Author: Lucas Bennett

An Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in the United Kingdom on a small boat just four months before attacking a 12-year-old girl has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for rape, sexual assault and child abduction. Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was convicted by a jury at Warwick Crown Court of rape, two counts of sexual assault, child abduction and taking an indecent video of his victim during the attack, which took place near a residential street in Nuneaton last summer. Passing sentence, Judge Kristina Montgomery KC said the victim had suffered significant and lasting harm as a result of Mulakhil’s…

Britain’s competition regulator has opened formal investigations into five companies over concerns that online customer reviews may have been manipulated, marking one of the first significant uses of enforcement powers that came into effect earlier this year. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed it is examining Just Eat, Autotrader, funeral services provider Dignity, reviews platform Feefo, and pasta delivery company Pasta Evangelists. The watchdog stressed it had “not reached any conclusions about whether consumer law has been broken.” The investigations centre on how each business obtains, moderates and displays customer reviews — a practice the CMA says shapes billions…

Metropolitan Police officers have instructed the Cabinet Office to withhold a number of documents connected to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the United States, as a criminal investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office continues. Among the files being kept from publication is a vetting exchange in which Morgan McSweeney — Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff — put three questions to Lord Mandelson concerning his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Those questions are understood to have related to Lord Mandelson’s continued contact with Epstein following the financier’s first conviction for soliciting…

A suspended NHS surgeon is facing criminal prosecution over social media activity that previously led to her removal from medical practice, as the Government simultaneously pushes ahead with reforms that could see more healthcare workers lose their licences over similar conduct. Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, 31, a British Palestinian trainee trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, has been charged by the Metropolitan Police with multiple counts of inviting support for Hamas. The charge follows a Medical Practitioners Tribunal last November which suspended her for fifteen months after finding she had shared posts expressing support for what it described as violent action and terrorist…

A federal court hearing in New York for former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro ended without a trial date on Wednesday, with much of the ninety-minute session consumed by a dispute over who is permitted to pay his legal bills — a question that could shape the entire course of the case. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, both dressed in khaki prison uniforms and listening through headphones to simultaneous translation, sat quietly throughout proceedings before Judge Alvin Hellerstein at the Southern District of New York. The couple face charges of narco-terrorism, which they are seeking to have dismissed. At the…

A Los Angeles jury has ruled that Meta and Google deliberately engineered their platforms to be addictive, finding both companies liable for the mental health harm suffered by a young woman who began using Instagram at the age of nine and YouTube at six. The plaintiff, identified only as Kaley and now aged 20, was awarded three million dollars — a verdict her legal team described as sending an unmistakable message that no company stands above accountability when children are involved. Snap and TikTok, which were originally named as defendants, reached undisclosed settlements with Kaley before the case went to…

Britain is becoming less energy secure by discouraging domestic gas production and turning instead to imports with a higher carbon footprint, a leading economist has argued — as the war in Iran keeps energy policy firmly in the political spotlight.Sir Dieter Helm, an Oxford economist who specialises in energy, said the UK’s current approach was producing outcomes that ran counter to its own stated goals — importing liquefied natural gas from abroad and piping Norwegian North Sea gas into Britain, while simultaneously discouraging domestic extraction through licensing restrictions and a heavy windfall tax on producers.“We are not using our own…

Counter terrorism officers have made two arrests in connection with a fire that destroyed four Jewish community ambulances in north London earlier this week — though investigators have warned that at least one further suspect is believed to have been involved.The two men, aged 47 and 45, were detained on Wednesday morning at separate addresses in north-west and central London. Both were arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and remain in police custody, with searches being carried out at the properties.The arrests relate to an attack in the early hours of Monday 23 March, when four…

A public campaign urging the Australian government to withhold taxpayer funding from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s upcoming visit has gathered significant momentum, with more than 32,000 people signing an online petition in a matter of days. The Change.org petition, organised by advocacy group Beyond Australia, calls on federal and state authorities to treat the couple’s trip as a purely private affair — meaning Harry and Meghan would bear the costs of their own security and logistical arrangements. Neither the Australian federal government nor state administrations have confirmed who would cover those costs. Both have previously declined to clarify…

A growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem over the direction of the Iran conflict has come into sharp focus, as President Donald Trump advances ceasefire diplomacy at the same time as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges that military strikes will continue. Trump has moved to delay action against Iranian energy infrastructure, pointing to what he described as “productive conversations” and suggesting that contact had been made with senior Iranian officials. Tehran publicly denied those claims. Netanyahu, meanwhile, told allies that strikes on Iran and Lebanon would press on, declaring there is “more to come.” The divergence cuts to a…