United States President Donald Trump has travelled to the southern tip of Florida to inaugurate a new immigration detention facility, nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz.
On Tuesday, Trump joined Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at the remote facility, located in a vast wetland region known as the Everglades.
“This is what you need,” Trump said. “A lot of bodyguards and a lot of cops in the form of alligators.”
The president then quipped about the dangers: “I wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long.”
The facility, built on the site of the former Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, is designed to help address the need for more beds and more space to carry out Trump’s campaign for mass deportation.
State Attorney General James Uthmeier first announced Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” two weeks ago, sharing a video on social media that featured bellowing alligators and pulsing rock music to underscore the forbidding nature of the facility.
“This 30-square-mile [78sq-km] area is completely surrounded by the Everglades. It presents an efficient, low-cost opportunity to build a temporary detention facility because you don’t need to invest that much in the perimeter,” Uthmeier said.
“If people get out, there’s not much waiting for them other than alligators and pythons. Nowhere to go. Nowhere to hide.”
Its nickname draws from the lore surrounding the Alcatraz federal prison, an isolated, maximum-security detention centre built on a rocky island in the middle of the San Francisco Bay in California. That facility, closed since 1963, gained a reputation for being unescapable — though there were, indeed, five escapees whose fates remain unknown.
“It might be as good as the real Alcatraz site,” Trump said of the Florida site on Tuesday. “That’s a spooky one too, isn’t it? That’s a tough site.”
Alcatraz has long been a source of fascination for Trump, who mused earlier this year about reopening the San Francisco facility, despite cost and feasibility concerns.
Similarly, the Alligator Alcatraz facility has spurred criticism for its human rights implications, its location in an environmentally sensitive landscape and its proximity to communities of Miccosukee and Seminole Indigenous peoples.
But the Trump administration has embraced its location as a selling point, as it seeks to take a hard-knuckled stance on immigration.
“There is only one road leading in, and the only way out is a one-way flight. It is isolated and surrounded by dangerous wildlife in unforgiving terrain,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
“ This is an efficient and low-cost way to help carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history.”
The Florida government has set up temporary, modular units in Ochopee, Florida, for the new detention facility [WSVN via AP]
Dressed in a baseball cap that read, “Gulf of America: Yet another Trump development”, Trump flew to Ochopee to inspect the Alligator Alcatraz facility on its opening day.
Florida officials have celebrated the fact that it took only eight days to set up the detention centre, which appears to use temporary structures on the pavement of the former airport.
Governor DeSantis, who ran against Trump in 2024 for the Republican presidential nomination, said that Alligator Alcatraz would take advantage of the adjacent airstrip to facilitate expedited deportations for migrants.
“Say they already are been ordered to be deported,” DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday.
“You drive them 2,000 feet [667 metres] to the runway. And then they’re gone. It’s a one-stop shop, and this airport that’s been here for a long time is the perfectly secure location.”
The head of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, added that the facility will be equipped to hold up to 3,000 migrants — up from an initial estimate of 1,000 — with the potential for expanding the premises.
A further 2,000 people will be held at Camp Blanding, a National Guard base on the other side of the state, in northern Florida.
A poster on display at Trump’s news conference in Ochopee also advertised 1,000 staff members on site, more than 200 security cameras and 28,000 feet — or 8,500 metres — of barbed wire.
Guthrie sought to dispel concerns that the facility might be vulnerable to natural disasters like hurricanes. The Everglades, after all, collects overflow from nearby Lake Okeechobee and drains that water into the Florida Bay, making it a region prone to natural flooding.
“As with all state correctional facilities, we have a hurricane plan,” Guthrie said, pointing to the detention centre’s “fully aluminium-frame structure”.
He said it was capable of withstanding winds up to 110 miles per hour (177 kilometres per hour), equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane.
“All in all, sir,” Guthrie told Trump, “this has been a perfect state logistics exercise for this hurricane season.”
Protesters line the roadway leading to the site known as Alligator Alcatraz on June 28 [Marco Bello/Reuters]
Still, human rights advocates and environmental groups gathered on the highway leading to Alligator Alcatraz on Tuesday to show their opposition to Trump and his deportation plans.
Protesters chanted through megaphones, “Hey hey, ho ho, Donald Trump has got to go.” Some picket signs read, “Communities not cages” and “We say no to Alligator Alcatraz!”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida released a statement prior to the facility’s opening, denouncing the Trump administration for conflating immigration with criminality.
The creation of Alligator Alcatraz, it said, was an extension of that mentality.
“The name ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ reflects an intent to treat people fleeing hardship and trying to build a better life for themselves and their families as dangerous criminals, which is both unnecessary and abusive,” the ACLU branch said.
Meanwhile, the Friends of the Everglades, an environmental group, called upon its supporters to contact Governor DeSantis to oppose the “massive detention center”. It noted that the construction of the airport itself had raised similar environmental concerns nearly 50 years earlier.
“Surrounded by Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, this land is part of one of the most fragile ecosystems in the country,” the group said in a statement.
“The message is clear: No airports. No rock mines. No prisons. Only Everglades. Let’s not repeat the mistakes of the past. This land deserves lasting protection.”
Trump, however, argued in Tuesday’s news conference that the construction mostly built upon the existing airport.
“ I don’t think you’ve done anything to the Everglades,” he said, turning to Governor DeSantis. “I think you’re just enhancing it.”
DeSantis himself brushed aside the environmental criticisms as attempts to derail the president’s deportation initiative.
“ I don’t think those are valid and even good faith criticisms because it’s not going to impact the Everglades at all,” the governor said, promising no seepage into the surrounding ecosystem.
Trump hinted that the Alligator Alcatraz site could be the first of many similar, state-led immigration detention facilities.
“ I think we’d like to see them in many states — really, many states,” he said. “At some point, they might morph into a system where you’re gonna keep it for a long time.”
Tblisi court sentences opposition figure Nika Gvaramia to eight months and bans him from holding office for two years.
A court in Georgia has sentenced prominent opposition figure Nika Gvaramia to eight months in prison, amid a deepening crackdown on critics of the ruling Georgian Dream party.
Gvaramia, the co-leader of the opposition Akhali party, was also barred from holding office for two years.
The court imposed the sentence on Tuesday over his refusal to cooperate with a parliamentary commission tasked with investigating alleged wrongdoing under ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili, a pro-Western reformer currently serving a 12-and-a-half-year prison term.
Several other leading opponents of Georgian Dream have been jailed on similar charges to Gvaramia, including Giorgi Vashadze, a former deputy justice minister, who received a seven-month prison sentence last week.
The crackdown has led to growing accusations against the governing party that it is trampling on democracy amid continuing protests in the wake of last year’s disputed elections.
Speaking to the AFP news agency on Tuesday, Gvaramia’s lawyer Dito Sadzaglishvili said the verdict against his client was “unlawful” and “part of the government’s attempt to crush all dissent in Georgia”.
Growing criticism
The British government on Monday denounced the crackdown on opposition figures and summoned the country’s charge d’affaires.
“The imprisonment of prominent opposition leaders is the latest attempt by the Georgian government to crack down on freedoms and stifle dissent,” the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office said.
“The UK Government will not hesitate to consider further action should Georgia not return to respecting and upholding democracy, freedoms and human rights,” it added.
The NGO Amnesty International also criticised the government, saying last week in reaction to Vashadze’s sentencing that it had “serious concerns over the misuse of legislative, policing and other powers to silence government critics in Georgia”.
The human rights organisation specifically took aim at the parliamentary commission linked to the arrests of opposition figures.
“With its status disputed, the commission has been instrumentalised to target former public officials for their principled opposition,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty’s deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
A police officer handcuffs politician Giorgi Vashadze in Tbilisi, Georgia, on June 24, 2025 [Mariam Nikuradze/AP Photo]
After Georgian Dream claimed victory in a contested election in October, the European Union candidate nation experienced mass protests.
Critics accuse the government of undermining democracy and of bringing the country close to Moscow, allegations the governing party denies.
The EU has said some 80 percent of the population supports Georgia’s bid to join the bloc, a commitment enshrined in its constitution.
Amid allegations of democratic backsliding, the United States and several European countries have sanctioned some Georgian government officials.
Sonia Dhamani, a fierce critic of President Kais Saied, has criticised him for practices against refugees and migrants.
A Tunisian court has sentenced Sonia Dhamani, a prominent lawyer and renowned critic of President Kais Saied, to two years in jail, lawyers have said, in a case that rights groups say marks a deepening crackdown on dissent in the North African country.
Dhamani’s lawyers withdrew from the trial after the judge refused to adjourn the session on Monday, claiming Dhamani was being tried twice for the same act.
The court sentenced Dhamani for statements criticising practices against refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa.
Lawyer Bassem Trifi said the verdict was “a grave injustice”.
“What’s happening is a farce. Sonia is being tried twice for the same statement,” said lawyer Sami Ben Ghazi, another lawyer for Dhamani.
Dhamani was arrested last year after making comments during a television appearance that questioned the government’s stance on undocumented African refugees and migrants in Tunisia.
The case was brought under the nation’s controversial cybercrime law, Decree 54, which has been widely condemned by international and local rights groups.
Most opposition leaders, some journalists, and critics of Saied have been imprisoned since Saied seized control of most powers, dissolved the elected parliament, and began ruling by decree in 2021 – moves the opposition has described as a coup.
Saied rejects the charges and says his actions are legal and aimed at ending years of chaos and rampant corruption.
Human rights groups and activists say Saied has turned Tunisia into an open-air prison and is using the judiciary and police to target his political opponents.
Saied rejects these accusations, saying he will not be a dictator and seeks to hold everyone accountable equally, regardless of their position or name.
Earlier this year, the country carried out a mass trial in which dozens of defendants were handed jail terms of up to 66 years. Critics denounced the trial as politically motivated and baseless.
The defendants faced charges including “conspiracy against state security” and “belonging to a terrorist group”, according to their lawyers.
Among those targeted were figures from what was once the biggest party, Ennahda, such as the leader and former Speaker of Parliament Rached Ghannouchi, former Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, and former Minister of Justice Noureddine Bhiri.
Tunisia had been celebrated as perhaps the only democratic success of the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolutions, with strong political engagement among its public and civil society members, who frequently took to the airwaves and streets to make their voices heard.
The years that followed the revolution, which overthrew long-time autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, saw the growth of a healthy political system with numerous elections declared free and fair by international observers.
But a weak economy and the strengthening of anti-democratic forces led to a pushback, capped off by Saied’s dismissal of the government and dissolution of parliament.
Video shows the aftermath of a deadly Israeli strike on Evin Prison in Tehran, that killed at least 71 people, including visiting women and children. The prison, known for holding political prisoners, was hit just a day before a ceasefire ended 12 days of fighting initiated by Israeli strikes.
An Israeli air attack on Tehran’s Evin Prison during this month’s 12-day war has killed at least 71 people, Iran’s judiciary says, days after a ceasefire ended hostilities between the two arch foes.
The strike on Monday, the day before the ceasefire between Israel and Iran took hold, destroyed part of the administrative building at Evin, a large, heavily fortified complex in northern Tehran that rights groups said holds political prisoners and foreign nationals.
“According to official figures, 71 people were killed in the attack on Evin Prison,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on Sunday of an attack that was part of the bombardment campaign Israel launched on June 13.
According to Jahangir, the victims at Evin included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives as well as people living nearby.
The judiciary said Evin’s medical centre and visiting rooms were targeted.
A day after the strike, the judiciary said Iran’s prison authority had transferred inmates out of Evin Prison without specifying their number or identifying them.
The inmates at Evin have included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and several French nationals and other foreigners.
Antoine Massey, 33, was captured in New Orleans after a jailbreak on May 16.Photo by Louisiana State Police
June 27 (UPI) — The second-to-last of 10 escapees from a New Orleans jailbreak last month has been recaptured after six weeks on the run, authorities said Friday.
Antoine Massey, 33, was located and arrested in a house in New Orleans on Friday night, according to the Louisiana State Police. The previous two inmates were apprehended on May 26 in Huntsville, Texas.
Officers with the NOPD, State Police, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and U.S. Marshals participated in the arrest of Massey. More than 200 law enforcement personnel participated in the manhunt since the May 16 jailbreak.
Massey was taken to a secure state correctional facility at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Agola, which is 135 miles northwest of New Orleans.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous tip from a citizen that led law enforcement to the house in the city’s Third District, according to New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.
“He peacefully gave up to law enforcement who had surrounded the house,” Kirkpatrick said during a news briefing.
The house was an Airbnb, according to Louisiana State Police Superintendent Col. Robert Hodges.
Authorities are investigating whether anyone helped him.
“It’s pretty obvious over the last six weeks, to remain a fugitive that long, he had assistance — he had help,” Hodges said at the briefing.
Earlier this month, Louisiana authorities found a video online that appeared to show Massey pleading to rappers and President Donald Trump to help him while he was still on the run.
Massey was incarcerated for domestic abuse battery involving strangulation, theft of a motor vehicle and a parole violation, state police said.
Authorities increased the reward for information leading to the arrest of Massey and Derric Groves to $50,000 per inmate last month.
Groves is last remaining escapee.
“Law enforcement personnel from various local, state, and federal agencies will continue to work around the clock to locate the one remaining fugitive,” Louisiana State police said in a news release.
Kilpatrick addressed Grove during the briefing: “We are going to capture you. You will be taken into custody. But you still have the option to peacefully turn yourself in, and we will make an appeal to you to do so.
“All of these captures have been able to be done peacefully and that is also the end of the game. We don’t want anyone hurt.”
Groves was convicted last year of two counts of second-degree murder in a 2018 Mardi Gras Day shooting. He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said.
The inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center early in the morning after climbing through a hole behind a toilet. Their disappearance was unnoticed for several hours.
“We’re installing new razor wire, tightening physical barriers, upgrading locking mechanisms,” Kilpatrick said. “These all play an important role in the safety of our residents, staff and the entire community
Three inmates were apprehended in New Orleans within the first 24 hours of the jailbreak.
Alleged accomplices, including Groves’ girlfriend Darriana Burton, inmayes and jail workers, have been arrested.
“Unfortunately, most of the news that you get in prison is bad news,” Julie Chrisley told Lara Trump in a family interview set to air Saturday on Fox News Channel. So when she got the good news, her fellow inmates didn’t immediately understand what they were seeing.
“They’re like, ‘Are you OK?’” Julie said.
In fact, she hadn’t been 100% OK when she first heard from daughter Savannah that President Trump had signed off on the creme de la creme of get-out-of-jail-free cards.
“I just busted out crying” when her daughter broke the news, Julie said. “Everyone was looking around, and then I just hung up. I was so nervous that I just hung up.”
Savannah was the one who appealed to the president to free her parents. During the Republican National Convention, she gave a speech about the “rogue prosecutors” who put her parents behind bars.
At least Julie hung up on her daughter and not POTUS. But now the folks around her were asking her if she was OK. “I’m like, ‘I am!’” she said, grasping her husband and daughter’s hands as she recalled the moment. “I’m getting out of here!”
Julie and husband Todd, the Georgia couple who gained fame through “Chrisley Knows Best,” the USA Network series that showcased their luxurious lifestyle and zany family dynamic, were back in their bleach-blond glory sitting with two of their five kids, Savannah and son Chase, on Lara Trump’s couch.
There had been no hair color for the inmates after they were sentenced to 12 years (him) and seven years (her) for tax evasion, conspiracy and wire fraud. He was sent to a federal prison in Pensacola, Fla., while she was doing time in Lexington, Ky. Probation after incarceration awaited them both. The pardons changed all that.
Todd Chrisley was a little cooler than his wife had been when the news came his way. He was walking through FPC Pensacola when someone stopped him and told him he just got pardoned.
“I said, ‘Yeah, OK’ and I just went right on walking,” apparently dismissing what he’d just heard as trash talk. He walked all the way back to his dorm, only to have a corrections officer come by soon after and ask him if he was “good.”
“I said, ‘As good as I can be,’” he told Lara Trump with a little snark in his delivery. But the CO was serious.
The officer told the reality star that he had been pardoned and that he’d been sent to check on Chrisley to make sure he was OK.
Todd recalled saying, “They don’t need to be worried about me now! If I’m pardoned, I’m great!”
The Chrisley patriarch also shared how it felt when he saw wife Julie for the first time in 28 months.
“When I hugged her the first time, it was like I was home. … We have changed,” he said. “And if we did not change in these 28 months, it would have been wasted.”
Todd gave it up to the Almighty as well. “God touched President Trump’s heart,” he said. “God led the people to advocate for us. And so I’m grateful, because every night I would pray that God would return me home to my children. And he did that, so I’m grateful.”
Both Chrisleys have said they intend to advocate in the future for prisoners who are still behind bars.
“My View With Lara Trump,” which includes her full interview with Todd, Julie, Savannah and Chase Chrisley, airs Saturday at 6 p.m. local time (9 p.m. Eastern) on Fox News Channel.
Grigory Skvortsov, who denies wrongdoing in sharing details of the bunkers, will serve his sentence in a maximum-security prison.
A Russian court has found a photographer guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years for allegedly sharing information about Soviet-era underground bunkers with an American journalist.
The court in the western city of Perm sentenced Grigory Skvortsov on Thursday after a closed-door trial, without giving more details on the charges. Skvortsov, who was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023, has denied any wrongdoing.
The court said Skvortsov would serve his sentence in a maximum-security corrective prison camp.
It also published a photograph of him in a glass courtroom cage dressed in black as he listened to the verdict being read out.
In a December 2024 interview with Pervy Otdel, a group of exiled Russian lawyers, Skvortsov said he had passed on information that was either publicly available online or available to buy from the Russian author of a book about Soviet-era underground facilities for use in the event of a nuclear war.
Skvortsov did not name the US journalist he was working with in the interview with Pervy Otdel.
Since its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022, Russia has radically expanded its definition of what constitutes state secrets and has jailed academics, scientists and journalists it deems to have contravened the new rules.
Skvortsov, who specialises in architecture photography, has also spoken out publicly against Moscow’s military offensive on Ukraine. He has alleged that Federal Security Service (FSB) officers beat him during his arrest in November 2023 and said they tried to force him under duress to admit guilt to treason.
An online support group for Skvortsov said on Telegram after the verdict that “a miracle had not happened” and the photographer’s only hope of getting out of jail was to be exchanged as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights organisation Memorial has listed Skvortsov as among those subjected to criminal prosecution that is likely “politically motivated and marked by serious legal violations”.
Earlier this year, a Russian court sentenced four journalists to five and a half years in prison each after convicting them of “extremism” linked to their alleged work with an organisation founded by the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
WASHINGTON — A close ally of fugitive Jalisco New Generation boss known as “El Mencho” for years orchestrated a prolific drug trafficking operation, using a semi-submersible and other methods to avoid detection, and provided weapons to one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels, prosecutors say.
On Friday, José González Valencia was sentenced in Washington’s federal court to 30 years in a U.S. prison following his 2017 arrest at a beach resort in Brazil while vacationing with his family under a fake name.
González Valencia, 49, known as “Chepa,” along with his two brothers, led a group called “Los Cuinis” that financed the drug trafficking operations of Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG — the violent cartel recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. His brother-in-law is CJNG leader Nemesio Rubén “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, whom for years has been sought by the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, El Mencho’s son-in-law, Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa, appeared in the same courtroom earlier Friday to plead guilty in a separate case to a money laundering conspiracy charge. Gutiérrez Ochoa was arrested toward the end of the Biden administration last year in California, where authorities have said he was living under a bogus name after faking his own death and fleeing Mexico.
Together, the prosecutions reflect the U.S. government’s efforts to weaken the brutal CJNG cartel that’s responsible for importing staggering amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the U.S. — and track down its elusive leader. The Trump administration has sought to turn up the pressure on CJNG and other cartels with the foreign terrorist organization designation, which gives authorities new tools to prosecute those associated with cartels.
“You can’t totally prosecute your way out of the cartel problem, but you can make an actual impact by letting people know that we’re going to be enforcing this and showing that Mexico is being cooperative with us and then ultimately trying to get high-level targets to sort of set the organization back,” Matthew Galeotti, who lead the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Trump’s Justice Department has declared dismantling CJNG and other cartels a top priority, and Galetotti said the U.S. in recent months has seen increased cooperation from Mexican officials. In February, Mexico sent 29 cartel figures — including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985 — to the U.S. for prosecution.
The Trump administration has already charged a handful of defendants with terrorism offenses since designating CJNG and seven other Latin American crime organizations as foreign terrorist organizations in February. Galeotti said several additional indictments related to CJNG and other cartels remain under seal.
“We are taking a division-wide approach to this,” Galeotti said. “We’ve got money laundering prosecutors who are not just focused on the cartels themselves … but also on financial facilitators. So when we’re taking this broad approach … that’s why I think we’ve had some of the really significant cases that we’ve had, and we’ve seen a very significant pipeline.”
González Valencia pleaded guilty to international cocaine trafficking in 2022. Authorities say he went into hiding in Bolivia in 2015 after leading Los Cuinis alongside his brothers for more than a decade. He was arrested in 2017 under the first Trump administration after traveling to Brazil, and was later extradited to the U.S.
Los Cuinis used “air, land, sea, and under-the-sea methods” to smuggle drugs bound for the U.S., prosecutors say. In one instance, authorities say González Valencia invested in a shipment of 4,000 kilograms of cocaine that was packed in a semi-submersible vessel to travel from Colombia to Guatemala. Other methods employed by Los Cuinis include hiding drugs in frozen shark carcasses, prosecutors say. He’s also accused of directing the killing of a rival.
He appeared in court wearing an orange jumpsuit and listened to the hearing through an interpreter over headphones. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sealed part of the hearing, keeping the press and public out of the courtroom while lawyers argued over the sentence. It was not clear why the judge determined it had to be sealed. González Valencia’s lawyer declined to comment after the hearing.
In the other case, Gutiérrez Ochoa was wanted in Mexico on allegations that he kidnapped two Mexican Navy members in 2021 in the hopes of securing the release of El Mencho’s wife after she had been arrested by Mexican authorities, prosecutors have said. Authorities have said he faked his own death and fled to the U.S. to avoid Mexican authorities, and El Mencho told associates that he killed Gutiérrez Ochoa for lying.
El Mencho’s son, Rubén Oseguera — known as “El Menchito” — was sentenced in March to life in prison after his conviction in Washington’s federal court of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy.
Emmerdale fans think a reunion for Aaron Dingle and Robert Sugden is on the cards after tonight’s episode – as they spotted a huge hint the two could be rekindling their love
20:30, 19 Jun 2025Updated 20:53, 19 Jun 2025
Emmerdale fans think they’ve spotted a major clue Rob and Aaron will rekindle their love
It was another dramatic night in Emmerdale tonight, as Robert Sugden made his long awaited return to the village. Of course, he had to make a visit to see his ex Aaron and his brother John – and one huge clue has fans believing a Robron reunion is finally on its way.
Aaron and John were seen having a romantic night in, when they heard a knock at the door. To their surprise, it was none other than Aaron’s ex and John’s brother, Robert at the door. Having just been released from prison, Robert smugly asked the pair if he could join their night.
“This your gaffe? A bit pokey compared to where we used to live,” he continued, before Aaron asked: “What are you doing here?”
Robert paid a surprise visit to Aaron and John(Image: ITV)
Rob then told the pair he had just been released from prison, before saying: “Thought I’d spend some time with my family.” However, a less than impressed Aaron stood up and responded: “Well not here you’re not, get out.”
Robert didn’t put up a fight to stay, although he told Aaron he’d be seeing him soon. With a huge pause, he then ended the sentence by saying: “Family” and looking John straight in the eye.
However, it was Aaron’s face fans couldn’t look away from as they noticed a smirk when his ex-lover walked into the room. Despite pretending in front of husband John he wanted Robert gone, he wasn’t fooling fans.
Viewers noticed a smirk on Aaron’s face when Robert entered – as they think the pair will rekindle(Image: ITV)
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, one fan said: “The way Aaron smirked when Robert walked through the door. Oh John you’re so done!”
A second commented: “The way both Aaron and John know they’re done for now, and both in completely different ways. “Aaron because he knows him and Rob are inevitable and John because he knows Robert will absolutely destroy him.”
Others were certain Rob would be the one to bring John down “I love Rob. he is going to taunt the hell out of John #emmerdale.”
Aaron and Robert recently shared a kiss during his wedding to John. Viewers recently saw John spiralling when he found out, making a dark threat to Robert suggesting he would hurt him if he went back to the village.
The men provided financial assistance to al-Shabab fighters who attacked the DusitD2 complex in Nairobi, killing 21 people.
A Kenyan court has sentenced two men to 30 years in prison for aiding al-Shabab fighters who were behind a deadly attack in Nairobi that left 21 people dead in 2019.
On Thursday, Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache ruled that Hussein Mohammed Abdile and Mohamed Abdi Ali played a critical role by helping two of the attackers escape from a refugee camp using fake identity cards. The pair also provided financial assistance to the group.
“Without financiers, facilitators and sympathisers, terrorists cannot actualise their activities,” the judge said during sentencing, stressing that their support made the attack possible.
“The convicts may not have physically wielded the weapons that caused harm to the victims, but their facilitation directly enabled attackers who were heavily armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests,” Kavedza said.
“This was not a crime with isolated harm; 21 lives were lost,” she added, acknowledging statements from survivors about their ongoing psychological struggles.
“The emotional scars of the attack run deep,” she said.
Abdile and Ali were convicted last month for facilitating and conspiring to commit a “terrorist” act. Both men denied the charges and now have 14 days to appeal.
Background to attacks
The assault on the upmarket DusitD2 complex in the Kenyan capital began on January 15, 2019, when gunmen stormed the compound and opened fire.
Security forces launched an operation that lasted more than 12 hours. The government later announced that all the attackers had been killed.
Al-Shabab, an armed group linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility, saying the assault was in retaliation for then-United States President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The siege was the first major attack in Nairobi since the 2013 Westgate mall massacre, which killed 67. In 2015, al-Shabab also attacked Garissa University, killing 148 people.
Since Westgate, high-end venues in the capital have ramped up security, including vehicle and pedestrian checks.
The DusitD2 complex, like Westgate, catered to wealthy Kenyans and foreign nationals, groups often targeted by al-Shabab.
The Somalia-based group has repeatedly struck inside Kenya, aiming to force the withdrawal of Kenyan troops from Somalia, where they are part of a regional force battling the rebellion.
June 19 (UPI) — The owner of a Chicago laboratory was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a $14 million scheme of falsifying COVID-19 test results.
Zishan, Alvi, 46 of Inverness, Ill., was sentenced Wednesday for the scheme and was ordered to pay $14 million in illegitimate taxpayer-backed payments.
The fraud involved releasing negative test results to patients, even when the laboratory had not conducted the tests, or the results had been diluted by Alvi to save on costs.
U.S. District Judge John Tharp sentenced Alvi and called his actions “fraud on a massive scale,” and said how it also put the public in unsafe circumstances when they were seeking reassurance through testing.
“People were scrambling to get tested for COVID because they didn’t want to imperil the safety and health of the people they cared about,” Tharp said.
“A negative test was like a passport, ‘You know, I tested negative. I can go see my grandma, I can go see my children with their newborn baby.’ These were people who depended on that report to govern what they could safely do and not do.”
Alvi knew the laboratory was faking results, but Alvi still reported it back to the Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, prosecutors said.
Alvi stood at the lectern before he was sentenced and told the judge how he was “filled with remorse and a deep sense of regret” for his “selfish decisions.”
“I should never have put profits ahead of the job we intended to do for the public,” Alvi said, as several relatives wiped tears from their eyes in the courtroom gallery. “I should have put the people first.”
NEW YORK — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez arrived at a federal prison on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. The New Jersey Democrat has been mocked for the crimes as “Gold Bar Bob,” according to his own lawyer.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Menendez was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill in Minersville, Pa. The facility has a medium-security prison and a minimum-security prison camp. Given the white-collar nature of his crimes, it’s likely he’ll end up in the camp.
The prison is about 118 miles west of New York City. It’s home to about 1,200 inmates, including ex-New York City organized crime boss James Coonan and former gas station owner Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, whom the New York Post dubbed “Gas-Station Gotti” for his ruthless, violent ways.
Menendez, 71, maintains his innocence. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected his last-ditch effort to remain free on bail while he fights to get his bribery conviction overturned. A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his bail motion.
Pleading for leniency, Menendez told a judge at his sentencing in January: “I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions. I’ve done far more good than bad.”
Menendez has also appeared to be angling for a pardon from President Trump, aligning himself with the Republican’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City.
“This process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system,” Menendez told reporters after his January sentencing.
In X posts that were made on Tuesday and later deleted, Menendez criticized prosecutors as politically motivated and opposed to his foreign policy views, and praised Trump for “rising above the law fare.”
Menendez resigned last year after he was convicted of selling his clout for bribes. FBI agents found $480,000 in cash in his home, some of it stuffed inside boots and jacket pockets, along with gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Menendez performed corrupt favors for New Jersey business owners, including protecting them from criminal investigations, helping in business deals with foreign powers and meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials before helping Egypt access $300 million in U.S. military aid.
Menendez, who once chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned a month after his conviction. He had been in the Senate since 2006.
Two business owners were also convicted last year along with Menendez.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, was convicted in April of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes from the business owners. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
At his sentencing, Menendez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants emerged from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream” — rising from mayor of Union City, N.J., to decades in Congress — before his conviction “rendered him a national punchline.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” defense lawyer Adam Fee told the judge.
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. AP reporter Michael Catalini in Trenton, N.J., contributed to this report.
The former Japanese interpreter for Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani surrendered to a federal prison in Pennsylvania on Monday, beginning a nearly five-year prison sentence for bank and tax fraud after he stole nearly $17 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers player.
Ippei Mizuhara, 40, was processed at a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pa., his attorney Michael Freedman confirmed. The facility is about 125 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
Mizuhara was sentenced in federal court in Santa Ana in February to four years and nine months for bank and tax fraud. He was also ordered to pay $18 million in restitution, with nearly $17 million going to Ohtani and the remainder to the IRS. He was sentenced to three years’ supervised release on top of the prison sentence.
Authorities said Mizuhara began accessing Ohtani’s account beginning in 2021 and changed its security protocols so he could impersonate Ohtani to authorize wire transfers. He has admitted to using the money to cover his growing gambling bets and debts with an illegal bookmaker, in addition to purchasing $325,000 worth of baseball cards and paying his own dental bills.
He was a close friend and confidant to Ohtani, standing by his side for many of his career highlights, from serving as his catcher during the Home Run Derby at the 2021 All-Star Game, to being there for his two American League MVP wins and his record-shattering $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers.
Ohtani made his highly anticipated pitching debut Monday night for the Dodgers, nearly two years after having elbow surgery.
An attorney for R. Kelly is painting a picture of corruption and deceit among the ranks of the federal Bureau of Prison’s staff and inmates, alleging there is a target on his client’s back that can be removed only if the disgraced R&B singer is sent home.
Beau Brindley is asking that Kelly be placed in temporary home confinement while serving his decades-long sex trafficking sentences. He alleges that a trio of prison officials plotted to have the singer killed by a terminally ill member of the Aryan Brotherhood who — except for a brief stint when he escaped from prison — has been in federal custody since 1982.
An emergency motion for that temporary furlough was filed Tuesday in federal court, and documents were obtained and reviewed by The Times.
In addition to detailing the supposed murder plot, the motion alleges that Kelly’s private communications while in custody were “stolen” from him by people working with various prosecutors who took the information and used it against the singer at trial. One witness never intended to testify against Kelly, the motion says, until she was approached by one of the people who allegedly stole those communications.
The motion alleges that three prison officials, including a warden and an assistant warden, conspired to have Kelly killed by another inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine. Stine, a self-proclaimed “Commissioner” of the Aryan Brotherhood who joined the racist gang in prison, said in a declaration that an official who was not one of the wardens had previously directed him to order multiple “assaults, beatings, and killings of inmates.” That official approached him in February 2023 about ending Kelly’s life.
Stine said he first met that official during the 13 years he spent at a federal Supermax prison in Colorado, and that the alleged victims were targeted because they had been making things rough for the BOP. Stine said he had “ordered multiple assaults and murders” at the official’s requestand at various federal prisons, and he participated in some of the attacks himself.
The official told him in 2023 that there was a high-profile inmate in North Carolina “whose high-priced lawyers are going to expose a bunch of damaging information that will harm other Bureau of Prisons officers and higher-ups” and that he wanted Stine “to help to eliminate the problem,” according to Stine.
After asking Stine if he knew who R. Kelly was, the declaration said, the official told him “that Kelly is a rapist. He told me Kelly raped little white girls. He told me Kelly was scum. And he told me that Kelly was someone the A.B. would want gone. It is R. Kelly who poses the threat to the BOP.”
Stine said he was transferred to North Carolina in October 2023. He was in the medical unit from then until March 2025 when he finally wound up in Kelly’s unit, the court document said.
Stine, who says he has terminal cancer, said he was told that once he got into Kelly’s unit he should “execute” the singer. He said he was told he would be charged for the murder, but that evidence would be “mishandled” and he wouldn’t be convicted. Then, Stine said, he would be “permitted to escape” while in transit, as he had done when he escaped previously, and could live out his final months as a “free man.” Stine said he agreed to the deal but changed his mind after keeping an eye on Kelly for a few weeks.
Instead of killing the singer, Stine said in his May 19 declaration, “I told him the truth. I told him that I had been sent to kill him. I told him how and by who. And I told him his life was absolutely in danger.”
Stine said that a prison execution was nothing new for him, but killing Kelly “to hide misconduct by [Bureau of Prisons] officers and government officials is something that should not happen. … And it is going to happen to him if no one takes action.” He stated that time was “of the essence.”
Kelly’s attorney, Brindley, said in his motion that his client’s “continued incarceration while he knows his life is in jeopardy constitutes cruel and unusual punishment,” a violation of his constitutional rights. The attorney said Kelly has already been attacked in prison by others.
In his motion, Brindley accused the U.S. Attorney’s Office of knowingly conspiring to use information protected by attorney-client privilege, including information procured from one of Kelly’s cellmates. That cellmate provided a declaration stating he had stolen privileged legal documents and delivered them to a BOP investigator who copied them and sent them for use by prosecutors in both of Kelly’s trials.
“This conspiracy involved the Bureau of Prisons and was apparently orchestrated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” the motion says. “There is no room left to speculate about some way that the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not know about the corrupt conduct of these cooperating persons.”
According to the motion, Kelly got a call from a prison official in North Carolina, who warned him that the government knew his attorneys had been meeting with the cellmate who provided the declaration.
“The official then advised Mr. Kelly that he was in danger and that Mr. Kelly needed to be careful. The BOP official intimated that Mr. Kelly was not safe in Bureau of Prisons custody,” the motion says. “The BOP official further advised that Mr. Kelly should avoid the mess hall.”
The motion alleges that Kelly was already attacked by another inmate who, after the fact, wrote a letter saying had put him up to it. It says Stine approached Kelly and came clean about the alleged murder plot on April 11.
“On June 6, 2025, the defense learned that a second member of the Aryan Brotherhood, who is housed at FCI Butner, had just been approached by [a BOP official] and directed to carry out the execution of Mr. Kelly and Mr. Stine,” the motion states. Methods of murder that were discussed allegedly included mixing poison into the food at the chow hall and in the commissary.
“Time is now of the essence,” Brindley wrote. “It is with these breathtaking facts in mind that Mr. Kelly asks this Court for an extraordinary legal remedy: his release from Bureau of Prisons custody.”
Admitting that Kelly was asking for an “extraordinary” remedy to his problem, the attorney cited the allegations in his motion and offered a sweeping indictment of the federal prison system.
“The circumstances set forth above are as extraordinary as they are terrifying,” Brindley wrote. “Incarcerated persons have no redress for protection outside of the guards that are hired to keep them safe. When the hierarchy under which those guards work has sanctioned and ordered an inmate’s execution, then there is no safety for that inmate.
“The declaration of Mr. Stine shows that inmate murder at the behest of prison officials is neither new nor uncommon. It happens regularly and without consequence. Hence, the threat to Mr. Kelly’s life continues each day that no action is taken.”
McALESTER, Okla. — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday whose transfer to state custody was expedited by the Trump administration.
John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., prison officials said. Hanson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.
“Peace to everyone,” Hanson said while strapped to a gurney inside the prison’s death chamber.
The execution began at 10:01 a.m. After the lethal drugs began to flow, a doctor entered the death chamber at 10:06 a.m. and declared him unconscious.
Hanson, whose name in some federal court records is George John Hanson, had been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Louisiana for several unrelated federal convictions. Federal officials transferred him to Oklahoma’s custody in March to follow through on President Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.
Hanson’s attorneys argued in a last-minute appeal that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month, claiming that one of the board members who denied him clemency was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County district attorney’s office when Hanson was prosecuted. A district court judge this week issued a temporary stay halting the execution, but that was later vacated.
Prosecutors alleged Hanson and accomplice Victor Miller kidnapped Mary Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall. Prosecutors alleged the pair drove Bowles to a gravel pit near Owasso, where Miller shot and killed property owner Jerald Thurman. The two then drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson shot and killed Bowles, according to prosecutors. Miller received a no-parole life prison sentence for his role.
Thurman’s son, Jacob Thurman, witnessed Thursday’s execution and said it was the culmination of “the longest nightmare of our lives.”
“All families lose in this situation,” he said. “No one’s a winner.”
Bowles’ niece, Sara Mooney, expressed frustration that the litigation over Hanson’s death sentence dragged on for decades, calling it an “expensive and ridiculous exercise.”
“Capital punishment is not an effective form of justice when it takes 26 years,” she said.
During last month’s clemency hearing, Hanson expressed remorse for his involvement in the crimes and apologized to the victims’ families.
“I’m not an evil person,” Hanson said via a video link from the prison. “I was caught in a situation I couldn’t control. I can’t change the past, but I would if I could.”
Hanson’s attorneys acknowledged that he participated in the kidnapping and carjacking, but said there was no definitive evidence that he shot and killed Bowles. They painted Hanson as a troubled youth with autism who was controlled and manipulated by the domineering Miller.
Both Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Gentner Drummond and his predecessor, John O’Connor, had sought Hanson’s transfer during President Biden’s administration, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied it, saying the transfer was not in the public interest.
The ruling makes her subject to arrest and bars her from running in upcoming Buenos Aires legislative elections.
Argentina’s Supreme Court has upheld a six-year prison sentence on corruption charges for former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
The ruling on Tuesday, which permanently bars the divisive 72-year-old from public office and makes her subject to arrest, prompted crowds of her supporters to block the streets of Buenos Aires in protest.
The left-wing former president denounced the ruling, claiming the court’s judges were acting in the service of the economically powerful.
“They’re three puppets answering to those ruling far above them,” she told supporters outside her party’s headquarters in Buenos Aires, in an apparent reference to the government of her rival, President Javier Milei.
“It’s the concentrated economic power of Argentina’s government.”
The ruling was welcomed by Milei, a libertarian fiercely opposed to Fernandez de Kirchner’s brand of high-spending politics, which critics blamed for years of economic volatility and soaring inflation.
“Justice. End,” he wrote on X.
‘Abundance of evidence’
Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president in 2007 and remained in power until 2015, had been found guilty by a federal court in 2022 of having directed irregular state public works contracts to a friend during her and her husband’s years in power.
She claimed the conviction was politically motivated and appealed to the Supreme Court.
But the judges rejected Fernandez de Kirchner’s appeal, writing in a resolution that her sentence did “nothing more than … protect our republican and democratic system”, The Associated Press news agency reported.
“The sentences handed down by the previous courts were based on the abundance of evidence produced,” the judges wrote, according to the AFP news agency.
The ruling makes her conviction and appeal definitive, and likely draws a line under her lengthy political career, just days after she launched her campaign for the Buenos Aires legislative elections in September.
The former president has five days to turn herself in to authorities, although her lawyer has requested she be able to serve her sentence under house arrest due to her age, the AP reported.
The threat of arrest mobilised the former president’s supporters around her. Daniel Dragoni, a councillor from Buenos Aires, told AFP he was “destroyed” by the ruling but promised that her left-wing political movement would “return, as always”.
But historian Sergio Berensztein told AFP he believed the calls for her release would be short-lived and have limited effect.
AS Andrew Drury made his way through a Syrian camp looking for notorious ISIS bride Shamima Begum, his mind began to race.
Although the intrepid filmmaker had been in far more perilous situations – his nerves started to get the better of him.
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Andrew Drury with Jihadi bride Shamima BegumCredit: Supplied
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The filmmaker said his view of Begum changed as he got to know herCredit: Supplied
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The Al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria where Begum livesCredit: AFP
But when he was introduced to Begum – who left the UK aged 15 to join ISIS a decade ago in 2015 – he was taken aback.
“She was very shaky, very nervous, very shut, emotional, tearful,” Andrew told The Sun.
Father-of-four Andrew met Begum, who grew up in East London, for the first of six times at the Al-Roj campinSyria in June 2021 while filming for a documentary, Danger Zone.
In less than two years his view of Begum – accused of serving in the feared IS “morality police” and helping make suicide vests – completely changed, however.
He saw a colder side when she talked about how the death of her three children no longer upset her and even expressed support of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi.
Extreme adventurer Andrew, who has made treacherous journeys to North Korea and Iraq, said at first Begum was a “thin, ill-looking, sad character” who was “very apologetic”.
“We took a long walk around the camp, She started to relax, and she said she used to take this regular walk right around the perimeter of the camp to clear her head,” he said.
“After the interview finished, we walked back to the room. Normally she’d go off to a tent, but she wanted to come back to the room to get a cold drink.
“Then I didn’t want to insult her at that point, I wanted to say goodbye – I thought I’d never see her again.
How Shamima Begum camps are fermenting twisted next generation of ISIS as kids make ‘cutthroat’ gesture & hurl firebombs
“I said, ‘Can I shake your hand?’ and she asked for a hug.
“So she gave me a hug and started to cry.”
Andrew, from Surrey, said he felt they had formed a connection and believed she regretted turning her back on Western society to join the murderous death cult.
“At that point I kind of believed that she was sincere,” he said.
I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it
Andrew Drury
“I kind of felt sorry for her. I thought at that point she’d been radicalised online, sent out as a prescribed bridge to somebody.
“She said she’d made a real bad mistake and really regretted what she’d done.
“She owned up to being this person that everybody hates in the UK.
“And I felt sorry for her, I’ve got young daughters, not a lot of difference in age, so I thought people do make mistakes, and I should give her a chance.”
Andrew – whose book Trip Hazard details his experience in dangerous areas – returned to the camp months later after GMB asked for his help to get an interview with Begum.
The author, who has exchanged hundreds of messages with Begum, said he noticed a “subtle change” in the former Brit.
Begum, who was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019, appeared to have undergone a more “Western” makeover – ditching her hijab and abaya.
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Andrew secured the Bafta-nominated live interview with Begum for Good Morning BritainCredit: Alamy
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Begum, then 19, pictured in 2019Credit: Times Media Ltd
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The former Brit at the camp in 2021Credit: Getty
“She had changed as a character,” Andrew said.
“She was more short. She wasn’t this nervous-cry sort of character.
“She looked assured, and she didn’t seem such a waif character, and she seemed to be in control of herself and her emotions.”
Andrew told how Begum spent the night before the live interview “rehearsing” with three of her friends In the camp, which is controlled by armed guards.
He added: “Her friends said they’d had their music playing and they were tutoring Shamima what to say.
“They seemed pretty together about what she should say, and they were schooling her.”
Begum married an IS fighter soon after arriving in Syria and went on to have three children, none of whom survived.
Andrew – who said he had formed a “bond” with Begum – told how after the interview, Shamima opened her purse and showed him photos of her children.
The tragic loss of his own brother Robert as a child made him sympathise with Shamima’s plight.
“One of them was a scene where the child must have been eight, nine months old, had chocolate around his face,” he recalled.
“I said, ‘What’s that?’ and she said, ‘Oh we used to like baking cakes’.
“And it actually makes me quite sad. It was really quite sad knowing the child had died.
“She made it sound like an honour that she had shared these pictures with me, which I guess it probably was, because she hadn’t shared them before she said.”
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But it was Begum’s attitude after Andrew returned to the UK that shocked him – and began to shatter their relationship.
“I said to her, ‘Those pictures you showed me really upset me, I hope you’re okay’,” he said.
“She messaged back and said, ‘Oh, they don’t bother me anymore. That doesn’t make me sad’.
“I thought, was that because she’s been traumatised so badly?
“But I think she is that hard. I think she’s calculated.
“I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it.”
After meeting Andrew a couple of times, Begum started asking him to bring stuff into the camp for her – including clothes.
The dad said he felt “at a crossroads” about whether to take what she wanted.
“I felt bad and guilty that I’d be taking somebody that carried out what could have been some atrocities, clothes,” he said.
“But then, probably on the soft side of me, and the fact is, she was a young girl, so I was playing with these emotions, but I took her the clothes from Primark.
“We had a bundle of stuff, we took some toys for the children because it’s not their fault.”
But then Begum’s requests started turning into demands, Andrew said.
“The messages continued,” he added.
Camps breeding next ISIS generation
Exclusive by Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor and Alan Duncan
A CHILD no older than eight draws his hand across his neck in a chilling throat-slitting gesture – the message is clear, “You are not welcome here”.
Other kids hurl stones, shout and scream – while one exasperated camp official shows us CCTV of two youngsters hurling a firebomb.
Welcome to camps al-Hol and al-Roj in northern Syria – the fates of which remain uncertain after the fall of tyrant Bashar al-Assad.
It is warned these stark detention centres are now the breeding ground for the next generation of the bloodthirsty cult.
And much of this new wave of radicalisation is feared to be coming from the mothers inside the camps.
Senior camp official Rashid Omer said: “The reality is – they are not changing. This is not a normal camp – this a bomb.”
He went on: “They are saying it was ISIS who ‘liberated’ Damascus – and soon they will be coming here.”
“And then they want to spread to Europe, to Africa, and then to everywhere.”
The two sprawling sites hold a total of nearly 60,000 including ISIS fighters, families and children.
At least 6,000 Westerners are still held among them – including infamous jihadi bride Shamima Begum, the 25-year-old from London.
“This time they became slightly more angry, slightly more direct.”
Before he planned to return to Syria again, Begum told him she wanted two books – Guantanamo Bay Diaries and Sea Prayer – which is inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis.
Andrew said she was also being schooled by her lawyer about her media presence.
He added: “What she declared by then is that she was hostage in a prison camp – where they were legally held.
“That’s how she started to see herself. All apologies had gone.
“She’d done a documentary with the BBC and was on the front of The Times magazine.
“She’d become a celebrity and was loving all the attention. She’d read all the newspaper articles.”
Andrew – who returned to the camp with a friend and no crew – took some clothes for Begum with him.
I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive
Andrew Drury
But it was his decision not to take the books she had demanded that revealed her true colours.
“I did go back again, but my feelings were already changing towards her,” Andrew said.
“It was a little boy’s birthday, and I felt so sorry for him.
“He wanted a Superman outfit, so I would have gone just for that, because I spend a lot of time in refugee camps. It’s not fair for these kids.
“I didn’t take the books Shamima wanted because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want her to have that opportunity to what I saw as studying how to be a victim.
“She opened the clothes, said she didn’t like them. I mean, this is a girl in a prison camp.
“She said, ‘I didn’t really care about the clothes, it was the books I wanted’. So she became quite aggressive in her nature.”
Who is Shamima Begum?
ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, was stripped of her British citizenship on February 20, 2019.
Begum’s attitude then worsened when Andrew became interested in another girl’s story.
It was one of the final nails in the coffin in the bond Andrew believed they had initially formed.
“Shamima had a tantrum that the attention had been taken away from her,” he said.
“She was like a child that was pretending they were ill.
“So during this period of time I was beginning to feel like the connection was gone.
“It was broken, and I was beginning not to like her.
“I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive.
“I had found out from other girls what she was accused of, and they told me the same thing that I had heard before, like sewing suicide vests
“Things were ringing in my head like she said early on that the Manchester bombing was legitimate because of what happened in Iraq and Syria.
“So I didn’t trust her.”
Andrew’s last contact with Begum was around two years ago in a fiery text exchange.
She accused Andrew of “selling her out”, to which he shot back: “You’ve sold your country out.”
Begum last year lost her final appeal challenging the removal of her British citizenship.
She can now no longer fight to overturn the revocation of her citizenship within the UK legal system.
Andrew said: “I think she’s a danger for what she stood for, and I don’t think she could ever come back.
“I think she needs to go on trial in Syria for the crimes she committed against the Syrian people.”
June 7 (UPI) — A former Arkansas police chief who escaped from a prison 12 days ago was apprehended about a mile and half from where he was incarcerated in northwest Arkansas.
Grant Hardin, known as the “Devil in the Ozarks,” was caught around 3 p.m. local time Friday by Arkansas law enforcement officers and the U.S. Border Patrol, according to Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Hardin, 56, was an inmate at the North Central Unit in Calico Rock in Izard County for murder and rape. Calico Rock is 126 miles north of Little Rock.
Tracking dogs picked up Hardin’s scent west of the prison near Moccasin Creek in Izard County, the state agency said.
Hardin was brought back to the North Central Unit where he was identified using his fingerprint and for a physical exam before he was moved to the Varner SuperMax Unit in Gould, Arkansas, Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion told CNN.
After a dayslong manhunt that crossed several states, Champion said Hardin would be interviewed to learn more about his escape and nearly two weeks on the run.
“This was a great joint operation by a number of agencies, and I’m so thankful for their tireless efforts,” Dexter Payne, director of the Division of Correction in Arkansas’ Department of Corrections, said in an agency press release. “The Arkansas State Police, U.S. Marshals, FBI, Border Patrol, Game and Fish, all the state and local agencies, along with the dedication of our Department employees, all played an indispensable role and I express my extreme gratitude.”
Hardin escaped from the prison at approximately 2:55 p.m. on May 25. The agency said he “was wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” when he escaped, but was not wearing an actual guard uniform and all DOC-issued equipment was accounted for.
Hardin is the former chief of police for the city of Gateway in Benton County, which had a population of 444 people in 2023. He also was a police officer, county constable and corrections officer. Gateway, which is near the Missouri border, is 129 miles west of Calico Rock.
Since 2017, he was in the North Central Unit serving a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder, and 25 years for each rape count.
He pleaded guilty to the murder of James Appleton, 59, a city water employee found shot in the face inside his work truck in October 2017, KNWA reported.
Hardin’s DNA linked him to the 1997 rape of a teacher, the TV station reported. Amy Harrison, a teacher at Frank Tillery Elementary in Rogers, was ambushed while preparing lesson plans at the school when she was ambushed and assaulted by a man with a gun.
“He’s a sociopath,” former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith told Arkansas ABC affiliate KHBS/KHOG. “Prison’s not full of people who are all bad. It’s full of a lot of people who just do bad things. Grant’s different.”
The FBI offered a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to his arrest.
“Arkansans can breathe a sigh of relief because violent criminal Grant Hardin is now in custody,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted on X. “I am grateful for all law enforcement who contributed to his capture and give special thanks to the Trump administration and Secretary Kristi Noem, who sent a team from Border Patrol that was instrumental in tracking and apprehending Hardin.”
Former Washington, D.C. Police Intelligence Chief Lt. Shane Lamond got 18 months in a federal prison Friday for obstructing an investigation by lying regarding contact he had with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio (pictured, 2020). Tarrio had called for Lamond to be pardoned by President Donald Trump. File Photo by Gamal Diab/EPA-EFE
June 6 (UPI) — Former Washington, D.C., Police Intelligence Chief Lt. Shane Lamond got 18 months in a federal prison Friday for obstructing an investigation by lying regarding contact he had with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.
Lamond leaked information to Tarrio that he was being investigated and then lied about doing that, according to prosecutors.
Lamond was convicted of one count of obstructing justice and three counts of making false statements to federal law enforcement.
Judge Amy B. Jackson said Lamond showed no real contrition for his actions.
“The entire attitude throughout has been, ‘How dare they bring these charges!,” Jackson said.
Lamond attorney Mark Schamel urged Judge Jackson to not incarcerate Lamond. He told the judge he fundamentally disagrees with her about the facts in the case.
He said Lamond’s destroyed police career should be enough punishment.
The investigation into Lamond’s communication with Tarrio revealed hundreds of message exchanges that included encrypted Telegram messages.
Lamond contended they were intended to gather intelligence on extremist groups.
Tarrio was pardoned for his federal conviction by President Donald Trump, who also pardoned hundreds of other people convicted in connection with the violent pro-Trump attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021.
Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, but Trump freed him with a presidential pardon.
Tarrio testified for Lamond and urged Trump to pardon the D.C. police officer.
When Lamond was convicted in December 2024, U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said in a statement, “As proven at trial, Lamond turned his job on its head-providing confidential information to a source, rather than getting information from him-lied about the conduct, and obstructed an investigation into the source.”
