LONDON — A London march organized by far-right activist Tommy Robinson drew more than 110,000 people and became unruly on Saturday as a small group of his supporters clashed with police officers who were separating them from counterprotesters.

Several officers were punched, kicked and struck by bottles tossed by people at the fringes of the “Unite the Kingdom” rally, Metropolitan Police said. Reinforcements with helmets and riot shields were deployed to support the 1,000-plus officers on duty.

Twenty-six police officers were injured — four who were seriously hurt, including broken teeth and a concussion, a possible broken nose and a spinal injury. At least 25 people were arrested for offenses including violent disorder, assaults and criminal damage, and the investigation continues, police said.

“There is no doubt that many came to exercise their lawful right to protest, but there were many who came intent on violence,” Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said. “They confronted officers, engaging in physical and verbal abuse and making a determined effort to breach cordons in place to keep everyone safe.”

The rally drew an estimated crowd of between 110,000 and 150,000 people, far surpassing expectations, police said. The rival “March Against Fascism” protest organized by Stand Up To Racism had about 5,000 marchers.

Tommy Robinson speaks during the Unite the Kingdom march and rally near Westminster, London, on Saturday.

Joanna Chan/AP

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Joanna Chan/AP

Anti-migrant theme

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, founded the nationalist and anti-Islam English Defense League and is one of the most influential far-right figures in Britain.

The march was billed as a demonstration in support of free speech — with much of the rhetoric by influencers and several far-right politicians from across Europe aimed largely at the perils of migration, a problem much of the continent is struggling to control.

“We are both subject to the same process of the great replacement of our European people by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture, you and we are being colonized by our former colonies,” far-right French politician Eric Zemmour said.

Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and owner of the X platform who has waded into British politics several times this year, was beamed in by video and condemned the left-leaning U.K. government.

“There’s something beautiful about being British and what I see happening here is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion, but rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration,” he said.

Robinson told the crowd in a hoarse voice that migrants now had more rights in court than the “British public, the people that built this nation.”

The marches come at a time when the U.K. has been divided by debate over migrants crossing the English Channel in overcrowded inflatable boats to arrive on shore without authorization.

Numerous anti-migrant protests were held this summer outside hotels housing asylum-seekers following the arrest of an Ethiopian man who was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a London suburb. Some of those protests became violent and led to arrests.

Sea of flags

Participants in the “Unite the Kingdom” march carried the St. George’s red-and-white flag of England and the union jack, the state flag of the United Kingdom, and chanted “we want our country back.”

U.K. flags have proliferated this summer across the U.K. — at events and on village lampposts — in what some have said is a show of national pride and others said reflects a tilt toward nationalism.

Supporters held signs saying “stop the boats,” “send them home,” and “enough is enough, save our children.”

At the counterprotest, the crowd held signs saying “refugees welcome” and “smash the far right,” and shouted “stand up, fight back.”

Robinson supporters chanted crude refrains about U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, leader of the center-left Labour Party and also shouted messages of support for slain U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Several speakers paid tribute to Kirk, who was remembered in a moment of silence, followed by a bagpiper playing “Amazing Grace.”

One demonstrator held a sign saying: “Freedom of speech is dead. RIP Charlie Kirk.”

Crowd covered blocks of London

The crowd at one point stretched from Big Ben across the River Thames and around the corner beyond Waterloo train station, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile (around a kilometer).

The marches had been mostly peaceful, but toward the late afternoon, “Unite the Kingdom” supporters threw items at the rival rally and tried to break through barriers set up to separate the groups, police said. Officers had to use force to keep a crowd-control fence from being breached.

Counterprotesters heckled a man with blood pouring down his face who was being escorted by police from the group of Robinson supporters. It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to him.

While the crowd was large, it fell far short of the one of the biggest recent marches when a pro-Palestinian rally drew an estimated 300,000 people in November 2023.

Robinson had planned a “Unite the Kingdom” rally last October, but couldn’t attend after being jailed for contempt of court for violating a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libelous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him. He previously served jail time for assault and mortgage fraud.

Absent a Hail Mary, Glenn County’s only hospital is set to close its doors in October.

Tucked between two national forests, the rural county is home to 28,000 people. Without a local emergency room, they’ll instead have to travel at least 40 minutes to a neighboring county for critical care. One hundred and fifty health workers will lose their jobs; they’re already resigning to seek work elsewhere.

The planned closure of Glenn Medical Center follows a decision by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to strip the hospital’s federal “critical access” designation, a status that has provided Glenn Medical increased reimbursement and regulatory flexibility. Without that status, the hospital’s $28 million in net annual revenue will take a hit of about 40% — a gap too large to fill any other way than closing the hospital, said Lauren Still, the hospital’s chief executive.

“It’s heartbreaking that we come to this. I am still kind of praying for that 11th-hour miracle to come through,” Still said. “But honestly, we just have to be realistic, and this is the hand we’ve been dealt.”

Over the last several months, Still and her team have been attempting to make their case with the federal health agency, even flying to Washington, D.C., in July in an attempt to lobby their case.

At the crux of the issue is a federal rule, newly reinterpreted, that requires critical access hospitals to be at least 35 miles from the next closest hospital when traveling by main roads. Officials at CMS now say that the next closest hospital, Colusa Medical Center, is only 32 miles away — three miles short of the required distance.

Glenn Medical Center and county health officials argue that most people and ambulances take a different route, I-5 to Highway 20. That route is 35.7 miles, a distance that would qualify.

“We really felt that by getting all of our stories out there … showing all of the different people that would be impacted by this decision, we really thought that would be enough information for them [CMS] to consider the human and practical considerations of their decision,” Still said. “Unfortunately, the only thing that matters is how they’re measuring the distance on the roads.”

The feds first notified Glenn Medical in April that a recertification review found the hospital was not eligible for the critical access program. Hospital officials clung to hope that an appeal and communication with the agency would clarify the situation. But in a letter dated Aug. 13, the agency told the hospital it was standing by its original decision.

“After reviewing the hospital’s additional information, CMS found that the hospital continues to not meet the distance requirement,” the letter reads.

The locations of Glenn Medical Center and its neighbor a county over have not changed since Glenn Medical first became eligible for the critical access program in 2001. CalMatters asked the federal agency why it was seeking to revoke the hospital’s designation now after more than two decades of eligibility at the same distance. The agency did not directly answer the question, but in an email simply reiterated the requirements to qualify for the program.

CMS said Glenn Medical Center could convert to another provider type in order to continue participating in the Medicare program. But Still said no other Medicare reimbursement model would pay the hospital at a financially sustainable rate. Under the critical access program, the federal government pays hospitals 101% of their costs for inpatient and outpatient services provided to Medicare patients.

U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a Richvale Republican who represents Glenn County, said he continues to have conversations with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator at CMS. He said they last spoke last week.

“We’re not giving up by any stretch; we’re going to pull out all the stops,” LaMalfa said. “We had a really good conversation with Dr. Oz and are looking for a way to make it work because the closure is not acceptable. It’s a technical issue that we ought to find a way to work through.”

LaMalfa said he is considering introducing a bill that could update the mileage requirement or give CMS more discretion when evaluating rural hospitals. But it’s unclear that something could get done before October.

Glenn Medical Center and its staff cannot wait for much longer. The hospital announced it would keep its clinics open, but inpatient services will cease Oct. 21. Still said that’s when she expects to no longer have enough staff to be able to operate.

“We had to start talking to staff and telling staff that, “Hey, we don’t have a future here. There’s no viable path forward for us without that critical access designation,’” Still said. “At that point, we started getting staff resignations.”

With the announced closure, most Glenn County residents will have to seek emergency services either at the hospital in Colusa County or further away at Butte County’s Enloe Medical Center, a larger Level II trauma center in Chico.

“We are actively reviewing available resources to ensure our readiness to absorb anticipated increased patient volumes at the Enloe Health Emergency Department,” wrote Enloe Health in an unsigned statement.

Glenn County’s two ambulances will also have to travel further and be outside the county for longer periods of time, leaving residents with even more limited emergency resources.

The announced closure is a stark reminder of the precarious state of California’s rural hospitals. Even with increased Medicare reimbursement, Glenn Medical Center’s annual financial statements show that the hospital consistently operated in the red.

Two years ago, the state bailed out 17 rural and community hospitals – Glenn Medical was not one of them – by loaning them close to $300 million altogether. That loan program was largely prompted by the closure of Madera Community Hospital, which also left an entire county without emergency services. After bankruptcy proceedings, Madera Community is now owned and operated by American Advanced Management, a for-profit company that has made a business out of rescuing distressed and shuttered hospitals. The company also owns Glenn Medical Center.

“It’s devastating for our group from a personal perspective because we really do pride ourselves in being somebody who comes in and reopens hospitals,” Still said. “When we go into a community, we make that promise to the community that we’re not going to bail on them.”

Ana B. Ibarra writes for CalMatters.