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THIS is the shocking moment a UK phone shop worker offered to take £3,000 in cash in exchange for a small boat migrant crossing. Criminals are using a network of UK-registered businesses to receive payments for smuggling, a BBC Local documentary has found. The Smuggling Business: Undercover, available on BBC iPlayer from tonight, has exposed a network dealing with illegal Channel crossings. These businesses included a mobile phone shop in South-East London, alongside firms in Newcastle upon Tyne and Cambridgeshire. Going undercover to film staff at the shop in Woolwich, the BBC found that nearly £3,000 in cash could be...

A post moving fast across X on Saturday claimed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “has announced he is standing down.” That is not the confirmed position. No official resignation announcement has been verified from Downing Street. But the reports underneath the viral claim tell a story that is almost as dramatic. According to a Daily Mail report from columnist Dan Hodges now circulating widely on the platform, Starmer has “told friends he intends to stand down and set out an orderly timetable for his departure.” That language is sourced to private conversations, not to a formal public statement from the...

A teenage stabbing victim bled to death on the street in Southampton after British police arrested and cuffed him rather than his alleged Sikh attacker, after the suspect claimed he’d been racially abused, according to court testimony. Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student at the University of Southampton, was walking home from a night out in December 2025, chatting with some friends on Snapchat, when he was encountered by Vickrum Digwa, 23. After a brief exchange, Digwa stabbed Nowak with an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial shastar blade, according to court testimony reported by BBC. A post-mortem examination showed Nowak had four...

A teenage stabbing victim bled to death on the street in Southampton after British police arrested and cuffed him rather than his alleged Sikh attacker, after the suspect claimed he’d been racially abused, according to court testimony. Henry Nowak, 18, a finance student at the University of Southampton, was walking home from a night out in December 2025, chatting with some friends on Snapchat, when he was encountered by Vickrum Digwa, 23. After a brief exchange, Digwa stabbed Nowak with an eight-inch Sikh ceremonial shastar blade, according to court testimony reported by BBC. A post-mortem examination showed Nowak had four...

French officials have openly admitted they have “no solution” to stop the flow of small boats crossing the Channel, dealing a fresh political blow to Keir Starmer after Britain agreed a new £662 million border enforcement package with Paris. The comments came despite Downing Street unveiling plans for expanded joint patrols, increased surveillance and the deployment of at least 50 riot-trained French officers to beaches used by migrant gangs operating along the northern French coastline. Local politicians in the Pas-de-Calais region dismissed the measures as cosmetic and warned the crossings would continue regardless of British funding. Alain Boonefaes, a deputy...

France’s longest-running political and corporate corruption scandal ended yesterday with prison sentences and fines for 23 former executives at the Elf oil company and their associates.Loik le Floch-Prigent, 57, Elf’s chief executive between 1989 and 1993, authorised the embezzlement of £210 million while Elf was state-owned. The money went on bribes for politicians and middlemen and lavish lifestyles for senior Elf executives.He was jailed for five years and fined £260,000.Nadhmi Auchi, a British billionaire, was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and fined £1.4 million. Auchi, who fled his native Iraq under Saddam Hussein, was found guilty of accepting illegal...

The French Senate on Tuesday rejected a bill to legalize assisted suicide for the second time, voting down Article 2 of the legislation — which established a right to the procedure — by 151 votes to 118. The upper chamber overwhelmingly approved a separate measure to improve access to palliative care, passing it 325-18 without amendment. The bill, which has twice passed the more left-leaning National Assembly, would allow adults with an incurable or terminal illness to request lethal medication they could self-administer or have a medical professional administer if they are unable. However, as experience has shown when other...

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen suffered an election setback as her left-leaning bloc appeared to have fallen short of winning enough votes to form a government. It sets the stage for tough coalition talks over the coming weeks. Frederiksen had called the snap vote months earlier than expected, seeking to capitalize on popular support after standing up to Trump’s push to annex Greenland.

The United States of America is in active talks with Greenland and Denmark to expand its military presence in Greenland. US officials are seeking to open three new bases in the south of the territory, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, as they work to resolve a diplomatic crisis sparked by President Donald Trump when he threatened to seize Greenland by force. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, mentioned on Tuesday that increasing the U.S. military presence in the Arctic territory was ‌part of ongoing negotiations with Washington, as the United States’ desire to own or control the territory remains alive The...

After weeks of negotiations, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has failed to form a government... King Frederik X has now asked Liberal Party leader Troels Lund Poulsen to lead talks...Under the King's mandate, Poulsen is now expected to explore the formation of a government that excludes both the Social Democrats and the Moderates, signalling a major shift to the right in Denmark's political landscape.The move came after weeks of difficult coalition talks following Denmark's fragmented March snap election, which saw 12 parties enter parliament, with only three winning more than 10% of the vote.Although Frederiksen's Social Democrats recorded their weakest...

An anti-corruption association accused the RN of using European funds to train its members, including Bardella, to address the media during the 2022 French presidential election campaign. The complaint, filed in Paris last December by anti-graft association AC!!Anti-Corruption, was forwarded by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) for assessment. "Following a preliminary review, an investigation has been opened on suspicion of fraud," said the source. Bardella's mentor, Marine Le Pen, is seeking to overturn a court ruling that convicted her of embezzlement in 2025 and could derail her presidential bid next year. If...

The European Union is moving to tighten migration controls after years of struggling to deport most migrants ordered to leave, with a top official saying the bloc is now working to "get control back" ahead of sweeping new asylum rules set to take effect in June. European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said deportations have increased and new border screening systems are identifying potential security threats, part of a broader effort to address gaps in enforcement that have drawn criticism from the United States and fueled political pressure across Europe. "Ten years ago, we didn't have a...

I spent last weekend crossing half the globe with Prime Minister Mark Carney, to spend a few hours with European leaders in Yerevan, the stunning Armenian capital, before crossing all the way back to Ottawa. Mr. Carney was the first non-European leader to be invited to a meeting of the European Political Community, a grouping that brings together the 27 European Union member states with allies and neighbors, including Britain and Turkey, as well as aspiring members such as Ukraine and Albania. This meeting happens twice a year, and it’s mostly a chance for the leaders to talk about pressing...

In case of any doubt about Norway’s commitment to maintain – and expand – its production of gas and oil offshore, the energy minister, Terje Aasland, has a pithy response: “We will develop, not dismantle, activity on our continental shelf.” This week, to the alarm of environmental campaigners, he announced that three gasfields off the country’s southern coast would reopen by the end of 2028 – nearly three decades after they closed – to meet a shortfall caused by the impact of the war in Ukraine and disruption to supplies from the Middle East. The decision will help keep gas...

Polls opened Thursday for millions of Britons in a series of races set to heap more pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showcase the rise of hard-right and left-wing populist parties, both of which face accusations of antisemitism and bigotry at a time when Jews in the UK are under increasing threat. Voters across Scotland, England and Wales head to the ballot box in Starmer’s biggest electoral test since his July 2024 general election landslide victory ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Opinion polls predict grim results for Labour, which could amplify calls for Starmer, 63, to resign...

At a closed marine park in the south of France, two orcas swim lonely circles in an aging tank, its walls caked with green algae. Their fate has become a drama in France, where the government must decide soon whether to transfer them to another marine park or release them into a sanctuary in the sea. While the prospect of sending them into nature is appealing, evoking a sense of restitution for captive mammals, critics argue it is both experimental and unrealistic. These orcas — a female, Wikie, 25, and her son Keijo, 13 — were born in Marineland,...

The European Commission has drafted plans to give more free emissions permits to industries ​over the next few years, a move that ‌could save companies 4 billion euros ($4.68 billion) in CO2 costs, an internal EU document seen by Reuters showed on Monday. The EU's ​carbon market is the bloc's main tool for ​addressing CO2 emissions, which it does by forcing ⁠industries to buy CO2 emissions permits when they pollute. The ​scheme has come under growing political pressure from member states ​worried about Europe's faltering economic competitiveness, while some heavy industries have urged Brussels to give them more free CO2...

Germany’s Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, attacked Trump over the war in Iran. Trump responded by withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany. The attack was a foolish thing for Merz to have done, but perhaps given the state of Islamic control over German society, he felt he had no other choice. It all started last Monday, when Merz announced that the U.S. was losing in Iran and essentially demanded that the U.S. beat a speedy retreat: “ The problem with conflicts like this is always you don’t just have to get in – you have to get out again. We saw that very...

The establishment consensus is hardening. President Trump’s war with Iran is the culminating disaster of the most damaging and misguided American foreign policy in history. Iranian leaders are humiliating the U.S., German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned. “Superpower suicide” is how Wendy Sherman, a top Iran negotiator under President Obama and Joe Biden’s deputy secretary of state, described Mr. Trump’s Iran policy to ABC News. As Ms. Sherman sees it, the Iran war has alienated allies, assisted Russia financially, and weakened America’s position vis-à-vis China. For Fareed Zakaria, the question is no longer whether the administration’s policies will backfire but whether...

Europe will not submit to a more “brutal world”, and can instead be the base from which a new international order can be rebuilt, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said. Carney was speaking as the first non-European leader to attend a meeting of the European Political Community, which opened on Monday amid high tensions in the strait of Hormuz and renewed doubts about the US commitment to Nato. “We don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world, and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,” he said. In...