Kneecap Band Member Liam O'Hanna Charged With Terror Offense in the U.K.
Kneecap band member Liam O'Hanna has been charged with a terror offense by London police after he allegedly waved a Hezbollah flag onstage, according to the BBC.
The charge comes about six months after the alleged incident, during which the 27-year-old Irish musician — whose stage name is Mo Chara — is said to have displayed the flag during his band's gig at the O2 Forum on Nov. 21, 2024. The London Metropolitan Police only learned of the alleged offense in April, when a video of the concert surfaced online.
More from Billboard
Kneecap's First Live Show Since Coachella Set to Go Ahead at London Festival
SZA Says She's 'Actually So Shocked' by the 'Bullying' Megan Thee Stallion Is Facing in Tory Lanez Shooting Case
Karol G Lands First No. 1 on Hot Latin Pop Songs Chart With 'Milagros'
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese Shia militia that the United States has designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization, is banned in the U.K., with the BBC reporting that it is illegal to express support for the group. The same goes for Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist organization that Hezbollah has backed amid the former's ongoing conflict with Israel.
O'Hanna is reportedly due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on June 18.
The update is just the latest development in a series of controversies for Kneecap, which made headlines in April for ending its Coachella set with the following message displayed onscreen: 'Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes. F— Israel; free Palestine.'
While some criticized the Coachella message, some fellow musicians — including Massive Attack, Pulp and Fontaines D.C. — expressed support for the group in an open letter. The Belfast trio has been one of the most outspoken voices in the music world in supporting Palestine amid Israel's war on Hamas, which began Oct. 7, 2023, when the terrorist group killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250 more. More than 53,000 Palestinians have since died in the violence, according to The Associated Press.
Kneecap again drew criticism when footage of the group allegedly calling for the deaths of British MPs (members of parliament) in 2023 resurfaced online in April, shortly after London authorities announced that they were assessing a video taken of a band member appearing to say 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah.' Around that time, Kneecap released a statement: 'Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah,' the band wrote. 'We condemn all attacks on civilians, always. It is never okay. We know this more than anyone, given our nation's history. We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever. An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action.'
'We also reject any suggestion that we would seek to incite violence against any MP or individual,' it continued. 'Ever. An extract of footage, deliberately taken out of all context, is now being exploited and weaponised, as if it were a call to action.'
Best of Billboard
Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1
Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits
H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
37 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Lebanese army warns Israeli airstrikes might force it to freeze cooperation with ceasefire committee
BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese army condemned Friday Israel's airstrikes on suburbs of Beirut, warning that such attacks are weakening the role of Lebanon's armed forces that might eventually suspend cooperation with the committee monitoring the truce that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war. The army statement came hours after the Israeli military struck several buildings in Beirut's southern suburbs that it said held underground facilities used by Hezbollah for drone production. The strikes, preceded by an Israeli warning to evacuate several buildings, came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday. The Lebanese army said it started coordinating with the committee observing the ceasefire after Israel's military issued its warning and sent patrols to the areas that were to be struck to search them. It added that Israel rejected the suggestion. The U.S.-led committee that has been supervising the ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war in November is made up of Lebanon, Israel, France, the U.S. and the U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon known as UNIFIL. 'The Israeli enemy violations of the deal and its refusal to respond to the committee is weakening the role of the committee and the army,' the Lebanese army said in its statement. It added such attacks by Israel could lead the army to freeze its cooperation with the committee 'when it comes to searching posts.' Since the Israel-Hezbollah war ended, Israel has carried out nearly daily airstrikes on parts of Lebanon targeting Hezbollah operatives. Beirut's southern suburbs were struck on several occasions since then. The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began on Oct. 8, 2023, when the Lebanese militant group began launching rockets across the border in support of its ally, Hamas, in Gaza. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling and the two were quickly locked in a low-level conflict that continued for nearly a year before escalating into full-scale war in September 2024. It killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, while the Lebanese government said in April that Israeli strikes had killed another 190 people and wounded 485 since the ceasefire agreement. There has been increasing pressure on Hezbollah, both domestic and international, to give up its remaining arsenal, but officials with the group have said they will not do so until Israel stops its airstrikes and withdraws from five points it is still occupying along the border in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah says that it has ended its military presence along the border with Israel south of the Litani River, in accordance with terms of the ceasefire deal.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Turnstile's Brendan Yates on what the hardcore band's new album might be about
Brendan Yates says he's learned innumerable things fronting his band Turnstile over the last decade and a half, not the least of which is that an ambitious musician needn't move to Los Angeles or New York to make it. 'There's nothing we haven't been able to figure out living in Baltimore,' Yates says, and Turnstile's success suggests he's right: In 2021, the band — which spent the 2010s steadily rising through the East Coast hardcore scene — scored three Grammy nominations with its breakout album, 'Glow On,' a set of fervent yet luscious punk jams laced with bits of funk, dream-pop and electronic dance music. The next year, Turnstile toured arenas as an opening act for My Chemical Romance then did the same for Blink-182. At April's Coachella festival, Charli XCX ended her main-stage performance with a video message predicting a 'Turnstile Summer.' Even so, the proud Charm City quintet — Yates on vocals along with guitarists Pat McCrory and Meg Mills, bassist Franz Lyons and drummer Daniel Fang — did come to L.A. to record its new follow-up LP, 'Never Enough,' setting up a studio in a rented mansion in Laurel Canyon where the band camped out for more than a month. 'We were looking for the experience where you kind of isolate a little bit, and Laurel Canyon has this tucked-away thing,' says Yates, who led the sessions as the album's producer. 'It was such a vibe.' The result extends 'Glow On's' adventurous spirit with sensual R&B grooves, guest appearances by Paramore's Hayley Williams and Blood Orange's Dev Hynes, even a flute solo by the British jazz star Shabaka Hutchings; 'Never Enough' comes accompanied by a short film that just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and will screen in selected theaters this weekend. Yates, 35, discussed the album over coffee last month in Silver Lake, a few days after Turnstile played a rowdy gig at L.A.'s Ukrainian Culture Center that featured an endless succession of stage-diving fans. Who did the cooking while you were recording in the house? We had a couple friends come in and cook meals. And we kept the fridge stocked. 'What are we gonna eat?' — you can lose hours out of every day to that. What's the advantage of making a record the way you did? You can kind of break away from normal life for a little bit and just exist in the music. You're not going to the studio but thinking, 'I've got to go to the grocery store later.' You wake up, have your little peaceful time in the morning before you get started, then just go right into the living room. We didn't really need to leave the house for weeks at a time. In a recent New York Times profile, the writer referred to you as Turnstile's 'workaholic frontman.' A fair characterization? I wouldn't describe myself that way, but I understand the sentiment. I'm in a band with people I grew up with — my closest friends — and we're really passionate about what we're doing. I give myself to it, but it never feels like work. When I was younger, I always separated music and real life. I thought of music as the thing that I love and real life as going to school and hating it. Even when I went to university, I was like, I'm not gonna do music. You wanted to protect music from the strictures of school. I guess so. I was doing these majors that I had no interest in. I started with kinesiology until I realized I suck at science and math. I switched to criminal justice, then I was like, 'Wait, what am I doing?' Honestly, I think I was just looking for whatever major I could mentally check out on the most to make more space for music. Did you graduate? I left early because I wasn't interested and I wasn't doing well, and I got the opportunity to tour with this band that I played drums in. Eventually, years later, I went back and got a communications degree online. Why? I ask myself the same question all the time. One thing is, I'd started and I wanted to finish it. I probably wouldn't have gone if it wasn't for remote schooling. I never went back into the classroom — I was in the back of the van writing essays. Does 35 feel old in hardcore years? It would have seemed ancient to me as a 16-year-old. Never in my wildest dreams would I think at 35 that I'd be doing the same things I was hyped on doing when I was in high school. But I feel like age is a bit of an illusion. When you're 12, you're like, 'I'm definitely gonna be married by 18 and have my first kid at 19.' Certain aspects of aging are less illusory, right? Physical sturdiness, for example. How does that compare to 10 years ago? I remember playing shows 10 years ago, and I had two knee braces on. At that time, I was just like, 'This is what it is — here on out, this is what my knees are doing.' You're saying in fact you're sturdier now. What I figured out — look, I'm not a singer. Earlier on in playing shows, I'd throw the mic down and just jump into the crowd, mostly because of nerves and adrenaline. Feels important to say that you're definitely a singer. I sing, but I wouldn't call myself a singer. I've never done vocal lessons. Even forming the band, at that time everyone was like, 'OK, we've got this band, but we should start one where you're on the drums.' This band was literally: 'Let's do one on the side where I'm singing and you should get on guitar. Franz, you've never played bass, but you should play bass in this one.' Then you wake up 10 years later and — oh, shoot — this is the one we've put a lot into. For every fan of Turnstile, you've got someone accusing you of ruining hardcore. Ever hear a critique that actually stung? I have no interest in having any dialogue about anyone's opinion about anything that I'm doing. I appreciate the definitiveness of that. It just doesn't matter. Whose praise has been especially meaningful? There's a great viral TikTok of James Hetfield and Rob Halford digging your set at some festival. We've had so many cool moments like that — just like, 'How is this real?' Obviously, getting to meet your childhood heroes is huge. But then there's also the people you build relationships with and end up in the studio together — Dev or our friend Mary Jane Dunphe. You realize: These are actually my favorite people making music right now. Notwithstanding your view on the opinions of others, what's a moment on this album that feels creatively risky? In the first single ['Never Enough'], after the band drops out, there's like two minutes of just this synth chord. There was very much a conversation: 'Is this too long? Should we shorten it?' And I'm sure there's plenty of people where it might just be white noise to them — like, 'Skip — I don't need this.' But I feel like with this album there's this intention to force yourself to sit with the chaotic moments and then sit with the very still moments and kind of have that relationship going back and forth. I think those moments of stillness are very connected to the film — you'll kind of see how it all works together and why those moments are necessary. Our dream scenario would be that people's first time hearing the album, they're watching it with the film. Someone says to you, 'I didn't really get the album until I saw the film' — that's OK by you? I would love that. Who opened the door to the idea that you could make a movie? The last album, we did a four-song EP ['Turnstile Love Connection'] that came with a video. I'd called my friend Ian [Hurdle], who's the DP, and I was like, 'Hey, I have an idea: We do this video, and it does all this and it's about 10 or 11 minutes with these four songs.' I told him the whole idea, and then I asked him, 'So who should we get to direct it?' He goes, 'It sounds like you're directing it.' I was like, 'I guess you're right.' I mean, I'm not a director. You've now called yourself not a singer and not a director. On paper, I don't have any experience. The only thing I have experience in is really being excited about trying to make something work. But that video was a huge learning experience — the idea of, like, OK, this is possible. There's a rainbow color pattern that recurs throughout the new album's videos. You're using it as a live backdrop too. What's it mean? There's a lot in the album that maybe ties into those colors. The record cover itself is a double rainbow. We were in Paris playing shows like a year and a half ago. We were walking around and it started raining while the sun was out. We're like, 'Yo, look' — there was this double rainbow. My friend snapped a photo, and that's the album cover. Maybe there's interpretations of that on a spiritual level — new beginnings or a transformation or openings to a different dimension. The album cover is very subtle. You could easily look at it and just see blue. That was brought to me — how intangible the cover is. But that's the point: I don't want vibrant rainbows. I want it to almost feel like nothingness. A small speck in a vast universe is kind of the feeling that was going into the music. The blue too — in the film, there's lots of ties to water and the vastness of the ocean. Very Malibu of you. I mean, side note: I drowned like 10 years ago in the ocean. I was saved by some locals — this was on a big surfer beach in Hawaii. This is not necessarily what the album is about, but more just like a thought process. What's always fascinated me about the ocean is its power and how small I felt in that moment as I was passing out. And I truly did pass out — saw the white light and everything. Just how fast that could happen and how small I could feel put things into perspective in a different way. OK, few more for you: One thing you guys have sort of crept up to but not quite done yet is a full-on ballad. The final song on the new record ['Magic Man'] is literally just me and a Juno [synthesizer] in my room. In some ways it's uncomfortable, but simultaneously it felt like it needed to happen. I needed to sing that. You don't drink. Does that have to do with your upbringing? Is it connected to a hardcore or straight-edge ideology? Maybe experience seeing things when you're younger that can lead you in a different way? But, I mean, getting into hardcore, finding out about straight-edge and stuff — I felt a little more comfortable in my own skin, not needing to drink. I like to make sure it's never from a place of being stubborn, where I'm just like, 'I don't drink because I made up this idea in my head that I'm not going to drink.' I don't think that's a good way to be about anything in life. If you were starting the band now, would you still put your website at Probably. At the time, was taken. I feel like that was such a cool time, where every band's MySpace or Twitter, it was the band's name plus 'HC.' That was such a time stamp. But yeah — hardcore music is what we all grew up in. It was like the funnel for us to find ourselves through a music scene and a culture and a community. What feels outside the window of possibility for Turnstile? 'We'll never write a country song,' or 'We'll never play a cruise.' We've done so many things that were outside our comfort zone. We did some arena shows, and that was such a cool learning experience — how to connect to someone who's 100 yards away, sitting down in a chair, versus a kid that's onstage with you. That show in L.A. the other night was like the ideal for us, where the stage is low and it's this intimate room. But then I had so many close friends who couldn't get in. You could see the show as Turnstile keeping it real or as Turnstile indulging itself. In a way, it made us inaccessible. I look forward to the Turnstile Cruise in 2028. It's been offered. It's never made sense. My first question is: What does the show feel like? Is it more about people going on a boat just to day-drink and throw up while we're playing? Or can you figure out a way to make it an actual thing? I don't know — it's not off the table. But I've never been on a cruise in my life. You've accurately sussed the vibe. I've seen the pictures.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Pro-Palestinian activist detained in West Bank
The son of a Pro-Palestinian activist has said he "remains in the dark" after she was detained in the occupied West Bank. Deirdre Murphy, who lives in Swansea, has been held in custody since 31 May when she was arrested in a southern part of the territory. The 70-year-old, originally from Cork, Ireland, had been volunteering with the pro-Palestinian activist group International Solidary Movement (ISM) at the time of her arrest. The Israeli government has been approached for comment. Torsten Bell, Labour MP for Swansea West, said he would do everything he can "to support a swift and just resolution" after raising concerns about Ms Murphy's access to legal representation. The West Bank - the land between the eastern edge of Israel and the western side of the River Jordan - is home to an estimated three million Palestinians. Israel has occupied the West Bank - which Palestinians want as part of any future state - since the Six Day War of 1967, and is continuing to build settlements in the area. Israel and the Palestinians: History of the conflict explained Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza? What we know about killings near US-Israeli backed Gaza aid site These are regarded as illegal under international law although Israel rejects this position. While Israel has military control of the West Bank, the Oslo Accords of 1995 gave the Palestinian Authority some administrative and security control over certain areas. Ms Murphy's son Dale Ryan told Radio Wales Breakfast his mother was "doing OK" but he remained "in the dark" about when he would see her again. She was arrested last Saturday before being taken to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, according to her son. He said she was then moved to Givon Prison in Ramla where she has been held since 3 June. "She was detained after being accused of being in a military zone," said Mr Ryan. "Her and another woman, Susanne Björk, who are there with the ISM, were being questioned by the army." According to Irish broadcaster RTÉ, the pair were complying with the order before Israeli settlers, wearing military uniforms, called the police. Mr Ryan, who lives on the Gower peninsula, said his mother was brought to a hearing on Wednesday "without any representation." "There is a lawyer acting on her behalf. Because it's not a trial, they would have been there more as a witness, but she was denied access to her lawyer." said Mr Ryan. Mr Ryan said he had not "personally" spoken to his mothers since the arrest - instead receiving updates from her lawyer and ISM. "My mother is quite a resilient person," he said. "But as the days go on, she is becoming fatigued, and probably a bit anxious about the whole situation." Mr Ryan said his mother has some chest problems, which is "concerning for us", and he is desperate to "know she is in good health." According to an ISM press release, Ms Murphy has been involved as an activist in the region for over two decades and has been based in Swansea since the 1980s. "She went to Palestine in 2004 after setting up a fundraiser where we walked around the Gower in four days," according to Mr Ryan. He said she wanted to "contribute" to the aid and facilities that were being developed at the time. "In the last few years she has spent a lot of time in Masafer Yatta," he added, which according to the press release, is where she got arrested. Ms Murphy's lawyer, Noa Dagoni told the BBC that the handling of the case has been "deeply troubling". "Since her detention at Givon prison, Ms. Murphy has been unable to contact me, despite multiple requests on my part and efforts from her side – the reasons for that remain unclear," she said. She said Ms Murphy had requested legal counsel for "the detention review tribunal hearing as well as representation during the hearing itself". But Ms Dagoni said that apparently "no actual access" had been granted which would "constitute a serious and unlawful violation" of Ms Murphy's rights. Ms Murphy's local MP Bell said "hundreds of constituents" had contacted him with their concerns. "I've been in touch with Deirdre's family and am liaising with both the Irish government, who are providing consular support, and the UK Foreign Office, who have offered their assistance and stand ready to help further." He said he was "particularly concerned" that Ms Murphy may not have legal representation. "We all want to see Deirdre released as soon as possible," he added. The Irish Embassy Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was "aware of the case and is providing consular assistance." It added that "the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade does not comment on the details of individual cases." The Foreign Office said: "We have not been approached for consular assistance, but our staff stand ready to support British Nationals overseas 24/7." Additional reporting by Shazia Ali Gaza now worse than hell on earth, humanitarian chief tells BBC Israeli military recovers two hostages' bodies in southern Gaza Trauma is every day here, says UK nurse in Gaza
