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Há 9 horas
quarta-feira, 27 de maio de 2026
Europe is officially the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at roughly twice the global average. According to climate reports from the Copernicus Climate Change Service, while the global average increase sits at about \(0.26 per decade, Europe has been warming at an alarming rate of over \(0.5 per decade since the 1980s.
Europe is
officially the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at roughly twice the
global average. According to climate reports from the Copernicus
Climate Change Service, while the global average increase sits at about
\(0.26 per decade,
Europe has been warming at an alarming rate of over \(0.5 per decade since the 1980s.
Why is
Europe Warming So Fast?
Several
environmental and geographical factors cause the continent to heat
disproportionately faster than the rest of the world:
- Proximity to the Arctic: The Arctic region is warming
faster than anywhere else on the planet, heavily impacting neighboring
European regions.
- Landmass vs. Ocean: Land areas heat up
significantly faster than oceans. Because over half of the Earth is
covered by cooling oceans, global averages are pulled down, whereas Europe
consists entirely of a highly populated landmass.
- Decreasing Albedo: Europe has experienced a
decline in snow and ice cover. Less snow means less solar radiation is
reflected back into space, allowing the land to absorb more heat. [1,
2,
3, 4]
Impacts
on the Continent
This rapid
rate of warming has caused significant shifts in local climate and extreme
weather events:
- Record Temperatures: The continent routinely breaks
seasonal heat records, with extensive marine heatwaves warming European
oceans.
- Melting Ice: Glaciers in the Alps and other
regions continue to retreat, contributing to rising global sea levels.
- Severe Droughts and Wildfires: Southern Europe frequently
experiences extreme agricultural droughts and massive wildfire seasons
that burn millions of hectares. [1, 2, 3]
The
Response
To combat
these changes, the European Union has heavily pushed into renewable energy,
with clean energy generation (wind and solar) outpacing fossil fuels.
Initiatives like the European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) continue to guide
regional climate policy, adaptation strategies, and the transition to net-zero
‘Mind-bogglingly crazy’: climate experts alarmed by deadly spring heatwaves searing Europe
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‘Mind-bogglingly
crazy’: climate experts alarmed by deadly spring heatwaves searing Europe
Ajit
Niranjan
Europe
environment correspondent
Scientists
warn of ‘new reality’ of heat extremes that claim three times more lives than
car crashes and 16 times as many as murderers
Wed 27
May 2026 12.00 BST
Malcolm
Mistry knew it was going to get “very warm, very quickly” on Monday morning but
a slow start out of bed delayed his plans for an early game of cricket with his
son. It was already 10am by the time the pair arrived at the sun-soaked nets of
their local club in south-west London, and to the embarrassment of the
48-year-old scientist, who played cricket in his youth, his body was struggling
after just half an hour of bowling.
Had he
continued for another hour, Mistry reckons he would have probably suffered from
heatstroke. Had he and his son stayed until noon, they would have found
themselves straining their bodies in direct sunlight while a nearby weather
station logged the UK’s hottest May temperature since records began.
“I could
feel I was panting a bit more heavily,” said Mistry, a leading climate and
health researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
“That’s when I said to myself: ‘I need to stop here right now, immediately,
before something happens.’”
The dark
side of a gloriously hot European summer, excess mortality data compiled by
experts such as Mistry shows, is an almost unfathomably large death toll – one
that society rarely treats as a crisis. In 2024, summer heat in the EU claimed
roughly three times more lives than car crashes, 16 times more than murderers,
and more than 10,000 times more than terrorists.
This
year, summer highs are striking before spring is even over. It may herald worse
heat to come as parts of Europe brace for yet another torrid season of
punishing extremes.
Temperatures
over the weekend reached dizzying highs in the UK, which shattered its
historical temperature record for the month by a full 2C. The Monday peak of
34.8C at London’s Kew Gardens was followed by a “tropical night” at Kenley
airfield, with lows that did not drop below 21.3C, and was beaten on Tuesday
with a high of 35.1C in west London. The Met Office said the temperatures would
be “exceptional in the UK even in mid-summer, let alone in May”.
In
France, where Monday highs surpassed 37.1C in the south-west, the national
warning system was activated for the first time in May since it was introduced
in 2004, and seven deaths were linked to the heat. Météo-France said abnormally
hot periods had occurred in the month in previous years, “but nothing
comparable to this one”. Spain may endure temperatures as high as 40C this
week.
“Early-season
heatwaves are especially hazardous because our bodies have not had time to
acclimatise,” said Garyfallos Konstantinoudis, an environmental epidemiologist
at Imperial College London, who estimates an extra 250 heat-related deaths will
have occurred in England and Wales between Saturday and Monday.
“This
exceptional spring heatwave is far more than an uncomfortable disruption to our
sleep, work or study,” he said. “For vulnerable groups without access to
cooling – particularly elderly people, the very young and those with underlying
health conditions – these temperatures are quite simply dangerous and
potentially fatal.”
The
specific trigger for the record temperatures is an area of high pressure
trapping heat. It comes on top of a global rise in average temperatures, which
has increased the likelihood of extremes and made unprecedented highs an
increasingly common reality.
Peter
Thorne, a climate scientist at Maynooth University in Ireland, said: “We know
beyond a shadow of a doubt” that the climate crisis had made heatwaves such as
the latest one stronger and more likely. “But nevertheless, many of the records
being set, particularly in the UK and France, are mind-bogglingly crazy.”
“This
latest heatwave in Europe is a brutal reminder of the spiraling impacts of the
climate crisis, both human and economic,” Simon Stiell, UN Climate Change
Executive Secretary. “The main culprit is the world’s addiction to burning
coal, oil and gas, and destroying forests. Many other parts of the world are
also getting hit hard, such as India and other parts of Asia. The science is
clear that human-induced climate change is making these heatwaves more frequent
and extreme.”
Farmers
across the continent have begun to sound the alarm over weather projections in
recent weeks, with a regional lobby group in the Netherlands recently warning
of stress from prolonged heat and drought. Last month, the young farmers
association in Aragón, in Spain, warned of a possible “catastrophe” for cereal
crops because of extreme heat and lack of rain.
Scientists
have warned that El Niño, a warming weather pattern projected to return in a
particularly potent form this year, could lead to even hotter temperatures in
2026. Current projections foresee it reaching moderate strength in the summer
and peaking toward the end of the year, though official scientific bodies have
warned that projections made before the end of spring are subject to great
variability.
“What
matters much more than hype around an upcoming El Niño is that we have
permanently shifted the climate,” said Thorne. He compared it to walking into a
casino and rolling a seven on a six-sided dice.
“I expect
numerous notable extremes in Europe this summer because that is our new reality
– but exactly what, where, when and with what impacts is not predictable,” he
added. “But if you don’t lose this time, there is always next year. And coming
back to the casino analogy, in the end the house always wins.”
Simon
Stiell, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, said: “This latest heatwave in
Europe is a brutal reminder of the spiraling impacts of the climate crisis,
both human and economic. The main culprit is the world’s addiction to burning
coal, oil and gas, and destroying forests. Many other parts of the world are
also getting hit hard, such as India and other parts of Asia. The science is
clear that human-induced climate change is making these heatwaves more frequent
and extreme.”
Far-right FvD takes blows from almost all parties in debate on violent anti-asylum riots
Wednesday,
27 May 2026 - 09:15
Far-right
FvD takes blows from almost all parties in debate on violent anti-asylum riots
The
far-right FvD and party leader Lidewij de Vos faced attacks from almost all
other parties in a Tweede Kamer debate on the violence used at recent
anti-asylum protests. This is a turnaround to parliament’s usual stance of
largely ignoring the FvD in an attempt not to feed the party’s far-right
ideologies. De Vos still refused to distance herself from these racist ideas,
NU.nl reported.
Tuesday’s
debate focused largely on indications
that far-right groups were involved in recent anti-asylum
riots in Loosdrecht and other municipalities. In the run-up to the
municipal elections, it became clear that several FvD candidates had current or
former ties
with several right-wing extremist groups.
For over
an hour on Tuesday evening, De Vos faced an increasingly enraged
parliamentarians from the left and right of the political spectrum, demanding
in vain that she distance herself from the violence used at anti-asylum
protests and from far-right ideologies. But De Vos maintained that the FvD has
nothing to do with extremist ideologies and rejected all “insinuations” that
party members belonged to far-right groups.
Various
parties had major issues with the FvD’s use of terms like “repatriation” and
“population replacement.” The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and
Security (NCTV) has warned that such terms help normalize far-right ideology.
In an
attempt to get De Vos to distance herself from these ideas, D66 MP Jan
Paternotte asked her whether “the Netherlands is only for white people.” De Vos
replied that “the Netherlands is for the Dutch,” referring to people whose
ancestors were born here.
Other
party leaders followed Paternotte’s example in trying to get De Vos to admit
her racism or distance herself from it. These included right-wing MP Mona
Keijzer, who participated
in an anti-asylum protest in Loosdrecht. According to NU.nl, it culminated
in a bizarre debate in which the FvD leader repeatedly failed to answer
questions and refused to distance herself from far-right ideologies.
“It was
ugly, intensely ugly, but it had to happen,” Paternotte later reflected on the
debate. “I think it is good that the Netherlands has seen this. If you are not
willing to ask follow-up questions and think ‘just let a party babble,’ then
people won’t know what they are voting for when elections come up.”
According
to PRO leader Jesse Klaver, De Vos revealed “the true nature” of the FvD during
the debate. He accused her of normalizing far-right ideology with her party’s
“right-wing extremist undertone.”
De Vos
did eventually condemn violence at the protests, but she blamed the coalition
and Cabinet for it. According to her, the government’s policies contributed to
people being this angry.
“It is
all about what comes after the comma,” Prime Minister Rob Jetten said later in
the evening about De Vos’s condemnations and justifications, without actually
mentioning her by name.
The
racist terms frequently used in Tuesday’s debate, even by parties openly
distancing themselves from them, “can influence the societal debate in the
wrong way,” Jetten said. “The term ‘population replacement’ is not ordinary
language. It does not belong in our political debate.”
The Prime
Minister added that he had hoped for a Kamer-wide condemnation of the violence,
but had to accept that this would not happen.
The
turnaround from the Kamer’s usual strategy of largely ignoring the FvD is
likely due to the far-right party’s success
in the municipal elections. The party currently holds seven seats in the
Tweede Kamer and is doing well in the polls.
Former SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell has pleaded guilty to embezzling over £400,000 from the Scottish National Party (SNP), while his former wife, former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by Police Scotland.
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Sturgeon
husband and Sturgeon are a corrupt couple
Former
SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell has pleaded guilty to embezzling over
£400,000 from the Scottish National Party (SNP), while his former wife, former
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has been cleared of criminal wrongdoing by
Police Scotland.
While the
situation has sparked widespread public criticism and political debate
regarding accountability, the legal outcomes for the two individuals are
entirely distinct.
Peter
Murrell's Guilty Plea
In May 2026,
Peter Murrell appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh and pleaded guilty to
embezzling £400,310.65 from the SNP between August 2010 and October 2022.
- The Investigation: His conviction concluded a
multi-year police investigation known as Operation
Branchform, which focused on how the party spent hundreds of thousands
of pounds designated for a Scottish independence campaign.
- The Spending: Court proceedings revealed that
Murrell used the stolen party funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle,
purchasing items such as luxury cars, a £124,550 motorhome, expensive
watches, gaming consoles, and designer household goods.
- Current Status: Following his guilty plea,
Murrell was remanded into custody, with formal sentencing scheduled for
June 23, 2026.
Nicola
Sturgeon's Legal Standing
Nicola
Sturgeon, who served as Scotland's First Minister until her resignation in
early 2023, was also arrested and questioned during the investigation. However,
she has not been convicted of any crime:
- Cleared by Police: In March 2025, Police Scotland
officially cleared Sturgeon and former party treasurer Colin Beattie of
wrongdoing, dropping further investigations into them.
- Denial of Knowledge: Following Murrell's guilty
plea, Sturgeon released a statement expressing that she was "utterly
appalled" and felt "deceived and let down" by her former
husband. She maintained that she had separate bank accounts, no access to
his finances, and had absolutely no knowledge or suspicion that party
funds were being used for personal purchases.
Relationship
and Political Fallout
The couple,
who previously held a massive concentration of power as the chief executive and
leader of the same political party, separated in January 2025.
While
Sturgeon has been legally exonerated, political opponents and media
commentators continue to debate whether she should have been more aware of the
extensive spending occurring within her own home, leaving her political legacy
under intense scrutiny.
Paris School Worker Tried on Assault Charges in Widespread Child Abuse Inquiry
Paris
School Worker Tried on Assault Charges in Widespread Child Abuse Inquiry
The
36-year-old, named in the French news media as David G., is among more than 70
employees at schools in the capital who have been recently suspended or fired
over allegations of sexual abuse and other misconduct.
By
Ségolène Le Stradic
Reporting
from the courthouse in Paris
May 26,
2026
A former
school employee was standing trial in Paris on Tuesday accused of sexually
assaulting nine children, highlighting a yearlong crisis in the French
capital’s school system involving child abuse accusations at roughly 130
schools, kindergartens and nurseries.
The
former employee, a 36-year-old man named only as David G. in the French news
media to comply with French reporting custom, was suspended last April and
arrested in June, the Paris prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Speaking
in court on Tuesday, he denied all charges, adding: “Looking back now, I
realize I should have been more careful around children, kept my distance,
played with them less, and held them on my lap less often.”
Mr. G.
faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a fine of 150,000 euros, or
$174,000. The verdict is expected to be delivered on July 7.
Mr. G.
was a member of the nonteaching staff at the Alphonse Baudin school, a
kindergarten in central Paris, close to some of the city’s most fashionable
neighborhoods. He was arrested after several parents expressed concerns to the
school’s director about changes in their children’s behavior, leading the
director to report the man to the authorities, the statement from the
prosecutor’s office said. Mr. G. is also accused of sexually assaulting or
harassing two adult colleagues. The school’s leadership has not publicly
commented on the case and the education ministry declined to comment on an
ongoing lawsuit.
Mr. G. is
among dozens of nonteaching staff in the Parisian school system under
investigation on accusations of sexual abusing children, often during
after-school activities or during recess. The allegations have set off a crisis
of confidence in the city’s school system and caused an early challenge for the
new mayor, Emmanuel Grégoire.
“We hope
this case will be a turning point in child protection,” said Rebecca Royer, who
represents six of the victims’ families, along with another lawyer, Hannah
Kopp. Their clients made the difficult decision to allow the public to attend
the trial “so that society can understand that these aren’t isolated cases,”
Ms. Royer said.
In court
Mr. G. was accused of inappropriately touching several students. He denied the
allegations.
Parents
testified about their children’s troubling — and sometimes persisting —
symptoms: extreme mood swings, uncontrollable masturbation, eating disorders, a
tendency to defecate or urinate oneself.
“This has
been a seismic shock for our whole family,” one of the mothers told the court.
Seeing her daughter doing better lately made her feel hopeful, she said, though
she remained cautious. “We know it will never return to the way it was before,”
she said.
In the
French school system, teachers recruited by the national Education Ministry
oversee lessons and teaching, while staff members hired by the city authorities
oversee recess, lunch hour and after-school activities.
Nonteaching
staff members are mostly hired on a short-term basis, meaning they are often
ill-trained and underpaid, Mr. Grégoire said at a public meeting with parents
last week. Of the 13,000 such employees in Paris, 10,000 are temporary workers,
according to labor union officials. That means school leaders often struggle to
achieve a coordinated level of oversight for the children in their care, Mr.
Grégoire noted at the meeting.
This
dynamic attracted greater public scrutiny in January after the release of a
documentary on the subject by a popular investigative TV program.
Using
footage shot by an undercover reporter in the St.-Dominique kindergarten in
central Paris, the program showed nonteaching staff members variously
supervising more children than the regulations stipulate and yelling at
children. Most disturbingly, one employee was shown kissing a child on the
mouth.
After the
documentary, dozens of families filed complaints alleging rape, sexual assault
and violence.
In
November, City Hall in Paris announced emergency measures to address the
problem, such as asking more senior staff to conduct job interviews for
nonteaching roles, increased training for nonteaching staff, automatically
suspending supervisors flagged for inappropriate behavior and better
communication with families.
Last
month, Mr. Grégoire told the French news media that 78 school employees had
been suspended since the beginning of the year, including 31 for sexual abuse
allegations. He has defined the problem as his “top priority” and pledged 20
million euros, about $23 million, to tackle it.
In a
later interview with Le Monde, Mr. Grégoire acknowledged a “collective
responsibility” and a lack of communication between different parts of the
education system, “with local management teams sometimes operating in
isolation.”
“In many
of these cases, my sense is that, if there was a collective failure, it was in
treating these incidents as isolated cases when they actually reflect a
systemic risk,” he added.
The
St.-Dominique case — the biggest in Paris so far because of the number of
children and educators involved — made headlines again last week when the city
prosecutor’s office announced the arrest of 16 employees at the school and at
two neighboring ones. Those arrests came after interviews were held with 44
children. The prosecutor’s office said that two of the employees had been
indicted on accusations of sexual offenses and placed in pretrial detention.
Iran signals ‘bad faith’ US strikes will not hinder peace talks as Trump calls a rare cabinet meeting
Trump
news at a glance: Iran signals ‘bad faith’ US strikes will not hinder peace
talks as Trump calls a rare cabinet meeting
Despite
attack that killed four Iranian soldiers, Tehran has not pulled out of talks
that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar– key US
politics stories from Tuesday 26 May at a glance
Guardian
staff
Wed 27
May 2026 02.11 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/26/trump-administration-news-today
A
proposed peace agreement between Iran and the US seemed
to remain on the table on Tuesday despite US bombing Iranian targets.
The
Iranian foreign ministry denounced the US attack – aimed at missile launchers
and efforts to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz – as “an act of bad
faith” and “a definitive violation of the ceasefire” and said it would not
leave aggression unanswered. But it did not pull out of the talks that were
continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar.
The
Iranian military announced no specific reprisals, suggesting it did not want
the attack – which killed four Iranian soldiers – to disrupt the delicate last
steps towards an agreement that it intends to hail as one of the great
milestones in Iran’s history of resistance. Brent oil futures climbed 4% after
news of the renewed fighting.
In a sign
that Donald
Trump recognises the conflict has reached a decisive point, he had
been due to convene a rare cabinet meeting at Camp David, the presidential
retreat in Maryland, but on Tuesday he said on Truth Social that this had been
postponed due to bad weather.
Here’s the latest.
Max Bearak Eric Schmitt Erika Solomon and Euan Ward
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/05/26/world/iran-war-trump-deal
Iran
deployed mine-laying boats in the Strait of Hormuz and flew attack drones near
American ships, threatening actions that drew U.S. strikes early Tuesday,
according to two American officials. Hours later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps promised a “decisive reciprocal response” to any cease-fire
violations.
The two
U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military
matters, said the strikes came after the Americans observed Iranian forces
taking several actions, including launching the drones and activity at missile
launch sites. The U.S. military attacked Iranian boats and launch sites in what
it called “self-defense strikes.”
The
ratcheting up of hostilities after a period of relative calm added to the
uncertainty surrounding negotiations for a potential peace deal. President
Trump and his administration have continued to offer conflicting signals about
the state of play, indicating over the weekend that a deal, at least to open
the key oil and gas shipping lanes of the strait, was close at hand.
Secretary
of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said talks to end the war were in progress, and
that a deal could take “a few days.” A day earlier, Mr. Trump said there was no
hurry to reach an agreement, and the result would be either “great and
meaningful” or “no deal” at all. Iran’s lead negotiators returned home on
Tuesday from peace talks in Qatar, indicating at least a temporary pause in the
discussions.
Mr. Trump
has repeatedly threatened a return to hostilities while also pushing for a
peace agreement. He has focused on a preliminary deal to reopen the strait,
which Iran has effectively blockaded, but Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched
uranium and U.S. sanctions on Iran remain largely
unresolved issues.
Iran’s
supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a written statement on Tuesday that
the war with the United States had shown that American military bases in the
Middle East are no longer safe.
Here’s
what else we’re covering:
- Internet in Iran: A top
Iranian official said on Tuesday that the government was gradually
loosening restrictions on internet access, months after imposing a
near-total blackout on millions of Iranians. Read
more ›
- Israeli strikes in Lebanon: Israel’s
military said it had struck more than 100 sites overnight in Lebanon,
including what it said were weapons storage facilities used by the
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The escalation threatens to
complicate diplomatic efforts to resolve the war in Iran. Read
more ›
Based on available data from 2024–2025 regarding foreign nationals and immigration in Europe, particularly in Germany and the UK, there is a recorded overrepresentation of non-nationals in sexual crime statistics, though specific percentages attributed solely to "Islamist foreigners" are not regularly compiled.
Based on
available data from 2024–2025 regarding foreign nationals and immigration in
Europe, particularly in Germany and the UK, there is a recorded
overrepresentation of non-nationals in sexual crime statistics, though specific
percentages attributed solely to "Islamist foreigners" are not
regularly compiled.
Key Data
Trends (2024–2025):
Germany
(2024): In 2024, there were 13,320 reported cases of rape and sexual assault.
Of the identified suspects, over a third (4,437) were non-German. Police
recorded a four-times higher proportion of foreigners among suspects in violent
crimes compared to their population share.
United
Kingdom (2024-2025): Data obtained under freedom of information laws indicates
that between 2021 and 2023, foreign nationals accounted for 15% of sexual
offences. A 2025 report suggested that in 2024, foreigners were involved in up
to 34% of sexual assault convictions.
Overrepresentation:
In the UK, foreign nationals are approximately 3.5 times more likely to be
arrested for sex offences than British natives, based on a rate of 165 arrests
per 100,000 of the migrant population against 48 per 100,000 for Britons.
Specific
Nationalities: Reports on suspects with foreign backgrounds have highlighted
higher incidences among individuals from specific countries, including
Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Algeria, Somalia, and Albania.
Contextual
Factors:
Demographic
Factors: The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) in Germany has attributed
higher crime rates to the high proportion of young men among migrants, a
demographic group generally more likely to commit violent offenses.
Unreported
Cases: Research indicates that sexual violence is often underreported, and
there is a significant gap between accusations and convictions.
Data
Interpretation: While some officials suggest cultural differences in treating
women are a factor, others argue that overrepresentation is partially due to
the concentration of migrants in metropolitan areas and increased police
scrutiny.
"Islamist"
vs. "Foreigner" Definition: Official statistics usually track
nationality (non-German, non-British) or "migrant background" rather
than the ideological term "Islamist."
The data
highlights a significant rise in crimes by foreign nationals but does not
provide a specific, verified percentage solely for "Islamist
foreigners" as a consolidated group.
Asylum seekers, 17, sentenced for girl's rape
Asylum
seekers, 17, sentenced for girl's rape
8
December 2025
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74x9ln0y4qo
Annie
Delaney,in Leamington SpaandShannen Headley,West Midlands
Warwickshire
Police Two men with dark hair in front of a grey background. One has a blue
tshirt on and the other has a white T-shirt on.Warwickshire Police
Israr
Niazal (left) and Jan Jahanzeb (right) were sentenced after admitting to the
rape of a 15-year-old girl
Two
teenage Afghan nationals seeking asylum in the UK have each been given
custodial sentences for the rape of a 15-year-old girl in Leamington Spa.
Jan
Jahanzeb and Israr Niazal, both 17, had pleaded guilty to the 10 May attack at
a hearing in October.
During a
sentencing hearing at Warwick Crown Court, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano lifted
reporting restrictions on naming the boys following applications by media
organisations including the BBC.
Deportation
papers have been served to Jahanzeb. He was sentenced to a youth detention term
of 10 years and eight months. Niazal, about whom the judge invited the
government to recommend deportation, was sentenced to nine years and 10 months.
Both will
start their sentences in a Young Offenders' Institution and move to prison at a
later date.
The pair
were also made to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and given an
indefinite restraining order.
Ahead of
the sentencing, the court heard an impact statement on behalf of the victim in
which she said: "The day I was raped changed me as a person. Now every
time I go out I don't feel safe.
"Watching
[other family members] feeling crushed as they believe they should have been
there or done something is particularly painful for me, even though I know they
couldn't have done anything to stop what happened.
"I
hate the fact that I am now looked at as a victim, even though that's exactly
what I am."
'Horrific'
attack
At the
opening of the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Shawn Williams said the
defendants, who each appeared in the dock assisted by their own interpreter,
were unaccompanied child asylum seekers.
Jahanzeb
fled Afghanistan and underwent an age assessment after arriving in the UK in
January, which concluded he was 17, Mr Williams said.
Niazal
arrived in November last year. He was initially accommodated in Kent before
being moved into local authority care in the Warwickshire area.
The rape,
which took place after the victim became separated from friends on a grassed
area, was described as "horrific" during legal submissions regarding
reporting restrictions in the case.
Mr
Williams told the court that video evidence showed Jahanzeb with the victim and
speaking in Pashto - the official language of Afghanistan - to summon Niazal to
join him.
Footage
from a mobile phone recovered by the police was highly distressing, Mr Williams
said, adding the victim had screamed for help but Jahanzeb had placed his hand
over her mouth.
He said
Jahanzeb and Niazal led the highly distressed victim into a
"den-type" area in parkland in Leamington Spa where they attacked
her.
The
victim had repeatedly shouted for Jahanzeb to let go of her as she was led
away.
She was
later assisted by a member of the public who advised her to contact the police
and stayed with her until she was safe.
'Something
broke in us'
Explaining
her decision to lift reporting restrictions, the judge said keeping them in
place could lead to speculation which might see innocent people being targeted.
"A
lack of information stokes public anger and leads to the unchecked spread of
false information," she said.
In a
further impact statement from the victim's mother, she said: "We have
watched our vibrant, happy and confident daughter shrink down and suffer with
anxiety so bad, she is often physically sick."
Speaking
of the attack, she said "something broke in all of us that day".
After the
pair were sentenced, Det Ch Insp Richard Hobbs from Warwickshire Police said:
"Jahanzeb and Niazal went out of their way to befriend the victim with the
intention of raping her.
"The
length of their sentence reflects the severity of their crime and the need to
protect the public from them."
Tony Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful
Tony
Blair’s essay on Labour failings gets full marks for being unhelpful
Peter Walker Senior political correspondent
Intervention
by former PM almost feels designed to inflict maximum annoyance on his party
Tue 26
May 2026 22.00 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/26/tony-blair-essay-labour-failings-unhelpful
Did Tony
Blair ever mention he was quite good at winning elections? If you happened to
miss it, then his
5,700-word opus on where Labour, Keir Starmer and the UK more
generally have gone wrong is here to remind you. Several times.
“I led
the Labour party
for 13 years and through three general elections,” goes the second sentence.
Further on, Blair laments that when the party tries to puzzle out how to win a
second term, the one thing ruled out was “learning from the only time in the
party’s 120-year history it has ever done so”.
Blair’s
essay, released by his eponymous thinktank, contains some slivers of praise for
contemporary Labour politicians. Starmer made his party an “acceptable default”
at the 2024 election. Wes Streeting is a “huge political talent”.
But
overall, the intervention by the former prime minister almost feels designed to
inflict maximum annoyance on his party, in terms of the content of the repeated
criticism and the timing, before a byelection in Makerfield that could shape
Labour’s destiny for years to come.
And it
has already annoyed people. “He is becoming less and less relevant,” was one of
the more polite responses about a man who left frontline politics nearly 20
years ago and is now mainly seen at glitzy, elite meet-and-greets such as the
World Economic Forum in Davos, or hobnobbing
with Donald Trump as part of his Gaza Board of Peace.
This is
not to say Blair is being deliberately disingenuous. The very clear tone of the
essay is that of a man who worries deeply that the party he once led, plus the
UK more widely, is stuck in a loop of insular political debate, not even
beginning to get to grips with what he portrays as the century-defining
challenge – and opportunity – of AI.
The
current leadership debate concerning Streeting and Andy Burnham, whom Blair
also praises, “has an extraordinarily retro 20th-century feel to it”, he
complains.
Some in
Labour might well agree, but the problem for Blair is something of a repeat
offender. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change bills the essay as “his
first major political intervention since Labour came to power”, which it is –
if you ignore the repeated times Blair and his institute have weighed in, often
unhelpfully, on areas including
immigration and, most commonly, net
zero.
The other
hurdle is that while some in the government will agree with Blair’s broad
complaint that Starmer and his team have failed to come up with a coherent
strategy for economic growth, the sequence of specific policy prescriptions he
lists in the essay often feel politically impossible, whether among just Labour
MPs or the electorate more widely.
After
getting into power, Blair argues, Starmer should have ditched new net zero
projects, as well as laws for workers’ rights, a higher minimum wage and
changes to non-dom tax status and instead “go all out for making business feel
respected and supported”.
Fine,
some in No 10 would argue: that might or might not have helped tick up GDP
growth. But it also might have meant Starmer facing a revolt from his MPs much
earlier than he did.
Similarly,
Blair’s advice that the UK government should have backed Trump in his attacks
on Iran, and the essay’s wider view that the US president is simply seeking a
stronger Nato rather than undermining the alliance, reinforce the sense that
this is the perspective of a person who has, in recent years, met more US
presidents than British voters.
For some
in the government, such trenchant criticism from Labour’s most electorally
successful leader will sting, even if they regard his call for a move to the
“radical centre” as somewhere between vague and meaningless.
“Governments
which succeed don’t start with a personality contest, or a political question,
as in: how do we ‘save the country’ from Reform?” Blair writes. “They start
with an idea, a project, a governing purpose, an analysis of what is wrong and
a plan to put it right.”
Blair
certainly has plans. But unlike when he had a generally sure touch as a working
politician, these ones feel unlikely to be taken up.
Elon Musk’s public endorsement of the breakaway party Restore Britain has fractured the right-wing vote in the upcoming Makerfield by-election, directly improving the prospects of Labour candidate Andy Burnham.
Elon Musk
retweet signals rightwing split that could help Andy Burnham in Makerfield
Elon Musk’s
public endorsement of the breakaway party Restore Britain has fractured the
right-wing vote in the upcoming Makerfield by-election, directly improving the
prospects of Labour candidate Andy Burnham.
The
Right-Wing Split
- The Protagonists: Rupert Lowe, a
former Reform UK MP who spectacularly fell out with Nigel Farage, founded
the rival right-wing party Restore Britain.
- Musk's Intervention: Tech
billionaire Elon Musk amplified the fracture by reposting Lowe's messages
on X alongside the phrase “Restore Britain”.
- The Impact: Under the UK’s
First-Past-The-Post system, this intervention creates a classic spoiler
effect. It draws crucial, anti-establishment voters away from Reform UK's
main candidate, plumber Robert Kenyon.
The
Polling Dynamics
A recent Survation constituency poll exposes exactly why Nigel
Farage is sounding the alarm:
- Andy Burnham (Labour): 43%
- Robert Kenyon (Reform UK): 40%
- Rebecca Shepherd (Restore
Britain): 7%
Combined,
the fractured right-wing factions hold 47% of the indicative vote. Divided,
they leave Burnham with a narrow but vital 3-point lead heading into the June
18 vote. Farage has publicly accused Musk of risking a right-wing defeat,
noting that Burnham will be "delighted" by the social media meddling.
What is
at Stake?
The
Makerfield contest is a high-stakes arena for the future of British politics:
- Labour Leadership: Greater
Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is using this Westminster return as a
launchpad to potentially challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.
- The Green Shift: In a further
boost to Labour, the Green Party recently announced they will run a
scaled-back campaign in the seat, minimizing a potential vote split on the
left.
- Electoral Mapping: Right-leaning
strategists warn that if Restore Britain builds momentum here, it could
permanently splinter the right-wing base well into the 2029 general
election
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