: "One element of the political policing intimidation attempt is over.
Recommended reading:
BBC to stop showing 'high risk' performances after Bob Vylan controversy
Kneecap respond to 'legend' who streamed their Glastonbury set
Will Glastonbury be on in 2026 or is it a fallow year? Organisers reveal all
'We played a historic set at Glastonbury. Whole area closed an hour before due to crowds. A celebration of love and solidarity. A sea of good people at the world's most famous festival.'
Avon and Somerset Police also shared in their statement that enquiries are continuing regarding punk-rap duo Bob Vylan's performance at Glastonbury.
They led the crowd in chants of "death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]" as part of their set.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues
The first trailer for the long-awaited sequel to This Is Spinal Tap has been released, showcasing the venerable rockers' supposed last hurrah in a film called Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. Spinal Tap II reunites Nigel Tufnel, David St Hubbins and Derek Smalls (played by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer) as they get together for a final concert, more than 40 years after the 1984 mockumentary that made their name. In between, Spinal Tap released the album Break Like the Wind in 1992, appeared on The Simpsons, played the Live Earth charity concert in 2007 and Glastonbury in 2009. The trailer shows Marty DiBergi (director Rob Reiner's totally on-point mickey-take of Martin Scorsese) is on hand to record the band's doings, and megastars including Elton John, Questlove and Paul McCartney drop in to add their two-penn'orth to the Tap mythos. Filling in for An Evening with Stormy Daniels has to be the high point of anyone's career, right? Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is out on 12 September in the US and UK, and on 25 September in Australia.


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Georges Abdallah: Pro-Palestinian convict to be freed after 40 years
Georges Abdallah, a 74-year-old Lebanese teacher who became a left-wing symbol for the Palestinian cause, is to be freed by France on Friday after 41 years in by his lawyer as "the man who has spent the longest time in prison for events linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Abdallah is expected to be put on a flight directly to in 1987 for complicity in the murders in France of two diplomats – one American, one Israeli – Abdallah has gradually been forgotten by the wider public. But his release remained a cause célèbre for activists on the Marxist-Leninist left, with which he still identifies. His stern-looking bearded face continued to peer from banners in left-wing demonstrations; and once a year protesters gathered to demand his freedom outside his prison in the Pyrenees. Three left-led French municipalities declared him an "honorary citizen".Though eligible for parole since 1999, he saw successive requests for liberty turned down. According to supporters, this was because of pressure on the French government from the US and recently by the French news agency AFP at his cell in Lannemazan jail, he said he had kept sane by focusing on the Palestinian "struggle"."If I had not had that… well, 40 years – it can turn your brain to mush," he the walls of his cell, Abdallah kept a picture of the 1960s revolutionary Che Guevara and postcards from supporters around the world. A desk was covered with piles of newspapers. Born in 1951 into a Christian family in northern Lebanon, in the late 1970s Abdallah helped set up the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF) – a small Marxist group dedicated to fighting Israel and its closest ally, the United the time Lebanon was embroiled in a civil war. In 1978 and again in 1982 Israel invaded south Lebanon to combat Palestinian fighters based group decided to hit Israeli and US targets in Europe, and carried out five attacks in France. In 1982 its members shot and killed US diplomat Charles Ray in Strasbourg, and Israeli diplomat Yakov Barsimantov in Paris. In addition a car bomb blamed on LARF killed two French bomb-disposal was arrested in Lyon in 1984. Tailed by French intelligence officers, he thought he was being followed by Israeli assassins and gave himself in at a police station. Initially he was charged only with having false passports and criminal association.A short time later a French citizen was kidnapped in northern Lebanon, and the French secret service entered a negotiation via Algeria to engineer an French citizen was freed, but just before Abdallah was to be released police in Paris found a cache of weapons at his flat, including the gun used to kill the diplomats. This made his liberation years later in the run up to his trial, Paris was hit by a spate of terrorist attacks which killed 13 people. These were blamed by politicians and the media on allies of Abdallah trying to pressurise France into freeing him. Later it was established that in fact they were the work of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, under instructions from the trial, Abdallah denied involvement in the murders but defended their legitimacy. He was given a life sentence. Of the more than 10 requests for release since 1999, only one came close to success. But in 2013 then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to the French government expressing the hope that it could find a "way to contest the legality" of a court decision to free message was later made public by Minister Manuel Valls then refused to sign the expulsion order on which Abdallah's liberation was year the appeal court decided that the length of Abdallah's detention was "disproportionate", and that he no longer posed a threat. It said again that his release must immediately be followed by expulsion from France."This is a victory for justice, but it is also a political scandal that he was not released before, thanks to the behaviour of the United States and successive French presidents," said his lawyer Jean-Louis the people who campaigned for his release was the 2022 Nobel literature prize winner Annie Ernaux, who said he was a "victim of state justice of which France should be ashamed".Yves Bonnet, the intelligence chief who tried to negotiate Abdallah's exchange in 1985 and is now a member of the far-right National Rally, said he was "treated worse than a serial killer" and that "the United States was obsessed with keeping him in jail".According to a report in Le Monde newspaper, no Palestinian prisoner – even those condemned to life imprisonment in Israel – has served more than 40 years in jail. Abdallah served 41.


The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
White House calls South Park a ‘fourth-rate show' after season premiere mocks Trump
Long-running satirical cartoon South Park returned this week after a two-year hiatus with an episode depicting President Trump in various controversial scenarios. The White House reacted angrily to the premiere, with spokesperson Taylor Rogers criticizing the show as irrelevant and unoriginal. The episode, titled 'Sermon on the Mount', featured Trump suing the fictional residents of South Park for $5bn, eventually settling for $3.5bn and requiring pro-Trump messaging. The show's return follows a landmark $1.5bn licensing deal between its creators and Paramount, securing 50 new episodes over five years. The article also highlights Paramount's recent $16m settlement with Trump and the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, amidst speculation of political motivation. White House hits back at South Park after season premiere jabbed Trump