LONDON: British counter-terrorism police Thursday launched an investigation into online videos of Irish rappers Kneecap after the band denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah or inciting violence against UK politicians.
The announcement came as nearly 40 other groups and artists, among them Pulp, Paul Weller and Primal Scream, rallied around the band amid an escalating row about political messaging at its concerts.
Other artists offering their support are The Pogues, Massive Attack, Dexys and Thin Lizzy.
“As artists, we feel the need to register our opposition to any political repression of artistic freedom,” the group said in a joint statement.
They added there had been a “clear, concerted attempt to censor and ultimately deplatform.”

Since the row erupted Kneecap has had several concerts canceled, including one in southwest England and three in Germany.
London’s Metropolitan Police said two videos had been “referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment by specialist officers, who have determined there are grounds for further investigation into potential offenses linked to both videos.”
The investigation was “now being carried out by officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command and inquiries remain ongoing at this time,” it added.
Kneecap on Monday apologized to the families of murdered British politicians and denied supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
The damaging controversy began after police on Sunday said they were examining video footage.
One video appeared to show a band member shouting “up Hamas, up Hezbollah.”
Those groups, in Gaza and in Lebanon, are banned as terrorist organizations in the UK and it is a crime to express support for them.
Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin had urged the band to clarify whether they supported the groups or not.
Video also emerged of the Belfast rap trio at a 2023 gig appearing to show one member saying: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.”
The family of Conservative MP David Amess, who was fatally stabbed by an Daesh group follower in 2021, called for an apology from Kneecap.
In its denial issued late on Monday, Kneecap said video footage had been “deliberately taken out of context.
“Let us be unequivocal: we do not, and have never, supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” it said, adding the band would never “seek to incite violence against any MP or individual. Ever.”
“To the Amess and Cox families, we send our heartfelt apologies, we never intended to cause you hurt,” it said, also referring to Labour MP Jo Cox who was murdered in 2016 by a neo-Nazi sympathizer a week before the divisive Brexit referendum.
The war in Gaza followed an attack in Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s military response in Gaza has caused a humanitarian crisis and killed at least 52,243 people, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

NEW MEXICO: Dr. Hector Ocaranza knew El Paso would see measles the moment it began spreading in West Texas and eastern New Mexico.
Highways connect his border city with the epicenter of Texas’ massive outbreak, which is up to 663 cases. They’re the same roads used by thousands of families and commercial truckers who cross into Mexico and back each day.
“Diseases know no borders,” said Ocaranza, El Paso’s top public health doctor, “so as people are mobile, they’re going to be coming and receiving medical attention in El Paso but they may be living in Juarez.” It took a couple of months, but El Paso now has the highest measles case count in the state outside of West Texas with 38. Neighboring Ciudad Juarez has 14 cases as of Monday.
North America’s three biggest measles outbreaks continue to balloon, with more than 2,500 known cases; three people have died in the US and one in Mexico. It started in the fall in Ontario, Canada; then took off in late January in Texas and New Mexico; and has rapidly spread in Chihuahua state, which is up to 786 cases since mid-February.
These outbreaks are in areas with a notable population of certain Mennonite Christian communities who trace their migration over generations from Canada to Mexico to Seminole, Texas. Chihuahua health officials trace their first case to an 8-year-old Mennonite child who visited family in Seminole, got sick and spread the virus at school. And Ontario officials say their outbreak started at a large gathering in New Brunswick involving Mennonite communities.
Mexican and US officials also say the genetic strains of measles spreading in Canada match the other large outbreaks.
“This virus was imported, traveling country to country,” said Leticia Ruíz, director of prevention and disease control in Chihuahua.
North and South American countries have struggled to maintain the 95 percent measles vaccination rate needed to prevent outbreaks, said Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, director of the Pan American Health Organization. And a recent World Health Organization report said measles activity in the Americas region is up elevenfold from the same time last year and that the risk level is “high” compared to the rest of the world’s “moderate” level.
Measles cases have been confirmed in six of the region’s countries — Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, the United States and Mexico — and investigating the disease’s spread is labor-intensive and pricey. The response to each measles case in the US costs an estimated $30,000 to $50,000, according to Dr. David Sugerman, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist.
Measles at the US-Mexico border

The cases in Ciudad Juarez have no direct connection to the Mennonite settlement in Chihuahua, said Rogelio Covarrubias, a health official in the border city. The first measles case in El Paso was in a child at Fort Bliss, Ocaranza said.
More than half of El Paso’s cases are in adults, which is unusually high, and three people have been hospitalized. The health department is holding vaccination clinics in malls and parks and says hundreds have gotten a shot. The vaccines are free — no questions asked, no matter which side of the border you live on.
Communication about measles between the two health departments is “informal” but “very good,” Ocaranza said. Covarrubias said his team was alerted last week to a case of someone who became sick in El Paso and returned home to Juarez.
“There is constant concern in Ciudad Juarez … because we have travelers that pass through from across the world,” Covarrubias said. “With a possible case of measles without taking precautions, many, many people could be infected.”
Measles at the US-Canada border
Michigan health officials said the outbreak of four cases in Montcalm County are linked to Ontario.
The state’s chief medical executive, Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, expects to see more cases. Michigan has a 95 percent vaccination rate for measles, mumps and rubella, but it hides weak spots — counties with 70 percent vaccination rates and individual schools where just 30 percent of kids vaccinated.
“If we think about measles as a forest fire, we’ve got these burning embers that are floating in the air right now,” Bagdasarian said. “Whether those embers result in another wildfire just depends on where they land.”
In Canada, six out of 10 provinces have reported measles cases. Alberta has the second-most with 83 as of April 12, according to government data.
Case counts in Ontario reached 1,020 as of Wednesday, mostly in the southwest part that borders Michigan. In one of the hardest-hit regions, Chatham-Kent Public Health officials announced a public exposure at a Mennonite church on Easter Sunday.
“It sometimes feels like we’re just behind, always trying to catch up to measles,” Dr. Sarah Wilson, a public health physician for Public Health Ontario. “It’s always moving somewhere.”