NewsBeat
Mother jailed over deaths of four sons trapped in house fire as she went shopping
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The mother of four young brothers who died trapped alone in a house fire while she was shopping in Sainsbury’s has been jailed.
Deveca Rose had left her two sets of twins in the locked terraced house when the fatal blaze broke out on the evening of 16 December 2021.
Rose had gone to the supermarket, leaving Leyton and Logan Hoath, aged three; and four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath alone at the rented home in Sutton, southwest London.
The 30-year-old defendant, who had split up from her partner and suffered from mental health problems, was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter following an Old Bailey trial.
Sentencing Rose to 10 years behind bars at the Old Bailey on Friday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said: “There are no words to describe this case other than a deeply tragic one.”
He noted that Rose had already been to Sainsbury’s earlier that day and her return trip at the time of the fire was not to purchase any items that were “essential or vital”.
He told her: “You were not there and the children were too young to know what to do. As a result of what you did, they were all killed.”
He described the victims as lively and engaging children who were “deeply loved” by all who had a role in their care.
Rose and the children had been living in squalor, surrounded by rubbish and human excrement, before the tragedy, her trial was told.
Prosecutor Kate Lumsdon KC had told the court: “There was rubbish thickly spread throughout the house. The toilet and the bath were full of rubbish and could not be used. Buckets and pots were used as toilets instead.”
When a cigarette or tea light in the living room sparked a fire, the boys were trapped and ran upstairs calling for help.
A neighbour tried to break down the front door before firefighters in breathing apparatus went in and found the children’s bodies under beds.
They were rushed to two separate hospitals but attempts to save them failed and they died from inhalation of fumes later that night.
Rose arrived home while firefighters were still tackling the blaze and she was taken in by a neighbour.
She had claimed she left the children with a friend called Jade, which prompted firefighters to go back into the house to search for her.
Police carried out extensive inquiries to find Jade and concluded she either did not exist or had not been at the house that day.
In police interviews, Rose admitted leaving the boys alone in the house on two earlier occasions.
The children’s father, Dalton Hoath, said in a statement that she had left them alone once or twice to go to the nearby shop before.
Mr Hoath, who had split up with the defendant, added that he was “devastated” and his world had been turned “upside down” by the loss of his “young, boisterous lads”.
Paternal great-grandmother Sally Johnson said: “I was aware that she would leave the boys by themselves in the house. When I asked her about this, she would say, ‘Oh no, I just went to the pop shop’ which is a local shop just seven houses away.
“I do not know how often this happened but I remember several times I phoned the house and Kyson answered the phone and told me, ‘mummy has gone to the pop shop’.”
Paternal step-grandmother Kerrie Hoath described the boys as “polite, carefree and very much loved” but recalled Rose not allowing her into the house.
Jurors were told that social worker Georgia Singh had raised concerns about the family, but the case was closed three months before the fire.
Previously, a health visitor had raised concerns about the family but they were not followed up after she retired, jurors were told.
The children had not attended school for three weeks before their deaths.
Rose, of Wallington, south London, attended much of the trial by video-link from home on medical advice and declined to give evidence in her defence.
The court heard there was evidence suggesting she was probably depressed and may have suffered from a personality disorder, but the prosecution asserted that was not a defence.
President Donald Trump has revoked security protection for former top US health official Anthony Fauci, who has faced death threats since leading the country’s Covid-19 response.
“You can’t have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government,” Trump told reporters, when asked about the decision on Friday. “It’s very standard.”
This week, Trump also revoked security protections for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former envoy Brian Hook, who all faced threats from Iran.
Dr Fauci has now hired his own private security team that he will pay for himself, US media report.
Asked whether he felt responsible for the officials’ safety, Trump said on Friday: “They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too.”
Dr Fauci was previously protected by federal marshals, and then a private security company, which was paid for by the government, according to the New York Times.
One of Dr Fauci’s most vocal Republican critics, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, had called for his security to be revoked.
He wrote in a post on X on Thursday that he had “sent supporting information to end the 24 hr a day limo and security detail for Fauci”.
“I wish him nothing but peace but he needs to pay for his own limos,” he said.
Trump has also revoked the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who had claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Under US protocol, former presidents and their spouses are granted security protection for life. But protection for other US officials is decided based on the threat assessment from the intelligence community.
As the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Fauci faced death threats during and after the coronavirus pandemic, as well as criticism from Republicans over mask mandates and other Covid restrictions.
He led the institute for 40 years, including during Trump’s first term. Trump had also awarded presidential commendations to Dr Fauci who served on the Operation Warp Speed task force during the pandemic.
Before leaving office, then-President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Dr Fauci.
The doctor told US media that he “truly appreciated” Biden for taking action, adding that the possibility of prosecution had created “immeasurable and intolerable distress” on his family.
“Let me be perfectly clear, I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me,” he said.
NewsBeat
‘Vile’ policeman Samuel McGregor found guilty of rape – leaving senior officer ‘sickened’ | UK News
A “vile” policeman has been convicted of rape – leaving a senior officer “sickened” by his “abhorrent behaviour”.
PC Samuel McGregor, who previously worked at the Metropolitan Police‘s Central North command unit, was found guilty on Friday after a trial at Inner London Crown Court.
The 33-year-old officer had previously pleaded not guilty in June 2023.
The court heard the victim, who was known to the defendant, was raped on 11 May 2021 at an address in London.
She later told her colleagues about the incident, and they reported it to officers on the victim’s behalf on 2 June 2021.
McGregor was arrested the next day on suspicion of rape.
Chief Superintendent Andy Carter, who heads policing for Central North, said: “I am sickened by McGregor’s abhorrent behaviour and the pain he has caused the victim.
“There is simply no place for individuals like McGregor in the Met, and we will continue to root out such vile individuals.”
He added that he hoped the court’s guilty verdict “brings some closure to the victim”.
Read more from Sky News:
Mum jailed after sons died in fire while she was shopping
Grandson of pie company tycoon jailed over murder of friend
McGregor is set to be sentenced on 10 March.
A misconduct hearing will take place in due course.
McGregor was suspended from duty on 3 March 2022 after he admitted lying during a police interview.
Sadiq Khan has been accused of “running down the clock” when pressed on grooming gangs in a London Assembly meeting.
The London Mayor was asked if he would guarantee some funding for police investigations into the grooming gangs scandal.
Khan said: “Firstly it’s really important when you have a conversation of this nature that you think about the victims of child sexual exploitation.”
Pressed by Susan Hall, a former London mayoral candidate, Khan said that he was “really surprised” that Hall “did not know how operational independence works” for the police.
Sadiq Khan has been accused of ‘running down the clock’ when pressed on grooming gangs in a London Assembly meeting
London Assembly
Noting that she was “on a clock”, she had asked the mayor for a “yes or no” answer.
Susan Hall AM, City Hall Conservatives Crime spokesperson, said: “Yet again Sadiq has failed to answer the important questions put to him about the issues that matter to London.”
She added: “Starmer tells us local inquires are the way forward but cowardly Sadiq can’t commit to funding one, and instead cynically tries to run down the clock on the time we have to ask him questions in order to avoid answering.
“It’s a disgrace, and an insult to the victims that despite every opportunity we get to push for justice, the Mayor continues to run and hide, for shame.”
The mayor’s office was contacted for comment.
BBC Scotland
PA MediaVisitors to Edinburgh will be charged a tourist tax designed to raise £50m annually, after city councillors voted in favour of the move.
The charge, which mimics those already used in Germany, Spain and Italy, covers hotels, bed and breakfasts, self-catering accommodation as well as rooms and properties let through websites like Airbnb.
City of Edinburgh Council has said the levy of 5% will take effect from 24 July 2026 and the revenue raised will be spent on infrastructure improvements.
But some businesses are concerned that it will put visitors off visiting the city and that it is being rushed in before systems are ready.
Council leader Jane Meagher said it was one of the most important injections of funding in the city for decades, and visitors and residents would quickly see the benefits.
“They will see cleaner streets, they will see quicker removal of graffiti, better environmental improvements, more attractive spaces and better transport connections,” she said.
“They will see lots of improvements across the city, not just in the city centre.”
She added some of the money would go towards affordable housing, to enable people working in the city to find somewhere to live.
“We’re getting strong messages from employers in the hospitality sector that they’re struggling to recruit people to jobs because rents and mortgages are so high and they can’t afford to live near where they work,” she said.
However, there are concerns from some in the business community who say it will mean more administration for them.
Anna Morris, who runs a short-term let in the Newington area of the city, is also concerned it could put people off coming to Edinburgh.
“I think there is a risk that it does affect the competitiveness of Edinburgh as a destination,” she said.
“It is quite an expensive destination already. I love Edinburgh, It’s a brilliant place to come but people can go wherever they want – abroad and even within Scotland, there are other cities you might choose to go to.
“Everyone is watching what they spend now, and [the tax] is quite high when you think about it so there is a risk there.”
But other European cities where a tourist tax has been introduced – such as Amsterdam – say they have not lost visitors and have seen many benefits.
The Dutch capital now charges 12.5% on top of accommodation bills, raising 265m Euros (£220m) a year.
The deputy mayor Hester van Buren said: “The residents are more tolerant of the tourists because they think they’ve contributed, and that there are also benefits from the tourists.
“We can clean the city, we can build more infrastructure, we can put money into more affordable housing for the residents so I hope the residents see the profit of it.”
One of the areas hoping to benefit from any levy is Edinburgh’s only city centre housing scheme, Dumbiedykes.
Jim Slaven, who has been a tenant there for 30 years, said many of the flats were now short-term lets and they lost amenities such as their community centre and shops.
“Housing is one of the major crises in the city and has been in working class areas for many years,” he said.
“For years the residents of Edinburgh have been told how many hundreds of millions of pounds come into the city through tourism, so with the visitors’ levy it’s an opportunity for some money from tourism to be put into public services and infrastructure.”
Culture reporter
Getty ImagesSouth London singer Lola Young’s unflinchingly honest hit Messy has reached number one in the UK after a two-month climb, and she’s been nominated for a Brit Award. Now she’s made a breakthrough, this could be her year.
Lola Young jumps into a car, laughing uncontrollably as she flashes a brand new set of shiny gold teeth.
“I just got grills fitted,” she explains once she’s regained her composure. “But they’re like so intense, so you’re rocking with this today, and a lisp.”
She’s been running a few minutes late for the interview and this explains why – so she can finish getting her dental jewellery accessories fitted, with which she seems extremely pleased.
The screen suddenly freezes. The car she’s in is somewhere in the US and the reception has cut out.
Young made her US TV debut on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show the night before, which followed a whirlwind trip to Australia, and she’ll soon set off on a sold-out European tour. She’s talking on Zoom as her manager drives her to the next stop on her schedule.
Getty ImagesTravelling the world and in high demand, but making time to get a full set of solid gold teeth grills fitted – she’s living a proper pop star’s life.
And she is now a proper pop star. After several years of almost making it – she sang on the 2021 John Lewis advert, was on the BBC Sound of 2022 list and had glowing reviews for her two albums – Messy has given her a bona fide hit.
The song became inescapable at the end of 2024 and completed its climb to the top of the charts on Friday.
The 24-year-old is the first current British artist to have a UK number one since Chase and Status and Stormzy in August, the youngest to do so since Dave in 2022, and the youngest British woman to score a chart-topper since Dua Lipa in 2017.
Her number one came a day after she was nominated for best pop act at the Brit Awards.
“The response has been amazing and it’s been really exciting to see all the love that Messy has been receiving,” says Young, speaking earlier in the week.
“I love the song, it’s a song I wrote that’s really personal and really important to me. So I’m really happy that it’s resonating so much.”
Getty ImagesMessy was released on her second album This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway last May.
Its trajectory was supercharged when superstar US influencers Sofia Richie Grainge and Jake Shane posted a 14-second TikTok clip of themselves dancing to its chorus. Young’s song has now been used in 1.3 million videos on the platform – from Kylie Jenner lip-syncing as a dog, to a viral clip of an old woman vaping and holding a pint alongside the caption “94 and still messy”.
The singer would like to point out that the track’s success is not simply down to TikTok, however.
“That’s not necessarily how it blew up. I would like to say that the song was blowing up before TikTok, and it was having its moment elsewhere. A lot of things contributed to the success.
“The TikTok thing is great. I don’t make music for Tiktok. I make music for myself and for my fans, but the Sofia Richie thing is just one element of how well it did in every aspect.
“But yeah, it’s been great to see every side of it.”
Contradictions
The track was indeed starting to gain traction before finding TikTok virality, and has only done so well because it is more than a mere meme.
Its lyrics, about never being good enough for someone whatever you do, have connected deeply with fans. “I want to be me, is that not allowed?” she implores.
“I guess it’s because the song speaks to so many people in terms of, I’m talking about the idea that there’s two sides of a person, the contradictions,” Young says.
The song captures how it is “to basically feel like you’re not enough for somebody and also in turn not enough for yourself”.
Amid the craziness of its success, there’s some relief that she has now reached the next level in her career.
“I mean, I feel like it’s the right time,” the 24-year-old says after reconnecting the call. “It’s been a minute, but also it does feel like the right time for me.”
Grit and charisma
Like Messy, many of her tracks are one-sided conversations – mainly with an unseen, unreasonable and unsuitable man (or woman).
When it was released, the Observer said the album had “a winning combination of zingers and vulnerability”, and the Telegraph said it showed “all of the grit and charisma of a seasoned artist”.
Other songs continue the theme of double-edged romance. Wish You Were Dead is about a relationship that veers between being affectionate and volatile; while in Big Brown Eyes, Young gets weak-kneed when a lukewarm love interest insults her.
Unlike some artists, there’s little need to ask Young what her songs are about – the stories are laid out in her raw and razor-sharp lyrics.
But how real are the situations and scenarios about which she sings?
Allow Google YouTube content?
“Pretty real. As real as it gets, to be honest,” she replies.
“I just write from my own experience and they’re very real. They’re all the things that I’ve been through, all situations I’ve had, and all experiences I’ve had.”
The honesty of her songwriting sets her apart from many other artists, but she says she knows no other way.
“I don’t think about it. Music is the only place I can be dead honest,” she says. “Not that I’m a liar…
“But I feel like that’s my outlet, the place I can be the most honest. I never really think about it. It doesn’t feel like a difficult thing to do, or something that feels like I’m baring my soul or anything. It’s just I’ve always done that in my music.”
The album ends with an equally candid spoken-word outro, in which she says the LP was written to help her accept and love herself, and to realise she doesn’t need “no ugly man (or woman)”.
“I haven’t got there yet but I will,” she says on the track.
‘Different angle’ on Brat
Young is managed by two men who separately worked with Amy Winehouse and Adele, and Young has something in common with those two artists in her combination of fragility and front.
To that, she adds the conversational tone of Lily Allen and the modern pop sensibility and chaotic energy of Charli XCX.
Young’s breakthrough coincided with the reign of Charli’s Brat ethos, which she defined as “a girl who is a little messy, likes to party, maybe says dumb things sometimes, feels herself, and has a breakdown but parties through it”.
Young feels an affinity with that. “I massively do, and I think it’s that thing of empowered women who like to party and be themselves, and that’s really important to me,” she says.
“I guess I come from a different angle – of a less heightened version of that, I guess. It would be more like, ‘I don’t really give a [care], but I also really do’. That’s what I guess I stand by a little bit more.”
Bratpop season will stretch further when Young releases her next album later this year. It is nearly finished and will “dig deeper” than the last, she says. How much deeper can she really dig?
“Quite a lot,” she says. “There’s quite a lot more to say. There’s a lot of other topics and things that have happened to me, and things that I’ve gone through that I want to discuss with people.
“But also things that are a little bit less about love, and about other things that I’ve gone through.”
Now that Messy’s cleaned up, we can expect to see more of Young, and her shiny teeth.
Politics
Keir Starmer left waiting by the phone as Donald Trump opts to call Saudi Crown Prince and China’s Xi Jinping instead
Sir Keir Starmer is still waiting to receive a phone call with Donald Trump following the 47th President’s inauguration on Monday.
Trump, who finally returned to the Oval Office after his thumping victory in November, has already reached out to a number of global leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, El Salvador leader Nayib Bukele and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Prime Minister’s deputy official spokesman appeared to issue a plea for Trump to call Starmer ahead of an expected visit to Washington.
He said: “The Prime Minister would welcome the opportunity to speak to President Trump at the earliest opportunity and they had a productive meeting in September and subsequent positive phone calls in recent months and he looks forward to speaking to him soon.”
Keir StarmerPAWhen challenged on whether it was unusual that no phone call had taken place, the deputy official spokesman replied: “I wouldn’t accept that characterisation.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden spoke to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson just three days after his 2021 inauguration.
Theresa May also jetted out to Washington within a week of Trump’s first stint in the White House in 2017, becoming the first world leader to meet the then-45th President.
However, Starmer last saw Trump for a three-hour dinner alongside Foreign Secretary David Lammy in September.
LATEST ON LABOUR’S TRUMP TENSIONS:
Donald TrumpREUTERSDespite the pair calling on December 18, much has been made of the fractured relationship between Trump and Starmer’s Labour.
Lammy is among senior Cabinet figures to have significantly shifted his stance on Trump.
Having previously labelled the President a “neo-Nazi”, Lammy is now hoping to forge close ties with Trump and his Vice President JD Vance.
Trump’s allies have also suggested that the 47th President’s team could look to block Starmer’s US Ambassador pick Lord Peter Mandelson.
The rift comes after Labour staffers also attempted to help Kamala Harris campaign against Trump in key swing states.
Keir Starmer revealed the details yesterday PADespite their efforts, Trump won the election and filed a complaint to the Federal Electoral Commission.
Lord Glasman, who was the only Labour figure invited to Trump’s inauguration, detailed some of the challenges facing the Prime Minister.
He told PoliticsHome: “I’m obviously trying to communicate with them as best I can.
“I’m not expecting them to do cartwheels when the Prime Minister wasn’t invited, the Foreign Secretary wasn’t.
“It’s a difficult moment for them, and I’m just doing my best to represent Labour and the Government in the way that I can… They want an alliance with the UK, à la Churchill or Thatcher… They are looking for the government to be their partner, but they don’t see any indication that they are.”
NewsBeat
Prince Harry campaigners could bring private prosecutions against The Sun's publisher if police don't open fresh probe
Campaigners who supported Prince Harry through his legal battle against News Group Newspapers (NGN) aren’t ruling out the possibility that private criminal prosecutions would be filed if police don’t open fresh investigations.
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Storm Eowyn has hit Britain and Ireland with “once in a generation” hurricane-force winds, cancelling more than 1,000 flights and leaving 250,000 homes without power as forecasters warn more is to come.
Residents in the worst-affected regions have described “crazy” weather conditions, as trees were felled, public transport was brought to a halt and high winds turned everyday objects into dangerous missiles. In Co Donegal, a man died after a tree fell on his car.
The Met Office issued a rare red warning in Scotland, with people urged to remain indoors as the severe weather posed a potential danger to life.
A gust of 100mph was recorded at Drumalbin in South Lanarkshire early on Friday afternoon, while in Ireland records were broken after winds reached 114mph, with almost one million properties left without power.
Meanwhile, trains and ferries were suspended across Scotland and hundreds of schools were shut, with vehicles blown over and roads closed in some areas due to debris.
Severe weather conditions are set to continue over the weekend, with an amber weather warning in place on Saturday and further travel disruption expected.
BBC weather presenter Judith Ralston described Storm Eowyn as a “once in a generation” weather event, while Northern Ireland’s first minister Michelle O’Neill said the region was currently “In the eye of the storm”.
One in five flights to, from or between British and Irish airports were cancelled on Friday, affecting around 150,000 passengers with Dublin, Edinburgh, Heathrow and Glasgow the worst hit.
Hundreds of passengers also spent hours on flights that returned to their points of departure after being unable to land at their planned destinations.
Ryanair flight RK596 from Stansted, Essex, to Edinburgh reached the Scottish capital’s airport but could not touch down safely.
After circling over the Borders it returned to Stansted, landing two hours and 44 minutes after taking off.
Commuters were faced with chaos, with train operators ScotRail, Avanti West Coast, LNER, West Midlands Railway, Lumo, Transport for Wales and Southern Western Railway all forced to delay or cancel some services.
Motorists in areas covered by red and amber weather warnings have also been told to avoid travel “unless absolutely essential” and take extra caution on the roads.
National Highways said the A66 between the A1M in North Yorkshire and M6 in Cumbria, and the A628 Woodhead Pass in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, were both closed overnight because of strong winds.
The Isle of Man’s Department of Infrastructure has declared a major incident because of the number of fallen trees and their impact on arterial roads emergency services, the government said on X.
Hurricane-force winds are those that reach at least 74mph, according to the Beaufort scale, the Met Office said. Wind speeds reached up to 96mph in Brizlee Wood in Northumberland, and 93mph in Aberdaron in north Wales, with a red warning extended until 5pm for large parts of Scotland.
In order to prepare people for the storm, around 4.5 million people received emergency alerts on their phones, which has been described as the “largest real-life use of the tool to date”.
In Galway, several trees that had stood for over six decades were uprooted, with local residents describing the winds as “scary”, while an ice skating rink in Dublin also had its roof blown away.
With authorities advising people to remain indoors in Scotland, judge Craig Revel Horwood announced the upcoming Strictly Come Dancing live show in Glasgow has been postponed until Sunday. He apologised for “any inconvenience this may cause” to the guests and confirmed the original tickets will remain valid for the new show.
SP Energy Networks said there are currently 20,000 customers across central and southern Scotland without power and the company said its engineers are working to restore supplies where possible.
Aileen Rourke, of SP Energy Networks, said: “We’ve seen wind speeds of almost 90mph with conditions remaining treacherous, hampering our ability to assess and repair damage.
“As soon as it is safe to do so, our engineers will be out in the field working to get the power back on for people as soon as we can.”
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution said as of 12.30pm, it had successfully restored power to 9,660 customers who had lost supplies since the storm began early on Friday.
It said there were 15,771 customers without power, and as the “extremely severe” storm continues to move across Scotland, it expects further disruption.
A further yellow wind warning covers the rest of UK for all of Friday.
Yellow warnings for snow are in place in Scotland, from 6am to midnight, and rain in south-west England and Wales until 9am.
In Northern Ireland, a yellow warning for snow and ice has been issued between 7pm Friday until 10am Saturday. More amber and yellow weather warnings for wind and rain have also been issued for across the weekend and on Monday.
On Saturday, an amber warning has been issued for northern Scotland, with strong winds likely to cause widespread distuption and damage to some buildings.
By Sunday, two yellow weather warning cover most of Wales, northern Ireland and south-west England, and are due to last from 8am until 6am on Monday.
Politics
I was in Washington for the inauguration. What I saw shattered Khan’s veiled attack on Trump
On January 20th, London Mayor Sadiq Khan plastered his social media with a series of conciliatory if not vague messages.
“We’re living in increasingly uncertain times, and I know many Londoners are concerned by what’s taking place around the world,” wrote Sadiq.
Sadiq shared a photo of himself smiling benevolently beneath a Piccadilly Circus LED screen. A screen which beams the assuring “London is and will always be a place for everyone”.
Now cynics will say he has deliberately timed these with Donald Trump’s second inauguration as President of the United States. Kahn’s critics will say this is just more vacuous virtue signalling from Mr Kahn.
They’ll bemoan his pronouncements as typical progressive platitudes. They will seethe that our “DEI” Mayor is making allusions to geopolitics when violent crime, knife crime and rape and sexual offences have all risen under his mayorship.
But not I! Unlike those critics, I will give our great leader the benefit of the doubt. But what could he possibly be alluding to?
In Washington D.C. recently, still buzzing and high from Donald Trump’s victory rally at the Capitol One Arena on Sunday, I racked my brains.
Sadiq would’ve loved it. The Village People, chaps, tashes and leather. They tore the roof off. It was old-school diversity. Turbo-diversity. When DEI and S&M went cock in hand. Sadiq “Diversity is our greatest strength” Kahn would’ve been shaking his little booty with joy.
Donald Trump won the election in a landslide victory
Reuters
He can’t have been referring to Trump’s America.
What could it be? When I lay back in my hotel room, the sound of cacophonous patriotism bouncing up from the streets below, I tried to find answers on the tele.
Israel ceasefire and hostage deal agreed upon, including a British hostage. Soon-to-be-Sir Sadiq must have been overjoyed.
This is what Sadiq’s has been tweeting about for the last year and a half. A deal forced through by Trump, according to Benjamin Netanyahu anyway.
Sadiq is no doubt thrilled by the immediate impact by America’s returning Commander-in-chief.
He couldn’t have been referring to Trump’s America.
LATEST MEMBERSHIP OPINION:
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been awarded a knighthood in this year’s Honours ListPAAfter all, thanks to exposure by Elon Musk, Britain’s Pakistani rape gangs scandal – where our country’s most vulnerable children who have been abused, tortured and in some cases brutally murdered – has been given global attention at last.
Thanks to Trump’s team, the American media and X, we in Britain are being nudged towards justice for the girls. No doubt Sadiq will be thrilled.
He can’t have been referring to Trump’s inauguration. After all, a majority of American-Muslims voted for Trump in opposition to the Democrat’s disregard for traditional family values and chaotic foreign policy which has left the middle east, and Eastern Ukraine in rubbles.
When I watched the swearing in ceremony beneath the Capitol building Rotunda, I laughed to myself. Those silly critics probably think Khan was referring to this. Silly them.
Prayers from both a Rabbi and Pastor Lorenzo Sewell from Detroit. A glorious display of America’s founding mantra “E Pluribus Unum” – of the many one.
A mantra that celebrates diversity but recognises unity as more important. I know Sadiq loves Diversity, but are you to tell me the idea of unity would offend him? Surely not.
Now I can’t tell you exactly what he was referring to. But I for one have no reason to believe those posts have anything to do with the return of Donald J. Trump to The White House.
A celebration of diversity, unity, democracy, and patriotism. A rejection of Biden’s disastrous foreign policy and, one hopes, a return to Trump’s first term of relative global peace.
I tell you what. I’ll come back to you.
BBC News
Merseyside PoliceWhatsApp messages seen by the BBC reveal how Southport killer Axel Rudakubana had packages sent to a neighbour’s home – one of which contained ingredients to make ricin.
The messages also reveal that his father Alphonse was aware of the deliveries and apologised for them.
In one message seen by the BBC, the father reassured a neighbour who was concerned about the unexplained deliveries that it was “sorted”, adding: “He will use our address next time.”
A neighbour told the BBC the messages raise questions over whether a crucial opportunity to stop Rudakubana’s descent into violence was missed.
The BBC has also established that Rudakubana’s parents did not alert local police to the fact the teenager attempted to travel to his former school a week before the Southport attack, where prosecutors now believe he intended to carry out a mass killing.
Details of both incidents come amid ongoing investigations into why red flags that the teenager was planning to kill went unheeded.
The messages seen by the BBC, which are from January 2022, suggest the neighbour believed the parcels which unexpectedly arrived at their home were for Axel Rudakabana. Neighbours now believe the Southport killer was using separate addresses as a decoy.
It is not known whether his father knew what was contained in the packages.
When asked about the deliveries, Merseyside Police said they would not comment on what was an ongoing investigation.
But investigators have previously revealed that Rudakubana took steps to conceal his online purchases and obsessions. He masked his identity while using online retailers to stockpile weapons – including the knife he would use in the dance class attack – and when pursuing his obsession with extreme graphic material.
After the attack in July 2024, police discovered a substance at Rudakubana’s home in a sealed box. Tests at Porton Down, the government’s biological warfare laboratory, confirmed the substance was ricin, a poison for which there is no antidote.
The search had to be halted because of the danger of the substance, though the court heard there was no evidence it had ever been used.
When the search resumed detectives found a plastic bag containing a variety of seed that is used to produce the poison. The package had been bought under the fake name of “Al Rud” and delivered to a neighbour’s address.
Merseyside PoliceCaroline, a former neighbour of Rudakubana’s in Banks, Lancashire, told the BBC: “He was clearly ordering seeds and having them delivered to a neighbour, possibly a decoy, so that it couldn’t be traced to the address that he was living at.”
Alphonse Rudakubana told neighbours in a WhatsApp group that he would have the address amended so it would not happen again.
He wrote: “It’s sorted now. These were the last orders, I am told. He will use our address next time. Thanks.”
Caroline said she witnessed social workers and police visiting the family about six weeks before the attack. She said she believes neighbours should have been alerted to concerns about Rudakubana.
She also told the BBC her cat needed to be put down after straying into the police forensic tent during the search and began “convulsing and foaming at the mouth”.
She believes it came into contact with the ricin. While no toxicology test was carried out on the cat, vets told Caroline they believe the cat had suffered from poisoning
By the time the packages were delivered to neighbours, Rudakubana had already been researching mass murder and genocide online. He was referred to the anti-extremism programme Prevent on three separate occasions between 2019 and 2021 over his interest in school shootings and extreme violence.
Merseyside PoliceA week before he killed three children, Rudakubana attempted to take a taxi to the Range High School in Formby, where he had been expelled from five years earlier for attacking a pupil with a hockey stick and repeatedly taking a knife into class.
Video from the 22 July incident shows him carrying a backpack and wearing the same hooded jumper and surgical mask he would later wear during the attack on the dance class.
On that occasion, his father intervened and pleaded with the taxi driver not to take him. His son got out of the taxi and went back inside their home.
But despite concerns over his son’s movements, the BBC has established his father did not call local police.
It is not known how much he knew of his son’s intentions that day and the BBC has been unable to speak to Rudakubana’s parents, who are believed to be living in a safe house.
Merseyside PoliceAsked about the incident, a spokesman for Lancashire Constabulary, in whose area the Rudakubana family lived, said: “This wasn’t reported to Lancashire Police”. Merseyside Police, who are still carrying out an investigation, said they could not comment.
The BBC has not established whether the 22 July incident was referred to social care staff.
Investigators have previously revealed that Rudakubana’s parents did call the police on earlier occasions as they sought help to deal with their son’s violent and erratic behaviour.
Between the ages of 13 and 17, Rudakubana – who was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder – became detached and reclusive. He was known to the police, the youth justice system and mental health services. His parents had also been offered social care help to deal with their son.
Pictures taken by police after his arrest following the dance class attack reveal a scene of chaos inside their family home.
Merseyside PoliceOne image shows a cluttered living room, which police believe Rudakubana had been using as his bedroom. Knives, arrows and chemical equipment were found inside the house, with Amazon boxes stacked in the middle of the room.
On four separate occasions, his parents resorted to calling the police as they struggled to cope with their son’s behaviour.
The first 999 call was in November 2021 after Rudakubana became “disruptive” when a stranger came to their door.
A few weeks later police were called again after Rudakubana attacked his father and damaged his car during an argument.
There was a serious incident in March 2022 when Rudakubana’s mother reported him missing. He was located after a bus driver called 999 to report a teenage passenger was refusing to pay.
When police arrived, they found Rudakubana and discovered he was carrying a kitchen knife. On that occasion, his parents were given advice on securing knives inside the home – but Rudakubana was not charged with a criminal offence.
The final call came in May 2022, when his father reported that an argument had broken out after his son was denied access to a computer.
During a briefing earlier this week, investigators were asked whether they were satisfied his parents had secured the knives inside the home. The officers would not be drawn on that but did say that when the house was searched, the weapons stored under the teenager’s bed which included a machete were clearly visible.
The Rudakubana family have not been seen by neighbours in Banks since the attack.
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