Author: Henry

Pavement plaques warn Londoners as 61,000 phones snatched in 2025 Police have begun painting “blue plaques” onto London pavements in a striking new attempt to alert pedestrians to the soaring threat of phone snatchers, as fresh figures reveal tens of thousands of devices are being torn from unsuspecting hands across the capital each year. The warning markings have been rolled out alongside intensified patrols and rapid-response tactics, with City of London Police disclosing that officers tracked down and arrested a suspect just 40 minutes after he allegedly struck in the street. The 34-year-old was detained in the early hours of…

Life sentence for Walsall rapist who abused Sikh victim in her home A man who carried out a prolonged and racially motivated rape on a Sikh woman in her own home has been sentenced to life imprisonment, with a High Court judge setting a minimum term of 14 years before he can be considered for release. John Ashby, 32, of no fixed address, changed his pleas on the second day of his trial at Birmingham Crown Court, admitting charges of rape, robbery, intentional strangulation and religiously aggravated assault. Sentencing him on Friday, Mr Justice Pepperall told Ashby that remarks made…

The US Department of Justice has abandoned its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move that removes one of the most politically charged obstacles to the Senate’s confirmation of Kevin Warsh as his successor. The decision was announced on Friday by Jeanine Pirro, US Attorney for the District of Columbia, in a post on X — just three days after Mr Warsh appeared before the Senate Banking Committee for his nomination hearing. It marks a striking reversal: as recently as Wednesday, Ms Pirro had publicly insisted she was committed to pursuing the probe. What has changed, and…

Anthropic’s Mythos AI jolts Washington into rethinking cyber defence A new artificial intelligence system built by Anthropic has unsettled governments and industry alike, forcing the Trump administration to confront the near-term cyber risks posed by frontier AI models and re-energising a debate over how powerful systems should be governed. The tool, known as Mythos, is designed to locate software vulnerabilities with a speed and precision that early testers say represents a substantial leap over anything previously available. Its arrival has prompted a rapid response inside the White House, triggered a fresh scramble in foreign capitals, and tilted the political dynamic…

Organised criminal networks operating from West Africa are blackmailing British teenage boys and young men at an accelerating rate, using social media platforms, dating apps and gaming sites to extract explicit images before demanding money under threat of public exposure. The scale of the problem, charities and law enforcement bodies warn, is now such that secondary school and university students in the UK are being approached by scammers on average almost twice a week. What ‘sextortion’ looks like on a British teenager’s phone The pattern, described by investigators and victims’ families, is strikingly consistent. A stranger, typically posing as a…

The musician known as D4vd has been charged with first-degree murder in Los Angeles after a coroner’s report concluded that 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez was stabbed to death and her body subsequently dismembered. David Anthony Burke, 20, entered a courtroom in Los Angeles on Monday for his first appearance, where his defence lawyer lodged not guilty pleas on his behalf to all counts. In addition to the murder charge, he faces allegations of lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and of mutilating a body. What the autopsy found The autopsy report, obtained by the Daily Mail, sets…

Europe is bracing for a second energy shock in less than half a decade, with the Iran war driving up fuel costs, squeezing industry and prompting Brussels to unveil a sweeping package of emergency measures aimed at shielding households and businesses from the fallout. The European Commission announced the proposals on Wednesday, framing the response as a recognition that the economic damage is no longer a distant threat but a developing reality. The bloc, which only recently emerged from the crunch triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, is once again confronting fuel shortages, industrial distress and mounting fears of…

A three-year-old girl has died at the scene of a collision involving a ute in Caboolture, on the northern outskirts of Brisbane, on Tuesday evening. The toddler, who has not been named, was struck shortly before 6.45pm as the driver of a Nissan Navara turned right into a street in the Moreton Bay suburb. She suffered critical injuries and could not be saved. What police have established so far Officers at the scene said the driver, a 49-year-old local woman, remained at the location and has been assisting with inquiries. She was taken to Caboolture Hospital as a precautionary measure.…

Iran has dismissed as “baseless” a series of allegations from the United Arab Emirates that link a newly uncovered alleged terrorist network on Emirati soil to ideological currents associated with the Islamic Republic. The diplomatic flashpoint followed an announcement by the UAE State Security Department on Monday that authorities had dismantled what they described as a “terrorist organization” and detained 27 of its members. In an unusually public move, the UAE’s state news agency WAM published the full names and mugshots of those arrested. What Emirati investigators say they uncovered According to the State Security Department, the group had been…

President Donald Trump has announced that he will extend the existing ceasefire with Iran until Tehran submits a formal proposal aimed at bringing the conflict to a permanent end. The announcement, posted on the president’s Truth Social platform, came as the existing truce was approaching expiry within hours. Mr Trump indicated that the pause would now remain in place for as long as is required for Iranian leaders to agree a common position and for talks to run their course. What the president has committed to — and what he has not In his post, Mr Trump framed the decision…