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Warning signs missed: Southport killer Axel Rudakubana’s parents asked police four times for help with teen

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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana gloated he was ‘glad they’re dead’ after murdering three children

Axel Rudakubana’s parents asked police for help to cope with their violence-obsessed son in one of a string of callouts over his worrying behaviour before the Southport attack, it can be revealed.

Officers from Lancashire Constabulary attended the family’s three-bedroom home four times between 2021 and 2022, but each time failed to identify the threat he posed.

The revelations come after the 18-year-old was sentenced to at least 52 years in prison for carrying out the horrific attack which was described by a judge as a “pre-meditated attempt to commit indiscriminate mass murder”.

The remorseless killer was absent from the dock as the sentence was read out on Thursday after he was removed from court for shouting and disrupting the hearing.

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He was given 13 life sentences with a minimum term of 51 years and 190 days. Some time was taken off his 52-year sentence due to time already served in custody.

Dashcam footage shows Rudakubana riding in a taxi on the way to the attack site

Dashcam footage shows Rudakubana riding in a taxi on the way to the attack site (PA)

Officers said on their last visit on 14 May 2022 – made after Rudakubana’s father called the police claiming his son’s behaviour had escalated because they denied him access to a computer – the family appealed to the officers for help with his behaviour.

It came just two months after he was found carrying a knife on a bus after his mother had reported him missing. Officers took him back to their property in Banks, Lancashire, where they gave the mother advice on securing knives in the home.

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In another callout on 30 November 2021, it was reported that Rudakubana had kicked his father Alphonse, a minicab driver, and damaged his car. However, the father did not want to press charges.

It was the second time police had called to the property that month, after Rudakubana became distressed when a stranger came to the door on 5 November that year.

On each callout, officers made a vulnerable child referral to the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), a partnership of agencies including police, education, social and healthcare teams designed to work together to identify and address risks to children and vulnerable adults.

A knife identical to the one used in the attack was found at Rudakubana’s home

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A knife identical to the one used in the attack was found at Rudakubana’s home (Merseyside Police)

All the police interactions are set to be scrutinised in a public inquiry into the atrocity, which claimed the lives of three girls, after the prime minister said the country had “failed in its duty” to protect the girls from the troubled teenager.

Sir Keir Starmer said Britain is facing a new threat from “young men in their bedrooms” accessing radical materials online as he warned: “Terrorism has changed”.

Assistant chief constable Mark Winstanley, of Lancashire Police, vowed to “fully cooperate” with the inquiry process to ensure any learning for police will be fully implemented.

Details of the police callouts were shared as the scale of missed opportunities to stop the killer was laid bare, including three referrals to the government’s counter-terrorism Prevent programme.

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One was made by his school in 2019, amid concerns over his behaviour and searches about mass shootings. He was flagged again in February 2021 after a fellow pupil raised concerns about social media posts about the late Libyan despot Muammar Gaddafi.

Police searched Rudakubana’s bedroom at his parent’s home

Police searched Rudakubana’s bedroom at his parent’s home (Merseyside Police)

A third referral was made in April 2021, after a teacher saw he was using a school computer to research the 2017 London Bridge terror attack, which saw eight killed and 48 injured by Islamist extremists who rammed pedestrians before launching a knife attack.

Despite the three referrals, he was never deemed suitable for the anti-extremism scheme.

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Senior national coordinator for Prevent and Pursue at Counter Terrorism Policing Vicki Evans said at the time of the referrals their approach to threats from lone individuals “fixated with violence” but with no clear ideology was “evolving” and “less developed”.

“At the time, the Prevent partnership response to the increasing fixation of extreme violence was evolving,” she said.

“It was less developed than it is today. We’ve spoken about the growing number of young people with complex fixations with violence…but who have no clear ideology despite that violent fascination.

Rudakubana, now 18, admitted murdering Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class

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Rudakubana, now 18, admitted murdering Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar, in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class (PA)

“Although improvements to help tackle this challenge have been made, it is right that questions are asked about what more needs to be done across the whole Prevent system and beyond.”

Measures needed include better identification and reducing the “ready access to weapons and horrific, toxic, online material”, she added, noting police have found no evidence to explain why he chose to attack those children or that event.

Just a week before he launched his deadly rampage on 29 July 2024 at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday class in Southport, Rudakubana booked a taxi to take him to Range High School in Formby, but his father stopped him from leaving.

From left to right: Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the mass stabbing

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From left to right: Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were killed in the mass stabbing (PA Media)

The teenager, who has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, had been expelled from the school in 2019 over claims he was carrying a knife. He later returned and attacked a pupil with a hockey stick and admitted to causing actual bodily harm.

Merseyside Police chief constable Serena Kennedy said it was “devastating” to think things could have been done to prevent the atrocious attack, which also left eight girls and two adults wounded.

“I think it’s important that all of the agencies that have had contact with Rudakubana engage fully with the public inquiry to make sure that we can fully understand when the reviews were made, what was done about them, the decisions that were made, to make sure the learning can be taken forward in the future,” she said.

“I think that we owe that to all of the families, and we owe that to all of the victims.”

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President Trump to ask OPEC to slash oil prices

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President Trump to ask OPEC to slash oil prices

President Donald Trump said he would ask Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations to “bring down the cost of oil” and doubled-down on his threat to use tariffs.

In a speech to executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, the US president said he was ‘surprised’ that Opec hadn’t brought down the price of oil before the elections.

“Right now the price is high enough that that war will continue,” he said, referring to the Russia-Ukraine war and suggesting that the higher oil price was helping to sustain funding for the conflict in Moscow.

“You gotta bring down the oil price, that will end that war. You could end that war,” he added

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The president’s comments on the oil price came after he spoke to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday. According to Saudi State media Bin Salman pledged to invest as much as $600bn in the US over the next four years, however this figure was not mentioned in the White House statement after the call.

Despite the cordial exchange, Trump said he would be asking “the Crown Prince, who’s a fantastic guy, to round it out to around $1tn”.

The price of crude fell by 1% following Trump’s comments.

According to David Oxley, Chief Climate and Commodities Economist at Capital Economics these comments are in keeping with Trump’s desire for lower gasoline prices.

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“[It’s] his clear intention to use energy as leverage over Russia to end the war in Ukraine. That said, lower oil prices will certainly not incentivise US oil producers to “drill, baby, drill” – particularly in high-cost Alaska.”

“Of course, Saudi Arabia would not be guaranteed to heed a request by President Trump to expand oil production and to bring down global oil prices.”

The US president’s appearance via video at the World Economic Forum marked his first address to a global audience since his inauguration earlier this week.

He used the platform to insist that companies around the world manufacture their products in the US or face bruising tariffs on imported goods entering the American market.

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The president also said he would demand an immediate drop in interest rates, which he said had led to deeper deficits and resulted in what he described as economic calamity under the tenure of his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

“This begins with confronting the economic chaos caused by the failed policies of the last administration,” he said.

“Over the past four years, our government racked up $8 trillion in wasteful deficit spending and inflicted nation wrecking energy restrictions, crippling regulations and hidden taxes like never before.”

Trump also spoke of “good, clean, coal” to power data centres needed for artificial intelligence. “We need double the energy we currently have in the US, for AI to be as big as we want to have it,” he said, adding that he would use emergency decrees to speed the construction of new power plants.

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“Nothing can destroy coal — not the weather, not a bomb, nothing,” said Trump.

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Donald Trump poised to release JFK assassination files as President signs latest executive order

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Donald Trump has signed an executive order to release the assassination files of John F Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.

In his latest high-profile signing since returning to the White House on Monday, Trump vowed that “all will be revealed” as he put pen to paper on bringing the details of JFK’s death to light.


“That’s a a big one, huh?” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office. “A lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades. Everything will be revealed.”

And in a show of faith to JFK’s nephew – and Trump’s incoming health secretary – Robert F Kennedy Jr, the President directed aides to pass the signing pen to his key ally.

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Trump with executive order

‘That’s a a big one, huh?’ Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office

REUTERS

On the campaign trail on the path back to office, Trump had vowed to release classified intelligence and law enforcement files on JFK’s mysterious November 1963 killing.

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On Sunday, he told supporters at a Washington DC rally: “In the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr Martin Luther King Jr and other topics of great public interest.”

But he may face resistance from what he calls the “swamp”.

Trump had released some documents related to the assassination, but ultimately caved to pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and kept a significant chunk of documents under wraps over “national security concerns”.

Soon-to-be-health chief RFK Jr has said he believes the CIA was involved in his uncle’s death – which the agency has described as “baseless”.

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Kennedy Jr has also said he believes his father, Robert Kennedy, was killed by multiple gunmen – which flies in the face of public accounts of his death.

More to follow…

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Amanda Knox fails to overturn slander conviction in Italy | World News

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FILE - Amanda Knox arrives flanked by her husband Christopher Robinson, right, and her lawyer Luca Luparia Donati at the Florence courtroom in Florence, Italy, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni, File)

Italy’s highest court has decided to uphold the conviction of Amanda Knox for slander related to the 2007 murder of her British flatmate, Meredith Kercher.

The ruling is the latest part of a 17-year legal saga which ultimately exonerated her for the 2007 fatal stabbing in the Italian university town of Perugia, north of Rome.

British exchange student Meredith Kercher
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British exchange student Meredith Kercher was killed in 2007

British student Meredith Kercher, 21, was brutally murdered in the apartment she shared with Amanda Knox, the American who was initially found guilty of the killing along with her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

Ms Knox served four years in prison before being acquitted in 2011, along with Mr Sollecito. They were fully exonerated by Italy’s highest court in 2015.

But among a complex series of legal twists and turns, in June 2024, an appeals court in Florence handed Ms Knox, 37, a
three-year sentence for wrongly accusing a Congolese man of the murder.

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Patrick Lumumba was the owner of a bar where Ms Knox, then a 20-year-old university student, had worked part-time.

She avoided jail as the sentence counted as time already served in prison.

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Amanda Knox on ‘unjust and incorrect verdict’

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Last June, she lost her bid to overturn that conviction and later told Sky TG24, Sky News’ sister channel in Italy, that she was a “victim” and did not slander anyone.

“I didn’t slander Patrick; I didn’t kill my friend [Meredith]. I have been unjustly accused for 17 years. I spent four years in prison as an innocent,” she said.

She claimed that during her initial police questioning, she was “psychologically tortured, abused and mistreated” by officers.

Patrick Lumumba and his lawyer Carlo Pacelli walk near Italy's top appeals court.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Patrick Lumumba (right) and his lawyer Carlo at court on Thursday. Pic: Reuters

Ms Knox was not at the hearing at Italy’s top court on Thursday, instead following it from the US. Earlier this week she wrote on X that “waiting is the hardest part”.

But her lawyer, Luca Luparia Donati, told Sky News they were “incredulous” at the decision and would consider “supranational initiatives to rectify what we believe to be a judicial error”.

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Patrick Lumumba, who was in the court, said: “I am very satisfied because Amanda made a mistake and this sentence must accompany her for her entire life.”

Ms Knox was ordered to pay the trial’s legal costs, as well as those of Mr Lumumba’s lawyer.

The former home of British murder victim Meredith Kercher is cordoned off with police tape in the Umbrian city of Perugia
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The former home of Meredith Kercher in 2008 in the Umbrian city of Perugia. File pic: Reuters

Read more:
Knox: Why was she back in court?
Knox Film: Trial Was ‘Soap Opera’

Amanda Knox is now a mother of two small children who advocates for criminal justice reform and campaigns against wrongful convictions.

Another man, Rudy Guede, from the Ivory Coast, was convicted of sexual assault and murder after his DNA was found at the crime scene.

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He was freed in 2021, after serving 13 years of a 16-year term.

Former Perugia public prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, who led the investigation into Ms Kercher’s murder, told Sky News last year that “there may still be a culprit who took part in the murder and who has not been discovered yet”.

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Mobile network Three ‘really sorry’ after thousands say voice calls are down | UK News

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File pic: iStock

Mobile network Three has apologised after customers across the country reported problems making and receiving voice calls.

More than 10,000 people have logged problems on outage site Downdetector, with the first issues reported around 1pm.

The network said a “small percentage” of customers were affected and that it was working hard to fix it.

People on X reported problems in places such as Yorkshire, Derbyshire, North Lanarkshire and London.

“Six hours in and I still can’t make or receive a call!” said user @nameisrichard.

“I’m trying to organise my mother’s funeral and I can’t make, or receive, a single call. It’s appalling,” said @flynn1965.

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@bertis100 posted: “We have no coverage since 1pm in Motherwell Scotland.”

The network first apologised this afternoon but said data and 999 calls were working as normal.

Three repeated the message at 7.30pm and said it was “really sorry” for the inconvenience.

However, its latest message only mentioned data services were unaffected, suggesting emergency calls might be impacted after all.

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The firm’s coverage checker is currently unavailable on its website.

Read more from Sky News:
Meta denies ‘forcing’ people to follow Trump
Digital driving licences to be introduced this year

More than 5,000 people were still self-reporting problems on the Downdetector site just before 8pm.

It was announced last month that Three’s merger with Vodafone had been approved, with the companies promising an improved service and an £11bn investment programme.

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The merger is expected to formally complete during the first half of 2025.

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Watch live: Sentencing of Southport killer Axel Rudakubana for murdering three girls at Taylor Swift dance class

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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana gloated he was ‘glad they’re dead’ after murdering three children

Warning: This livestream may contain distressing content.

Watch live as Southport killer Axel Rudakubana is sentenced today (23 January) for murdering three young girls in a frenzied knife attack last year.

Rudakubana, 18, stabbed and killed the girls, aged between six and nine, with a 20cm-long kitchen knife as he ambushed a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside.

Wearing a surgical face mask while armed with the blade, the then 17-year-old travelled five miles from his family home to the studio where he killed Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe.

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As a trial was set to begin at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, the teenager pleaded guilty to the murder of the three children as well as the attempted murders of eight others.

He also admitted production of a biological toxin and possession of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism. He also pleaded guilty to possession of a knife.

Back at Liverpool Crown Court on Thursday, he will be sentenced for a total of 16 charges.

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Three mobile customers tell BBC outage preventing 999 calls

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Three mobile customers tell BBC outage preventing 999 calls

Customers of the mobile network, Three, have told the BBC they cannot make 999 calls, as the network faces a significant outage.

The firm has apologised after more than ten thousand people told outage tracker Downdetector they were unable to make or receive phone calls on Thursday.

The BBC has been told by members of the public that 999 calls will not connect from their devices using the Three network. The BBC has not been able to independently verify their claims.

Three told the BBC it was “investigating this urgently”, adding that data from emergency services showed the “majority” of 999 calls were being “connected via other networks”.

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There have also been several thousand reports from users of Smarty and ID Mobile – smaller mobile companies which use Three’s network.

Three’s support team has been telling customers that it does not “have a timeframe” for a fix, but that the firm is “working hard to resolve this as soon as possible”.

In a statement to the BBC, a Three spokesperson said the company is “aware of a number of reports that customers have not been able to connect to 999 calls”.

“We are taking this very seriously and are investigating this urgently and we apologise if anyone has been unable to successfully contact emergency services.

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“Call data from the emergency services shows that the majority of 999 calls being placed via our network are being connected via other networks,” the spokesperson added.

In an earlier statement, Three had said that people were still able to use mobile data services and make 999 calls during the outage, though multiple people had told the BBC that was not the case for them.

Three has around 10.5m customers across the UK, according to its website, but it is unclear how many of them are affected by the outages.

Many people on social media have shared their frustration at the outage and described the disruption they said it had caused them.

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One person claimed they had “missed a medical appointment” as a result of being unable to receive calls, while another said the issues had left their daughter “stranded”.

And several people have claimed they would be leaving the network altogether.

In a statement the regulator Ofcom said: “We are aware that Three is experiencing problems with its network. We are in contact with Three to establish the scale and cause of the problem as soon as possible.”

It is not known whether customers will be able to claim compensation for the outage, although according to the Ofcom website it “may be appropriate” for providers to offer refunds “while repairs are being made”.

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It comes a month after the UK regulator gave the go-ahead for Three to merge with former rival Vodafone in a £16.5bn deal.

It comes the same day a major outage affected artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT.

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Axel Rudakubana: Labour blasted for ‘double standards’ over failings

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Former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has accused authorities of suppressing crucial information about the Southport dance class killer, claiming they presented him as “a Welsh choir boy” to the public.

Speaking on GB News, Kwarteng said officials “clearly knew things about the killer which they suppressed” in the aftermath of the attacks.


“At the time of the murder, they essentially were presenting the killer as a Welsh choir boy,” he said.

The former chancellor suggested there was a deliberate withholding of information about Axel Rudakubana’s background and potential motivations.

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Kwasi Kwarteng, Axel Rudakubana

GB News / CPS

“Either they suppressed it for whatever reason, and we need to get to the bottom of it, or it was a cover up because they felt that in that very patronising way, they felt that people couldn’t handle that information,” Kwarteng said.

Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty earlier this week to murdering three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport last July.

He is due to be sentenced today at Liverpool Crown Court – while his crimes could warrant a whole life order, this cannot be applied as he was 17 at the time of the offences.

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Kwarteng claimed Merseyside Police were instructed by “people on high” not to release information they had about the case.

u200bAxel Rudakubanau200b

Axel Rudakubana will be sentenced in court today for the Southport attack

CPS/PA

“What was so crazy about that was that it actually stoked the very thing that they wanted to avoid because people were kept in the dark,” he said.

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The former chancellor pointed to what he called an “obvious double standard” in how the case was handled.

“Picture a situation where the terrorist, the killer, had been a white teenager who had been found with white supremacist literature, who then went out and killed three girls of ethnic origin,” he said.

“There wouldn’t be this debate. They would have denounced it,” Kwarteng added. He also criticised how Rudakubana had “slipped through the net” despite being repeatedly referred to Prevent.

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Starmer has defended his position on withholding information about the Southport killer. The Prime Minister insisted he was following “the law of the land” to prevent the case against Rudakubana from collapsing.

Kwasi Kwarteng

Kwarteng questioned how the 18-year-old ‘slipped through the net’ after being referred to Prevent three times

GB News

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“You know and I know that it would not have been right to disclose those details,” Starmer told reporters. “The only losers if the details had been disclosed would be the victims and the families because it ran the risk the trial would collapse.”

Rudakubana faces a life sentence, with a minimum term to be set by the judge before he can be considered for release. Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said investigations revealed “a man with a unhealthy obsession with extreme violence” but noted that “no one ideology was uncovered.”

Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor Ursula Doyle described it as “an unspeakable attack” that turned what should have been a day of “carefree innocence” into “a scene of the darkest horror.”

“It is clear that this was a young man with a sickening and sustained interest in death and violence,” she added.

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Eurovision: Hamas 7 October attack survivor to represent Israel | Ents & Arts News

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Eurovision: Hamas 7 October attack survivor to represent Israel | Ents & Arts News

A survivor of the 7 October Hamas attack has been chosen to represent Israel at Eurovision.

Yuval Raphael was at the Nova music festival when Hamas led a cross-border attack from Gaza into southern Israel.

Hundreds were killed and many were taken hostage at the event.

The amateur singer was there with friends and later told Israel’s parliament she hid under dead bodies for eight hours.

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Yuval Raphael.
Pic: Eurovision/Tal Givoni
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Yuval Raphael. Pic: Eurovision/Tal Givoni

She added: “I’m going to deal with this thing for the rest of my life.”

The 24-year-old earned her place at Eurovision, taking place in Switzerland in May, after coming first in the Rising Star singing contest on Israeli TV.

She won with a performance of ABBA’s Dancing Queen which she dedicated to victims of the attack which kick-started the war between Israel and Hamas.

After winning, she said: “I can’t explain how excited and ready I am.

“Thank you for giving me this huge honour and trusting me to represent my country on the grand Eurovision stage in Switzerland.”

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In the months since the 2023 attack, which killed over 1,200 people, Israel has killed over 45,000 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Around 90% of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million people are said to have been displaced.

A ceasefire was recently agreed for the conflict in Gaza, and will see the return of hostages and prisoners.

Read more from Sky News:
Woman jailed for causing baby’s death
Sainsbury’s to cut over 3,000 jobs
Record-breaking Oscar nominations revealed

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Last year’s Eurovision was overshadowed by the war in Gaza, with large demonstrations protesting against Israel’s participation, and the country’s representative was kept under tight security throughout.

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Why wasn’t Southport killer Axel Rudakubana given a whole-life order?

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Southport killer Axel Rudakubana gloated he was ‘glad they’re dead’ after murdering three children

Southport killer Axel Rudakubana been jailed for a minimum of 52 years after pleading guilty to murdering three young girls in a frenzied knife attack last year.

Rudakubana, 18, stabbed and killed the girls aged between six and nine with a 20cm-long kitchen knife as he ambushed a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, Merseyside.

Wearing a green hoodie, a surgical face mask and armed with the blade, the then 17-year-old travelled five miles from his family home to the studio where he unleashed his murderous rampage.

Sir Keir Starmer vowed the attack would be a “line in the sand” for Britain while announcing a public inquiry into the atrocity after the killer admitted to 16 offences.

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However, despite the lengthy sentence Rudakubana was not given a whole life order. The Independent takes a look at what one is below, and why the killer has avoided one.

(L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were all slain by Axel Rudakubana in a brutal knife attack last year

(L-R) Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar were all slain by Axel Rudakubana in a brutal knife attack last year (PA Media)

What is a whole life order?

An offender can be sentenced to a whole life order – or “whole life tariff” – for the most serious cases of murder, meaning their crime was so serious they will never be released from prison.

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There were 65 prisoners serving whole life orders in the UK as of 30 June 2023, according to the Ministry of Justice.

Killers Rosemary West, Levi Bellfield, Michael Adebolajo, Wayne Couzens and Lucy Letby were among those serving this type of sentence.

Killer nurse Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole life orders for murdering newborn babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital

Killer nurse Lucy Letby is serving 15 whole life orders for murdering newborn babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital (PA Media)

How is it different to a life sentence?

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Any offender found guilty of murder must be given a life sentence. However, a judge must decide whether to set a minimum term which must be served in full before release on licence, or impose a whole life order.

A murderer will serve a life sentence with a minimum term for the rest of their life, but does not necessarily spend this entire time in prison.

They would usually serve a term in prison, and then be released on licence subject to certain conditions. For example, the minimum term for murder with a knife is 25 years, then the offender would be released on licence. If they broke the conditions of this licence at any point, they could be sent back to prison.

Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens is serving a whole life order for abducting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard

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Former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens is serving a whole life order for abducting, raping and murdering Sarah Everard (PA Media)

Why has Rudakubana avoided a whole life order?

A judge cannot impose a whole life order on anyone who was under the age of 18 at the time of the offence, irrespective of the seriousness of that offence.

Despite being aged 18 at the time of his conviction, Rudakubana was 17 when he murdered Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine.

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Email demands US government workers report DEI programmes

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Email demands US government workers report DEI programmes

The Trump administration emailed thousands of federal employees on Wednesday, ordering them to report any efforts to “disguise” diversity initiatives in their agencies or face “adverse consequences”.

The request came after President Donald Trump banned diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programmes throughout the government.

Emails seen by the BBC directed workers to “report all facts and circumstances” to a new government email address within 10 days.

Some employees interpreted it as a demand to sell out their colleagues to the White House.

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“We’re really freaked out and overwhelmed,” said one employee at the Department Health and Human Services (HHS).

The Office of Personnel Management, which manages the federal workforce, issued guidance requiring agency heads to send a notice to their staff by 17:00 eastern time on Wednesday. It included an email template that many federal staffers ultimately received that night.

Some employees, like those at the Treasury Department, got slightly different versions of the email.

The Treasury Department email excluded the warning about “adverse consequences” for not reporting DEI initiatives, according to a copy shared with the BBC.

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In one of his first actions as president, Trump signed two executive orders ending “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “DEI” programmes within the federal government and announced any employees working in those roles would immediately be placed on paid administrative leave.

Such programmes are designed to increase minority participation in the workforce and educate employees about discrimination.

But critics of DEI, like Trump, argue that the practice itself is discriminatory because it takes race, gender, sexual identity or other characteristics into consideration.

Trump and his allies attacked the practice frequently during the campaign.

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In a speech Thursday at the World Economic Conference in Davos, Switzerland, Trump declared he was making America a “merit-based country”.

Critics of DEI have praised Trump’s decision.

“President Trump’s executive orders rescinding affirmative action and banning DEI programs are a major milestone in American civil rights progress and a critical step towards building a colour-blind society,” Yukong Mike Zhao, president of the Asian American Coalition for Education, said in a statement.

The group had supported a successful effort at the US Supreme Court to overturn affirmative action programmes at US universities.

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But current federal employees, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation, said that the email they received felt more like an attempt to intimidate staff than to make the government more fair.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Trump has signed a torrent of executive orders since he took office, including a hiring freeze in the federal government, an order for workers to return to the office and an attempt to reclassify thousands of government employees in order to make them easier to fire.

The HHS employee who spoke to the BBC criticised the government’s DEI practices, believing that while it was important to build a diverse staff and create opportunities in health and medical fields, “identity politics have played into how we function normally and that’s not beneficial to the workforce”.

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“But that doesn’t mean I want my colleagues to get fired,” the employee added.

He described the the impact the email and the DEI orders had on his agency as “very calculated chaos”.

The employee’s division had been thrown into confusion, he said, with questions about hiring practices going forward, as well as what programmes and directives were allowed to continue, given Trump’s broad definition of DEI.

A second HHS employee said that hiring and research grants had been frozen and the entire department staff was waiting to see what they could do next.

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The HHS, and one of its subsidiary agencies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), issue millions of dollars in federal grants to universities and researchers across the globe to advance scientific research.

Agency employees feared that the DEI order could have an impact outside the government as well. One questioned if grants that allowed laboratories to create more opportunities for hiring minority scientists and medical professionals would now get the axe.

An employee who worked at the Food and Drug Administration told the BBC that she had not received the email, but all DEI-related activities had been paused.

“We have been told by seniors to keep doing our jobs,” she said. “But there is a sense of fear about how it’s going to have an impact on our work in general.”

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