Author: Darren Smith

Vladimir Putin held a closed-door meeting with Russian business leaders at which he is reported to have discussed military funding and asked oligarchs to contribute financially to the war effort in Ukraine, according to independent Russian outlet The Bell and the Financial Times. The Kremlin denied the characterisation. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was not true that Putin had made such a request, though he acknowledged that one participant had voluntarily offered to donate “a very large sum of money” to the state. Peskov said the individual — whom he declined to name — had acted on his own…

An Amazon delivery driver who picked up a family’s cat from their garden and walked off with her while making a parcel drop could now face a prison sentence, after pleading guilty to stealing the animal under legislation that treats pet theft as a serious criminal offence. Catalin Stancu, 42, of Oldham, Greater Manchester, appeared at Bradford Magistrates’ Court and admitted stealing Nora, a cat belonging to the Crowther family of Elland, near Halifax, on 18 January. Footage from the family’s Ring doorbell captured the moment Stancu delivered a parcel to the property, received no answer at the door, and…

An Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in the United Kingdom just four months before carrying out a series of sexual offences against a 12-year-old girl has been sentenced to 15 years in prison following a trial at Warwick Crown Court. Ahmad Mulakhil, 23, was convicted of rape, two counts of sexual assault, child abduction and taking an indecent video of the victim. He had already admitted a further rape charge prior to trial. The court heard that the girl was approached by Mulakhil in a Nuneaton park while she was playing on the swings. She told the court she had…

A Berlin youth centre allegedly failed to report the rape and sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl to authorities because a social services coordinator feared the perpetrators would be marginalised, according to a sworn affidavit submitted to German politicians. The claims, reported by German outlet Bild, relate to the Wutzkyallee youth centre in the Neukölln district of Berlin. The affidavit, submitted by employees at a neighbouring facility called MaDonna, describes the case of a Turkish-Kurdish schoolgirl who was allegedly raped by one boy and subsequently sexually assaulted by eight others in a secluded area of the centre. The alleged perpetrators…

A 15-year-old boy who woke during a sexual assault carried out on him while he slept in a tent at a house party has seen justice upheld after the woman responsible failed to overturn her conviction on appeal. Cynthia Frahn, 53, was found guilty of sexually assaulting the teenager at her home in Monarto, near Adelaide, Australia, in June 2023. The boy had lost consciousness at the party and was asleep in a tent when the assault took place, waking to find Frahn performing a sex act on him. A jury returned a guilty verdict, and Frahn was subsequently sentenced…

A former detective appearing before Zimbabwe’s High Court in Harare has claimed that invisible goblins tormented and compelled him to carry out a shooting that left four people dead and four others wounded. Jaison Muvevi, 42, faces murder charges in connection with the deaths of local religious figure Chrispen Kanerusine, 62, police inspector Maxwell Hove, barman Munashe Majani and a fourth man named Nyarai Round. Muvevi, who denies murder, told the court the goblins had been haunting him and directed him to drive to a church shrine with his mother before ordering him to open fire. His defence lawyer Jackie…

A secondary school in Greater Manchester used artificial intelligence to generate justifications for removing almost 200 books from its library — including some of the most widely read titles in modern literature — while placing the school librarian under a safeguarding investigation that ultimately ended her career. The case was uncovered by free expression charity Index on Censorship, which has withheld the names of both the school and the librarian due to concerns about her vulnerability. The librarian spoke to the organisation anonymously, describing events that began in November 2025 when the headteacher demanded the removal of Laura Bates’ nonfiction…

Plans to turn a student accommodation block in Leeds into a hostel for asylum seekers have been rejected by the local council, in a decision that leaves the Home Office with the option of submitting a full planning application. The Home Office applied last August for a Certificate of Proposed Lawful Development for Mary Morris House on Shire Oak Road in Headingley, a building currently occupied by students. The certificate route would have allowed a change of use to proceed without a full planning application, but Leeds City Council determined that the proposal represented a material change of use and…

NHS surgeon Rahmeh Aladwan has been charged with multiple counts of inviting support for Hamas, the Metropolitan Police has confirmed, in a development that follows her suspension from medical practice last year over social media posts deemed to have shared support for violent action and terrorist organisations. Aladwan, 31, a British Palestinian trainee trauma and orthopaedic surgeon, was suspended by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for 15 months in November after the tribunal found her posts “may impact on patient confidence” and could discourage patients from seeking treatment from her. She has denied making racist or hateful comments, and her…

A serial robber who threatened to decapitate Songs of Praise presenter Aled Jones and left a Bridgerton actress traumatised has pleaded guilty to a further machete robbery, with a judge warning him a “substantial custodial sentence” awaits when he is sentenced in June. Zacariah Boulares, now 19, from Feltham, south London, appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday and admitted attempting to steal a Rolex watch from Neil Tallantire outside a Waitrose in Porchester Road, Bayswater, on 19 August 2023, while armed with a machete. The attack took place in broad daylight, was captured on CCTV, and occurred just six…