US rebuke deepens UK row over police handling of 18-year-old's murder

A US State Department statement has intensified a political dispute in Britain over how police handled the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Henry Nowak. The department criticized what it called “ideological conditioning and two-tiered policing” after video showed officers handcuffing Nowak as he lay wounded and pleading for help. His killer, described in the report as a Sikh man, received a life sentence on June 1. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said police must answer serious questions, including how a false allegation of racism shaped their response, and said an investigation is underway. He also condemned violence at a June 2 protest and accused Elon Musk of stoking division. Nowak’s family called his treatment “inhumane and degrading” but urged people not to use his death to inflame tensions.