Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s at London Palestine march. Screengrab youtube
A world-leading plastic and reconstructive surgeon re-posted antisemitic and pro-terrorism messages on social media, a medical tribunal heard.
Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, who has worked as a war surgeon in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria and is also Rector of Glasgow University, is also accused of expressing antisemitic views in a newspaper article and showing support for proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas.
The Kuwait-born surgeon appeared before a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) misconduct hearing in Manchester yesterday and denies the allegations against him.
The tribunal heard how a complaint was received about the doctor from UK Lawyers For Israel (UKFLI) relating to two reposts on X, formerly Twitter.
One read: “We congratulate our brothers in Hamas and our comrades in the Popular Front on the anniversary of their inception. May you remain sincere, steadfast, and vigilant. May your strength endure and your enemies be humbled #Hamas _35 #Hamas #Our_inception_is_resistance.”
Another referred to the “Iranian Martyrs in the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine”, adding: “Their blood is Iranian. Their heart is Palestinian.”
The doctor also wrote an article for Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar in March 2018 in which he talked of the “martyrdom of resistance fighter Ahmad Nasr Jarrar, the hero of the Nablus operation”, saying the Palestinian people “have no weapon left but revolutionary violence”.
Ros Emsley Smith, for the GMC, said the doctor had “over-stepped the boundaries of legitimate political speech into the realms of misconduct”.
She said the re-posts were objectively supportive of violence, terrorism and antisemitic.
Giving evidence, Abu-Sittah said he had reposted the comments, which were in Arabic, because he found them “intellectually and culturally interesting”.
He said the reposts would be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Arabic language and Arabic culture and he’d wanted to highlight “inherent contradictions” within them.
In relation to the repost about Hamas, he said: “It’s not an ironic repost, it’s a rebuttal to government propaganda for being historically inaccurate.”
He also accused the UKFLI of “dog-whistling” and racially profiling Palestinians as “inherently violent”.
He also claimed they wanted to “destroy my life” because he had met International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators.
In May 2025, an interim orders tribunal (IOT) rejected a previous application to suspend him after he argued that a complaint against him was political in nature and he was not the author of the posts complained of.
John Cleese has joined the growing list of voices expressing their dismay at the BBC over its coverage of the ongoing protests in Iran.
The widespread civil unrest in the Islamic Republic is said to have been sparked by the country’s economic woes, which as seen inflation skyrocket to more than 42 per cent and food prices surge by 72 per cent.
However, hostilities had been threatening to boil over for months prior to the latest protests against the regime’s corruption, civil rights abuses, and critical energy shortages.
In one of the most high-profile rows, the Israeli embassy publicly slammed the BBC over its reporting on the Iran protests, with embassy spokesman Alex Gandler claiming the broadcaster has maintained “near-total silence” on the demonstrations while devoting excessive attention to Gaza.
“There is a bias there because it doesn’t fit the narrative,” she said. “The narrative, which they want to say is ‘it is their own culture’. ‘If the Islamic Republic is oppressive, it’s because the people want that.’ But this is not the reality.”
Now, Mr Cleese has joined the critics. He took to X, where he reposted criticism of the broadcaster from the likes of Sharron Davies and Jake Wallis Simons, among others taking aim at the Beeb over the supposed lack of coverage from Iran.
John Cleese has hit out at the BBC | X
Mr Cleese also reacted to a post claiming the BBC was “deliberately ignoring” the protests as it “does not want to offend Islamists in the UK”.
The actor endorsed the suggestion, replying: “This is the best explanation I’ve read so far. Incredible as it seems. I am so ashamed of the BBC.”
Later on Thursday morning, one X user shared a screen-recording of them allegedly scrolling through the BBC News.
They captioned the recording: “NEW LOW FOR THE BBC: This is the current state of its homepage.
“There is happy news about the birth of twin mountain gorillas, and about Prince Harry meeting his father, the King, but nothing—not a single word—about the protests in Iran that threaten to bring down the IRGC.”
Mr Cleese vented his fury with the broadcaster once more, reposting the recording with the message: “It appears that there is noone @BBC News who has the brains to distinguish between the utterly trivial and really significant.
“Is this the result of hiring tabloid ‘journalists’ who are concerned only with ‘clicks’? BREATHTAKINGLY RUDDERLESS.” (sic)
The Fawlty Towers star also showed his support for Harry Potter author JK Rowling who had publicly branded the “bravery” of those protesting in Tehran as “astounding”.
John Cleese has slammed the BBC’s coverage | X
“They’re light in what lately has felt like a very dark world,” the author added in a post reposted by Mr Cleese.
The BBC has firmly rejected the accusations that it is “ignoring” the developments in Iran.
A BBC spokesperson said: “These criticisms are factually incorrect; we have been covering the protests in Iran daily across all of our platforms, including our main news bulletins, in English and via BBC News Persian.”
The BBC News Press Team even responded directly to a GB News article about the bias claims, taking to X to once again dispute the allegations.
It posted: “And yet the BBC has covered the Iran protests daily across all platforms, including on major bulletins, in English and via BBC News Persian…”
The BBC News Press Team’s X account also included a screenshot from the News at 10 broadcast on December 30 in which its reporter was discussing the latest.
Cliff Mitchell is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of nearly 18 years after committing more than 50 sex attacks – Met Police
The UK’s Metropolitan Police is facing fierce criticism after a damning review revealed it allowed highly problematic and serious dangerous criminals to enter its ranks due to a combination of extremely poor vetting and diversity goals.
More than 130 officers and staff within the London force, including two convicted serial rapists, were taken on when they should not have been.
The political targets were enacted under the then-Conservative Party government, led by Theresa May at the time.
The scandal was exposed in a comprehensive vetting review published yesterday, covering recruitment and vetting practices at the Met’s Scotland Yard HQ from 2013 to March 2023.
The report highlights systemic failures during a national recruitment drive that saw senior leaders prioritise speed and political targets over proper security checks to meet ambitious goals for expanding the workforce.
PC Cliff Mitchell, a former Metropolitan Police officer, applied to join the force in 2020. His initial application was rejected after the vetting process flagged a serious allegation from 2017 involving the rape of a child.
Despite that, a special vetting panel established partly to address so-called disproportionality and boost the recruitment of officers from ethnic minorities overturned the decision. Mitchell was subsequently accepted.
While serving as a police officer, Mitchell went on to commit a prolonged “campaign of rape” against two victims, including a child under the age of 13.
He kidnapped and raped one woman at knifepoint in 2023.
In 2024, he was convicted of multiple serious sexual offences, including more than 50 attacks.
Mitchell was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term reported as between 13 and 18 years.
He has been described in some media coverage as referring to himself as “the devil”.
The review found Mitchell was one of 114 applicants whose initial vetting refusals were overturned by the panel, with 25 of those individuals later accused of criminality or misconduct, including sexual offences, violence and drug-related matters.
This is pc cliff Mitchell. Who tried to join the @metpoliceuk in 2020 but was refused because of allegations he raped a child in 2017. Senior police officers overturned the decision to improve figures from ethics minorities. He went on to carry out a "campaign of rape" against 2… pic.twitter.com/qZrEHfdQhY
— mike erwydd. 🏴🇬🇧🇮🇱✝️ (@mikeerwydd1968) January 8, 2026
Overall, the report identified 131 officers and staff who were not properly vetted and went on to commit crimes or misconduct.
Thousands more joined without full checks, including failures to obtain references, Special Branch intelligence-gathering unit clearances, or Ministry of Defence verifications.
According to the Home Office, the Met believed more than 5,000 officers and employees were hired without the proper screening. It has not been able to verify if around 17,000 police officers and employees underwent pre-employment screenings.
Another notorious case referenced in the review is that of serial rapist David Carrick, one of the UK’s most prolific sex offenders. He received 37 life sentences for attacks on multiple women and girls, including a 12-year-old.
Carrick was not properly vetted in 2017, with checks missing prior allegations of domestic abuse.
The Met admitted these “deviations” from standard policies, driven by pressure to meet recruitment targets under the national Police Uplift Programme, increased risks to the public and eroded trust.
Under the uplift programme, the government made a manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales over a three-year period by March 31, 2023
Senior police leaders faced political and funding pressures, with unachievable targets risking the loss of resources to other forces.
The Met’s Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism, Rachel Williams, described the findings as part of efforts to be “open and transparent” about past shortcomings. She noted that the force has since strengthened vetting procedures and, under Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis Mark Rowley, who took over in September 2022, sacked around 1,500 officers as part of a clean-up.
The report concluded: “There were deviations from policy and practice, overconfidence in the ability to recruit at scale and lack of resources in vetting increased risk.
“It is extremely difficult to establish a causation chain between system changes and the potential harm caused to the public and other members of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).
“However, it is known that the scale and impact of these deviations ranged, with some tolerable and minor in nature, to those having a more substantive impact, including the recruitment and likely retention of individuals who have gone on to cause harm through criminality and misconduct – events that have undermined public confidence in the MPS.”
The scandal has drawn sharp condemnation across the board.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood called the abandonment of proper checks a “dereliction of the Met’s duty to keep London safe” and a betrayal of public expectations, announcing an inspection by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke to restore confidence.
Paula Dodds, Chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, described the situation as “farcical”, stating that “hitting a numerical target of recruits has taken precedence over normal checks and balances”.
Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley, speaking on GB News, lambasted the “utterly appalling” lack of vetting, calling it “beyond comprehension” and saying the public had “paid the price” for allowing “monsters” into the force.
He highlighted the harm to both victims and good officers who must work alongside such individuals, warning of further damage to public trust.
The Met has stressed that the vast majority of its recruits are of exemplary character and dedicated to public service and the review underscores ongoing efforts to prevent any repeat of the failures.
A top Berlin police official has confirmed that the power outage terror attack on Berlin, which police believe was committed by a left-wing terror group, has claimed at least one life.
According to Berlin Police Vice President Marco Langner, who spoke during a press conference, an 83-year-old woman was found inside her apartment with severe hypothermia.
🇩🇪🚨 Officials in Berlin initially told families and pensioners affected by the ongoing power and heating outage that they could stay in a hotel at a discounted rate of €70 a night.
Many slammed the proposal, reminding the city-state government that it's spending nearly €1… pic.twitter.com/8Csh5mCzX9
“This relative had already cared for her for months and then found her alive in the apartment. She was then resuscitated –unfortunately unsuccessfully– in the ambulance and subsequently died,” said Langner.
“Regardless of the possible cause of death, this is of course a very regrettable – very regrettable for the relatives – incident,” said the police chief. “The colleagues of the criminal investigation department who arrived at the scene could not immediately determine that the cause of death was caused by a fall.“
🇩🇪"Why are there always left-wing attacks in Berlin?"
After a terror attack from the left-wing "Volcano Group" in Germany's Berlin, which left 45,000 households without power, there are questions about how far left-wing violence is legitimized by the media, state, and society… pic.twitter.com/ZtdSusqorW
The fact that the police are now confirming that one death is tied to the blackout could raise the stakes for any criminal investigation. Already, the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group), which claimed responsibility for the attack, has been active since 2011 with major terror attacks on Berlin energy infrastructure.
Their latest attack in the southwest of Berlin left 45,000 households without power, along with 2,200 businesses. Also affected were retirement homes, daycares, and schools.
Numerous commentators and journalists are now criticizing the government and security services for failing to stop this terror group.
In a heartbreaking Facebook post, Canadian mother Margaret Marsilla has revealed that her 26-year-old son, Kiano V., was killed by euthanasia on December 30, 2025. She said his death was approved by Dr. Ellen Wiebe, a Vancouver abortionist and euthanasia practitioner who has ended the lives of over 400 patients. Kiano suffered from diabetes, which had resulted in visual impairment.
“With a broken heart, I am sharing that my baby boy Kiano passed away … after being euthanized,” she wrote. “Four years ago, here in Ontario, we were able to stop his euthanasia and get him some help. He was alive because people stepped in when he was vulnerable and not capable of making a final, irreversible decision.”
In 2022, Marsilla had successfully launched a petition campaign to stop her young son’s death by euthanasia, which had been scheduled for September 28 at Toronto’s MAiD House. Marsilla was shocked when her son was approved. “Can you believe it?” she wrote at the time. “The doctor literally has given him the gun to kill himself.”
Marsilla, the director of a nursing agency, wanted her son to get genuine help—treatment for depression, therapy, encouragement to choose life. “None of this happened,” she said. “Just an application that lasted for 90 days and then approval and MAiD House! There was no attempt to connect with family members, no assistance to get proper help or medication for this young man, just an approval…”
On September 28, 2022, Kiano V. told LifeSiteNews in an interview that his mother’s social media campaign had been successful, and that as a result of a wave of calls to his doctor, his doctor “withdrew his role in my care plan.” Kiano V. searched for another MAiD assessor to sign off on his euthanasia but failed. One doctor even told him that he was young and healthy, and thus an unlikely candidate for euthanasia.
Three years later, Kiano V. succeeded.
“Tragically, the Canadian system later allowed something very different to happen in Vancouver—where a doctor named DR ELLEN WIEBE AKA DR DEATH #2 approved his death based on mental illness,” his devastated mother wrote on Facebook. “This approval occurred despite euthanasia for mental illness being banned until 2027. Somehow, DR DEATH #2 found a loophole in the system, one that now demands to be exposed so that no other parent has to endure this.”
“This is disgusting on every level,” Marsilla continued:
And I promise I will fight this tooth and nail for my son and other parents who too have children that suffer from mental illness. As a mother and after watching and reading countless stories from other families, I can say this experience was not only devastating, but deeply disturbing. The actions of DR ELLEN WIEBE reveal a pattern of coldness and disregard for vulnerable human life that I can no longer stay silent about, just that scary smile shows her entitlement for taking peoples lives…..”
No compassion. No protection. No effort to save a life, only to end it. This is not healthcare. This is a failure of ethics, accountability, and humanity.
No parent should ever have to bury their child because a system—and a doctor—chose death over care, help, or love.
In time, I intend to pursue accountability against DR ELLEN WIEBE and to stand alongside other families and associations who have been harmed by these same decisions. I know we are not alone.
Right now, we are making arrangements for my son’s funeral this Saturday Jan 10. Details will be shared once finalized.
Thank you to everyone who has supported our family, prayed for us, and stood by us through all these years of pain and hope. Please keep our family in your prayers during this unbearable time
Margaret & Joe
Dr. Ellen Wiebe has faced multiple investigations and complaints over her euthanasia practices. In 2017 she covertly entered an Orthodox Jewish nursing home and euthanized a patient, terrifying residents (including Holocaust survivors). The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia stated that she’d done nothing wrong. Other complaints from coroners and family members resulted in similar decisions.
The euthanasia of Kiano V. by Dr. Ellen Wiebe once again highlights how dangerous Canada has become and is becoming for the vulnerable, especially the mentally ill. In a comment on Marsilla’s Facebook post, one mother noted that Canada’s euthanasia regime has prompted their family to flee the country.
“We also have a daughter who struggles with mental illness, and when I saw and read around 2020 that they were considering this, we gathered the family, but especially our daughter, and moved back to Hungary with her to save her from this,” she wrote.
She is the same age and had already attempted it herself in Canada. In Hungary, she was prescribed 30 days of compulsory hospital treatment, and then she decided to stay in the hospital for another two weeks to adjust her medication. Since then, she has been working and has a fiancé. She still has symptoms, but she is much, much better than she was in Canada, where, citing ‘personal rights,’ this would have been the end. My heart broke as I read your story.
MP Tamara Jansen has put forward Bill C-218 to ban euthanasia for mental illness. You can show your support for that effort here.
France’s Council of State, the country’s highest administrative court, has upheld the use of inclusive writing (écriture inclusive) on commemorative plaques at Paris City Hall in a controversial ruling.
It marks the first time the court has explicitly recognised inclusive writing as a valid form of the French language.
The case dates back to 2017, when Paris City Council unanimously voted to update marble plaques honouring former presidents of the council and councillors who had served more than 25 years.
The new inscriptions, engraved in gold lettering, included forms such as “conseiller.e.s” and “président.e.s“, employing the mid-point (point médian) to denote both masculine and feminine forms.
The association Francophonie Avenir, which campaigns to defend the French language, challenged the changes.
The mid-point rendered the text non-compliant with standard French and constituted an ideological statement, it said.
After Paris City Hall failed to respond to their demand to restore the original wording, the association took the matter to the administrative courts.
In March 2023, the Paris Administrative Tribunal rejected the claim, ruling the inclusive forms fell within the French language.
This was upheld by the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal in April 2025, which added using the notation for titles or functions did not automatically amount to a political or ideological position.
Francophonie Avenir then lodged an appeal with the Council of State.
On December 31, 2025, the Council rejected this appeal, effectively confirming the lower courts’ findings.
It deemed the mid-point a legitimate punctuation tool for expressing inclusivity.
Régis Ravat, president of Francophonie Avenir, said in a reaction “By dismissing us, the judges have created a jurisprudence in favour of inclusive language, which now risks being used by gender community activists to justify the use of this writing everywhere! In French, a point in a word doesn’t exist; putting one in, it’s no longer French, but gibberish.”
The ruling, which was released to media on January 6, sparked immediate backlash.
Critics, including politicians and language purists, described it as a blow to French linguistic tradition.
On social media, reactions ranged from outrage to sarcasm.
One user posted: “Aux grand.e.s homme.sse.s, la.e Patri.e reconnaissant.e.“, a mocking twist on the classic phrase “Aux grands hommes, la patrie reconnaissante“.
Another called it “a shame” and accused the Council of promoting “woke ideology”.
On Radio Monte-Carlo’s Les Grandes Gueules, presenter Olivier Truchot remarked: “In real life, do you know anyone who uses inclusive writing apart from the Paris City Hall and SUD-Rail? No! The French don’t want it.”
A French teacher guest added she already struggles to get pupils to write comprehensible sentences without adding further complications.
The decision does not mandate widespread use of inclusive writing but clears the way for local authorities like Paris to employ it in official contexts without legal challenges on linguistic grounds.
It comes amid ongoing national debates over the language’s evolution, with the Senate already having approved legislation to curb “inclusive” practices.
Faced with the decision of the Council of State, its rapporteur Cédric Vial will refer the matter to the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, to include the draft bill on the agenda for the National Assembly.
Earlier, French President Macron already came out against the use of “inclusive” writing.
The right-wing Freedom Party (FPÖ) has said it planned to ban civil servants in the Austrian state of Styria from using “gender-inclusive language”. https://t.co/BNy2gcN6lc
A convicted killer man who brutally murdered his wife is serving a life sentence in a women’s prison. Robert Kosilek now calls himself “Michelle” and was quietly transferred into the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Framingham (MCI Framingham) women’s prison with the legal assistance of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD Law).
Kosilek, now 76, violently murdered his wife Cheryl McCaul at their condominium in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Cheryl’s body was discovered in the back seat of her gray Hyundai parked in a shopping mall lot in North Attleborough on the evening of Sunday, May 20, 1990.
She had been strangled with a rope and a wire to such an extent that her head was nearly severed. Her body was exposed in a graphic sexual manner, with her top pulled up and her pants around her ankles.
Kosilek while on trial for murdering his wife in 1993. Via Associated Press
A taxi driver testified that he picked up Kosilek from the same mall on the afternoon of May 20, and drove him to a store located near Kosilek’s house in Mansfield. That evening, according to court records, police in North Attleborough received a telephone call from Kosilek stating that his wife had not come home that evening and asking whether there had been any reports of possible vehicular accidents in the area.
The police told Kosilek that they had located his wife’s car, and they asked him to come to the police station, which he agreed to do. At the station, Lieutenant Michael Gould told Kosilek that “a body was found in the back seat” of his wife’s automobile. Lieutenant Gould questioned Kosilek, who claimed that his wife had not come home after going to work earlier in the day.
On May 22, Kosilek, who was still being questioned by authorities in connection with his wife’s death, was involved in an automobile accident in Bedford. Police who arrived on the scene noted that Kosilek was “dressed in women’s clothing.” Though he crashed into a stop sign, Kosilek had passed a sobriety test, and was therefore released.
However, two days later, on the afternoon of May 24, police in New Rochelle, New York, stopped Kosilek for speeding only to discover a partially-consumed bottle of vodka in the car. Kosilek was arrested for driving while intoxicated, and remarked to the officer, “You would be drunk too if the police thought you killed your wife.” Later, at the New Rochelle police station, Kosilek commented: “I had a fifteen year old son and a wife. I can’t call my wife. I murdered my wife. Now, I need to call a psychiatrist.”
Kosilek was taken to the psychiatric unit of a New York hospital and subsequently was brought back to Massachusetts by the State police, where he was charged with first-degree murder.
After his arrest, Kosilek began claiming to identify as a “transsexual” and adopted the name Michelle Lynne. For a period of time, he was also considered a potential suspect in the unresolved serial slayings of nine women in New Bedford in April to September 1988, as he had lived there during that time.
During the two days between his initial traffic stop and his arrest in New York, the court was told, Kosilek had gone on a shopping spree and bought “hundreds of dollars of women’s clothing and jewelry.”
While incarcerated awaiting trial, Kosilek changed his name to Michelle Lynne and, in 1992, launched a campaign from his prison cell to become the sheriff of Bristol County. He claimed to represent what he called the “New Women Party” and ran on a platform that focused on prison reform to benefit trans-identified male inmates.
During the trial for the murder of his wife, which took place in 1993, Kosilek was permitted to wear makeup and jewelry. Photographs of Kosilek with long hair taken during the proceedings depict him posing for the camera, and he was referred to with feminine pronouns by the court.
Kosilek rationalized the savage slaying of his wife as an act of “self-defense” after he said she had walked in on him while he was wearing her clothing. During a series of recorded interviews presented as evidence in court, Kosilek reportedly accused Cheryl of flying into a “transphobic rage” upon seeing him wearing her clothes, and he claimed that she poured boiling tea on his genitals and threatened to kill him.
It was at this point, according to Kosilek, that he “went into a blackout” as a result of “the trauma of it,” and killed Cheryl by strangling her both with a piano wire and rope, pulling so violently that she was nearly decapitated.
Kosilek and Cheryl McCaul had first met in the 1980’s while she was working as a volunteer counselor at a drug rehabilition center. Kosilek was one of her patients, and according to him, she had hoped to cure his “sexual issues.”
Kosilek was involved in extensive litigation against the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) for thirty years, beginning in 1992 and ending in 2022 after he underwent tax-payer funded genital surgery.
As a result of decades of legal claims, the convicted murderer was quietly transferred to the women’s prison MCI Framingham on September 9, 2019, two years before he would undergo genital surgery. Prior to this, he was housed at MCI Norfolk, a medium security facility for men.
In 2002, responding to a legal complaint from Kosilek requesting feminizing hormones and surgery, Judge Mark Wolf ruled that there was a “serious medical need,” but did not order state-funded surgical castration until ten years later. Judge Wolf’s decision requiring the DOC to finance Kosilek’s surgery stated that the DOC was committing “cruel and unusual punishment” in denying Kosilek’s request to have his genitalia removed. This was a landmark decision and was the first such order issued in the United States.
Following his legal victory, Kosilek demanded $698 in personal compensation along with $800,000 in legal fees, prompting his victim’s family to speak out.
“It’s an outrageous request,” said Susan Ohannessian, Cheryl McCaul’s niece, in a 2012 interview. “He doesn’t deserve a dime as far as I’m concerned. The longer he speaks out, the longer he clogs the system with this garbage, the sadder it gets. He’s trying to make himself the victim.”
However, in 2014, the order requiring the DOC finance Kosilek’s surgery was overturned by the First Circuit Court of Appeals on the basis of safety concerns, as it was believed he would be targeted for sexual assault by male inmates at MCI Norfolk. The DOC had argued that having an inmate with a surgically-created “vagina” in a men’s prison would create a safety “nightmare” for both the inmate and the staff.
In 2018, Kosilek filed a new lawsuit demanding both genital surgery and a transfer to women’s prison Framingham. As part of the evidence submitted on his behalf, Kosilek sought and obtained data about female inmates’ convictions. Specifically, Kosilek requested information regarding how many women were incarcerated at Framingham for the murder of another woman, presumably to justify his transfer.
In the complaint, filed in August 2018, Kosilek cited a Criminal Justice Reform Bill passed by Governor Baker just four months prior. The law established new mandates on the basis of “gender identity,” and granted inmates the right to request housing in a facility of their choice. It also codified tax-payer funded “transgender” surgeries as a right.
The superintendent of MCI Framingham, Lynn Bissonnette, testified that Kosilek’s history of committing a violent crime against a woman might traumatize the female inmates at the prison, many of whom are survivors of domestic abuse. However, she further argued that it would be Kosilek who was at risk of assault, rather than the female inmates. To mitigate the competing risks, Bissonnette said that maximum emphasis would be placed on integrating Kosilek with the general population of women.
According to court transcripts, Kosilek was backed by Dr. Stephen B. Levine, a psychiatrist appointed by Judge Mark Wolf as an independent, court-appointed expert in Kosilek v. Spencer. Levine specializes in sexual dysfunction and transsexualism and founded the Case Western Reserve Gender Identity Clinic in Cleveland during the 1970’s. He also served as Chair of the fifth edition of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) Standards of Care in 1998, and was on the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders.
Levine recommended Kosilek for surgery and “testified that he could not imagine anything more cruel” than denying him the procedure. Following his role in the litigation, Levine was officially employed by the Massachusetts DOC in as a Gender Dysphoria Consultant, a role he has held continuously for over 15 years.
Most recently, Levine offered his testimony in support of a transgender baby killer housed in Indiana who sued the state to fund his “gender affirming” surgeries. The United States District Court of Indiana ruled that Autumn Cordellioné, born Jonathan C. Richardson, had been subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” by being denied the various plastic surgeries he had asked for.
Among a list of requests prepared by Richardson and presented as evidence in court was a document titled “Surgeries to Reach My Ideal Self.” The first item on the list, the court heard, was a “vagina,” followed by: breast implants, a brow lift, a brow reduction, a tummy tuck, gluteal implants (BBL), a uterus transplant, hair removal, and wigs.
Wreath of flowers and photographs of late French actress Brigitte Bardot are pictured around her grave at the marine cemetery, following the funeral ceremony at Notre-Dame de l’Assomption church, in Saint-Tropez, southeastern France, on January 7, 2026. Screengrab youtube
In an intimate, private ceremony, French icon Brigitte Bardot was laid to rest in the cemetery of Saint-Tropez, the Provençal fishing village where she breathed her last. Among the guests were numerous representatives of the Rassemblement National (RN). President Emmanuel Macron was asked not to attend.
The religious ceremony was held at the Church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption on the morning of Wednesday, January 7th. Brigitte Bardot passed away in Saint-Tropez at the end of December, aged 91, after a battle with cancer.
After being carried through the streets of the town for a final public tribute, Bardot’s coffin was welcomed into the church by her son, Nicolas Charrier, with whom she had a conflictual and strained relationship. The Mass, celebrated by the parish priest of Saint-Tropez, was broadcast on a large screen.
After the Mass, the funeral procession passed through the small village of Saint-Tropez to the marine cemetery, where the burial took place in the presence of a few carefully selected guests. After hesitating to be buried on her property in La Madrague, Brigitte Bardot finally decided to join the town cemetery, where other celebrities from the world of entertainment are already buried, such as singer Eddie Barclay and Bardot’s first husband, filmmaker Roger Vadim.
After the burial, the cemetery was opened to the public.
Among the personalities present were singer Mireille Mathieu, Paul Belmondo, son of the actor of the same name, and Paul Watson, a leading figure in whale conservation. On the political front, several figures from the national Right were present, including two former presidential candidates, Marine Le Pen and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan. Aurore Bergé, minister for gender equality and the fight against discrimination, was there to represent the government.
A wreath was sent on behalf of Emmanuel Macron and his wife. The president briefly considered attending the funeral, but Brigitte Bardot’s entourage—her husband and members of her foundation—made it clear that his presence was not welcome. Relations between the former actress and the president were abysmal. The Élysée Palace did not insist, unwilling to fuel the controversy, given Bardot’s uncompromising positions on politics, Islam, and immigration. The organisation of a national tribute was also discussed, supported by figures such as Éric Ciotti, president of the Union des Droites pour la République (Union of the Right for the Republic), allied with the RN, who believed that “France has a duty to honour its Marianne.” But Bardot’s husband made it known that she would not have been in favour of this. Bardot had made it known that she wanted a simple and discreet funeral, with a small group of people.
Marine Le Pen’s presence at the funeral was both political and private, as the Le Pen family were long-time friends of the actress. Her last husband, Bertrand d’Ormale, whom she married in 1993, was an advisor to Jean-Marie Le Pen at the time of their wedding. “There was no question of me not being there,” Marine Le Pen explained to the press, visibly moved. She remembers Bardot for “her freedom, her audacity, her frankness, her commitment, her convictions, and her sacrifice in the service of a cause.”
🚨 🇫🇷 « Il était hors de question que je ne sois pas présente », Marine Le Pen s'est rendue aux obsèques de Brigitte Bardot à Saint-Tropez, se dit émue et a souhaité lui rendre hommage. (NiceMatin) pic.twitter.com/zAW7UfoS0X
“Don’t mess with vigilante mum”, warned Nigel Farage as he announced London prosecutor Laila Cunningham as Reform UK’s mayoral pick, promising a Rudy Giuliani broken windows-style crackdown on crime if elected against Labour’s Sadiq Khan.
Brexit pioneer Nigel Farage is laying the groundwork for his Reform UK party to potentially triumph in forthcoming national elections with a roadmap taking in countrywide local elections in 2026, and the London Mayoral elections in 2027. Announcing the new leader of Reform UK London and its Mayoral candidate on Wednesday morning, Mr Farage hailed Laila Cunningham, a “senior Crown Prosecutor” who resigned from her role to campaign politically with the party.
Cunningham, once called “vigilante mum” in British media for confronting a masked gang robbing locals she claimed police had failed to tackle, said the forthcoming elections would be a “referendum” on the failures of Mayor Sadiq Khan. She called on Londoners to “vote for the freedom that safety brings”.
I’m raising my seven children here, and that’s seven reasons why I want to do this… crime for me is not hypothetical like some of the journalists who say I’m scaremongering. My family has experienced it many times.
In fact one time my kids were targeted by gangs in balaclavas, who people say don’t exist, day after day in broad daylight. We were all terrified. I turned to the police, naturally, and was told there were not enough resources, so I gathered the evidence myself. In fact I’d just had a baby, I put him in the carrier. I followed the gangs, I took photos… I protected my family when the state couldn’t. The press called me ‘vigilante mum’ but I should never have been put in that position.
Both Cunningham and Farage made clear that if Reform UK won the London contest, it would usher in a new era of confidence, freedom, and safety in London with a massive crackdown on crime and antisocial elements. Cunningham said this would mean “visible policing, zero, I mean zero tolerance for crime, real consequences”. She asserted she would be a “new sheriff in town” and that she’d be “launching an all-out war on crime”.
Mr Farage pointed to the transformative ‘broken windows’ policies of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the 1990s and said:
…for those who don’t think this can actually happen, throughout the 1980s and 1990s I worked for American companies, New York-based, Chicago-based. And I do remember going to New York as a young businessman, and you wouldn’t dare leave a restaurant until you saw the car ready on the side of the road and you ran across as quickly as you could because New York had become the most dangerous city in America.
And eight years later after two terms of Rudi Giuliani New York had become one of the safest cities in America. All done by one man’s drive and determination, and the NYPD cooperating — and when they didn’t, being sacked — and the right people with the right priorities coming in.
Both poured scorn on the policies of incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan, who this year will mark ten years leading the city. Farage noted how London’s stock globally was tumbling, with “this once admired, historic, astonishing and extraordinary place is now being talked about around the world in increasingly disparaging terms.” This fish rots from the head down, he said, emphasising the need to eject Khan from office.
Cunningham also blasted “the London that Sadiq Khan has created”, noting the immense innate potential the city has to again rise to a place of greatness. She also took aim at thin-skinned Khan’s retreat to allegation when challenged on his record. Cunningham, who is a Muslim of Egyptian heritage, said of Khan: “…he ludicrously says that criticism of his record is because he’s Muslim and we’re all Islamophobic. Frankly, it’s an insult to victims and to Londoners”.
Also prominent in her remarks were references to the long-discussed but never proven possibility that child rape grooming gangs, found all over England, also operate in London. As previously reported, it is something Mayor Khan has long been defensive over, but which now appears to be on the verge of a breakthrough. Cunningham, for her part, promised to direct police to “hunt” down abusers in the capital.
She said: “I will set clear high-level priorities for the Met to focus on tackling knife crime, drugs, robbery, shoplifting, rape. And I will task the Met Police with targeting, hunting, and prosecuting rape gangs in London. There will be nowhere for them to hide”. On London’s present chief of police, she added: “I was really disappointed when Mark Rowley said there were no grooming gangs in London. Then turned round and said ‘we’re reviewing 9,000 cases’. How the hell do you get 9,000 cases wrong? I think he has to go. On my watch, you don’t get 9,000 grooming cases wrong, you get it right first time.”
A Syrian man, convicted in the Netherlands of murdering his daughter in a so-called honor killing after accusing her of behaving too Western, has been sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison after fleeing the country.
The ruling was delivered on Monday by the court in Lelystad, which found Khaled al N. guilty of orchestrating and carrying out the killing of his 18-year-old daughter, Ryan, from the town of Joure in Friesland. Her brothers, Mohamed, 23, and Muhanad, 25, were each sentenced to 20 years in prison for being complicit in the murder.
As reported by NOS, judges said Ryan’s death represented “a tragic low point in a family history in which the oppression of women was the common thread,” concluding that the killing was driven by the belief that she had damaged the family’s honor through what relatives regarded as an excessively Western lifestyle.
Prosecutors had sought a 25-year prison sentence for the father and 20 years for each brother. The court imposed a heavier sentence on Khaled al N., citing his leading role in the crime and the extreme violence involved.
Ryan’s body was discovered on May 28, 2024, in a marsh near the Oostvaardersplassen nature reserve. Investigators established that she had been bound with approximately 18 meters of duct tape before being thrown into the water alive. When she was found, her hands were tied behind her back, and her nose and mouth were covered with tape. Her father later fled home to Syria, where it is understood he remains.
The court said Khaled al N. spoke positively about his daughter during the proceedings but refused to accept responsibility for her death. Judges described his actions as “incomprehensible and indigestible,” adding that a parent’s duty is to protect and support a child, not destroy her.
During the trial, a police officer said during their testimony, “How scared Ryan must have been. In the dead of night, in pitch darkness, in a remote place. Did she know her last hour had come? Did she scream? Barely 18. Vulnerable. Alone. She trusted her brothers.”
According to the ruling, there was a coordinated attempt to place sole blame on the father in order to shield the brothers, and his escape to Syria formed part of that plan. While the judges took into account the brothers’ young age and the pressure exerted by their father, they said this did not diminish their culpability.
Evidence showed that after Ryan’s death, the brothers destroyed evidence, erasing traces of the crime. They deleted photos and videos from her phone and asked relatives to remove chat messages, the court said, noting that there was no indication they feared for her welfare.
Investigators also uncovered a WhatsApp group chat including several family members entitled “Honorable family,” which revealed messages suggesting ways to kill Ryan for bringing shame on the family. According to De Telegraaf, these included pushing her in front of a train and poisoning her.
Prosecutors said the murder was premeditated and motivated by the view that Ryan had become a burden to the family. The family, which fled Syria and later settled in Joure, had been known to police and social services for years. From 2022 onward, Ryan stayed intermittently in shelters and institutions and had previously told police that her father abused and threatened her.
It is unclear why the authorities did not intervene at an earlier opportunity to protect the woman following the complaints.
One of her brothers had earlier told investigators that he believed Ryan had disgraced the family by appearing on TikTok without a headscarf and wearing makeup.
During hearings in November, the brothers denied involvement and claimed their father alone was responsible, describing him as a “psychopath” and a “monster.” Prosecutors questioned their credibility, noting that both had remained silent for months during the investigation.
Khaled al N., who has since remarried in northern Syria, wrote in a letter to De Telegraaf last year that he had killed his daughter, a statement his lawyer repeated in court.
It remains uncertain whether the father will ever serve his sentence. Although he is now the subject of an international arrest warrant, there is no judicial cooperation between the Netherlands and Syria, and Dutch authorities therefore cannot extradite him.
The Public Prosecution Service said it will continue to explore options to bring him to justice, either by securing his return to the Netherlands or by having him serve his sentence abroad.
