Netflix is facing a wave of backlash after its UK & Ireland account posted a joke about a “neck injury” Thursday morning — exactly one year after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot in the neck during his assassination at Utah Valley University.

The timing immediately set social media ablaze.

At 8 a.m. Thursday, the official Netflix UK & Ireland account shared a series of promotional images accompanied by a seemingly routine caption:

“Nearly did himself a neck injury.”

Under virtually any other circumstances, the joke might have passed unnoticed outside fans of the streaming platform’s programming.

But Thursday wasn’t just any day.

September 10 marks exactly one year since Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

The 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder was speaking before a large outdoor crowd at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on Sept. 10, 2025, when he was struck by a single gunshot to the neck.

That horrifying detail made Netflix’s choice of words impossible for some social media users to ignore.

‘You Guys Are Sick’

The backlash erupted quickly.

Libs of TikTok was among the accounts blasting Netflix over the post, writing:

“I’m so glad I canceled my subscription. You guys are sick.”

The criticism came as Americans across the country were marking the first anniversary of Kirk’s assassination with tributes, remembrances and reflections on his political legacy.

But the anniversary has also taken a much darker turn in some corners of social media.

Some left-wing users have circulated jokes and memes about Kirk’s killing, with some reportedly referring to Sept. 10 as “Kirkiversary.”

Other viral posts have explicitly referenced the location of Kirk’s fatal wound.

Against that disturbing online backdrop, Netflix’s otherwise unrelated reference to a “neck injury” immediately raised suspicions among some users.

Was Netflix Actually Referencing Kirk?

There is an important distinction.

There is no evidence that Netflix’s post was deliberately referencing Charlie Kirk or his assassination.

The post appears to have been promoting unrelated Netflix programming, and the wording could very plausibly have been nothing more than an extraordinarily unfortunate coincidence.

But the timing — coupled with the very specific reference to a neck injury — was enough to ignite a firestorm.

And the post didn’t simply disappear into the endless stream of social-media content.

By Thursday afternoon, Netflix UK & Ireland’s post had reportedly amassed more than 2 million views on X.

The controversy quickly became part of a much broader and uglier conversation unfolding online on the anniversary of Kirk’s killing.

One Year Since The Assassination

Kirk was killed by a single gunshot while speaking to a large crowd during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University.

Tyler Robinson has pleaded not guilty to seven charges connected to Kirk’s killing, including aggravated murder.

Earlier this month, a Utah judge ruled that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence for the case to move forward to trial.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Meanwhile, Kirk’s assassination has again become a major topic across social media as supporters remember the conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder one year after his death.

That has made Thursday’s online atmosphere particularly raw.

For many of Kirk’s supporters, seeing jokes about his killing on the anniversary itself has already been deeply disturbing.

Then came Netflix’s post.

A Coincidence — Or Something More?

That is ultimately the unanswered question at the center of the controversy.

There is currently no evidence establishing that whoever wrote Netflix’s “neck injury” caption had Charlie Kirk in mind.

It may have been nothing more than terrible timing.

But in the current online environment — on the exact anniversary of a political assassination involving a fatal gunshot to the neck — the wording was always likely to attract attention once users made the connection.

And they certainly did.

What might have been an otherwise forgettable promotional post exploded into a viral controversy, drawing millions of views and accusations that Netflix had crossed an unthinkable line.

Whether the wording was an innocent coincidence or something more deliberate remains unknown.

But one thing is undeniable:

On the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a Netflix post joking about a “neck injury” was enough to ignite a furious backlash across social media.

For decades, Dolly Parton gave America her music, her unmistakable sense of humor and a larger-than-life dose of Southern charm.

But when the country music legend reportedly faced one of the most difficult battles of her life, she made a deeply personal decision: she didn’t want the people who loved her to worry.

Now, her sister Stella Parton is revealing heartbreaking new details about Dolly’s private cancer battle — including just how determined the beloved entertainer was to keep her illness out of the public eye.

During an interview with “CBS Mornings,” Stella said Dolly intentionally kept her diagnosis from her millions of fans — and even from some members of her own family.

The reason was quintessentially Dolly.

“Well, Dolly did not want anybody to tell that, because Dolly could not bear negative things, and she would not have wanted her fans worried about it,” she shared. “She didn’t want a lot of the family worried about it. Some of us knew, the ones that were closer, but not every relative.”

In her first interview since her sister, Dolly Parton, died last month, @StellaParton exclusively tells @GayleKing that Dolly did not want people to know she was sick: “She did not want people sad, and she did not want people worried.”

More from their interview airs Thursday on… pic.twitter.com/vrmM0f8CjQ

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) September 9, 2026

Dolly died Aug. 25 at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer, leaving generations of fans stunned.

For millions who had followed her remarkable career, there had been little indication that the woman behind classics like “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” was privately facing such a serious illness.

America Says Goodbye To A Country Music Icon

Dolly’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, announced her death on Instagram, remembering not only the extraordinary career that made his aunt one of America’s most recognizable entertainers, but also the generosity that became such a defining part of her life.

Then came an extraordinary outpouring of grief.

Musicians, actors, fellow entertainers and ordinary Americans flooded social media with tributes.

For Stella, seeing that overwhelming display of affection carried special meaning because she knew how much it would have meant to her sister.

“She’d be really happy and delighted that people have shown her so much love because she knew that that would make us feel better as her family,” Stella said. “Bottom line, end of the day, her family and Carl’s family and probably Judy’s family are the people that she would want to say, ‘See, everything I did, they cared. They really loved me.”

Those words capture something that awards and record sales never could.

Behind one of the biggest personalities in entertainment was a woman who apparently cared so deeply about the people around her that, even while confronting cancer, she didn’t want them burdened with fear for her.

From The Hills Of Tennessee To An American Legend

Dolly’s story was a quintessential American success story.

Her meteoric rise began in 1967 when she joined “The Porter Wagoner Show,” giving the young Tennessee singer a national platform that would ultimately help launch one of the most celebrated careers in country music history.

By 1974, Dolly was ready to leave Wagoner’s program and strike out on her own.

As she prepared to say goodbye, she wrote a song.

That song was “I Will Always Love You.”

Years later, Dolly recalled the extraordinary moment she first performed it privately for Wagoner.

“I sang the song alone in his office — just me and my guitar,” she told Howard Stern in 2023, adding that he replied, “That’s the best song you’ve ever wrote … You can go if I can produce the song.”

The rest became music history.

Dolly went on to win 10 Grammy Awards and receive a Kennedy Center Honor while earning induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.

But trophies only tell part of her story.

A Legacy Far Bigger Than Music

Perhaps one of Dolly’s most enduring accomplishments didn’t happen on a stage at all.

Through her Imagination Library, Parton helped provide books to children regardless of their families’ financial circumstances.

It was a mission rooted in the same East Tennessee upbringing that shaped so much of her music — and her life.

“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true,” Dolly said in a statement on the organization’s website. “I know there are children in your community with their own dreams. They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister.

For Dolly, giving those children an opportunity to dream became part of a legacy that stretched far beyond entertainment.

She became a country superstar without forgetting where she came from.

She accumulated fame without allowing fame to become the entirety of her identity.

And according to her sister, even while privately confronting cancer, Dolly remained concerned about how everyone else would feel.

She didn’t want her fans worrying.

She didn’t want her extended family worrying.

She wanted to protect the people who loved her from the burden she was carrying.

For a woman who spent a lifetime giving so much of herself to others, perhaps there couldn’t have been a more fitting final act.

Dolly Parton’s music will continue playing for generations.

But the generosity, faith, family values and unmistakable warmth behind that music may prove to be an even greater legacy.

And judging by the extraordinary outpouring that followed her death, Stella was right about one thing:

They really loved her.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing fresh scrutiny after a disturbing connection from his political past resurfaced — involving a former campaign worker who was later arrested and convicted after targeting Jewish high school students with an alarming social-media post.

Iman Abdul worked as a paid canvasser on journalist Ross Barkan’s unsuccessful 2018 Democratic campaign for New York State Senate — a campaign where Mamdani served first as field director and later as campaign manager.

Seven years later, Abdul would find herself in handcuffs.

Authorities arrested Abdul in 2025 after she allegedly posted the location of Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Brooklyn while appearing to suggest the school as a target for an attack.

Her words were chilling.

“If anyone needs a public school in NYC to attack for whatever reason … Lexus driving Israhell [sic] loving Zionists [sic] all attend here,” she added in a caption to the now-deleted post.

The post reportedly included a Google Maps image identifying the school — a public high school attended by minors on the Kingsborough Community College campus in Brooklyn.

According to an NYPD spokesperson quoted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Abdul, then 27, was arrested after allegedly making what police described as a “terroristic threat” against the school.

Police arrested Abdul on Aug. 8, 2025, on charges that included aggravated harassment, making a threat of mass harm and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

The episode immediately sparked outrage.

This wasn’t simply an inflammatory political statement posted into the void. Authorities said the post identified an actual school and appeared to target students she characterized as Zionists and supporters of Israel.

The political connection to Mamdani dates back to Abdul’s work years earlier.

The Washington Free Beacon reported that New York campaign-finance records showed the Barkan campaign paid Abdul $540 between July and August 2018 for canvassing work.

At the time, Mamdani was deeply involved in the campaign’s operation, initially serving as field director before becoming campaign manager.

Abdul’s criminal case ultimately ended with a guilty plea.

According to reporting published in August 2026, Abdul pleaded guilty on Aug. 5 to aggravated harassment as a hate crime, a felony under New York law.

But she avoided jail.

The other charges stemming from her arrest were dismissed as part of the disposition, and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office agreed to a deal under which completing 20 counseling sessions would allow the charge to be reduced to a misdemeanor.

That outcome only added another layer of controversy to an already explosive case.

Meanwhile, the revelation about Abdul’s previous campaign work has put renewed attention on Mamdani’s political rise and the network of campaigns he worked on before becoming an elected official.

Mamdani began working in electoral politics years before winning office himself.

He worked on Khader El-Yateem’s 2017 New York City Council campaign, followed by Barkan’s 2018 state Senate campaign and Tiffany Cabán’s 2019 campaign for Queens district attorney.

Barkan ultimately lost the Democratic primary to Andrew Gounardes, who went on to defeat Republican incumbent Marty Golden.

The timeline is important.

There is no evidence that Mamdani had any involvement whatsoever in Abdul’s threatening 2025 social-media post, her arrest or the criminal case that followed.

The two events were separated by roughly seven years, and Abdul’s disturbing post came long after the Barkan campaign had ended.

But the newly resurfaced campaign records establish an undeniable historical connection: Abdul worked as a paid canvasser for a political operation in which Mamdani played a significant leadership role.

And the revelation arrives as Mamdani continues facing intense scrutiny over his record on Israel and accusations from critics that his rhetoric and political positions have contributed to hostility toward the Jewish state.

Mamdani has rejected accusations that criticism of Israel amounts to antisemitism, arguing that criticism of the Israeli government and advocacy for Palestinian rights should not be conflated with hatred of Jewish people.

He has also maintained that his administration has a responsibility to protect Jewish New Yorkers from threats, harassment and hate crimes.

Still, the resurfaced campaign connection is likely to fuel an already heated debate surrounding Mamdani’s political history — especially now that a woman who once worked for a campaign he managed has been convicted in a case involving threats directed at Jewish high school students.