attacking

CHAT show host Jonathan Ross desperately sought to distance himself from shamed former friends Russell Brand and David Walliams last night.

But The Sun can reveal he let rapist Brand stay at his country home, unaware that just weeks earlier the comedian had allegedly attacked a woman in Los Angeles.

Glum Ross appeared deep in thought in London as the scandal threatened to engulf him.

Snaps emerged of him hugging Brand and smiling with Walliams — and in one image he grinned as he lay across their laps.

A picture also showed him with other celebs at a dinner table as Walliams posed with one of his alleged victims, Lilly Creightmore.

Ross, 65, was completely unaware of the rape allegation against Brand when he let him use his holiday home in Swanage, Dorset, in late 2012.

Neither Ross nor his family were there at the time.

It later emerged that in July of that year Brand was accused of raping a woman against a wall in his Los Angeles home — the same month his divorce from singer Katy Perry was finalised.

In a statement, Ross said: “I am as horrified by the revelations about David Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand as the rest of the nation.

“There was a time in my life when I was on friendly terms with both men, and during that period I was genuinely unaware of their conduct.

“My thoughts are with the many, many women who have bravely come forward.”

Ross was slammed over a 2004 clip of him presenting an awards show saying: “The Comedy Awards is 15 years old — 15 years old.

“And like most 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable and it’s probably going home with David Walliams.”

Ross claimed he had not written the joke himself, and yesterday insisted: “I recognise how deeply shocking it is to revisit.

“This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards script writing team and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.

“It is also a tasteless joke that I would not dream of making today about anyone, but that is beside the point.

“Had I had any reason to suspect that it might be referring to actual events, I would not only have refused to use it, but I would not have felt comfortable continuing a personal or professional relationship with him.”

Ross added: “I also like to think that I would have acted upon that knowledge.”

Brand, 51, was jailed for 10½ years on Monday for raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others.

He and Ross appeared on several TV shows together.

And on Radio 2 in 2008 they left a series of vulgar voicemails for Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs about his 20-year-old granddaughter Georgina Baillie, who Brand had dated.

At one point, Ross shouted: “He f***ed your granddaughter!”

The scandal saw Brand resign from the BBC and Ross suspended from his TV show for three months.

Ross and Brand also appeared with Noel Fielding on Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007 — with Brand cracking jokes about rape, later described by fellow panellist Lily Allen as “really horrendous”.

In the episode, Ross moves singer Lily, then just 21, away from Brand and Fielding.

Ross tells her: “I’m a bit concerned because look where you’ve put us — you’ve put the only sexually attractive young lady near two of the best known cocksmen of the business.

“I’m going to insist as a sort of uncle figure in Lily’s life that she moves over there. And then, Lily might go home with her dress still on.”

The scandal saw Brand resign from the BBC and Ross suspended from his TV show for three months.

Ross and Brand also appeared with Noel Fielding on Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz of the Year in 2007 — with Brand cracking jokes about rape, later described by fellow panellist Lily Allen as “really horrendous”.

In the episode, Ross moves singer Lily, then just 21, away from Brand and Fielding.

Ross tells her: “I’m a bit concerned because look where you’ve put us — you’ve put the only sexually attractive young lady near two of the best known cocksmen of the business.

“I’m going to insist as a sort of uncle figure in Lily’s life that she moves over there. And then, Lily might go home with her dress still on.”

It is thought that when Brand stayed at Ross’s bolt-hole, it was allegedly to escape publicity over the break-up with Katy.

The woman who said she was attacked in LA told the Sunday Times she was treated at a rape treatment centre and had five months of therapy before deciding against pressing charges.

Brand sent her text messages apologising for what happened and describing his behaviour as “crazy and selfish”.

Brand was spotted in the seaside town walking along the pier and popping to a pub.

Ross and his wife Jane bought the £2million Grade II listed farmhouse in 2005.

It features stables, a 50m swimming pool, and an orchard that leads down to the tracks of a steam railway.

An elderly neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “I can remember seeing Russell Brand.

“He walked out of the private road in a group of people. It was definitely him because he is very recognisable.

“I rarely see Jonathan Ross. I believe the last time was in August. He is having building works done, I believe to his barns, so perhaps we’ll see more of him in the future.”

Another elderly neighbour refused to comment as he “didn’t want to make Ross’s life more difficult”.

Brand could face further ­allegations after cops said “several” people have come forward since the trial. The Guardian reported that at least ten more women are thought to have been attacked.

Jonathan Ross was approached for comment last night.

Supermarket refrigerators and freezers across Europe have been targeted by a cyberattack that raised the temperature of internet-linked units, destroying and damaging large quantities of food.

On Monday, fridges and freezers at more than 100 shops in several European countries ran hot. Cyberattacks on supermarkets began last month, when hundreds of French supermarkets were left with spoiled food and damage to units which had overheated, costing millions of euros.

So far, it remains unclear why hackers targeted the supermarkets, but attacks have spread across the continent and even to the United States.

Here’s what we know:

Which countries in Europe have been targeted?

On Monday, several supermarkets in Europe were affected, including the following:

• Dutch supermarket operator Delhaize said dozens of its shops in Belgium and Luxembourg were hit by an “IT incident”.
• French retailer Carrefour said about 15 of its 700 Belgian locations were hit by refrigeration problems.
• The Colruyt group, which runs Spar stores in Belgium as franchises, said five of its shops were affected.
• Swedish Coop said cooling systems at seven of its 800 stores were affected, with disruptions ranging from complete shutdowns to partial operation.
• Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, which also operates restaurants at its stores, said one site in Mons, Belgium, had been affected by a cyberattack.
• De Laet & Van Haver, the Belgian butchery chain, said the temperature in its fridges at its store in Hove, south of Antwerp, was raised as high as 18 degrees Celsius, ruining meat worth about 15,000 euros ($16,764).
• The food wholesaler Musgrave said a cyber-incident affected refrigeration systems in 13 of its SuperValu stores in Ireland.
• In October, hundreds of French supermarkets suffered cyberattacks, spoiling tonnes of food, causing fires and melting parts of refrigeration units.

What has happened in the US?

In August, freezers at a market in Fort Huachuca, an Army base in Arizona, went into defrost mode, spoiling all the frozen food they contained, according to a post on Facebook by the base.

The same month, the naval station in Newport, Rhode Island, reported on Facebook that its refrigeration system was affected, leaving only dry goods were available for purchase.

The Pentagon considered the freezer malfunctions on the military bases to be a suspected hack, the Reuters news agency reported late last month, citing four officials close to the matter.

One official said Pentagon investigators were communicating with the French authorities about the issue.

How are cyberattackers targeting fridges and freezers?

Hackers can access the controls of fridges and freezers which use internet software and raise their temperature in order to spoil frozen food.

In some cases, hackers have increased the temperature of appliances to as high as 50C (122F) in European supermarkets, causing them to melt or even catch fire.

Awais Rashid, a professor of cybersecurity at the University of Bristol in the UK, explained that many supermarket refrigeration systems which are remotely managed and, often by third parties, have not been given necessary software updates to prevent hackers.

“In line with established cyber security practices, these systems should be managed via secure networks. However, this is not the case in these incidents and they are accessible on the Internet,” Rashid told Al Jazeera.

“A remote managing party can access a web server on the controller to configure the system including temperature changes and maintenance. There are known vulnerabilities in several controllers (many of which are past their end of life),” he said.

Rashid added that vulnerabilities include “easily guessable” passwords, which would mean anyone could gain access.

Why are hackers doing this?

The motive behind the attacks is unclear, but authorities believe it may be a deliberate attempt to disrupt food supplies.

On Monday, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, said the attacks on fridges were a “deliberate attempt to disrupt” the bloc’s food supply and to undermine consumer confidence.

He added that while “food security is not currently at risk … the food waste and impact on businesses are real”.

Rashid said that while there are few details about who may be behind the attacks or what their motives are, it is likely that these are “the motive here is likely disruption”.

“This has financial impacts on the supermarkets but also societal impacts in terms of security of the food supply chain. Critically, this risks undermining trust in infrastructures on which people rely daily,” he said.

Who is behind the attacks?

On Monday, Belgium’s prosecutor’s office announced that it had opened a criminal investigation into the latest fridge cyberattacks. But so far, no one has taken responsibility.

Theories have emerged linking state actors to cyberattacks generally, with North Korea most recently accused of being behind last week’s $6.3bn Binance cryptocurrency heist, which forced the crypto group to freeze accounts.

European intelligence officials have also warned that Russia is escalating its shadow war on the continent amid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine, with cyberattacks among the methods it uses.

On Tuesday, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre warned that Britain needs to be prepared for an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cyberattack on its critical national infrastructure within the next two years.

“By 2028, it is highly likely that Russia, China and other nation states will routinely use AI-cyber to achieve their geopolitical goals, with the UK facing an increase in scale and speed of sophisticated cyberattacks,” the NCSC said in a report.

The report comes shortly after the UK launched its “Be Ready” campaign, calling on citizens to stockpile enough tinned food, bottled water and cash to last three days in the event of a cyberattack or national emergency.

Rashid said that as our infrastructure becomes increasingly digitised, the risk of disruption from cyberattacks, especially “cyber-physical infrastructures such as refrigeration systems”, has risen.

“However, we should also note that a lot of our digital infrastructures operate safely everyday because good security practices enable that. The world works because cyber security works effectively. So it is important that all businesses follow good cyber security practices,” he said.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday set a September 2027 trial date for a man charged with attempting to kill President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in April.

Cole Tomas Allen’s trial is scheduled to start with jury selection on Sept. 7 in Washington, D.C., and is expected to last approximately three to four weeks. Prosecutors had recommended starting the trial in May, but U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden set the later date after one of Allen’s attorneys asked for more time to prepare.

Allen, of Torrance, is accused of storming the WHCA dinner while armed with guns and knives and firing a shotgun at a Secret Service officer who tried to stop the attack at the Washington Hilton hotel. The officer, who was struck once in a bullet-resistant vest, fired five shots but didn’t hit anybody, authorities said. Allen was injured but not from gunfire.

The attack led to an early end to one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital. Trump returned to speak at the rescheduled dinner three months later.

In writings that he sent to relatives before the attack, Allen railed against Trump administration policies and referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” authorities said.

Allen faces an attempted assassination charge that carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. He also is charged with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon and two additional firearms counts.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.

With England’s points difference currently 92 worse than Ben Gardiner’s Samoa team in a combined Pool B and C table, they will almost certainly also need to defeat Papua New Guinea on Friday, 30 October (09:05 GMT), to have any chance of reaching the last four.

The format of this tournament features an unbalanced group stage, which has not helped England’s prospects.

Pool A has four teams – Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and the Cook Islands – fighting for two semi-final places in a round-robin format.

But Pools B and C are combined into one six-team league, from which only the top two will make the semi-finals. England, drawn in Pool B, are playing the three Pool C teams – Tonga, France and Papua New Guinea.

Tonga are currently in pole position to make the knockout stages after adding to their win over England with a 36-0 victory over Lebanon on Friday.

Sione Katoa and Jojo Fifita scored two tries each against a spirited Lebanon side who had chances themselves before fading in the final 20 minutes.

Lebanon might reflect on a key moment towards the first half when, trailing 10-0 and chasing a try to bring them back into the match, Alex Conti tried to kick towards the corner for Jason Saab, who was unable to collect and only batted it back for Tonga centre Tolutau Koula to run the length of the field and score at the other end.

Paul Alamoti and Leka Halasima scored the other Tonga tries against opponents playing only their third game since the previous World Cup and with only a couple of a youthful squad that lost to Italy in 2025 still involved.

“We had 12 debutants last week, so we just need more footy,” said Lebanon coach Michael Cheika.

“We tried to get a warm-up game here. We weren’t allowed, but I don’t know who [which governing body] it was [that stopped us]. We need to have a warm-up game.

“We can prepare and start to get ready. It’s not easy for us. We haven’t played a game since the last World Cup.

“Last year we tried to get the spot against the team who had the bye in the second tier of the Pacific Championships, so either a Papua New Guinea or [someone of that ilk] another. They put a line through it.

“They said: We’re lining it up with the teams individually. They put a line through it. I don’t even know why. We never got an answer. So it’s really out of our hands.”