Met Police chief Sir Mark Rowley very strong on scenes in Belfast: "I was watching a bit of the news last night, and I can't remember what channel it was, but a journalist was talking about 'these protesters.' "I thought, that isn't a protest. People are setting fire to cars. That's not a protest. That's violent disorder, that's criminality. I really feel for Northern Ireland colleagues who are wrestling with that. It's really, really difficult. "We live in these volatile times and, some of what goes on online whips up, sentiment on the street. "We know that Russian state actors, Iranian state actors, they want to sow discord on the streets of the UK. So this is a really complex issue we're wrestling with. So you've got very polarised debates in the UK, and you've got other people overseas who want to drive wedge issues to create disorder, and you've got the great men and women of Police Service Northern Ireland on the streets in the middle of that, trying to sort of protect people and stop people burning down houses and things. It's awful."
