Category: Crime

Thames Valley Police said the intruders stole two vehicles from a farm building on the estate west of London on October 13 and that no arrests had been made. ..reports Asian Lite News

Police said on Monday officers were investigating a break-in last month on the grounds of the royal Windsor Estate, reportedly while Prince William and his family were at home. 

Thames Valley Police said the intruders stole two vehicles from a farm building on the estate west of London on October 13 and that no arrests had been made. 

“At around 11:45 p.m. on Sunday 13 October, we received a report of burglary at a property on Crown Estate land near to the A308 in Windsor,” the force said in a statement, referring to the castle grounds. 

“Offenders entered a farm building and made off with a black Isuzu pickup and a red quad bike. 

“They then made off toward the Old Windsor/Datchet area. No arrests have been made at this stage and an investigation is ongoing.” 

The Sun tabloid, which first reported the incident, said the “masked raiders” struck while William, his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales, and their children slept in their nearby home on the estate. 

The newspaper reported last month that armed police officers from the Metropolitan Police’s diplomatic protection unit had been removed from the two main gates of the Windsor Estate. 

It comes as the force faces a shortage of firearms officers, with far fewer candidates joining up, the tabloid said. 

The Metropolitan Police, which is responsible for royal security, said it does “not comment on any security arrangements for protected individuals or sites.” 

But in a statement, a spokesperson said the arrangements were “kept under constant review to ensure we take into account the latest threat and risk information and assessments that are available to us.” 

The burglary is the latest security breach at Windsor, where William and his family live year-round and was the favored residence of the late Queen Elizabeth II. 

On Christmas Day, December 25, 2021 a man armed with a loaded crossbow was found on the grounds, telling an armed officer at the scene that he was there “to kill the queen.” 

The man, Jaswant Singh Chail, was last year jailed for nine years, with the sentence to be served in the high-security Broadmoor psychiatric hospital. 

The former supermarket worker had “lost touch with reality so that he had become psychotic,” judge Nicholas Hilliard had concluded. 

ALSO READ: When Starmer meets Xi… 

Mitchell and Hodge are understood to have corralled support from dozens of MPs across the political spectrum to ramp up the pressure before the joint ministerial council….reports Asian Lite News

The UK’s offshore financial centres must fall in behind plans to stop “dirty money” by publishing registers of corporate ownership, leading political campaigners have said, as Labour pledged not to cave in to lobbying designed to weaken the proposals. 

Labour’s Dame Margaret Hodge and the Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell hit out at “dither and delay”, ahead of this week’s summit between UK government officials and overseas territories, such as the British Virgin Islands (BVIs) and Cayman Islands, in London. 

In an editorial for the Guardian, they accuse overseas territories and crown dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man, of trying to water down or ward off measures designed to counteract money laundering and other illicit transactions. 

“We know all too well that the overseas territories and crown dependencies play a pivotal role in helping crooks and tax dodgers launder and hide their dirty money,” Hodge and Mitchell said. 

“Dirty money underpins corruption, crime and conflict. It causes immense harm at home and abroad, enabling serious and organised crime and diverting resources needed for vital public services. Public registers, and the scrutiny that they bring, are the best antidote to the scourge of illicit finance.” 

Mitchell and Hodge are understood to have corralled support from dozens of MPs across the political spectrum to ramp up the pressure before the joint ministerial council. The two-day event starts on Wednesday. 

“We must stop the dither and delay of recent years and pierce the veil of anonymity that protects criminals and kleptocrats,” they said. 

The duo accused offshore centres of reneging on a promise to introduce public registers by December 2023. A key point of contention is whether the registers would be open to everyone or only those with “legitimate interests”, such as anti-corruption campaign groups. 

Some overseas territories are opposed to fully open registers and British lobbyists have been working with them in an effort to persuade the government to accept a “legitimate interest” compromise. In an online briefing to the BVI financial sector, viewed by the Guardian, a lobbyist and a lawyer acting for the IFC Forum – an umbrella lobby group representing offshore law firms – told their audience of the need to “educate” Labour MPs. 

Oliver Cooper, a Conservative councillor and a lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys, who acts as counsel for IFC Forum, said the foreign secretary, David Lammy, and Stephen Doughty, minister for the overseas territories, had “been sold on […] the IFCs [international financial centres]”. Stephen Doughty denied this. “I have been clear that where legitimate interest filters are implemented it must be to a high standard and as an interim step to full public accessibility,” he said. 

“This will be key to bearing down on financial secrecy, which is the lifeblood of illicit finance including money laundering, and tax and sanctions evasion.” During the briefing, Mitchell Cohen, a public relations executive at Lansons Team Farner, said the offshore centres needed to engage with Labour to “detoxify any negative brands”. 

He described Labour MPs sympathetic to Margaret Hodge’s position on registers as potential “forces of negativity” and said lobbyists needed to “neutralise” them with positive messages. 

Cohen, who has advised several leading Conservative politicians and now advises the BVI government, said there was a hope that the Treasury would be open to stopping short of full public registers of beneficial ownership. “We know Treasury are a lot more pragmatic and are going to be pulling a lot of strings across government,” he said during the presentation, given shortly after Labour won the election. 

A Foreign Office spokesperson said the government was pursuing fully public registers with “full vigour”. Hodge and Mitchell said: “If the overseas territories and crown dependencies will not accept the will of parliament we must use our powers to insist that they act.” 

Hodge has previously called on the government to issue an “order in council” to compel overseas territories to comply and suggested the crown dependencies could be forced to follow suit, a proposal that would test constitutional convention and law. 

ALSO READ: More Funds For Mentoring 

Referring to last summer’s riots, Begum warned that without change, such violence could become recurrent….reports Asian Lite News

The UK is witnessing an escalation in Islamophobia that risks becoming “brutally divisive,” with failure to address its underlying causes potentially leading to more racist riots, according to the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust think tank. 

In an exclusive interview with The Guardian newspaper, Shabna Begum, who took the helm of the race equality group earlier this year, highlighted how political rhetoric has fueled the problem. “The way politicians talk about Muslims now is so derogatory, it’s in the most brutally divisive terms,” she said, adding that British political discourse had evolved beyond Sayeeda Warsi’s “dinner table test,” a phrase coined by the Conservative peer in 2011 which claimed Islamophobia had become socially acceptable.  

Referring to last summer’s riots, Begum warned that without change, such violence could become recurrent. “(The unrest) was the ugliest representation of the years of racism that have been manufactured through the political media conversation. And if we don’t do something differently, that ugliness will become just a regular feature of our politics,” she said. 

The Runnymede Trust’s report on Islamophobia, launched with backing from Warsi, Amnesty International UK, and the Muslim Council for Britain, documented increasing hostility faced by British Muslims. It cited Tell Mama’s findings of a 335 percent spike in hate incidents in the four months up to February 2024, with women disproportionately affected. 

Police figures indicated that nearly 38 percent of religious hate crimes targeted Muslims, and anti-religious hate crimes reached a record high last year, coinciding with the Israel-Gaza conflict, which broke out on Oct. 7 last year. Begum emphasized that the issue extended beyond physical attacks to “state-sponsored Islamophobia” embedded in policies and narratives, without naming specific politicals, and added that the ruling Labour Party and the Conservatives had both been guilty of feeding a “bleak and dystopian” hostile climate for British Muslims. 

She also highlighted the double standard faced by Muslims in public life, saying: “Whether it’s through being governors at schools, as we see through the Trojan horse affair … we are seen trying to take over and hijack local schools.” 

She continued: “Or when we go on protest marches, along with many other people, we are described as hate marchers and Islamist extremists. And when we use our vote to express our political preferences, we’re described as sectarian and divisive.” 

Drawing on her personal history as the daughter of Bangladeshi migrants who grew up in Tower Hamlets in London, Begum described how her upbringing had shaped her understanding of systemic discrimination. 

After more than two decades as a teacher, she moved into academia, ultimately leading her to running the Runnymede Trust. While she welcomed a recent £15 million ($18.9 million) community recovery fund introduced by the UK government, she called for more substantial investment to combat structural racism. 

“What we’re objecting to is a dispersal of insecure funds to community groups… There’s no point saying all Muslims are all bad, but go and have a cup of tea with them in your local community.” 

ALSO READ: More Funds For Mentoring 

Publisher Penguin Random House UK said that a consultation with Indigenous Australians requested by Oliver had not happened due to an “editorial oversight”…reports Asian Lite News

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has pulled his new children’s book from the shelves after complaints it stereotyped Indigenous Australians. 

The 400-page fantasy novel, Billy and the Epic Escape, features an Aboriginal girl with mystical powers living in foster care who is abducted from her home in central Australia. 

First Nations leaders have said the book reproduces “harmful stereotypes” and trivialises the “complex and painful” history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being forcibly removed from their families under government assimilation policies. 

Oliver – who is in Australia promoting a new cookbook – has apologised and said he was “devastated” to have caused hurt. “It was never my intention to misinterpret this deeply painful issue,” he said in a statement. 

Publisher Penguin Random House UK said that a consultation with Indigenous Australians requested by Oliver had not happened due to an “editorial oversight”. 

Critics said the book contained language errors and oversimplified the identity of First Nations character Ruby. “This superficial treatment of Ruby’s character dehumanises her, and by extension, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,” said Sharon Davis of the First Nations educational body Natsiec. 

Among the complaints is that Ruby is given the ability to read people’s minds and communicate with animals and plants, because “that’s the Indigenous way”. Sharon Davis said that reduced “complex and diverse belief systems” to “magic”. 

The character is also at the centre of an abduction plot, something community leader Sue-Anne Hunter called a “particularly insensitive choice,” given the “painful historical context” of Australia’s Stolen Generations. During the 20th Century, tens of thousands of Indigenous children were removed from their families under official government policies aimed at assimilation which assumed black inferiority and white superiority. This government policy continued officially until the 1970s. 

“The story’s flippant approach to narrating the theft of a First Nations child dangerously trivialises the ongoing trauma associated with Australia’s violent history of child removal,” Natsiec said. They added that today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are 10 times more likely non-Indigenous children to be removed from their families into foster care or other systems. 

Critics have also pointed out language errors in the book. The character is from Mparntwe or Alice Springs in the Northern Territory but uses vocabulary from the language of the Gamilaraay people of the states of New South Wales and Queensland. Sharon Davis said this showed “complete disregard for the vast differences among First Nations languages, cultures, and practices”. 

Oliver said he and his publishers had decided to withdraw the book from sale around the world. A statement from Penguin Random House UK added: “It is clear that our publishing standards fell short on this occasion, and we must learn from that.” Natsiec said it acknowledged and recognised their apologies and “swift action” in removing the books from sale. 

ALSO READ: Starmer has no plans to meet the Taliban at Baku 

Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men to “appalling” sexual violence, but died in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Constabulary..reports Asian Lite News

The Archbishop of Canterbury has rejected calls to resign after a report found the Church of England covered up the “abhorrent” abuse of more than 100 boys and young men for years. John Smyth’s abuse could have been exposed in 2013 if Justin Welby had followed up to ensure the police investigated concerns. 

Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men to “appalling” sexual violence, but died in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Constabulary. Three members of the General Synod have launched a petition that calls on the Archbishop to resign following the report. 

The Rev Richard Coles, the radio presenter, is among those calling for the Archbishop’s resignation. In a post on social media, he said: “Anyone in authority who knew about an abuser and did not act properly so that abuse continued should resign. Then [we need] a reset that begins with making safeguarding in the CofE independent of the CofE.” 

The Rev Giles Fraser, the vicar and columnist, said it was “unlikely” he could remain in post. Rev Fraser posted: “I think it seems increasingly unlikely that the Archbishop of Canterbury can survive in post, given the growing chorus of calls for his resignation from amongst his own clergy.” 

A Lambeth Palace spokesman said that the Archbishop “reiterates his horror” over Smyth’s abuse and has “apologised profoundly both for his own failures and omissions and for the wickedness, concealment and abuse by the church more widely”. She added: “He had no awareness or suspicion of the allegations before he was told in 2013. And therefore, having reflected, he does not intend to resign.” 

It comes after the Archbishop said on Thursday, the day of the report’s publication, that he had thought about resigning that morning. He told Channel 4 News: “I have given it (resigning) a lot of thought and have taken advice as recently as this morning from senior colleagues, and, no, I am not going to resign.” 

Asked if he considered resigning on Thursday morning, the Archbishop said “yes”. The Archbishop said he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse” before 2013 but acknowledged the review had found that after its wider exposure that year he had “personally failed to ensure” it was investigated. 

He knew Smyth because of his attendance at the Iwerne Christian camps in the 1970s, but the review said there was no evidence that he had “maintained any significant contact” with the barrister in later years. 

It said while he knew him and “did have reason to have some concern about him” this was not the same as suspecting he had committed severe abuses, and concluded it was “not possible to establish” whether the Archbishop knew of the severity of the abuses in the UK before 2013. 

But the report said Smyth “could and should have been formally reported to the police in the UK, and to authorities in South Africa (church authorities and potentially the police) by church officers, including a diocesan bishop and Justin Welby in 2013”. It said, “had that been done, on the balance of probabilities” Smyth could have been brought to justice “at a much earlier point” than the Hampshire Constabulary investigation in early 2017. 

It added: “Opportunities to establish whether he continued to pose an abusive threat in South Africa were missed because of these inactions by senior church officers.” The report also stated: “In effect, three and a half years were lost, a time within which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and any abuse he was committing in South Africa discovered and stopped.” 

Its authors concluded that, in their opinion: “Justin Welby held a personal and moral responsibility to pursue this further, whatever the policies at play at the time required.” Others have warned against treating the Archbishop as a “scapegoat”, noting that some church officials knew far more than he did about Smyth’s abuse for decades but covered it up. 

ALSO READ: Starmer has no plans to meet the Taliban at Baku 

Starmer said the money would support “a new organised immigration crime intelligence unit – hundreds of new investigators and intelligence officers backed by state-of-the-art technology”….reports Asian Lite News

People smuggling should be viewed as a global security threat “similar to terrorism”, Keir Starmer has said in an address to Interpol’s general assembly.

The prime minister urged world leaders to “wake up to the severity of this challenge”, saying there is “nothing progressive about turning a blind eye” to people who die in the English Channel.

The speech in Glasgow came after he pledged a further £75m for the UK government’s Border Security Command (BSC), doubling the total funding to £150m over the next two years.

Starmer said the money would support “a new organised immigration crime intelligence unit – hundreds of new investigators and intelligence officers backed by state-of-the-art technology”.

Money will also go towards the National Crime Agency, including strengthening its data analysis and intelligence capabilities, and the government will “legislate to give those fighting these gangs enhanced powers too”, Starmer said.
The prime minister also announced a £6m increase in funding for Interpol and a further £24m for tackling serious international crime affecting the UK, including drugs, firearms and fraud, particularly in the Western Balkans. It is not clear where all the money is coming from.
Labour’s initial £75m for the BSC came from scrapping the former Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, while Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday morning that the other half is new funding from last week’s budget.
Starmer told senior ministers and policing leads from Interpol’s 196 member states: “People smuggling should be viewed as a global security threat similar to terrorism. “We’ve got to combine resources, share intelligence and tactics, and tackle the problem upstream, working together to shut down the smuggling routes.”
He added that tackling people-smuggling gangs is his “personal mission” and “that starts here in the UK”. “We’re going to treat people smugglers like terrorists. So, we’re taking our approach to counter terrorism, which we know works, and applying it to the gangs,” he said.
“There is nothing progressive about turning a blind eye, as men, women and children die in the Channel. This is a vile trade that must be stamped out wherever it thrives.”
The event on Monday kicks off a week-long blitz by Starmer on people smuggling, after he vowed in the election campaign to “smash the gangs” and set up the BSC to help him achieve that goal.
However, the government has refused to be drawn on how soon their plans could result in a reduction of the dangerous journeys. Speaking to reporters after Starmer’s speech, a Downing Street spokesperson said ministers are “going to make progress as rapidly as is possible” on migrant crossings but would not reveal if there was a target in mind.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “Keir Starmer’s announcement on tackling gangs will mean absolutely nothing without a deterrent to stop migrants wishing to make the dangerous journey across the Channel.
“It is a shame that Starmer has not recognised the extent of the crisis in the Channel sooner, as he and the Labour Party voted against numerous measures to stop the gangs while they were in opposition.
“If Starmer continues to ignore the need for a deterrent to stop migrants crossing the Channel, there will be more deaths in the Channel as more and more migrants continue to cross it. He needs to get a grip of the crisis in the Channel.”

ALSO READ: WTM contributes £200m to London economy