Rise Of The Ram Raiders

A crime Britain believed it had conquered decades ago has returned in a frightening new guise – with overwhelmed police forces struggling to keep pace.

Organised gangs are using stolen vans, 4x4s, motorbikes and even heavy construction machinery to smash into shops, supermarkets, banks and jewellers across the UK in brute force ram-raids.

Once dismissed as a crude smash-and-grab crime of the 1980s, ram-raiding has developed into a smooth, high-impact tactic favoured by gangs who are usually long gone before officers arrive.

Police forces nationwide are now battling what insiders describe as a ‘relentless’ wave of attacks – not restricted to inner cities but rural villages too.

Experts warn ram-raiding has become one of the most efficient – and most difficult to stop – crimes in Britain.

Kevin Moore, former head of CID at Sussex Police, said the reasons behind the surge were stark.

He said: ‘There is an obvious reason for this escalation in so-called ram raid offences.

‘The rewards are high, and the risks of being caught are low.

‘The ability of the police to respond quickly, even to emergency calls, has decreased in recent years, due solely to the fact that front-line policing has been decimated due to a shortage of numbers.

‘Additionally, because such offences do not involve violence against the person, they tend to attract less severe prison sentences.’

There are no official national figures – but a glance at police appeals and local newspaper reports paints a gloomy picture, backed up by CCTV footage showing brazen raids unfolding in seconds.

In one incredible incident last October, residents in Milton Keynes filmed a telehandler being used to pull an ATM clean out of a supermarket wall.

The weighty machinery smashed through the shop front, dragged the cash machine into the street, hoisted it into the air and dropped it into the rear of a waiting pick-up truck.

Masked thieves then fled, leaving the telehandler and dumping rubble scattered across the road.

Karolina Oswiecimska, who filmed the ram raid, said: ‘My daughter heard cars and after a minute, she heard something like a chainsaw.

‘When she looked, they were already ripping out the ATM.

‘She called me, and I started recording. My partner called the police.

‘Everything was going so fast. They were there maybe for five to seven minutes.’

In nearby Towcester, raiders this month repeated a similar feat – stealing a telehandler before driving it to a nearby Nationwide branch.

Once there, they used the stolen construction vehicle to rip a cash machine from the wall, destroying the branch’s facade.

Northamptonshire Police said the gang then lowered the ATM into a blue Mercedes Vito van, which had a hole cut into the roof specifically to accommodate the machine, before fleeing the scene.

Meanwhile, in Retford, Notts, CCTV footage caught the moment a stolen digger was used in a botched ram raid on a Spar convenience store.

The offenders, John Charles and Reuben Reynolds, smashed through the shop’s front wall in the early hours of March 14 2023, activating alarms and leaving bricks and rubble strewn across the pavement.

Both men were incarcerated for four years, as of August 2024.

Jewellery stores have also been targeted with increasing boldness by ram raiders.

Alarming footage from a historic shopping arcade in Bognor Regis shows a stolen Range Rover sneaking into position before its driver revs sharply, yanking the steel security grille clean off a jeweller’s shop.

The force was so violent that it smashed the windows of a neighbouring business.

Within moments, robbers were inside, smashing display cabinets and grabbing £40,000 of gold, silver and luxury watches in a slick raid lasting scarcely four minutes.

No arrests have yet been made following the November heist.

In another case, phone footage this month captured a motorbike-mounted gang descending on a Rolex boutique in affluent Knightsbridge in West London.

Armed with crowbars, they threatened staff, scooped up high-value watches and fled in under three minutes.

Images show smashed glass cabinets and one motorbike evidently dumped inside the Bucherer Rolex Boutique at One Hyde Park.

Daylight attacks are also becoming increasingly common.

In March 2024, ram raiders smashed into a post office in east London and stole a cash machine – before struggling to load it into the boot of their getaway car.

In the video, three hooded guys are seen hauling the ATM off the Harold Hill shopfront using a rope that is tied to a vehicle, ripping a portion of the building with it.

They then try to open the machine with an angle grinder before struggling to pack it into the back of a getaway car and fleeing the scene.

The scourge is not limited to cities, but towns and villages, where the local ATM is often a crucial lifeline.

In Olney, Buckinghamshire, thieves used machinery to smash into a Nationwide branch for the second time.

The heavy vehicle was driven straight into the building in October, targeting the area where the ATM was installed and leaving the listed building’s facade torn wide open.

In July 2018, the front of the former Barclays in the market town was nearly destroyed when a JCB digger was driven through the front, and thieves made off with a cash machine.

In Hoyland, near Rotherham, ram-raiders struck this month for the second time – snatching cigarettes and leaving a huge bill for damage.

Criminals used two cars to smash their way through shutters on the front of the Cloughfields Convenience store to grab cigarettes worth an estimated £3,000 to £4,000.

Shopkeeper Asim Sehzad told how he was left facing a £20,000 repair bill.

In Kidsgrove, Staffs, a JCB was used to smash into a Co-op store – destroying posts used to discourage ram-raiders.

Co-ops in Billingham, Lincs; Newent, Glos, and Chandler’s Ford, Hants have also been targeted in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, in Wittering, Cambs, an excavator was used to plough into the community shop, pulling out the ATM.

Even the smallest communities are not being spared.

In Cheddar, Somerset – a village better known for tourism than violent crime – masked gangs last year targeted three shops in four different attacks.

Shop owner Elaine Moodie was left devastated after up to £20,000 worth of Jellycat toys were robbed in minutes from her The Gorge Bear Company store.

CCTV shows thieves ramming the door of the property with a vehicle before stuffing a heap of the fluffy toys into a bag before fleeing.

Ms Moodie said: We’ve worked so hard to build the business up to this level, and to have someone come in and do that to us is just heart-wrenching.

‘We have no idea (where they’ve come from), we don’t think that they’re local, but we do think they did their homework before the thefts.

‘You don’t expect it in a beautiful place like Cheddar.’

In Addingham, West Yorkshire, two women secretly filmed a telehandler smashing through the wall of a village Co-op just before 2 am last February.

Their whispered commentary, as the gang struggled to make their getaway with the heavy machine, revealed their disbelief at the destruction.

One gasped: ‘Oh my God, they are bringing half the building down.’

Two suspects were subsequently arrested by West Yorkshire Police.

While the spate of ram-raids continues to shock communities across Britain, police insist that some of those responsible are being caught – and jailed.

Tony Smith, a serial burglar, is one such criminal. In only a few weeks, he stole seven cars and five ATMs during a blatant cross-country crime spree.

Smith, 26, of Cambridgeshire, was incarcerated for seven years and six months in November after admitting to raids in Dorset, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

Another raider, Kayne Palmer, 33, was locked up after a violent ram-raid left terrified shop owners trapped upstairs as a stolen van smashed into their business below.

Palmer, 33, was caught on camera ramming into Bestwood Hill Food and Wine in Nottingham using a stolen vehicle in October 2023. 

He was seen stealing £8,000 worth of cigarettes and booze.

CCTV also captured the moment a stolen pickup truck was used in a ram raid at a Tesco Express store in Northwich, Cheshire.

Driver Robin Vaughan stole more than £3,000 in cash as well as a bag of parcels at around 12.40 am on June 16 last year.

The 35-year-old of Lyon Close, St Helens, caused more than £35,000 worth of damage to the store and was incarcerated for three years.

We don’t appear to have a politician with the persuasive power to stop these individuals, and apparently, we don’t have enough police numbers, but there appear to be enough officers when a pub needs raiding, or when police arrest people at 3 am over something they said on a parent’s WhatsApp group. It’s not about numbers; it’s how those numbers are deployed, and that is down to a lack of leadership at the highest levels.

There are CCTV cameras everywhere, so when does a JCB driving down the road not start raising suspicion?

The UK has turned into a soft touch with no deterrents, and because there are no deterrents, it’s hardly surprising and not unexpected that we now have this vile behaviour, and our police are too busy policing protests, rioting and hurty words.

Our police are not powerless to stop these people; they just can’t be bothered investigating because it’s too much hard work. If our spineless police force can’t cope or just don’t want to do anything, bring in the Home Guard.

The whole of the UK has become a laughing stock, and it would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. Our government is allowing it to happen – it’s time for a change, folks!

Phone Numbers From Childhood Remembered By Millions

According to a recent study, millions of Brits who now only use their mobile phones can still recall ancient landline phone numbers from decades ago.

With a year until the January 2027 landline switch-off, a new study suggests half the nation can still recite the telephone number from their childhood home, as well as their family members and school friends.

As the country moves into a totally digital phone future, Talkmobile commissioned the research as a sentimental look back.

For consumers and companies, this implies that landline voice calls will be digitally encoded and transmitted via the internet rather than being carried over the outdated analogue PSTN infrastructure.

While the underlying technology is transforming, the service itself will remain fundamentally the same for users.

The shift to internet-based phone systems promises improved call quality with clearer connections, more competitive pricing through bundled packages, and enhanced security features to combat nuisance and scam calls.

While just under half of UK households still have a landline (47 per cent), millions of Brits still fondly reflect on the days of the family phone book filled with scribbled telephone numbers.

According to the poll of 2,000 adults, three in five Brits (57 per cent) can still recall the landline number they had growing up – increasing to almost seven in ten (68 per cent) for Gen X – aged 45 to 59.

One in five Gen X (21 per cent) can also recall between three and five landline phone numbers off the top of their heads. Millennials – aged 28 to 44 – follow closely at almost two in 10 (18 per cent).

The study showed Boomers – aged 60 to 78 – are the generation most likely to have a landline today at almost two-thirds (64 per cent), while millennials are the least likely at nearly a quarter (27 per cent).

Landlines are already a thing of the past for many young adults – fewer than one in 10 (8 per cent) of Gen Z say they never even had one growing up.

More than half of Brits (55 per cent) no longer own or use a physical phone book; however, a quarter of Boomers (25 per cent) still actively use one.

Talkmobile spokesperson Stuart Wilson said: ‘Landline numbers are ingrained in our memories, even as we move towards a digital-only future.

‘These numbers represent more than just a way to make calls; they’re a connection to our past and the people we love.

‘At Talkmobile, we’re committed to making modern communications as straightforward as those memorable landlines once were.

‘With our industry-leading Trustpilot score of 4.7, we’re proving that great customer service and uncomplicated technology can go hand in hand as we embrace this new era of connectivity.’

The trouble with all of this is that some elderly people still use and depend on a landline, but when everything goes over to digital, there will be no possibility of contacting anyone in an emergency should the internet fail, that’s even if they have the internet in the first place.

This service will not be fundamentally the same. At present, a landline works without internet. Under the new system, it requires an internet connection, so if the internet goes down, you will not be able to use the landline; therefore, I don’t see how this can be called an improvement.

A lot of elderly people have alarm system monitoring, which means that when it is switched over, and the internet goes down, they will not be able to use their alarm system monitoring in an emergency, and you won’t be able to call 999 in an emergency – can you see the problem here?

Slave For 25 Years

A vulnerable woman kept as a house slave for 25 years by a mother-of-ten was failed by social services, a neighbour has said today.

A woman living next to Amanda Wixon, who yesterday was convicted of a ‘Dickensian’ decades-long campaign of abuse and false imprisonment, said she repeatedly rang authorities over concerns for the malnourished woman’s welfare.

Wixon took in the victim as a 14-year-old girl initially for a weekend in 1996, but locked her away in the council house in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, until 2021, when the alarm was raised with a secret phone.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons but is now in her 40s, was forced into work and kept in appalling conditions inside the ‘house of horrors’.

Disturbing police footage showed the damp ‘prison’ room that was home to the victim, who was discovered fearful, dirty and without any teeth.

She was punched, stamped on, shoved down the stairs and beaten with a broom, among other abuses. She also had bleach spattered on her face, washing liquid squirted down her neck, and her head flushed in the lavatory.

One of Wixon’s neighbours was a witness in the case against the 56-year-old and says she saw her victim regularly knocking on the windows from inside.

Speaking outside of the court hearing, Kiram, a 33-year-old mother, said that she saw the woman being beaten up, thrown around ‘like a rag doll’, and forced to constantly sit on the floor.

She said: ‘It was disgusting. I’m just so shocked it’s been waiting for so long.

‘I was a neighbour from the age of 13. I mentioned it to my mum because I could see it from my room. I made phone calls to social services, nothing was ever done.’

Kiram continued: ‘Social services failed her massively. She was diagnosed with global developmental delay. And obviously, a lot of other learning difficulties.

‘You could tell that she was vulnerable. The hygiene was not there. It was like a house of horrors. There were a few occasions where she’d come to the window. But that was years later. We didn’t think she was still there.’

Kiram said that she used to see the victim as a child, but then saw nothing of her for a number of years, until around 2016.

She said that during the COVID lockdowns, she saw the woman knocking on windows from the inside, but that ‘nothing was ever said’.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire County Council said: ‘We were first made aware of the tragic situation regarding this individual in 2021 as part of the police investigation, and since that point, our Adult Social Care services have been supporting the victim in this shocking case.’

During a two-week trial, prosecutor Samuel Jones said the modern slavery victim, known as ‘K’, was a vulnerable woman who had effectively ‘disappeared’ from society.

Gloucester Crown Court heard the victim was tightly controlled, rarely allowed to leave the two homes where she had lived with Wixon, required to ask for food, denied washing facilities and medical care and forced to clean extensively, often on her knees.

A jury heard she had been born into a dysfunctional family, and Wixon stepped in to help when they could no longer cope with her.

Jurors were told Wixon had seven children at this point, and soon lodged a benefits claim for the latest child.

Mr Jones told the jury: ‘She was kept in and prevented from leaving the address, and she was assaulted and hit many, many times and forced to work with the threats of violence.

‘She had been denied food and the ability to wash over many years.’

A sickening 42-second clip revealed the damp bedroom, with a filthy mattress and bedding, as well as unpainted walls, which proved to be K’s only refuge as she suffered at the hands of Wixon, whom she dubbed ‘The Witch’. 

The clip captures the moment the officer discovers a gut-wrenching note under her pillow – with phone numbers scribbled on it.

The policeman can be heard heavily breathing as he steps into the room and says, ‘Absolutely filthy bedding.’

Police footage also revealed the moment Wixon was arrested in 2021 when police stormed her home.

The court heard police used voice notes sent by the victim to one of Wixon’s children – in which she expressed fear and said she was unsafe – to help build the case against the defendant, while a neighbour described the victim as resembling ‘something out of a concentration camp’.

Some residents reported seeing the victim being humiliated and abused in the garden; others said they did not see her for long periods of time. When they did, she was often sitting alone at a window, waving.

The court heard that following her removal from the house, the victim initially suffered trauma symptoms and had nightmares about Wixon’s abuse.

A doctor noted large, thick calluses on both ankles, which the victim put down to long hours cleaning floors on her hands and knees, while a dentist said she must have suffered extreme pain at times as a result of her rotting teeth.

But since being rescued from Wixon, the woman’s health has improved, and she has become more independent, jurors were told.

Neighbours described Wixon as a ‘controlling woman’. One said: ‘What has happened is beyond belief.

‘When I first moved here 20 years ago, I would regularly see her (the victim) in the garden.

‘She would be hanging the washing out or tending the garden, but then she disappeared.

‘I thought she had moved, but all the time she must have been in the house.’

According to the neighbour who said she phoned social services, the victim is ‘thriving’ and like a ‘completely different person’ after being liberated five years ago.

Another local, who was not aware of the enslavement, described Wixon as ‘filthy’.

She said of the victim: ‘Obviously, she wasn’t allowed to go to the hospital, the doctors.

‘Social services were always shut down, so how was the family meant to know what was going on? That girl is still suffering, and she lost 25 years of her life.’

Another said: ‘It’s shocking this has happened right next to my house.

‘Amanda just seemed like a normal person, we would greet each other with “hello” and “goodbye”, and that’s it.’

Wixon was found guilty of two counts of requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

She was cleared of one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

She will be sentenced in March, with the judge telling her a prison term was ‘a certainty’.

Wixon showed no remorse as she left the courthouse on foot with several members of her family. 

Asked if she would like to apologise to her victim, she replied: ‘Why would I say sorry for something I never did?’

A request for more comment has been made to Gloucestershire County Council.

If the victim was regularly seen knocking on the windows, why did no one help this poor woman? Her life could have been significantly different if they had. They should have contacted the police; that should have been their first port of call.

Wixon should get at least 50 years in prison, double what the poor victim had to endure.

Let me guess what will happen through the investigation. The police and social services will say that ‘lessons have been learned.’ That there was a ‘failure of the system,’ and that ‘no one is to blame.’ It’s just rinse and repeat just to cover their backsides.

What has happened to our duty of care in this country? If you see something that is wrong, unjust, cruel or illegal, report it to the proper portals for a response, and don’t quit until you get one.

Emma Thompson Says School Meals Are Unhealthy

Dame Emma Thompson has sparked a backlash after hitting out at ‘unhealthy’ school dinners in a new campaign video.

The Love Actually star, 66, has narrated a new film criticising heads and the Government over ‘ultra-processed food’ (UPF) in schools.

Dame Emma’s intervention comes 20 years after chef Jamie Oliver launched his own crusade against ‘Turkey Twizzlers’ and other processed food in schools – leading to new Government standards for lunches.

The clip, produced for the Food Foundation charity, calls on ministers to better ‘monitor’ school food to ensure it is nutritional.

However, it caused a backlash on social media from those pointing out that many children are picky and refuse to eat a diverse range of foods.

One critic said: ‘Good luck with that! You cannot get them to eat it, they go for a packed lunch instead or don’t eat it, then go hungry.’

A second said: ‘You can’t make kids eat healthy, that old saying comes to mind… You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink it.’

A third said: ‘Another celebrity who hasn’t got a clue.’

The video features a cartoon illustration of a plate of healthy food, which includes red cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, aubergine, potatoes and cherry tomatoes.

A cartoon of a boy eating cereal out of a box is exhibited during the ‘unhealthy food’ part of the video.

Dame Emma says in the video: ‘Four and a half million children in the UK are growing up in poverty. For many, a healthy diet is unaffordable. Fewer than 10 per cent of teenagers eat enough fruit and veg. And we see the impact of this lack of nutrients on those living in the most deprived areas. They’re growing up shorter than other kids.’

She adds: ‘Whilst some schools are managing to cook and serve healthy food, too many are now serving food that is unhealthy and lacking in essential nutrition. It is ultra-processed.’

A young person then says: ‘Ultra-processed food, UPF. It’s cheap, it’s high in calories, but it’s very low in goodness.’

Dame Emma lashes out at the Government for not ‘monitoring what’s happening in the school food system’.

‘We just want to sit down to a school lunch that’s good for us,’ says another young person in the video.

Dame Emma adds: ‘Imagine that. Classrooms would be calmer, children with full tummies ready to learn… Every child has the right to healthy food – let’s get it right in all our schools. Let’s give all our kids a good lunch.’

The film is part of the Food Foundation’s campaign to update food standards in schools to make sure students living in poverty have access to a nutritious, hot meal.

They say current food standards in schools do not take into account recent nutritional recommendations, and compliance with standards is not monitored.

The clip drew mixed responses from parents, school staff and the wider public on social media.

One critic said: ‘You can cook all the nutritious food you like, and schools do, including salad and fruit, but you cannot force a child to eat it. They have a choice to eat what they want. The amount of nutritious food thrown away in primary schools is criminal.’

Another said: ‘I’d like to know the take-up because I hear kids don’t take it up because they don’t like the food.’

A third said: ‘I work in a school and we provide salad pots, hot meals, vegetables, pudding and fruit. A lot of children don’t want to eat the salad pots or the vegetables… We can supply everything, but we cannot force a child to eat anything.’

However, others agreed with Dame Emma, with one saying: ‘I would never put my kids on school dinners, the food is beige central with very little variety, even more so if your kids don’t eat meat.

Another said: ‘Our school has some “interesting” food choices for a primary school that are more fitting for a working men’s club, like a cheese and onion roll.’

Dame Emma, who attended the elite Camden School for Girls in London when it was a grammar school, is known for her activism on food poverty and climate change.

In 2019, she was ridiculed during another nutrition campaign for claiming on TV that students are being refused tap water in schools.

She said poor children are spending their lunch allowance on bottled water, leaving them with hardly any money for food.

The Labour-supporting actress even said water fountains are being broken ‘on purpose’ in some schools to boost bottled water sales.

At the time, the then Tory Government said it ‘did not believe’ her claim because it is illegal for schools to withhold water and those doing so would face sanction. 

Today, Jamie Oliver said: ‘Good school food transforms children’s health, learning, attendance and wellbeing. Yet we still have a system where some children eat well at school, and others don’t. That’s outrageous.

‘School meals are the UK’s biggest and most important restaurant chain, and it’s failing too many of its customers. It’s long past time for government to properly update 20-year-old standards and actually enforce them.’

The Government announced last year it would expand free school meal eligibility to all pupils in England whose families claim Universal Credit.

Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said: ‘Monitoring has to go hand in hand with new standards so that schools which aren’t meeting standards can be given adequate support to improve.

‘There are lots of wonderful examples of schools delivering fantastic food to children – that experience needs to be less of a postcode lottery and instead something which all children can benefit from.’

A Government spokesman said: ‘Through our Plan for Change, we’ve taken the historic step to offer free school meals to every child from a household in receipt of universal credit, reaching over half a million more children and helping us to drive the biggest reduction of child poverty in a single Parliament.

‘The Government is working with experts to revise the School Food Standards as part of our mission to create the healthiest ever generation of children.’

Sadly, Emma Thompson is a champagne socialist, and even though she is a rather good actress, she should focus on acting instead of advising. She is right, though, school dinners are appalling compared to when I was a child – it was real meat and two veg, and a scrummie desert for afters, plus a drink.

It was never about nutritional value; it was about cost-cutting, and that is why we are in the chaos that we are in, but I suppose it could be worse. Some people are starving in poverty-stricken countries, but we are not a poverty-stricken country – there is money, but we’re just not allowed to see it.

If Emma Thompson and Jamie Oliver are so concerned about school dinners, why don’t they just donate some of their money towards feeding the children that they claim to be so worried about?

Growing up in the 70s, my mum would cook proper meat and 2 veg, and schools used to do the same. There were no fussy kids back then; you either ate it or went without, both at school and at home, and there wasn’t an option at home; everyone ate the same. Now kids get asked what they want to eat, rather than just eat what they get.

And why do celebrities think their opinions should have any bearing on anything at all just because they are well-known?

‘Animalistic’ Rape By Failed Asylum Seeker

A failed asylum seeker who raped a woman in her own home while he was staying at a taxpayer-funded hotel has been imprisoned for seven years.

Chret Callender, 28, turned up intoxicated at the victim’s residence and forced himself on her and ‘carried on regardless’ when she told him no.

The young woman was wise enough to capture a large portion of the horrifying event on her phone, which she could then use as proof against Callender.

In the audio clips played to a jury, she was heard crying and telling Callender ‘I have said no, please stop’.

Callender, who is from Trinidad and staying at the Britannia Hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset, was heard saying ‘have some respect for me’ and ‘shut up’.

Later, he apologised to the woman and said he had ‘f…ed up’.

The victim, who can’t be named, said she had spent the evening in Bournemouth Pleasure Gardens with friends, and Callender was there.

At the end of the night, she got a cab home, only for the defendant to later turn up at her door in the early hours of June 14 last year.

She said during the trial: ‘I told him I didn’t want him to come in. I was worried he was going to be loud, and I didn’t want to get in trouble with my housemates.

‘He told me to f*** off a few times. I said, “I’m in my house, I can’t go anywhere, you can leave,” but he said no.

‘I had a blanket wrapped around me, trying to get to sleep.

‘I said “I’m really tired, I just want to go to sleep’ but he wasn’t letting me go to sleep, he just kept talking and trying to argue.

‘That’s when I thought I would record. Because he was under the influence, he might shout at me, so I did think it was a good idea to record in case.”

She told the court that she repeatedly told Callender  ‘no, I don’t want to’ and that he said ‘I need to, I’ll be quick’.

‘I made it clear no means no. He was telling me he didn’t care if I cried,’ she said.

‘I tried pushing him off, but I couldn’t; he kept pushing my hands away. I didn’t feel strong enough to push him off.

‘He was quite forceful, so I couldn’t really move. He grabbed my wrist at one point, I said, “Stop that, you’re hurting me”.

‘When he finished, I went to the bathroom and locked myself in.

‘When I went back to the bedroom, he kept saying I’m sorry, I didn’t know this is how you would react, this isn’t my fault.

‘I was in so much shock, I didn’t know what to say to him. I just sat on my bed for a couple of hours because I couldn’t sleep with him being there.’ 

Callender is a failed asylum seeker whose application to stay in Britain was denied in April 2025.

He is now expected to be deported under the government’s Early Removal Scheme (ERS).

This allows foreign national prisoners in the UK to be deported before their sentence is finished.

The court heard his appeal to stay, launched in April 2025, had been ‘in stasis’ during the trial.

He was staying at the Britannia Hotel in Bournemouth, Dorset, while his appeal went through at the time of the rape two months later in June.

Callender claimed the woman faked the attack when she started recording them. But a jury found him guilty of rape and sexual assault.

He was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court, where he received a seven-year prison sentence.

Addressing Callender, His Honour Judge Richard Fuller KC said: ‘The recordings played to the jury were shocking.

‘Despite her calls and repeated pleas, you forced yourself on her as she was face down on her bed and kept her down with your body weight.

‘Throughout, you called her names and told her to shut up and said she needed to respect you in the bedroom, which showed your warped sense of entitlement.

‘You behaved in an animalistic and base way.

‘The sentence, because of your immigration status, may result in deportation to serve any remaining term in your home country, but that’s a matter for the Home Office, not for this court.’ 

The woman said today in her victim impact statement that her life had ‘changed forever and been destroyed’ by Callender’s actions.

She said that since the attack, she had endured panic attacks, nightmares and paranoia, and no longer felt safe in her own home.

She sobbed in court as she said, ‘I believed I was safe with him, and he violated me in such a horrific way, destroying my sense of safety.

‘I was in absolute shock at his betrayal.

‘My life changed completely that night. I now have panic attacks, constant paranoia and no longer feel safe in my home.

‘I fear he may do this to someone else who will have to go through what I endured.

‘It has changed me forever.’

Mitigating, Mary Aspinall-Miles said Callender had arrived in Britain on a lawful visa as his family had been ‘threatened’ in their native Trinidad.

His asylum claim was rejected due to a lack of evidence, prompting him to appeal.

She said he was ‘remorseful’ at how the night had unfolded, and his family was ‘deeply ashamed’ of him.

She said: ‘He made an application for asylum around September 2024 because his family had been the subject of targeted threats.

‘The appeal remained in stasis until this matter was resolved.

‘If there was some way that he could rewind back to that night and not have treated her in that way, he certainly would have taken a different course.

‘His family is deeply ashamed of him, and he is ashamed of himself.’

There is no question that this man should be deported, but there is little possibility that he will be deported. As for refuge from Trinidad, to the best of my knowledge, there are no conflicts or acts of genocide in this stunning nation.

This level of laxity is shocking. Britain has good diplomatic ties with these countries, and asylum should not have been considered – this man should have been sent back within hours of claiming asylum, and Callender is one person that we have heard about, but there are many more like him that we don’t hear about.

One In Four School Starters Is Still In Nappies Due To Parents Who Think Toilet Training Is Not Their Job

One in four children starting reception are not toilet trained, and the same proportion cannot eat independently, a new survey suggests.

An annual poll of 1,000 primary school teachers saw a rise in children failing to learn the fundamental skills they need for school.

On average, teachers spend an hour and a half every day either changing nappies or helping children use the toilet – the equivalent of an entire school day per week.

Respondents reported that an average of 26 per cent of the children in their reception class this year experienced frequent toilet accidents, up from 24 per cent in the previous two years.

The worst-affected area was the North East, where 36 per cent of school-starters were not toilet-trained.

Teachers said the frequent toileting interruptions led to a ‘stop-start’ day, with 70 per cent saying it had an impact on class progress.

One deputy headteacher told researchers: ‘It’s definitely getting worse. If you go back ten years, you wouldn’t have had children coming into reception who needed toilet training, and now it’s almost the expectation that schools will do it.’

A reception teacher added: ‘Parents don’t think it’s their job. They’re very happy to give that to someone else. You know, someone else will potty train my child.’

Another said some parents ‘decide’ their child has special needs because it ‘absolves them of any responsibility to do anything about it’.

And a teaching assistant told researchers that the whole of the first term was ‘written off’ at her school due to staff having to toilet train and teach other basic skills.

The researchers also questioned 1,000 parents, with 22 per cent saying they did not think a child needs to be toilet-trained by the time they start reception.

The report, by Kindred Squared, an early years charity, comes after the Government launched a push to get more children to be ‘school-ready’.

This means they have hit specific developmental milestones such as basic language skills, being able to eat, go to the toilet, and dress themselves unaided, and being able to sit, play and listen.

However, the teacher poll discovered 37 per cent of children are starting reception not school-ready, up from 33 per cent in 2024.

Staff also report that about 28 per cent of children started school unable to eat and drink unaided.

And the same proportion were not able to use books correctly – for instance, they were trying to swipe or tap them like a phone or tablet.

Over half of the staff said children’s and parents’ excessive screentime was a key factor in children not being ready for school.

Kindred Squared chief executive Felicity Gillespie said: ‘The state of school readiness has reached a critical moment.

‘This is no longer just a classroom issue; it is a systemic crisis fuelled by stretched school resources, low expectations, the rising cost of living, and by parents who lack the right information and understanding.’

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘This Government has a clear mission to make sure tens of thousands more children start school ready to learn, and we are already taking action to make that a reality.

‘We are seeing early signs of improvement, with more children reaching a good level of development by age five, but we know there is further to go.

‘We inherited a system where disadvantage was allowed to deepen, and these findings underline the scale of the school readiness challenge we are determined to tackle, so every child gets the best possible start in life.’

Parenting and raising your child to be a nice person used to be a source of pride. Similar to how wild animals educate their young on how to live and thrive, life has expectations that begin at birth.

Now, it’s pull up nappies with an iPad in one hand and chicken nuggets in the other. Baby bottles full of sugary drink – good to go, with mum and dad watching TV, phones to scroll, vapes to puff and a beer to drink with their mates.

All of this is really terrifying. What kind of parents do these kids have, really? And things are going to get a whole lot worse with all this soft parenting. Children’s behaviour is already off the charts.

Parents have a responsibility, and if they don’t believe that they are responsible, then they shouldn’t be having children – it’s as straightforward as that.

Not toilet-trained, don’t worry, the school will do that. Can’t use a knife and fork, don’t worry, the school will do that. Can’t be bothered to feed your child, don’t worry, there’s Breakfast clubs for that because parents can now abdicate so much of their child’s upbringing, so why bother having children at all?

Absolutely Furious

The housing crisis in Britain is very personal to Roger Lucas, who owns a vintage scooter business in Margate.

The businessman’s sister has been stuck on a council housing waiting list for more than two years.

So when he heard of a plan to use taxpayer funds to convert local properties into temporary accommodation for asylum seekers, he was understandably infuriated. 

‘My sister is homeless, and she can’t find a place to live,’ the 59-year-old told the Mail. ‘The houses should be for local people – this is wrong.’ 

The Home Office has earmarked £100 million of funding for the initiative, which would see councils purchase existing properties, or renovate derelict ones, to house asylum seekers previously living in hotels. 

Thanet District Council, which includes Margate, has now joined four others – Peterborough, Brighton and Hove, Hackney, and Powys – in expressing interest in taking part.  

Defenders of the pilot project present it as a necessary solution to phase out the use of asylum hotels, and point out that the properties would revert to council use after 10 years.

But for local people who are bearing the brunt of Britain’s cash-strapped public services, it all looks somewhat different. 

They include a life-long NHS worker, who told how her husband, who has ‘paid taxes all his life’, has been forced to go private for a knee operation due to a lack of surgery slots. 

Their question: how come ministers are able to find £100 million of funding to house asylum seekers, but not local people?

Last year, 1.3 million people were on social housing waiting lists across England – a three per cent increase on 2023 and the highest number since 2014.

In Margate, locals told how the homelessness crisis in their area has reached breaking point – with veterans sleeping in tents or under bus shelters.

As of May last year, Thanet District Council had a waiting list of 1,904 households needing to be rehomed due to factors including homelessness and overcrowding.

Jane Burges, who owns an antique shop in Margate, said she feels ‘strongly’ that struggling locals should take priority over migrants, some of whom would have arrived illegally.

The 63-year-old said residents of the town with nowhere to go are often forced to camp outside her store.

‘I feel quite strongly that local people should get priority housing, because any housing in Margate, either to buy or to rent, is very expensive,’ she said.

‘I don’t think it’s right. There are homeless people sleeping in bus shelters and tents in the woods – on the seafront, there are duvets folded up under the bus shelter.’ 

Caroline, 62, said she knows someone who had to go all the way to Chatham – around 43 miles away – to receive emergency accommodation after they couldn’t get social housing in Margate.

‘This wasn’t appropriate because the jobs were here, and schooling was here in Thanet, so obviously going to Chatham just wasn’t practical,’ she said.

‘Again, they’re not helping the people who live here.’

Charles, 68, who owns a second-hand furniture store in Margate, was also against the scheme.

‘I think it’s wrong, because people who have lived here for years have been on the list for a long time and they should be put first,’ he said.

‘Private accommodation is too expensive for a lot of people.’

However, not all Margate residents believe locals should take priority, with some highlighting the importance of trying to help everyone.

Tony, a 52-year-old firefighter, said: ‘It’s just very difficult, isn’t it. You’ve got a lot of everybody with no housing, but everyone should be looked after.’

He also talked about the difficulty workers have staying afloat, adding: ‘It’s now more beneficial to sit at home with three kids and not work.

‘We get no help, whereas single parents with three or four kids take what I take and probably half again.’

Peterborough City Council confirmed last week that it has ‘expressed an interest’ in taking part in the pilot scheme. 

Around 150 male arrivals are now staying in the city’s Dragonfly Hotel, an upmarket B&B formerly used for business conferences and housed rowers taking part in international competitions on a nearby 1000m lake.

 

The hotel has been a focus of protests, and councillors hope the scheme could see it returned to commercial use.

Some 2,780 people were on Peterborough City Council’s housing waiting list as of September 2024, with the average waiting time for a two or three-bedroom home, which is an eye-watering two-and-a-half years for the highest priority applicants.

Peterborough resident Terrence Paling, 74, is staunchly against the housing proposal.

He said: ‘My granddaughter has got a child, who is three now, and she has been waiting for her house for three years. She isn’t going to get one, is she?

‘It will get worse. It’s lucky that I own my own home. If they are in a council house, they are here to stay. In a hotel, they could stay in the hotel and then go.’

Mr Paling, who has lived in the city for 42 years, said he has not witnessed a direct increase in crime, but the surge in asylum seekers in Peterborough might change his long-held routine of walking to and from the pub to watch the football.

He said: ‘I’ve not had any trouble before, but I probably wouldn’t walk home now.’

The decision to house migrants at the Dragonfly Hotel provided a temporary solution to a situation that has threatened to get out of hand in Peterborough.

Situated opposite an outstanding lake, where numerous aspiring rowers practise each day, the hotel has long been one of the city’s nicer spots, but protesters believe the area is rapidly declining.

During the Mail’s visit, asylum seekers could be seen wandering around the Dragonfly’s pristine lawns, with some riding off on delivery bikes with Just Eat branding.

It emerged last summer that migrants living in asylum seeker hotels across the country can find work as delivery drivers for leading courier companies, although the companies in question claim they are cracking down on the problem. 

Sue Betty has lived in Peterborough since she was 10, but said the area was changing amid an inflow of asylum seekers.

She said her mother lives next door to a five-bedroom property where migrants are now housed, and they were leaving the place in a worse condition than the five young men who lived there before.

‘There’s bags of rubbish, there are rats, the back of the house is all full of rubbish,’ Ms Betty said. ‘I have taken pictures, and the council said it is all clear. It isn’t. I can see it.

‘Then they started putting rubbish in my elderly mother’s bin and all the other neighbours. There is rubbish all down the driveway. It is embarrassing. My mum is embarrassed to live where she lives; it was never like that.

‘They chuck all the rubbish out of the windows, out of the bedrooms, it is sat in the driveway. A whole bedstead chucked down the driveway.

‘It used to be a lovely house, but they are not looking after it, remotely. And this has been going on for over two years. It is frustrating. We are paying for this.’

She said the decision to house asylum seekers in council housing penalised those who had spent a long time on waiting lists.

‘We have got a lot here,’ she added. ‘I think it’s all very unfair, end of story.’

Debbie Linnane, 68, believes there are now ‘too many asylum seekers in Peterborough’.

She said: ‘They get lumbered here. It is a difficult call. If you put them in housing, then there are other people on the list. They can be on there much longer than three years.

‘At least with the hotels, we know where everybody is. Some people integrate okay; everyone is different.

‘I live next door to a lovely Bulgarian with children, who work very hard and we like each other.

‘But they work, and that is the difference. It is the people who are not contributing and adding to the welfare costs.’

Ms Linnane worked in the NHS for 24 years before retiring this year.

She revealed her frustration that her husband, who needs knee surgery, has worked all his life but was told that he faced a three-year waiting list for NHS treatment. Instead, he has decided to go private. 

‘He can hardly walk anymore,’ she said. ‘We have had to fund this privately, which is unfair when someone has worked all his life and paid all his taxes.

‘We cannot get a doctor’s appointment because the influx is too great. It causes divisions in what has been an integrated community.’

Paul Bristow, Conservative Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said people in the area would be ‘incandescent’ after hearing of Labour’s new policy.

‘I get hundreds of emails from people who need access to council housing,’ he said.

‘We have more asylum seekers than any other place in the East of England. We are a generous city.

‘Local people often live in sub-standard, cramped accommodation. To do this (implement the policy) would be morally unacceptable.’

He, too, said that Peterborough had a tradition of welcoming people from different parts of the world, but that this policy was a step too far.

Statistics from June revealed that 321 households were in temporary accommodation across Peterborough.

Meanwhile, there are 334 migrants in dispersal accommodation in the city and another 216 in hotels.

Christine Cunningham has run the Focus community centre in nearby Dogsthorpe for eight years, organising sports events, disability services, and providing space for people to rent or meet.

She said: ‘We have been overwhelmed for a long time. We are a city of immigrants; we were built on it. We are a massive melting pot – but this is a step too far.

‘This appears to be housing being provided for the wrong people at the wrong time. A lot of people are very put out and upset.

‘Houses are being built specifically for people who aren’t from here, but you can’t even go on the housing list if you haven’t got a connection. So the chance of getting a house or flat here is remote in the extreme anyway.’

Labour Cllr Zameer Ali, Cabinet Member for Communities, Poverty and Public Health, said that the city already ‘does more than its capacity’.

‘Our priority remains ensuring the Dragonfly Hotel is stood down as soon as possible and ensuring other places pull their weight in supporting asylum seekers,’ he said.

‘We have expressed an interest in hearing more about pilot projects being considered by the Government in relation to how the country manages asylum seekers, but as yet there is no commitment for us to take part.

‘No pilot is underway in Peterborough. The Government is committed to cleaning up the asylum mess, but that does not mean treating existing residents unfairly.’

Thanet District Council said: ‘Thanet District Council has submitted an Expression of Interest for Round 4 of the Local Authority Housing Fund (LAHF). Once we know the terms of the pilot, which is separate from the LAHF, we will decide whether to take part.’

A government spokesperson said: ‘New council housing will not be used by asylum seekers under any circumstances. Asylum seekers are not eligible for social housing.

‘This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well underway, with military sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs.’

Just Eat said: ‘All couriers must have the right to work in the UK. We have substantially strengthened our systems against abuse, with daily facial recognition checks and checks that are triggered when a new device is used to log in. 

‘We continue to work closely with the Home Office and industry partners to ensure our systems are robust and to collaborate on data sharing and enforcement.’

Every “asylum seeker” that takes up residence in your town, clogs the NHS and swallows up public funds means there is less for native born citizens, but of course, Labour needs their votes to remain in power, so they are now going to house them, give them a NI number and a whole array of benefits so that they can claim to be British citizens.

Our government is hell-bent on destroying this country at the people’s expense, yet no one tells us why this is allowed to happen, and every time somebody comes along and wants to fight for the people, all the maladjusted minions are told to hate them, and then they duly do so.

It was evident that they would eventually be given homes, as they can’t live in hotels permanently, and there’s no chance of them being deported, and I’m sick to the back teeth, and extremely furious over this. If you thought them living in hotels was wrong, you haven’t seen nothing yet!

Labour wants to change the definition of being British, and if a bloke doesn’t feel safe walking home from his local pub, can you imagine what our women must feel like every day? Our towns now have stalkers, they are called asylum seekers, and soon there won’t be a pub to walk to, it will have been turned into a mosque.

Cannabis Is Being Used To Treat Depression And Anxiety

Thousands of Britons are being prescribed super-strength cannabis for anxiety and depression.

Despite experts warning of the dangers, private clinics are giving it out after only one video consultation and boast the powerful drug can be ‘delivered directly to the patient’s door via a next-day service’.

Amid an epidemic of cannabis use on our streets, a Daily Mail audit has discovered specialist pharmacies are prescribing nearly 10,000 different products – including ultra-strong strains imported from Amsterdam with names such as Ghost Train Haze, Dante’s Inferno and White Widow.

Benefits claimants who signed off work with mental health problems are offered complimentary consultations and up to 20 per cent off the cost of the drug.

NHS prescriptions are tightly regulated, but dozens of private clinics are handing out 99 per cent of the medical cannabis in Britain.

Marijuana – which the NHS warns significantly increases the chance of extreme mental health problems – is routinely being prescribed privately for mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, OCD, mood disorders and ADHD.

Illegal smokers of the drug are even encouraged to contact clinics ‘to see if their usage could be legitimised’ with a prescription.

The entire process is, shockingly, perfectly legal, thanks to loopholes in the law.

There are concerns that the massive expansion in the distribution of high-strength medicinal cannabis in recent years may be a factor in the surge in drug-induced psychosis and mental health issues that are straining the already overburdened National Health Service (NHS) and placing further pressure on law enforcement.

The de facto legalisation of the drug – with police told not to arrest people for cannabis possession if there are ‘justifiable grounds’ for believing it could be for medical use – has raised concerns that companies exploiting lax regulations have created a pseudo-recreational market.

Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals there were 88,214 unlicensed cannabis products prescribed privately in the first two months of 2025, the most recent data obtainable.

In 2024, there were 659,293 unlicensed cannabis products prescribed – equal to nearly ten tons of weed – up from 282,920 in 2023, data from the NHS Business Services Authority shows.

Sir Robin Murray, professor of psychiatric research at King’s College London, described it as ‘outrageous’. He said the rising strength of the products posed ‘an increased risk of dependence and psychiatric side-effects’, adding: ‘There are no randomised controlled trials showing that cannabis benefits psychiatric disorders and a lot of evidence that it causes them. It’s a bit like taking alcohol for depression – some people find it helps in the short term, but in the long term it makes things worse.’

Data from one of the largest private clinics, Mamedica, reveals that 50.5 per cent of its more than 12,000 patients in the UK are prescribed cannabis for mental health disorders. If this is consistent across the industry, tens of thousands are being prescribed medical cannabis for a mental health condition.

Benefits applicants can receive free consultations and discounted “weed” from certain private clinics.

Tory health spokesman Stuart Andrew last called on the Government to act on the Mail’s ‘extremely concerning’ findings. He said: ‘Ministers must act to tackle this abuse of the system.’

Medical cannabis was legalised in 2018 after a campaign to make it available to children with severe epilepsy. Licensed products – which do not contain the entire plant – can be prescribed on the NHS for severe epilepsy, nausea from chemotherapy, or for muscle spasms caused by multiple sclerosis.

However, private clinics can legally prescribe unlicensed products that have not undergone strictly controlled medical trials.

Dozens of specialist pharmacies offer products with a THC (the psychoactive ingredient) content of more than 30 per cent. Freedom of Information data reveals that the volume prescribed rose from 2.7 million grams in 2022 to 9.8 million grams in 2024.

It also reveals there has been an upsurge in the number of people being prescribed higher-potency cannabis. The most popular potency in 2022 was between 18 and 22 per cent THC, but in the first two months of 2025, products above 22 per cent made up almost half of prescriptions.

Mamedica said it is prescribed based on a ‘strictly regulated clinical and legal framework’, with all prescriptions issued by a registered doctor in accordance with Home Office, MHRA and CQC requirements. A spokesman said: ‘Prescribing takes place on a named-patient basis by specialist clinicians and operates under established medicines law and regulatory oversight.

‘Mental health is one of the most common reasons patients seek specialist care after conventional treatments have failed. Patients presenting with conditions such as anxiety, PTSD and depression are assessed individually and managed under strict safeguarding and shared-care protocols.’

A Government spokesman said: ‘We expect regulators to crack down on those private providers who prescribe to patients without the proper clinical care they need.

‘More widely, we’re also looking at private prescribing to ensure patients have access to high-quality medicines through all legal routes.’

Cannabis is extremely good for pain in small amounts. It permits the body to relax, but as for giving it to mentally ill patients, it’s a no from me. I know several people with mental health problems who have smoked cannabis, and they have said it makes them feel violent.

However, I have known numerous people who have mental health problems who are on prescription drugs. They make them put on weight excessively, causing several other conditions to go with it. It’s a rock and hard place, I’m afraid.

If cannabis were regulated, it would be much better for those who really need it. They smoke it all the time in Amsterdam, but there doesn’t seem to be a mental health crisis there, and the US don’t seem to have a crisis either, where it is legal, unless you’re a lefty, then that is your mental health crisis.

First Boat Strike Has Been Reported

Pentagon ‘used top-secret disguised plane’ to attack drug boat… but its appearance means America may have committed a ‘war crime’, retired major general claims

The first deadly US strike on an alleged narcoterrorist boat in the Caribbean was reportedly launched by a military plane disguised as a civilian aircraft in what one expert labelled a ‘war crime.’

The September 2 strike that killed 11 was ordered by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who claimed that every person on the supposed drug trafficking ship was on a military target list. 

In addition to the plane being disguised, the Pentagon also hid the munitions by not visibly carrying them under the craft’s wings. Ever since, the military has started using MQ-9 Reaper drones and more traditional military aircraft. 

Retired Maj. Gen. Steven J. Lepper told The New York Times that these acts of subterfuge may have led the US to commit an offence known as ‘perfidy,’ which is a war crime. 

‘Shielding your identity is an element of perfidy. If the aircraft flying above is not identifiable as a combatant aircraft, it should not be engaged in combatant activity,’ said Lepper, who served as a deputy judge advocate general for the United States Air Force. 

By claiming that the US is engaged in an armed struggle with narcoterrorists, the Trump administration has justified the strikes’ legitimacy.

‘The U.S. military utilises a wide array of standard and nonstandard aircraft depending on mission requirements,’ Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson said in a statement.

‘Prior to the fielding and employment of each aircraft, they go through a rigorous procurement process to ensure compliance with domestic law, department policies and regulations, and applicable international standards, including the law of armed conflict.’ 

The Daily Mail’s request for a response was turned down by a US Southern Command spokeswoman. A request for comment from the White House was not answered.

The Department of War’s communications account shared a post by Lee Zeldin, the current EPA Administrator.

 Zeldin, who taught the law of armed conflict in the US Army, called the claims idiotic.

‘What the military can’t do is add certain symbols to pretend the plane is the Red Cross, UN, or something otherwise protected,’ Zeldin explained.

‘Likewise, if you paint a Delta or American Airlines logo on the side, for example, that feigns a civilian aircraft.’

He then determined: ‘A military plane not having any of these symbols at all doesn’t just make it a de facto civilian aircraft, no matter how much TDS has overwhelmed your system.’ 

Multiple sources told The New York Times that the aircraft’s transponder was sending along a military tail number. 

But retired Navy Captain Todd Huntley said that would not solve the perfidy issue and still remain legally tenuous, and added this sort of aircraft was not meant to be used for offensive attacks.

‘The critical question is whether there is a credible alternative reason for using an unmarked aircraft to conduct the attack other than exploiting apparent civilian status to gain some tactical advantage,’ added Geoffrey Cron, a retired lieutenant colonel JAG officer.

It’s not known what type of plane was used in the strike, but users of r/Aviation have suggested they could be modified 737s. 

The September 2 strike started a series of at least 35 boat attacks that have killed 123 people.

Legal experts say the attack in question could be a crime if the survivors were targeted. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have demanded accountability. 

Admiral Frank ‘Mitch’ Bradley told lawmakers in early December that all of those onboard were known to officials as narco-terrorists and as such could be lethally targeted, according to NBC News.

The admiral reportedly testified that the list includes individuals who are eligible for being targeted with lethal action if the opportunity should arise, two officials and one other source told the network.

All 11 on board the boat that was hit on September 2 had been identified, Bradley reportedly told lawmakers.

The admiral was called to Capitol Hill to answer questions from concerned lawmakers over the legality of the strike.

The sources also told NBC News that Bradley made it clear in these meetings that he acted legally throughout the bombing. 

Bradley said that he carried out orders from Hegseth as instructed, killing everyone on the list, destroying the drugs onboard and sinking the boat, the sources added.

It emerged that some onboard survived the initial strike. Bradley confirmed this to lawmakers, adding that a third and fourth strike followed to sink the boat. 

Earlier that month, Hegseth spoke at the Reagan Defence Forum and brought up the operation.

He also outlined the country’s defence priorities and attacked the post-Cold War foreign policy of the nation. 

The secretary also said the age of American ‘utopian idealism’ was over, while demanding allies now defend themselves and suggested a shift in policy regarding China’s defence. 

‘Out with idealistic utopianism. In with hard-nosed realism’, he told those who gathered at the defence forum, Politico reported.

Hegseth also refused to back down over the strikes, saying: ‘If you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you.’ 

He also confirmed that it was himself who gave the order, and confirmed he left the room five minutes after the first strike.

According to Hegseth, he was told that Bradley had ordered a second strike due to there being several survivors. Hegseth said he was told those who survived could ‘still be in the fight’, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hegseth also said that he agreed with how Bradley carried out the attack, adding: I said, ‘Roger, sounds good.’

‘From what I understood then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.’

Although the defence secretary is under increasing criticism, Donald Trump has supported Hegseth in his defence of how he handled the incident.

Hegseth has said the aftermath of an initial strike on the boat was clouded in the ‘fog of war.’

He has also said he ‘didn’t stick around’ for the second strike, but that Bradley ‘made the right call’ and ‘had complete authority’ to do it.

Democrats are asking that written records of Hegseth’s instructions and directives, as well as the whole attack video, be made public by the Trump administration.

While Republicans, who handle the national security committees, have not publicly called for those documents, they have pledged a thorough review.

Attacking a drug boat cannot be a war crime, but smuggling lethal drugs is a crime, and how did they know it was a drug boat – what did they have great big banners saying ‘Hey, we’re carrying drugs.’

But I suppose that if you blow up enough random boats, one of them will eventually be a drug boat, and really, how can it be a war crime if there isn’t a war? Furthermore, a boat operating in international seas without a flag is considered a pirate ship; this was propaganda and a ridiculous tale.

Some people might say that these mules don’t care about anybody else, so why should we care about them? And that they should just be blown to pieces. So, what should we do with these drug dealers? Should we just blow up their homes and kill them all? Since when did drug dealing become punishable by death, let alone with no arrest or trial?

Drug selling or distributing them is illegal, but it should not be punishable by death!

Suspect In Connection With Synagogue Fire

Surveillance footage has been released of the moments before a man set Mississippi’s largest synagogue ablaze in an antisemitic attack.

Stephen Pittman, 19, was charged with maliciously damaging or destroying a building by means of fire or an explosive.

In footage shot in the middle of the night, Pittman can be seen emptying a can of gasoline all over the hallway to the synagogue, ensuring that any fire would spread with ferocity once ignited.

In the building’s lobby, Pittman is seen pouring liquid over a couch and the floor while wearing a mask and a hood. The fire tore through the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson shortly after Pittman was done with dousing the interior just after 3 am on Saturday.

No congregants or firefighters were injured in the fire. Firefighters arrived to find flames billowing out of windows and all doors to the synagogue locked, the chief of investigations for the Jackson Fire Department, Charles D. Felton Jr., said.

Local and federal officials, including those from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, arrested Pittman for investigation of arson at a hospital where he had non-life-threatening burns.

The teen suspect confessed to lighting a fire inside the building, which he referred to as ‘the synagogue of Satan,’ according to an FBI affidavit filed in US District Court in Mississippi on Monday.

Pittman, who participated via video conference call from a hospital bed, was assigned a public lawyer for his first appearance hearing in federal court on Monday. There were obvious bandages on both of his hands.

He told the judge that he was a high school graduate with three semesters of college completed.

Prosecutors said he could face five to 20 years in prison if convicted. When the judge read him his rights, Pittman said, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord.’

Pittman is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary and detention hearing on January 20.

Images showed the charred remains of an administrative office and synagogue library, where several Torahs were destroyed or damaged.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said she has instructed prosecutors to seek ‘severe penalties,’ according to a statement provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The suspect’s father contacted the FBI and said his son had confessed to setting the building on fire. Pittman had texted his father a photo of the rear of the synagogue before the fire, with the message, ‘There’s a furnace in the back.’ 

His father had pleaded with his son to return home, but ‘Pittman replied back by saying he was due for a homerun and ‘I did my research,’ the affidavit said.

During an interview with investigators, Pittman said he had stopped at a gas station on his way to the synagogue to purchase the gas used in the fire. He also took the license plate off his vehicle at the gas station. 

He used an axe to break out a window of the synagogue, poured gas inside and used a torch lighter to start the fire, the FBI affidavit said.

Later, the FBI seized a hand torch that a congregant had discovered and retrieved a charred mobile that was thought to be Pittman’s.

Yellow police tape on Monday blocked off the entrances to the synagogue building, which was surrounded by broken glass and soot. Bouquets were laid on the ground at the building’s entrance – including one with a note that said, ‘I’m so very sorry.’

Local and national officials, religious figures and activists condemned the fire at the 160-year-old synagogue, the largest in Mississippi and the only one in Jackson.

It was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 – a response to the congregation’s role in civil rights activities, according to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which also houses its office in the building.

The home of the synagogue’s rabbi, an outspoken critic of racial segregation, was also bombed two months later by the same group.

‘That history reminds us that attacks on houses of worship, whatever their cause, strike at the heart of our shared moral life,’ CJ Rhodes, a prominent black Baptist pastor in Jackson, said in a Facebook post.

The arson underscores the importance of interfaith solidarity in standing up to hate and bigotry, said Jim Berk, CEO of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a Los Angeles-based organisation focused on combating antisemitism.

‘It was an assault on the heart of Jewish life in the South, and on a legacy shaped in partnership with the Black community through the long, unfinished struggle for civil rights,’ Berk said in a statement. 

‘This attack is not only an act of antisemitism, it is an assault on that legacy, testing whether the lessons of that era still hold.’

‘That it has been attacked again, amid a surge of antisemitic incidents across the US, is a stark reminder: antisemitic violence is escalating, and it demands total condemnation and swift action from everyone,’ Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of The Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.

‘This news puts a face and name to this tragedy, but does not change our resolve to proudly – even defiantly – continue Jewish life in Jackson in the face of hatred,’ the Beth Israel Congregation wrote in a statement. 

The congregation is assessing damage but will continue its regular worship programs and services for Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath, likely at one of the local churches that reached out, said Michele Schipper, CEO of the Institute of Southern Jewish Life and a past president of the congregation.

‘We are a resilient people,’ said Beth Israel Congregation President Zach Shemper. ‘With support from our community, we will rebuild.’

One Torah that survived the Holocaust was behind glass and was not damaged in the fire, Schipper said.

Five Torahs – the sacred scrolls with the text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible – inside the sanctuary are being assessed for smoke damage. Two Torahs inside the library, where the most severe damage was done, were destroyed, according to a synagogue representative.

The floors, walls and ceiling of the sanctuary were covered in soot, and the synagogue will have to replace upholstery and carpeting.

With just several hundred people in the community, it has never been especially easy being Jewish in Mississippi’s capital city. Still, members of Beth Israel have taken particular pride in keeping their traditions alive in the heart of the Deep South.

Virtually every facet of Jewish life in Jackson could be found under Beth Israel’s roof.

The midcentury modern building not only accommodated the congregation but also the Jewish Federation, a nonprofit provider of social services and philanthropy that is the epicentre of Jewish society in most US cities. 

The building is home to the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which provides resources to Jewish communities in 13 southern states. A Holocaust memorial was outdoors behind the synagogue building.

Because Jewish children throughout the South have attended summer camp for decades in Utica, Mississippi, about 30 miles southwest of Jackson, many retain a fond connection to the state and its Jewish community.

‘Jackson is the capital city, and that synagogue is the capital synagogue in Mississippi,’ said Rabbi Gary Zola, a historian of American Jewry who taught at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. 

‘I would call it the flagship, though when we talk about places like New York and Los Angeles, it probably seems like Hicksville.’

Beth Israel, as a congregation, was established in 1860 and acquired its first property, where it built Mississippi’s first synagogue, after the Civil War. 

But wait a moment, when was the last time Israel destroyed a mosque, yes, a place of worship!

On 19th October 2023, an Israeli airstrike struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius, where 500 people were sheltering, and then on 8th November 2023, Israel attacked and destroyed the Khalid bin al-Walid Mosque, so it is no surprise that they are avenging.

At least sixty mosques had been obliterated by Israeli bombs. Not only that, but they have also hit hospitals and schools.

I know, I know, I’m going to be called antisemitic, and I am expecting that, but I am in no way antisemitic. I just don’t agree with war, any kind of war, because it takes lives along with it. Call a ceasefire, try to agree on something and get along with each other. You know what they say, ‘an eye for an eye, everyone goes blind.’

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