Babak Belurs

Senin, 14 November 2022

Edinburgh's War Memorial set on fire by vandals - BBC

By Angie Brown

BBC Scotland, Edinburgh and East reporter

Edinburgh's War Memorial has been set on fire - less than 24 hours after Remembrance Sunday services were held.

Several wreathes were completely burnt in the fire and Edinburgh's Stone of Remembrance blackened with soot.

Edinburgh's Lord Provost said it was "disgusting and disrespectful".

The Army major who runs the team that makes the poppies and wreathes said he was "horrified" by the act of vandalism outside the City Chambers building in the Royal Mile.

Major Charlie Pelling, factory manager of the Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, told BBC Scotland: "This is deeply insulting to the memory of the men and women the memorial is meant to remember. I'm absolutely horrified."

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was "utterly beyond comprehension".

She said it was "sickening and disgraceful" that someone would vandalise a war memorial.

She said: "I hope those responsible are identified and brought to justice."

It is understood CCTV in the area is now being checked and witnesses are being urged to come forward.

Lord Provost Robert Aldridge said: "Yesterday it was my honour to lay a wreath on behalf of the City of Edinburgh to remember those who served and sacrificed so much.

"The vandalism discovered this morning not only to the recently laid wreaths but also Edinburgh's Stone of Remembrance is disgusting and disrespectful.

"We remain at a loss for the reasons someone could do something like this which has caused a lot of upset for everyone who respects the memories of all who serve their country. We have reported this to the police and would urge anyone who knows anything about what happened to contact them."

Lady Haig Poppy Factory in Redford Barracks

Ex-servicemen and women make the wreathes.

Money raised from selling poppies helps support vulnerable ex-servicemen and women - and their families.

Police Scotland confirmed they were investigating the incident.

Ch Insp Murray Tait said: "Our inquiries are ongoing after poppy wreaths were set on fire at the war memorial in High Street, Edinburgh about 05:00 on Monday.

"Officers are carrying out inquiries and gathering CCTV footage to find out more information on whoever is responsible.

"I utterly condemn this appalling act of vandalism, especially at this time of year when remembrance services have just been held across the country."

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By Paul Seddon

Politics reporter

The UK will pay France £8m more a year under a revised deal to try to stop people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The money will pay for increased surveillance of French beaches, while UK police officers will also be able to observe patrols within France.

French officers patrolling the coast to try to stop people setting off will rise from 200 to 300 over five months.

PM Rishi Sunak said he was "confident" the crossings could be brought down.

However, he warned there was no "single thing" that could "fix" the situation, promising "even greater cooperation" with France in the months ahead.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called the deal a "small step in the right direction," but said more need to be done to tackle people smuggling.

The government is coming under increasing pressure to reduce journeys across the Channel, which have risen to record levels this year.

More than 40,000 people have crossed in small boats so far this year, including 1,800 this weekend alone, according to official figures.

Under the new agreement, signed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman in Paris, the UK will pay France £63m this year, up from £55m last year.

It will cover:

investment in drones, night vision equipment, and CCTV in French ports to try and prevent crossings
funding for detection dogs at ports to identify people trying to enter the UK in lorries
investment in reception and removal centres in France

UK observers will be embedded in French control rooms, and French observers embedded in UK control rooms, to help inform each other's deployments.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the UK wanted to "significantly" reduce the number of crossings - but declined to set a target for reductions.

Analysis box by Dominic Casciani, home and legal correspondent

Today's announcement may shift some officers closer to frontline decision-making - but it's not clear how the deal helps the UK to solve three pressing issues.

Firstly, those new British teams (on top of those deployed since 2018) will only be observers.

They have no operational powers, so even if more boats and smugglers are intercepted, they can't tell the French what to do with individual migrants who we know may try more than once to cross.

Secondly, some critics say the UK needs to look for a bigger continental-wide deal. But it chose not to be part of the EU's irregular migrant management policies, as part of Brexit.

The final big challenge is on the UK side of the English Channel. The Home Office's day-to-day battle to find somewhere to accommodate those who survive the sea is directly linked to the department's huge backlogs and the delays in dealing with those who arrived before them.

Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the deal, but said there was "much more that needs to be done". "We need the National Crime Agency working upstream to tackle the people smuggling in the first place," he told reporters.

He also criticised the "desperate state" of asylum application processing in the UK, adding most people would be "shocked" by official figures showing that only 4% of asylum claims by migrants who crossed the Channel last year have been processed.

Franck Dhersin, mayor of Teteghem near the coastal town of Dunkirk, said the increase in crossings this year had come despite "a lot of police" watching the coast.

"We are talking about 175km of beaches and dunes, where it is very easy to hide," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Natalie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover, called the new deal "more of the same," adding it "falls far short of what is needed".

"The only thing that will tackle this issue is making sure that the boats are stopped in France before they get in the water," she added.

The Refugee Council and Amnesty International UK called for a greater focus on increasing the number of safe and legal routes for people who want to claim asylum in the UK.

Graphic showing the number of Channel crossings

The higher numbers of migrants making the crossing this year has been partly blamed on a big rise in the number of Albanian nationals making the journey.

So far this year 12,000 Albanians have arrived in the UK using small boats, compared to just 50 in 2020.

The deal comes after weeks of criticism aimed at the government for severe overcrowding at the migrant processing site in Manston, Kent, and for its spending on housing for those waiting for their asylum applications to be completed.

According to the Home Office, the UK is spending £5.6m on accommodating asylum seekers in hotels. It is spending a further £1.2m a day to temporarily house Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban.

The latest government figures for the year to the end of June 2022 showed that 103,000 asylum applications were awaiting a decision.

Ms Braverman has previously admitted the system was "broken" and Mr Sunak has said not enough asylum claims were being processed.

Manston overcrowding

More than 40,000 people applying for asylum have waited between one and three years for a decision on their claim, according to a Refugee Council Freedom of Information request, reported in The Guardian.

It also reported that a further 725 migrants have been waiting for more than five years to have their claim processed.

It emerged last month there was severe overcrowding at Manston, with 4,000 people staying there rather than the 1,600 for which the site was intended.

Numbers have since been reduced to less than 1,600, according to immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

On Saturday it emerged people at Manston centre are to be vaccinated against highly contagious and sometimes fatal diphtheria after an outbreak.

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2022-11-14 13:53:32Z
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Violent armed gang members jailed for more than 100 years after attacking security guards refilling cash machines - Sky News

Members of a gang of armed robbers have been jailed for more than 100 years after a wave of violent attacks on security guards refilling cash machines.

They used guns, knives, hammers and crowbars to terrorise staff before fleeing in a fleet of stolen vehicles and leaving few clues behind them.

When banknotes got stained by security dye, they laundered the cash through fixed-odds betting terminals in bookmakers' shops.

They took advantage of a system that allowed punters to load a machine with up to £3,000 cash, make one small bet and then collect their unspent stake in fresh notes from the shop's cash till.

They burnt piles of stained banknotes and a car that got sprayed when they smashed open one cash box and triggered the dye security system.

Armed police ambushed two robbers - Abdi Omar and Brooklyn McFarlane - as they were about to attack security guards at a local Sainsbury's in Wimbledon. Omar was caught quickly, while McFarlane ran and pulled a knife and was shot by police who believed he was carrying a gun. He was discharged from hospital the next day.

The gang were caught after an astonishing bit of detective work by the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad who, from poor quality CCTV footage, managed to identify and track one of their stolen cars and the first of the robbers who eventually led them to the rest.

'The violence was extreme'

Detective Superintendent Simon Moring said: "They had a well-organised gang structure. They displayed a really good tradecraft, using stolen vehicles, cloned number plates, they knew a lot about police tactics, used good anti-surveillance techniques, so that they knew what they were doing. They were a forceful gang.

"The violence was extreme, security guards thrown around, hit with iron bars, guns held to their heads. Thankfully no one got seriously hurt. They would have just carried on committing robberies and who knows where and how it would have ended."

The gang attacked guards at cash points in London, Oxford, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire, usually congregating and travelling from an estate in South London. Armed with loaded handguns and other weapons they wore ballistic body armour and balaclavas. Over 18 months they stole more than £400,000.

Two robbers arrested after crashing into bus

The first two robbers identified were arrested after jumping a red light and crashing into a bus. They ran off but were chased and caught by a team of detectives who were trailing them.

While awaiting trial the two shared a cell in Wandsworth prison and police later discovered they had a smuggled mobile phone and used it to coordinate more robberies committed by those yet to be caught.

The sentences

In the first of two trials Basil Abdul-Latif, 36, from South London, the gang's leader, was jailed for 22 years for conspiracies to rob, possess a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and handle stolen goods and arson.

A second main gang member David Tesfaalem, 30, from South London, was jailed for 20 years for similar offences.

Ibrahim Lyazi, 29, from west London, got 18 years and two others, Ihab Ashaoui, 30, and Adam Salman, 32, were each jailed for 14 years. Ola Orulebaja was jailed for 13 years.

Detective Constable Stephen O'Connell from the Flying Squad said: "This was an immensely complex investigation involving a huge amount of evidence. The group caused havoc in and outside London with buildings being severely damaged and high-value goods being stolen.

"These men have since discovered that crime does not pay and thanks to the complex investigative work by the Flying Squad they will instead be spending time behind bars. Investigations continue to track down and bring to justice outstanding suspects who are believed to be involved in these offences."

Four other men, all from south London, were awaiting sentence today after being convicted for their roles in the robbery conspiracy. They were: Brooklyn McFarlane and Abdi Omar, both 27, Mahdi Hashi, 29, and Noaman Amin, 26.

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2022-11-14 11:26:15Z
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UK strikes revised deal with France on Channel migrants - BBC

French Police officer looking out over a beach near Wimereux in France

By Paul Seddon

Politics reporter

The UK will pay France £8m more a year under a revised deal to try to stop people crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The money will pay for increased surveillance of French beaches, whilst UK police officers will also be able to observe patrols within France.

French officers patrolling the coast to try to stop people setting off will rise from 200 to 300 over five months.

PM Rishi Sunak said he was "confident" the crossings could be brought down.

However, he warned there was no "single thing" that could "fix" the situation, promising "even greater cooperation" with France in the months ahead.

BBC News home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said that while the expanded deal would further disrupt the people smugglers operating in France, it was unlikely to end their trade.

The government is coming under increasing pressure to reduce journeys across the Channel, which have risen to record levels this year.

More than 40,000 people have crossed in small boats so far this year, including 1,800 this weekend alone, according to official figures.

Under the new agreement, signed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman in Paris, the UK will pay France £63m this year, up from £55m last year.

It will cover:

investment in drones, night vision equipment, and CCTV in French ports to try and prevent crossings
funding for detection dogs at ports to identify people trying to enter the UK in lorries
investment in reception and removal centres in France

UK observers will be embedded in French control rooms, and French observers embedded in UK control rooms, to help inform each other's deployments.

The deal had been close for several months but the French government were reluctant to finalise it until there was a stable government in the UK, our correspondent added.