“… The Guardian has revealed the suspect, aged 25, was previously known to the Prevent scheme, the official programme to stop radicalisation. His involvement was short, according to multiple sources. He has no known previous terrorist involvement.”
UK
Tory MP was killed in murder ‘linked to Islamist extremism’, say Met Police
The death of Sir David Amess was today being treated as a terror attack ‘linked to Islamist extremism’ as officers raided two homes in London and a British Muslim man of Somali descent remained in police custody.
Sir David was holding a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, when a knifeman in the church building launched a frenzied attack. The 69-year-old politician was wounded at least 12 times and died at the scene.
Horrified constituents waiting to see the veteran MP, who has campaigned to help refugees, watched in horror as the assailant leapt on him just after midday. Shortly after midday, the knifeman waited calmly in line after booking in at the constituency surgery before launching the fatal attack, according to witnesses.
Reading stabbings: Islamist Khairi Saadallah refused appeal against whole-life term
A terrorist who murdered three men in a Reading park has been denied permission to appeal his whole-life jail term.
Khairi Saadallah, 27, stabbed James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and 39-year-old Joe Ritchie-Bennett in June last year in Forbury Gardens.
He was sentenced in January after admitting to the murders and three attempted murders.
The Court of Appeal ruled there was “no substance” to Saadallah’s criticisms towards the judge who sentenced him.
UK Border Force could be given immunity over refugee deaths
Border Force staff who enact Priti Patel’s plans to “ push back” migrant boats in the Channel could be given immunity from conviction if a refugee dies, officials have confirmed.
The home secretary is seeking to introduce a provision in the nationality and borders bill that could give officials legal protections in the event that someone drowns.
Whether the provision, tucked away in an obscure corner of the bill, would actually protect officers from conviction under international maritime laws could be tested in the courts.
Brit ISIS Bride Doesn’t Think She’s Done Anything Wrong
A British mother and former Pizza Hut worker who left to join Islamic State has urged the UK to let her return from Syria with her daughters aged seven, nine and 12.
Nicole Jack, of Shepherd’s Bush, West London, and her children are being detained at Camp Roj where relatives of people suspected of belonging to Isis are held.
Ms Jack, 34, is being held at the same camp as Isis bride Shamima Begum – a fellow Londoner who had her UK citizenship cancelled by Sajid Javid on security grounds in 2019 and will not be allowed back – but insisted she is not a security threat to Britain.
More… Germany and Denmark repatriate 37 children and 11 ‘IS women’ from Syria
Germany says it has repatriated eight women, who had joined the so-called Islamic State (IS), and 23 children from a camp in northern Syria.
They were brought back in a joint operation with Denmark, which repatriated three women and 14 children, German officials said.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the women were in custody and faced a criminal investigation.
UK Islamic charity is being investigated after praising Taliban and encouraging Muslims to fund jihadists
A London-based Islamic charity is being investigated after material was found on its website that praised the Taliban and encouraged Muslims to fund jihadists, according to reports
The Miftahul Jannah Academy in Waltham Forest is being investigated by the Charity Commission after the material, by Islamic scholar Muhammad Patel, was flagged by the National Secular Society.
There is also anti-semitic material on there referring to the “dirty qualities” of jews, The Times newspaper reported.
Three Women Attacked With a Hammer After Sexual Assaults in Central London
A man has been charged after several women were attacked with a hammer after being sexually assaulted in Regent Street, one of London’s busiest and most famous thoroughfares.
Police were called to Regent Street, which runs from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus, just before 11 p.m. on Friday, 1 October, after receiving 999 calls.
… Morteza Ahmadi, 38, has been charged with two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of causing actual bodily harm, two counts of sexual assault by touching and one count of possession of an offensive weapon.
Escape from Dunkirk? French police FIRE at migrant boat-runners with rubber bullets, cracking bones and sending two to hospital
French police have launched a probe after officers fired rubber bullets at eight Iranian Kurdish men attempting to launch a migrant dinghy from Dunkirk to the UK. Suspected of trafficking, the men claim they’re innocent victims.
A night patrol on the beach at Dunkirk last week came upon eight Iranian Kurdish men carrying a dinghy toward the shore and opened fire on them, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday. Two of the men were taken to hospital, one with a fractured leg and another with a hand injury.
Congrats to the French police for firing rubber bullets at Iranian people smugglers as they pushed a dinghy into the water at Dunkirk. The bullets broke the leg of one victim and the hand of another. Gunfire will be a fine deterrent. Macron is my new, and unexpected, hero.
— Kelvin MacKenzie (@kelvmackenzie) October 2, 2021
Migrants who arrive in UK after crossing Channel in small boats will be flown 1,500 miles to new processing facility in Albania in new asylum crackdown
Will Britain Shiver? – This winter, the U.K.’s wrongheaded energy policy may test public devotion to environmentalism.
Britain this winter might perform an interesting if discomfiting experiment to find out how deep is its people’s practical commitment to the environment. My guess is that it is not terribly deep.
There is much talk of a coming energy crisis if the winter is severe. A possibility exists that the lights will go out, factories will close, and hot water and central heating will be lacking. A population unused to such hardships may express its discontent by means not wholly peaceful or constitutional.
UK: ‘Swansea Man’ Turkey Al-Turkey Jailed for Rape
An Iraqi asylum seeker has received a short sentence for raping a woman in Swansea, Wales, and will have to serve two-thirds of it in custody before being released on licence and deported, maybe.
Hotel Migrants Accused of Filming and Harassing Underage Schoolgirls
Parents in Wigan, England, have been left fearful as male migrants hosted in a local hotel are accused of roaming the community harassing underage girls and filming them through schoolyard fences.
Britain offers Canadian military help to defend the Arctic
Britain is signalling its interest in working with the Canadian military in the Arctic by offering to take part in cold-weather exercises and bring in some of its more advanced capabilities — such as nuclear-powered submarines — to help with surveillance and defence in the Far North.
In a recent exclusive interview with CBC News, the United Kingdom’s top military commander said his country is “keen to cooperate” and learn more about how to survive and fight in a cold, remote setting.
Gen. Sir Nick Carter said Britain would also like to “cooperate in terms of helping Canada do what Canada needs to do as an Arctic country.”
UK: Record Number of Migrants Crossing English Channel
Nearly a thousand migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East have attempted to cross the English Channel on small boats in just one day to illegally get into the United Kingdom. The record-breaking surge in illegal crossings is being facilitated by warm weather and calm seas.
The British government is struggling to stop the crossings — partly because of its need for cooperation from France. British authorities have repeatedly accused their French counterparts of not doing enough to stop small boats from leaving French territorial waters.
Although the UK has pledged to pay France tens of millions of pounds to stop migrants crossing the Channel, French naval vessels are accused of escorting small boats into British waters.
Why Britain is uniquely vulnerable to a new wave of terrorism
Deep links with Pakistan will open the door to terrorists
The restoration of the Taliban-Qaeda regime in Afghanistan is a terrorism threat to the whole world, but Britain has some unique vulnerabilities, as MI5 Director general Ken McCallum warned today.
The jihadist army that just captured Afghanistan is part of a broad, transnational network controlled by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Britain has long been a node in this ISI network. Masood Azhar, an ISI operative and United Nations-listed terrorist, toured Britain in 1993, fundraising and recruiting for the Kashmir jihad, while laying down local networks to continue the job. Some of these networks later defected to the Islamic State.
UK foiled 31 terror plots in past 4 years, Taliban takeover in Afghanistan likely ‘emboldened’ lone-wolf extremists – MI5 chief
UK authorities foiled 31 terrorist plots in the past four years, the head of MI5 has said. He warned that the Taliban victory in Afghanistan likely served as a morale boost to domestic extremists.
“Even during the pandemic period we have all been enduring for most of the last two years, we have had to disrupt six late-stage attack plots,” Ken McCallum, the head of the UK’s domestic counter-intelligence and security service, told the BBC Radio 4’s Today show.