LONDON: Armed with signs and shouting slogans, thousands of anti-Donald Trump protesters descended on central London on Wednesday to decry the US president’s unprecedented second state visit to the UK.

London’s Metropolitan Police estimated that there were around 5,000 people at the protest, which culminated in a rally in front of parliament.

With Trump receiving the red-carpet treatment at Windsor Castle, around 22 miles (35 kilometres) west of London, demonstrators marched in the heart of the British capital to display their disdain on the first full day of the trip.

“We’re protesting, I suppose, about everything about Donald Trump. You don’t know what placard to carry, really, there’s so many things” to dislike, former teacher Dave Lockett, 67, told AFP.

“He’s sowing destruction and disorder throughout the whole Earth… If Trump’s ideas get into this society, then what we’re talking about is fascism in Britain,” he added.

Left-wing lawmakers, including new Green Party leader Zack Polanski, were among those to address the crowds in Parliament Square at the rally hosted by well-known comedian Nish Kumar.

“We are gathered here united to say this is not in our name,” Polanski said of Trump’s invitation from the ruling centre-left Labour government.

“This is the moment to challenge everything Donald Trump stands for. This is the moment to reject the politics of hate and division.”

‘Hiding’

Protesters had first massed early afternoon near the BBC’s headquarters, holding aloft an array of banners, flags and signs, covering everything from support for the Palestinians to rejecting fascism.

Amid a cacophony of drumming, some demonstrators had recreated smaller versions of the giant balloon depicting Trump wearing a nappy, which was famously flown during his first state visit in 2019.

Yashi Sriram, a doctor originally from India, turned out with a placard reading: “End the genocide. Stop Trump.”

“I just wanted to show support for the people of Palestine, really, more than anything else,” said the 32-year-old.

A group called the Stop Trump Coalition organised the demonstration, with a broad alliance of organisations sponsoring it, including Amnesty International UK, Black Lives Matter UK, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Greenpeace.

The coalition questioned why Trump would spend so little time in London during the visit.

“Because he knows we’re protesting against him,” the group said in a statement ahead of the march.

“Instead, he’ll be hiding and having a sad little carriage ride all by himself in Windsor with a parade that no one will even see. This is because of the power of our protest.”

Those at the evening rally repeatedly chanted: “Say it loud, say it clear: Donald Trump is not welcome here,” as various speakers railed against him.

Trump unpopular

London’s Metropolitan Police deployed more than 1,600 officers — including 500 brought in from other forces — to ensure the event passed off without incident.

A purported counter-demonstration failed to muster, and there were no reports of disorder or arrests.

A lone protester, surrounded by police, displayed a sign reading: “We Love Trump,” sparking boos as anti-Trump campaigners marched past him.

Trump remains deeply unpopular in Britain, with new polling on Wednesday showing almost half of respondents thought it was wrong to invite him for a second state visit.

Only a quarter believed it would improve UK-US relations, according to the YouGov/Sky survey.

London mayor Sadiq Khan, who allowed the unflattering Trump baby blimp to fly during the American president’s first-term visits, has been a persistent critic amid a years-long feud.

Khan wrote Tuesday in The Guardian: “Trump and his coterie have perhaps done the most to fan the flames of divisive, far-right politics around the world in recent years.”

An estimated 150,000 people attended a weekend rally in London organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, with 26 police officers injured in clashes on the event’s fringes.

In the article, Khan — the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital when he was first elected in 2016 — accused Trump of “scapegoating minorities, illegally deporting US citizens, deploying the military to the streets of diverse cities”.

“These actions aren’t just inconsistent with western values — they’re straight out of the autocrat’s playbook,” he wrote.

Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities expanded their crackdown on internet accesson  Wednesday, severing fibre optic connections in multiple provinces in what officials said was a campaign against “vice”.

The move, ordered by Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, has effectively shut down high-speed internet in several regions over two days, leaving tens of thousands without access and sparking concern among locals.

In northern Balkh province, fibre optic internet was completely banned on the leader’s orders, provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said Tuesday.

“This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs,” he wrote on X.

An AFP correspondent confirmed that internet access in Balkh was now only possible via the telephone network, which is disrupted with all operators affected.

AFP correspondents reported the same restrictions in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan in the south.

Government spokespersons and the Ministry of Telecommunications did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

Fibre optic is the most widely used technology in Afghanistan, an employee of a private operator in Kabul told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that he was unaware of the reasons behind the measure.

“If these connection problems are not resolved, we will suffer great losses,” said Atta Mohammed, a marble contractor in Kandahar.

“If we don’t respond to emails from our clients in Dubai and India on time, we won’t be able to continue our business. I haven’t slept a wink.”

The measure has not yet been implemented in southeastern Nangarhar, but provincial spokesperson Qureshi Badloun said he expects nationwide implementation “in the coming days”.

“Recent studies conducted in Afghanistan show that online applications have negatively affected the economic, social, cultural, and religious foundations of society and led it towards moral corruption,” Badloun said in a statement released Tuesday.

In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350-kilometre fibre optic network — largely built by former US-backed governments — as a “priority” to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.

Since regaining power in 2021, the Taliban have instituted numerous restrictions.

The wife of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday that laboratory analysis of smuggled biological samples found he was killed by poisoning while incarcerated at an Arctic prison in February 2024.

Navalny, President Vladimir Putin’s most formidable critic for years, died in mysterious circumstances while serving a 19-year prison sentence on a string of charges widely seen as retribution for his opposition.

The charismatic anti-corruption campaigner had rallied hundreds of thousands across Russia in anti-Kremlin protests as he exposed the alleged ill-gotten gains of Putin´s inner circle.

His allies allege he was murdered in prison, and Moscow has never fully explained the causes of his death, saying only that he fell ill while walking in the prison yard on February 16, 2024.

Before he was buried, his wife Yulia Navalnaya said his allies “were able to obtain and securely transfer biological samples of Alexei abroad”.

“Laboratories in two countries came to the conclusion that Alexei was killed. Specifically: poisoned,” she said in a video posted on social media.

She did not divulge details of what samples were obtained nor the results of the analysis, but she urged the labs to independently release their results and to specify which poison they believe was used.

Navalnaya also published unverified photos she said were of his prison cell after his body was removed, showing a pool of vomit on the floor, and claimed that testimony from prison officials said he had been convulsing on the floor.

‘Murder’

Navalny was previously poisoned with a nerve agent of the Novichok type in 2020 while campaigning in Siberia and flown to Germany on an emergency evacuation flight, where he spent months recovering.

Jailed upon his return to Russia in January 2021, he was convicted on a series of charges, including “extremism”.

From behind bars, he continued to campaign against Putin and spoke out against the invasion of Ukraine.

Russian authorities said he died suddenly after falling ill while walking outside after lunch in his prison colony.

Following Navalny’s death, officials refused for days to release his body to his relatives, raising suspicions among his followers.

Navalnaya has maintained that her husband was killed on Putin’s orders, an accusation she repeated Wednesday.

“Vladimir Putin is guilty of the murder of my husband, Alexei Navalny,” she said.

The Kremlin denies the charges.

It escalated a crackdown against his allies and opponents even after his death, adding Navalnaya to a “terrorists and extremists” blacklist and sentencing his lawyers and journalists who followed his court cases to years in prison.

Most of his family and key allies have long lived abroad.

The Russian opposition, plagued by infighting, has struggled for relevance in exile following Navalny’s death.

Public displays of opposition to Putin inside Russia have become exceptionally rare since he invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The Kremlin introduced military censorship, ramped up its targeting of dissenters and critics and effectively outlawed criticism both of the Kremlin and the invasion.