Author: Lucas Bennett

A Brazilian national who raped a young woman in central London and then attempted to wash away forensic evidence before fleeing to Denmark has been jailed for more than five years. Hassan Alsarout, 22, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court after admitting the attack, which took place in a secluded spot on Euston Road in the early hours of 9 October 2025. He received a prison term of five years and seven months, was placed on the sex offenders register for life, and will be deported from the UK once his sentence is complete. What detectives uncovered in the hours…

Eight children, the youngest just a year old, have been killed in a shooting spree across several homes in Shreveport, Louisiana, in what local officials are calling the worst tragedy the city has ever seen. The victims, aged between one and 14, were among ten people shot by a lone gunman during the early hours of Sunday morning, according to Shreveport Police. Officers pursued the suspect as he attempted to flee the scene in a carjacked vehicle and shot him dead. He has not been named. What unfolded across three Shreveport addresses The killings took place at three separate properties,…

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a car ploughed into pedestrians in central London in the early hours of Sunday morning, leaving one victim fighting for her life and another with what police described as life-changing injuries. The Metropolitan Police said officers were called to Argyll Street in Soho at around 4.30am, following reports that a vehicle had collided with people on the busy thoroughfare. A woman in her 30s was taken to hospital in a critical condition, while a man in his 50s suffered serious injuries that are expected to have lasting consequences. A…

With four days to go before Virginians vote on one of the most consequential state-level ballot measures of the cycle, the campaign has taken on an unusual character: a tug-of-war over the legacy and words of a single man. Barack Obama’s face, voice and record are being deployed by both the supporters and opponents of a proposal that could tilt the balance of the next US House of Representatives. The referendum on Tuesday will ask voters whether Virginia’s Democratic-led legislature should be permitted to draw a new congressional map — one that, according to Reuters, could yield four additional seats…

The Israeli military has killed two truck drivers working under contract for UNICEF at a water filling point in the northern Gaza Strip, forcing the UN children’s agency to suspend its operations at the site, UNICEF has said. Two other people were wounded in the attack, which took place at the Mansoura water filling point in Gaza City, the agency confirmed in a statement. UNICEF said the point is used multiple times a day to deliver clean water to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza City, drawn from the Mekorot water supply line. The agency said onsite activities had…

Two men lost their lives after a vehicle was seen travelling against the flow of traffic on a Scottish motorway, prompting a lengthy closure and a police appeal for witnesses. A police investigation is under way after two drivers were killed in a head-on collision on the M90 in Scotland, in a crash that appears to have involved a car driving the wrong way down the motorway. What happened on the southbound carriageway The fatal smash occurred at around 10.30pm on Friday near junction seven, close to the town of Kinross in Perth and Kinross. According to Police Scotland, a…

While Westminster debates warships and waterways, a quieter crisis is unfolding in kitchens and mortgage meetings across the country. A Dispatch Times analysis finds the Iran war has already added more than £1,400 to the average British household’s annual costs — and the hardest hit is still to come. A war fought 3,000 miles away, paid for in Preston and Peckham When the first American bombers took off for Iranian airspace on 28 February 2026, the Downing Street line was reassuring: Britain was not directly involved, and the economic fallout would be “contained.” Seven weeks later, that fiction has collapsed.…

Iran reversed course on the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, warning mariners that the waterway was shut and firing on at least two vessels attempting to pass through, in a dramatic escalation that has thrown the fragile ceasefire with the United States into fresh doubt. The closure came barely 24 hours after Tehran’s foreign minister had declared the strait open to commercial shipping, and prompted a sharp response from President Trump, who said Iran could not “blackmail” the United States by sealing the world’s most critical energy chokepoint. What happened in the strait Maritime security and shipping sources said vessels…

Seven weeks into the Iran war, the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow passage through which roughly a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil and a significant share of its liquefied natural gas flows — has become the centrepiece of a high-stakes standoff whose consequences reach far beyond the Middle East. What began as a military campaign has mutated into something more corrosive: an economic weapon wielded by multiple parties, none of whom appear able to agree on whether the waterway is open, closed, or something uncertainly in between. On Friday, Iran’s foreign minister declared the strait “completely open” to…

.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Iran’s parliament speaker has warned that the Strait of Hormuz “will not remain open” unless the United States lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, undermining efforts by both Washington and Tehran to present progress towards ending the conflict.The warning from Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf came hours after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, declared the strait “completely open” to commercial shipping for the remainder of the ceasefire. The contradictory signals from Tehran, combined with President Donald Trump’s insistence that the blockade would stay in place until a comprehensive deal was struck, left the status of the world’s most critical oil…