New York City’s government crackhouses look like libraries with free TVs and places to hang out. Users break off to go into booths like the kind that might house desktop computers or reading spaces in a library. But in government drug dens, they’re places to shoot up, smoke, or do whatever they want. There’s also a private “smoking room” for the bashful junkie.
Health Commissioner Dr. Dave A. Chokshi described government funded drug dens as a “vital new service to keep New Yorkers healthy.”
I also noted that while the city was authorizing crackhouses, it was banning whipped cream because the cannisters have ‘nitrous oxide’.
Scottish ministers are considering a change in the law banning smoking in public places to allow drug users to smoke crack cocaine in special facilities in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Health experts said there had been a significant increase in the number of users switching from injecting heroin to smoking crack in both cities, which they said raised new health challenges and opportunities.
Opportunities for both drug dealers and the radical leftist SNP regime destroying Scotland.
Officials in Glasgow have told the Scottish government they want to expand the UK’s first officially sanctioned drugs consumption room at the Thistle centre – which opened this year in the city’s east end to allow the supervised injection of heroin using fresh needles – to include enclosed, ventilated booths for crack smokers.
But under the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005, which came into force in 2006, smokers face a £1,000 fine per incident while people who allow smoking in a public place could be fined £2,500 per incident.
Health officials in Glasgow believe Bain would need to expand that waiver to include crack smoking, and she could be asked to approve crack cocaine use from the start if Edinburgh goes ahead with its safe consumption facility.
If you smoke a cigarette in Glasgow, you’ll be fined a thousand pounds. So you’d better switch to smoking crack.
The Left is insane and evil. Inverting and perverting any sense of justice or morality is a big part of the reason why it exists. When the Left is allowed any power, it will destroy a society beyond what anyone can imagine.
Santiago Abascal’s Rightwing Vox party is surging, and failing PM Pedro Sábchez and his Socialists are crumbling.
Scandal-plagued Spanish Socialists lose badly in Extremadura.
In a normal world, a Prime Minister whose right-hand man, his party head, plus his own wife and brother are all investigated in corruption scandals would have resigned long ago.
But we’re talking about Euro-Socialists who never, ever give up power – even if sexual harassment claims are plaguing their party like locusts.
They just go on, leading a broken minority government.
That’s the case of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s embattled Socialists, who have just suffered a hard defeat in Sunday’s regional election in Extremadura.
The PSOE crumbled to their worst-ever result in the western region, as the rightwing Vox more than doubled its seats.
It’s yet another blow to the Socialists amid non-stop corruption and misconduct allegations.
🇪🇸 🗳️ #Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s embattled #Socialists suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday’s regional election in Extremadura, slumping to their worst-ever result as the far-right #Vox made strong gains.
“Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s scandal-hit Socialists endured a crushing defeat in a regional election in Extremadura on Sunday, which saw far-right Vox make big gains.
The Socialists, who lead the minority national coalition, have been rocked by corruption and sexual misconduct allegations and the vote in the rural southwestern region was seen as an indicator of the party’s wider prospects.
They won just 18 seats in the 65-seat assembly down from 28, their worst-ever regional result in Extremadura.”
🇪🇸#AHORA – Debacle historico del Partido Socialista en Extremadura España
“The losses in a region it governed for decades put further pressure on the PSOE – whose minority national government has been weakened by a series of scandals. Regional elections are due in Aragon, Castile and Leon and Andalusia next year.
Extremadura leader Maria Guardiola, of the PP, called the snap election after failing to pass the regional budget as Vox refused to back it.
The PP won 29 seats, one more than in 2023 but four short of a majority, while Vox rose to 11 seats from five, again leaving the conservatives reliant on far-right backing to govern.”
The People's Party won Spain's Extremadura regional elections on Sunday, securing 29 seats in the 65-seat assembly, while the Socialist Party secured 18 seats in the regional assembly. pic.twitter.com/qz7JSJq8HP
From Wikimedia Commons: A View of London Bridge Before the Late Alterations (Samuel Scott, 1758)
In the annals of civilizational decline, few spectacles rival that of a once-mighty empire wilting under the weight of its own timidity. Britain, the cradle of parliamentary democracy, Magna Carta, and the Enlightenment’s unyielding torch, now teeters on the brink of self-inflicted oblivion. The antithesis of multicultural harmony, the year 2025 brings another pitiful surrender to the forces of Islamic extremism, a phenomenon chillingly encapsulated by Melanie Phillips in her prescient 2006 tome Londonistan.
Phillips, a Cassandra of our age, warned of London’s metamorphosis into a “terror state within”, a hub for jihadist recruitment and financing, born of a toxic brew: the collapse of British identity, the paralysis of multiculturalism, and an elite’s craven fear of the “Islamophobia” epithet. Nearly two decades later, her prophecies have ossified into reality. Under the slick populism of Mayor Sadiq Khan, London—once the beating heart of Western liberty—has devolved into a cauldron of knife assaults by immigrant gangs, appeasing police, who cower before Sharia vigilantism, and a surge in antisemitism that drives Jews to contemplate exodus. Britain’s trajectory is the inexorable outcome of ideological surrender: a movement from ordered civilization towards anarchy and Islamic barbarism. To ignore this is to abdicate responsibility for action.
Melanie Phillips’s Londonistan was a forensic dissection of Britain’s self-sabotage. Drawing on exhaustive evidence—from the fatwa against Salman Rushdie to the unchecked proliferation of Islamist mosques—she exposed how the British establishment, in thrall to relativism, allowed radical Islam to metastasize. The capital, dubbed “Londonistan” by exasperated European intelligence agencies, became a safe haven for extremists like Abu Qatada and Omar Bakri Muhammad, who preached jihad under the noses of MI5. Phillips argued that this was no accident: the erosion of Christianity and national pride created a vacuum filled by a “virulent form of multiculturalism” that equated Western critique with bigotry.
Today, that vacuum yawns wider. The 7/7 bombings of 2005, perpetrated by British-born Muslims radicalized in Londonistan’s madrassas, were but a harbinger. By 2025, Islamist influence permeates public life, from pro-Hamas marches that paralyze Trafalgar Square to school curricula whitewashing jihad as “resistance”. Phillips’s indictment rings truer than ever: Britain’s “supine reaction” to extremism—exemplified by the failure to deport “hate preachers”—has normalized the abnormal. The result? A city where halal slaughterhouses outnumber butchers’ guilds, and Eid celebrations eclipse Remembrance Day. Rather than “diversity, this is “dominion”, a creeping “Muslim takeover” orchestrated by demographic momentum and elite complicity.
Critics dismiss Phillips as “alarmist”, yet the data belie their complacency. The Office for National Statistics reported a 16% surge in knife-related offenses from 2023 to 2024, disproportionately linked to gang violence in immigrant-heavy boroughs like Tower Hamlets and Newham. While official figures shy from ethnic breakdowns—lest they inflame “tensions”—anecdotal evidence abounds: stabbings by Afghan and Somali youths, typically over drug turf wars imported from failed states. John Cleese, that wry bard of British eccentricity, captured the zeitgeist in 2011 when he lamented, “London is no longer an English city”, a sentiment echoed in 2019 as he decried its “unrecognizable” transformation under multicultural deluge.
Enter Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor since 2016 and the poster child for this perfidious populism. Elected on promises of unity, Khan has presided over a tenure marred by denial and deflection, his Muslim identity weaponized to shield Islamist excesses. Critics like Tory MP Lee Anderson have thundered that “Islamists have got control” of Khan, who has “given our capital city away to his mates”. While Anderson’s rhetoric invites charges of Islamophobia—a slur that Khan deploys with alacrity—the substance endures scrutiny. Under Khan, “hate crimes” have skyrocketed: a 120% rise in antisemitic incidents and 67% in Islamophobic ones from 2023 to 2024 (cf. Metropolitan Police data). Yet Khan’s response? Platitudes about “shared endeavor”, funding workshops that challenge “hate” without naming the elephant: Islamist antisemitism fueling the fire.
Nowhere is Khan’s denial more egregious than in the scourge of rape gangs. Echoing Rotherham’s horrors—where Pakistani men systematically raped 1,400 girls amid police fears of “racism” accusations—London harbors its own shadows. Khan, as police commissioner, has stonewalled inquiries, insisting that London’s woes stem from “county lines” drugs, not “rape gangs” preying on white girls. When pressed by Tory Susan Hall in 2025, he feigned ignorance nine times: “I’m not clear what she means”. This semantic sleight-of-hand mocks victims. Retired detective Jon Wedger, who in 2006 uncovered 50 abused London children, accuses Khan of “making a mockery out of semantics”, as social services bury evidence to avoid “extra work”. Khan’s office parrots that they combat “exploitation in all forms”, but the Met’s reluctance speaks volumes: a 2025 national inquiry, spurred by Baroness Casey’s report, finally probes London’s underbelly, revealing disproportionate Pakistani involvement—yet Khan demurs.
Khan’s slickness lies in his duality: a human rights barrister by trade, he postures as a bulwark against bigotry while enabling it. His failure to curb pro-Palestine marches—where “Jews to the gas” chants echo unpunished—has emboldened extremists. As the Community Security Trust logs 1,500 antisemitic incidents in early 2025, Khan hosts iftars in Trafalgar Square, a performative piety that elides the barbarism. This is populism untethered from principle: a mayor, who requires royal-level security due to Islamist threats, yet prioritizes “community cohesion” over candor.
Khan’s London is a blade’s edge, literally. Though official stats evade immigrant links, the pattern is undeniable: assaults by young men from migrant enclaves, wielding machetes in “Muslim patrols” that enforce Sharia on unwilling Brits. In Tower Hamlets, hooded vigilantes pour alcohol into drains and berate women for “exposing themselves”, videos boasting “Islam will take over the world”. The Met’s response? Arrests after public outcry, but systemic timidity prevails.
This appeasement traces to a police force emasculated by “Islamophobia” paranoia. In 2011, Tower Hamlets’ “Islamization” campaign—threats, arsons, assaults on “infidels”—was “covered up” lest officers face bigotry charges. As former sergeant Javaria Saeed revealed in 2016, Met brass ignored Muslim officers’ extremist views—comments that would sack white colleagues—to dodge racism tags. By 2025, the rot persists: during Gaza-linked riots, police prioritize “de-escalation” over enforcement, allowing “kill the non-believers” taunts to fester. Such cowardice breeds anarchy, where blades replace ballots and barbarism supplants the “bobby on the beat”.
No metric better gauges civilization’s loss than the Jewish plight. Britain’s 300,000 Jews, heirs to Disraeli and Montefiore, now eye the exits as antisemitism surges 208% from 2022 to 2023, with a sharp rise post-10/7. Incidents recorded by the Community Security Trust—swastikas on synagogues, assaults in Golders Green—signal a pogrom’s prelude. This venom, imported via Islamist channels, fuses Qur’anic tropes of Jewish treachery with European conspiracism, amplified by Qatar-funded mosques and Hamas apologists.
Under Khan, the betrayal stings deepest. Despite signing AJC’s anti-antisemitism pledge in 2016, his tenure sees Jews feeling “unsafe” nationwide: 35% in 2025 (compared to 9% in 2023), according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. Pro-Hamas rallies, unchecked, spew “gas the Jews” bile, yet Khan decries critics as “divisive”. Echoing the 1948 Jewish exodus from Arab lands—800,000 fleeing pogroms and expulsions—UK Jews ponder Israel or America. As Matthew d’Ancona wrote after the Manchester synagogue attack: “The Jewish suitcase is back in the hall”. This is the death knell of tolerance, where dhimmis supplant Democrats.
Britain’s arc bends towards chaos. Knife-wielding patrols enforce parallel laws. Morally confused, police officers kneel to “sensitivities”. Antisemitism, a far-right relic before the time of mass migration, thrives among Islamists, as does jihadist supremacism, with 84% of 264 identified rape-gang offenders found to be South Asian (cf. the Quilliam Foundation’s 2017 report). Civilization—rule of law, free speech, Judeo-Christian ethos—frays as Sharia courts multiply.
This barbarism is no clash of civilizations but a conquest by default. Phillips warned of a “half-Sharia, half-post-Enlightenment” dystopia; we inhabit it. Khan’s London, Cleese’s “unrecognizable” metropolis, heralds a Britain bartered away.
If only the British people would unite and show the courage to reclaim Britain, deporting Islamist warriors, restoring the rule of law, and affirming the superiority of Western values. However, the reality is dismal. One fine day, with the caliphate in place, Big Ben will toll for a lost civilization.
The British government is intensifying its attacks on rural life, following its draconian inheritance tax raid policy, rolling out fresh plans to restrict shotgun ownership further and to eliminate the traditional vestiges of rural sport by even banning pretend fox hunting.
Britain’s left-wing Labour government has announced what it calls an animal welfare strategy, in which it says it will ban trail or drag hunting — a simulated fox hunt in which hounds pursue an artificial trail instead of real prey — because critics claim the trail is used as a pretext to hunt secretly. Supporters of the trail hunting community call the announcement an expression of authoritarianism and a declaration of “war on the countryside”.
Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: “This government is delivering the most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation. Our strategy will raise welfare standards for animals in the home, on the farm and in the wild.”
In the United Kingdom, the centuries-old tradition of fox hunting is now essentially vestigial or skeuomorphic, the actual practice having been outright banned by the previous Labour government in 2004 and the ‘Conservative’ governments that followed having done nothing whatsoever to reverse that act of war on the rural by the urban in its 14 years in power. While the traditions and ritual survive, it is only through the practice of what is called trail hunting, where an artificial scent is laid ahead of the pack of hounds so no real animals are harmed, in line with the law.
Vestigal or not, hunting remains a key social centre of gravity in the British countryside and the attack on it has been decried as an act of snobbery by urban elites. Brexit leader Nigel Farage replied, “Labour are authoritarian control freaks,” and Welsh Conservative Andrew RT Davies said the proposed rules are a “spiteful attack on rural communities by urban elites”.
The Abergavenny Chroniclereports Davies said the fact Labour were moving fast on trail hunting — which is not real hunting — while the government seemed disinterested in tackling the illegal and damaging sport of hare coursing shows “the real motive behind this ban. It’s not animal welfare. It’s a spiteful attack on the rural way of life.”
Davies said: “This policy is being imposed by urban elites who neither understand nor care for the countryside”.
The Countryside Alliance, a British mass-membership non-profit supporting rural interests, said in response to the announcement, reports Sky News: “Why does the government want a war with the countryside? Trail hunting supports hundreds of jobs and is central to many rural communities. After its attack on family farms, the government should be focusing on addressing issues that actually help rural communities thrive, rather than pursuing divisive policies that hinder them.”
Meanwhile, the government is pushing ahead with its inheritance raid tax on family farms, which critics say will inevitably destroy the historic food-producing institutions as the present generation of farmers die out, as well as with a crackdown on shotgun ownership. A public consultation is forthcoming in the new year over changes the government has made clear it wants to merge the Section 1 Firearms Certificate (FAC) with the Section 2 Shotgun Certificate.
Countryside advocates have warned rolling the two types of guns into one set of paperwork would make shotgun ownership considerably more difficult to achieve without doing anything to further protect the public from gun crime. The British Association of Shooting and Conservation this week hailed their petition against the change reaching 100,000 signatures and said:
The Home Office claims that merging shotgun and rifle licensing will improve public safety, but the evidence simply doesn’t support this. Fatalities involving legally held guns are already extraordinarily rare – around 1 in 15 million annually. This figure is far below the Health and Safety Executive’s intervention threshold of 1 in a million. And because the public safety test is already identical for Section 1 and Section 2 firearms, combining the systems delivers no new safety benefit – only more bureaucracy.
…Since controls on firearms were introduced in 1920, Parliament has always distinguished between shotguns and rifles, not only because they’re as different as bicycles and motorbikes, but because shotguns in rural areas are often a ‘tool of the job’, plus widely used for recreation such as clay shooting, wildfowling and game shooting.
They said: “We shoot because we enjoy the countryside, the company and the food. We are forced into political action because some politicians are poorly informed about the benefits of what we do and are pushing for changes that would damage our way of life.”
Politicians in Belgium are clashing over how to solve the country’s prison overcrowding crisis, with over 13,000 inmates—many of them foreign nationals—being kept in a system that holds an official capacity of 11,000.
The right-wing Vlaams Belang party said that a record 672 people slept on the floor one night earlier this month, describing the situation as a “ticking time bomb.” Party MP Marijke Dillen asked:
How many more of these cries for help does the [Bart] De Wever government need? Or are they really waiting for people to die first?
Earlier this year, Le Soirreported that more than 43% of the country’s prison inmates were foreign nationals, and that 31% lacked residence rights altogether.
In response to such figures, Dillen called on Belgium’s establishment leaders to address the “root cause” of overcrowding:
Criminal foreigners must serve their sentences in their country of origin. More than 40% of inmates do not have Belgian nationality, and 75% of them are illegal. This way, sufficient capacity can be created very quickly in Belgian prisons.
Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) visited Albania and Kosovo in October to examine the idea of building a prison to hold foreign convicts there. But, as with almost all sensible projects, progress is slow, if at all existent.
Prime Minister De Wever is also holding his last cabinet meeting of the year on Tuesday, where the issue is bound to come up. CD&V Chairman Sammy Mahdi expressed “hope that we learn to cross the line together.”
An asylum seeker who raped a teenager in a “shocking and violent” attack in a Scottish park has been sentenced to nine years in jail.
Rapualla Ahmadze, from Afghanistan, carried out the attack in Cooper Park, Elgin, on Sunday, August 4 last year, after approaching the girl and making “intimidating remarks”.
Ahmadze appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh today for sentencing.
The court was told there was a dispute around his age but he would have been around 20 at the time of the attack.
He had earlier been convicted of rape and a separate charge of threatening or abusive behaviour.
Judge Thomas Welsh KC told him: “You were convicted by the jury on the basis that you acted in a predatory manner and took advantage of a vulnerable teenager who was unknown to you, and you raped her in shocking and violent rape on rough ground in Cooper Park.
“What happened to her that night must have been a horrific ordeal.”
He imposed a sentence of nine years in all, backdated to August 2024, and Ahmadze was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.
Detective Inspector Sam Buchan said: “Rapualla Ahmadze is a predatory individual who took advantage of a vulnerable young woman for his own gratification.
“He will now face the consequences of his actions. We know this was a deeply worrying incident for many people in the local area and I hope this conviction and sentence sends a strong message that sexual violence has no place in our communities.
“Police Scotland is committed to our role to help create a society where women and girls live free from violence, abuse, exploitation and harassment. This is also reflected in our ongoing commitment to actively pursue perpetrators of violence against women and girls and ensure they are brought to justice.
“We will continue to work with our valued partners across criminal justice, and support services, to improve the opportunities and support for women to report.”
DI Buchan continued: “We are committed to continually improving the service we provide, to build confidence in reporting and in policing more widely. Our service must be trauma-informed, we will prioritise the needs of victims and survivors.”
The court previously heard how the teenager, then aged 17, told police a man stopped in front of her and asked if she had a boyfriend. She said when she replied that she did not, he “told me that he was my boyfriend now.”
The teenager said she was scared she would make him mad if she continued to try and get away. She was then taken to a “tunnel” and pushed to the ground before he molested her.
She was then walked towards the bushes where he raped her. Ahmadze claimed that sex was consensual, the victim was happy and instigated what occurred.
He told the court through an interpreter: “When we went to the bushes, I wanted to leave, but she wanted to have sex with me, and then we have sex.”
Ahmadze, who is also known as Rafiullah Ahmadzai, was unanimously found guilty by a jury of raping the teenager.
He was also convicted of threatening behaviour on two occasions between March 1 and April 30 last year at a house in Dufftown, Moray, when he acted aggressively and demanded money and the provision of a new shower.
Ahmadze was staying at a hotel in Elgin at one stage but was later rehoused.
Defending, Shaun Alexander told the court he did not intend to minimise the seriousness of the crime of which Ahmadze had been convicted. He said Ahmadze continued to maintain “what occurred was consensual”.
He asked the judge to take into account Ahmadze’s age and maturity at the time of the offence. Ahmadze was born in Afghanistan, a “country ravaged by war”, he said.
Mr Alexander told the court: “I submit that he did not have the childhood that most young people in this country have.”
He said Ahmadze was conscripted by his uncle to assist with the Afghan National Army, but both he and his uncle were captured by the Taliban.
His uncle was killed but Ahmadze escaped, during which time he was shot in the arm, the court was told.
Mr Alexander said Ahmadze left Afghanistan in 2022 and undertook an “arduous” journey which brought him to the UK in 2023, where he sought asylum.
The lawyer said Ahmadze had endured “significant adverse experiences” in his life.
Protesters hold a protest banner outside Askatasuna Social Centre, after law enforcement conducted a dawn raid. Screengrab youtube
Violent clashes erupted in Italy over the weekend of December 20-21 after police moved to evict Askatasuna, a long-standing hard-Left social centre in Turin.
The move triggered two days of street unrest and political fallout, which underscored a broader confrontation between the state and radical movements.
“The eviction of Askatasuna is only the beginning: Bulldozers against social centres that have become dens of criminals,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Lega party leader Matteo Salvini.
Salvini presented the operation as part of a wider crackdown ordered by Giorgia Meloni’s government.
Senior Italian officials say the strategy follows two parallel tracks. One is targeting extremist hard-Left networks operating under the Antifa label. The second consists of also focusing on pro-Palestinian groups which the government sees as ideologically aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas.
Analysts view the eviction as a key step in this long-running dual-track approach, amid concerns recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations have accelerated a convergence between these groups. That convergence, in turn, heightens security and public order risks, which the government regards as a serious threat.
“Groups in Italy connected to the Muslim Brotherhood have used protests to expand their reach within Italian politics and Muslim communities,” says Lorenzo Vidino, an Italian terrorism expert and director of an extremism programme at George Washington University.
Founded in the mid-1990s, Askatasuna has become a hub for militant anti-capitalist activism, Antifa mobilisation, and internationalist causes.
Over the years, its campaigns often blurred the line between grassroots activism and armed struggle. The centre cultivated links with radical movements in the Basque Country—the name Askatasuna itself is Basque, meaning “freedom” or “emancipation”—as well as with Kurdish organisations.
Several militants were investigated and prosecuted for travelling to Syria to fight alongside Kurdish militias, drawing national attention to the group’s ideological embrace of armed struggle abroad.
The centre also maintained ties with segments of the institutional Left. It has an informal pact with the city of Turin, which has historically been controlled by Left-leaning administrations. This arrangement has allowed the group to remain despite ongoing legal disputes.
In recent years, Askatasuna has also been linked to pro-Palestinian activism in Turin. Prosecutors accuse the centre of involvement in attacks on the Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR), a major cultural hub, and on the Leonardo defence company, which activists say supplies arms to Israel.
While there is no evidence that the centre coordinated or led all of these protests, it has been publicly associated with pro-Palestinian mobilisations.
The breaking point came with a violent assault on the headquarters of La Stampa on November 29, accusing the newspaper of being pro-Israel, during a nationwide strike attended by Antifa and pro-Palestinian groups.
Prosecutors allege Askatasuna-linked militants carried out the attack, marking a shift from tolerated illegality to direct political violence.
City officials said the incident ended its informal tolerance of the centre. Turin’s mayor stated: “What happened at La Stampa is a break with the past. No space can be legitimised if it resorts to violence. Freedom of expression cannot coexist with attacks on the press.”
The episode gave the government a political opening to act decisively, facing minimal obstruction from opposition parties. Supporters meanwhile framed the eviction as an attempt to “target the struggles for Palestine”.
The eviction symbolises the government’s crackdown not only on radical left-wing groups but also on militant pro-Palestinian movements, amid concerns about the growing convergence between these milieus.
Despite ideological differences, Vidino observes that these groups are finding common ground by identifying shared adversaries.
Many in the the radical Left see Israel as a proxy of the United States and the West. Meanwhile many pro-Palestinian movements—particularly ones linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas—frame the conflict in religious terms.
Vidino notes these groups are strategically flexible. They discuss the conflict in religious terms within Muslim communities but present Hamas as a national liberation movement focused on Palestinian human rights when engaging with the left.
While there is no direct link between Askatasuna and these movements, the operation carries strong symbolic weight as a break with tolerance for radical environments.
Vidino adds: “The Italian government’s action fits into a broader Western trend of increased attention to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Measures being taken against Islamism in Italy borrow heavily from the approaches of other European countries. There is concern that, following the massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent months, part of this movement could take an Islamist turn, with a potential risk of jihadist radicalisation in the future.”
The operation against Askatasuna is therefore a political and symbolic move within a national strategy of preventing the intertwining of radical movements, says Vidino.
Two assault rifles, a semi-automatic pistol and nearly 200 rounds of ammunition were found in a vehicle when Walid Saadaoui was arrested. Greater Manchester Police
Two brothers and another man have been convicted in connection with a foiled terrorist plot intended to target the Jewish community in Greater Manchester.
The following were convicted at Preston Crown Court today (Tuesday 23 December 2025):
Walid Saadaoui (06/06/1987), of Crankwood Road, Abram was convicted of preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to section 5(1)(b) of the Terrorism Act 2006
Amar Hussein (25/05/1973), of no fixed address was convicted of preparation of terrorist acts, contrary to section 5(1)(b) of the Terrorism Act 2006
Bilel Saadaoui (01/01/1989), of Fairclough Street, Hindley was convicted of failure to disclose information about an act of terrorism
In late 2023, Walid Saadaoui came into online contact with a man he believed shared extremist views like his own. The pair frequently exchanged messages and it soon became clear that Saadaoui was keen to conduct a significant terrorist attack targeting Jewish people.
However, unbeknownst to him, Saadaoui was actually in contact with an undercover operative – later identified in court proceedings as “Farouk” to protect his identity.
Saadaoui and Hussein at the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve near Dover. GMP
Saadaoui would later introduce Farouk to Amar Hussein, an individual considered to be like-minded and also looking to be involved with the plot. The two would-be terrorists believed that Farouk could import automatic firearms from abroad which could be used in an attack.
Over the coming months, the two developed their plans and between them conducted reconnaissance around Upper Broughton in Salford, as well as visited the Port of Dover to observe the border they believed the illegal firearms would be transported through.
Throughout the course of the undercover operation, it became clear that Walid had discussed his plans with his brother, Bilel Saadaoui. He openly discussed his brother’s awareness of the plot with Farouk and later confessed that he had done so during cross examination, despite initially denying it when questioned.
The trio have been remanded and will face sentencing at Preston Crown Court on 13 February 2026.
Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts, who holds operational responsibility for Counter Terrorism Policing North West, said: “Today marks the culmination of one of the most significant terrorist plot disruptions we have seen in the UK for several years.
“Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein intended to target members of the Jewish community in an evil act born out of hate and intolerance. If they had been successful then what followed would have been devastating and potentially one of the deadliest terrorist attacks to ever take place on UK soil.
“Although Walid Saadaoui’s brother, Bilel, was not an active participant in preparations for this plot, he knew what was planned but chose to remain silent and that is simply not good enough.
“Our operation involved the use of an undercover operative who put himself in significant danger each time he met with two would-be terrorists. At any point he could have become a target himself but he risked his safety in the name of wider public protection and we’re sincerely grateful to him for the role he played.
“This case has come at a time of heightened concern and anxiety within the Jewish community, particularly since the terrorist attack which took place in October and recent events in Sydney. We have worked closely with stakeholders, including the Community Security Trust (CST), throughout the trial to address any concerns and provide reassurance.
“We are dedicated to making sure all communities feel safe from the threat of terrorism and bringing those who would seek to harm them to justice. We work closely alongside key partners to do this and I hope that the significant outcome from this highly resourced, proactive investigation underlines that commitment.
“The scale of this operation was huge, and I want to say thank you to all those involved as we would not be here without those efforts.”
Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson QPM said: “I want to begin by thanking the investigation team from Counter Terrorism Policing Northwest and the Crown Prosecution Service for their professionalism, commitment, and sheer hard work in bringing these extraordinarily dangerous terrorists to justice. Supported by specialist assets from Greater Manchester Police and beyond, they delivered an operation of almost unprecedented complexity, ensuring that the terrorists’ vicious antisemitism did not manifest in the destructive way they intended.
“Throughout this trial, it was clear that the offenders’ hatred towards our Jewish community knew no bounds. They sought to bring slaughter to the innocent, but the outstanding dedication and commitment of our people ensured that this could not happen.
“All too recently in Sydney, and here in Manchester in October, we have felt the devastation of terrorism directed toward our Jewish community. A terrorist attack upon our Jewish friends and neighbours is an attack on us all, an affront to every decent person in our country. Yet once again, we see the tireless and effective work of UK law enforcement and our partners, such as the Community Security Trust, in keeping our communities safe.
“Greater Manchester Police will continue to listen, engage, and stand alongside all of our communities to ensure that people feel secure in our city‑region, regardless of race, religion, or creed. I also want to thank the jury for their time and commitment over the past two months, and I hope today’s verdict provides comfort and reassurance to our Jewish community and to all the people of Greater Manchester that justice has been served.”
Two Islamic State extremists have been found guilty of plotting a deadly gun attack on Manchester’s Jewish community.
Walid Saadaoui, 38, and Amar Hussein, 52, were found guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court on Tuesday.
They had bought assault rifles, handguns and ammunition for the suicide attack they planned on Jewish targets. They saw any Christian victims “as a bonus”.
Saadaoui told Farouk: “If we were to carry out this operation, we target the Jews. We start with the Jews and if there any Christians caught in the act, that is a bonus, but we start with the Jews.”
Saadaoui’s brother, Bilel Saddaoui, 36, of Fairclough Street, Hindley, Wigan, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about the pair’s terror plans.
Greater Manchester Police Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts said the plan would have resulted in “the deadliest terrorist attack in UK history”.
The consequences of carrying out an attack in a crowded area on the Manchester Jewish community would have been “catastrophic”, he said.
Saadaoui, the former owner of an Italian restaurant in a Norfolk seaside town, “hero-worshipped” Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the mastermind of the Paris attacks of 2015, and wanted to replicate the attacks in which 130 people were killed, the prosecution told Preston Crown Court.[…]
In the early hours of 16 March, Farouk picked up Saadaoui from his home at 12.45am and they picked up Hussein and drove to Dover in a rented VW T-Roc where they posed as tourists at the White Cliffs National Trust nature reserve.
On the journey, Saadaoui was recorded saying: “The Muslims all over the world, if every brother implements on the Jewish people, honestly they wouldn’t do what they do in Gaza now.”
The following morning, 17 March, Saadaoui arranged to meet Farouk at Pennington Waterside and Marina in Leigh. From here they travelled to Prestwich where they walked past Jewish nurseries, schools, restaurants, coffee shops and synagogues, even entering a kosher supermarket.
As he went into detail about what they would do during an attack, Saadaoui called Jewish people “pigs and monkeys” and added: “Hitler, may God be exulted, was burning them, the Jews. Did you know?
A Geneva criminal court has sentenced an Algerian national to eight years in prison for the rape of an American tourist in the Swiss city’s Old Town in 2024, rejecting the defense’s call for acquittal and concluding that the assault was carried out with particular cruelty.
Presiding judge Sylvie Bertrand-Curreli said the facts left “no room for any other interpretation.” The court also ordered the man to be deported from Switzerland for 12 years after completing his sentence.
The verdict, delivered on Thursday, rested heavily on CCTV footage from the lobby of a hotel on Rue de la Rôtisserie, as well as forensic findings and the credibility of the victim’s account. The judges found that the woman, who was heavily intoxicated at the time, had clearly and repeatedly resisted the attacker, and that violence was used well beyond what would have been required to overcome her resistance.
Footage shown in court depicts the man following the woman into the hotel lobby shortly before 2 a.m. on Feb. 26, 2024. As reported by TdG, he is seen forcibly embracing and kissing her as she struggles to maintain her balance. As she pushes him away, his behavior becomes increasingly aggressive. The video shows her clinging to a wall in an attempt to prevent him from dragging her into a stairwell, which lies outside the camera’s field of view. Minutes later, the woman is seen leaving the area in a state of shock, partially undressed. The man reappears shortly afterward, zipping up his trousers.
Although the rape itself occurred off camera, the court said there was no doubt as to what had taken place. Judges described the victim’s testimony as “consistent, coherent, and measured,” noting that minor omissions or variations in her statements were consistent with the psychological effects of trauma. Forensic experts documented blows to the head, including a concussion, and confirmed the presence of the assailant’s DNA on the victim’s mouth, genitals, and clothing. The absence of semen traces, raised by the defense, did not undermine the finding of penetration, the judges said.
The court also upheld the aggravating circumstance of cruelty, concluding that the attacker had exceeded what was necessary to subdue the victim and had acted in a way that caused terror.
During the trial, the defendant, a man in his thirties, did not dispute that he was the individual shown in the footage but claimed to have no memory of the events, citing heavy consumption of alcohol, hashish, and cocaine. Judges noted that he did not appear impaired in the video. He attempted to suggest mutual consent, a claim the court dismissed as incompatible with the images and other evidence.
The victim, a mother of three and a psychologist from the United States, traveled to Geneva to attend the trial nearly two years after the assault. She told the court that she had been in the city with her family and friends and had been drinking heavily on the night of the attack. She described being approached outside her hotel by a man offering cocaine, which she refused, before encountering him again inside the lobby, where he became violent. Passersby later found her barefoot and disoriented in the street, and she reported having been raped and beaten, including losing consciousness.
Prosecutors had sought a nine-year prison sentence, arguing that the case represented “every woman’s nightmare.” The defense maintained that rape had not been proven and called for acquittal, a position rejected unequivocally by the court.
After the assault, the suspect fled Switzerland and was arrested days later in Aosta, Italy, after crossing the border through the Great St. Bernard Tunnel. Italian authorities reported that he attempted to evade a police roadblock and crashed into a police vehicle before being detained. He was later extradited to Geneva to stand trial.
Costs are exploding for the German taxpayer, in unique ways: per a new report from Remix News, a Muslim minor who stabbed a psychiatric caregiver in the back is “so dangerous” that the German government is now building a specialized “high-security container” to house her while she receives additional “treatment” and “educational support.” From Remix:
The container has not yet been built, but once completed, inside her ‘high-security container,’ the 14-year-old girl will ‘receive intensive educational support,’ according to German public news media WDR.
Think Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, except instead of a he, it’s a she, and instead of a brilliant forensic psychiatrist, we’re dealing with a low-IQ Islamist, who’s either a migrant or a child of migrants.
The report notes that because of the girl’s history, no new facility is willing to take her, so at the expense of the taxpayer, she’ll have her own fenced-in site with 24/7 surveillance, and will be under strict control. And, before she was even committed the first time, she’d been “under around-the-clock police surveillance due to suspicions she was planning a terror attack.” I wonder what that bill came out to be for the German people? What’s additionally concerning is this: What is the end goal for German authorities? Are they attempting to rehabilitate her so she can be re-introduced into German society? I mean, that’s what I gather with the “intensive education support” approach.
Today, Remix also reported on another similar story, which revealed that one (Muslim) migrant alone has already cost German taxpayers over €5 million, and that number is still increasing. A Syrian national is “believed to be such a serious terror threat” that for the last three years, he’s had a 24/7 police detail—which remains to this day.
As I wrote this, my 14-year-old came and peeked over my shoulder, asking about the story. He was shocked—“five million euros for one migrant?!”—and I asked him what his solution would be: While I can’t repeat his first thought, his next idea was repatriation, or sending the man back to Syria. If my silly little 8th-grader, who spends absolutely zero time contemplating political affairs (baseball, video games, and hunting is about all he cares about at this point) can figure it out, why can’t the German authorities and politicians?
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