Author: Morgan

A senior national security prosecutor in the eastern district of Virginia said in a farewell note taped to his door to colleagues on Friday that he was apparently fired this week because a January 6 conspiracy theorist denounced him on social media for having worked for the deputy attorney general in the Biden administration.

The veteran federal prosecutor, Michael Ben’Ary, was fired on Wednesday, the same day that Julie Kelly, a pro-Trump commentator who once called a Capitol police officer beaten by the pro-Trump mob on January 6 a “crisis actor”, suggested on social media that Ben’Ary was an ally of his former boss, Lisa Monaco, a senior justice department official who helped drive the investigation of Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol riot.

“It appears that my termination was based on little more than a single social media post containing false information,” Ben’Ary wrote. “The leadership is more concerned with punishing the President’s perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security.”

“I am troubled that I was removed so abruptly in the middle of important work,” Ben’Ary wrote, making specific mention of his role in the prosecution of a suspected member of the Islamic State’s Afghan branch for planning the deadly suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate entrance to the Kabul airport during the US withdrawal in 2021 which killed 13 American service members and scores of Afghan civilians.

When charges against the suspected orchestrator of the attack were announced in March by Erik Siebert, then interim US attorney, the two assistant US attorneys named to lead the prosecution were Ben’Ary and Troy Edwards. All three career prosecutors are now gone for political reasons.

Siebert was forced out by Donald Trump for declining to bring charges against James Comey, citing a lack of evidence that the former FBI director committed any crime. Edwards, a national security prosecutor and Comey’s son-in-law, resigned after the former Trump aide installed to take Siebert’s place brought charges against Comey anyway. On Wednesday, Ben’Ary was informed in writing that he had been terminated with immediate effect, shortly after Kelly made a conspiratorial post about him.

“Justice for Americans killed and injured by our enemies should not be contingent on what someone in the Department of Justice sees in their social media feed that day,” Ben’Ary wrote.

In January, the day after Trump returned to office and pardoned all of the Capitol rioters, including those who had attacked police officers, Charlie Kirk revealed on his podcast that Kelly had helped him convince Trump to issue those pardons in a phone call days before Trump’s second inaugural.

A British teenager who was jailed in Dubai for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl has died in a car crash three months after he was released, a campaign group has said.

Marcus Fakana, 19, died in hospital in the early hours of Friday after police tried to stop a vehicle at 12.52am in Tottenham, north London.

The Metropolitan police said its officers were attempting to stop a “vehicle of interest” on Pretoria Road, and after a short pursuit, police temporarily lost sight of it.

Officers then drove on to the Roundway and found the vehicle had been involved in a collision with another vehicle.

Fakana, who was 18 at the time of the relationship, received a royal pardon from Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in July after being sentenced to one year in prison.

Radha Sterling, the chief executive of campaign group Detained in Dubai, said she was “heartbroken” to share the news.

She told the PA news agency: “Marcus spent the majority of this year in a Dubai prison which no doubt caused him long lasting mental anguish.

“It’s sad that of all of 2025, he was only free for the three months from the 3rd of July until the 3rd of October.”

Fakana had been with his parents in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the end of August 2024 when a “holiday romance blossomed” with another Londoner, who has since turned 18, Detained in Dubai previously said.

After returning to the UK and seeing pictures and messages, the girl’s mother reported the relationship to Dubai police, who then arrested Fakana at his hotel, it was alleged.

In Dubai, if an adult has a sexual relationship with a person under 18, they can be prosecuted for having a sexual relationship with a minor.

The Metropolitan police said its officers provided “immediate first aid” at the scene before paramedics arrived.

“The passenger, a man aged 19, had significant injuries,” the force said.

“He was taken to hospital where, despite the best efforts of emergency services and medical staff, he died a short time later. His next of kin have been informed.

“The driver, a man also aged 19, was arrested after the collision on suspicion of failure to stop and dangerous driving. He remains in police custody.”

Sterling added: “[Fakana’s] loss is a painful reminder of how precious life is and how unnecessary imprisonment robs people of time they can never regain.

“Every day of freedom matters.”

A man has died and a fresh weather warning covers the whole of the UK as Storm Amy continues to bring widespread disruption.

Irish police said the man died in a “weather-related” incident in the Letterkenny area of County Donegal, Ireland, shortly after 4.15pm on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Met Office has released a yellow weather warning for wind covering the whole of the UK.

Storm Amy is expected to cause more issues for Scotland on Saturday after travel disruption, power cuts and floods.

The north of Scotland will face a new amber warning for “damaging” winds with gusts of more than 90mph in some areas.

Most of Scotland, apart from the east coast, will be covered by a yellow warning for rain while a yellow wind alert will be in place across the UK.

Further travel disruption is likely to follow after several flights, rail and ferry services were cancelled.

A building collapsed in Glasgow on Friday, falling on to a car, and leading to road closures in the city centre.

Power cuts were also reported in the Highlands and a number of islands – the areas facing some of the worst weather.

Fraser Wilson, from the Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, spoke on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme, where he said the network was working to restore power on Saturday morning.

He said that 100mph winds had affected power, and while some people had their power restored there were still thousands without.

He said: “Work will continue this morning to get 62,000 people reconnected. We expect, because of the extent of damage to the network and conditions we are still going to be facing today, that this will take some time, this storm is not over by any means.”

Road closures also affected drivers and the Forth Road Bridge was shut to all traffic.

The Tay Road Bridge reopened early on Saturday with a 30mph speed restriction but remained closed to high-sided vehicles, as were the Skye Bridge, Queensferry Crossing and Clackmannanshire Bridge.

CalMac Ferries said it expected many services to be disrupted over the weekend , with many routes cancelled.

The Scottish government urged people to delay travel if they could and to check ahead if heading out.

On Sunday, the north, north-east, Orkney and Shetlands islands will also continue to fall under a yellow warning for wind until 9am that morning.

Mark Ilderton, ScotRail’s service delivery director, said there would be “considerable disruption” to train services on Saturday.

He said: “We’re sorry to customers who have been impacted by the disruption caused by Storm Amy.

“Network Rail and ScotRail teams will work flat out to recover services as quickly as possible, but considerable disruption will continue through Saturday morning.

“We’re advising customers to check their journey before they travel via the ScotRail website, mobile app, or social media feeds.”

Network Rail said the storm had had a greater impact than predicted.

The transport organisation said: “Storm Amy has hit parts of the country much harder and more quickly than expected.

“We have experienced over 60 incidents on the network during the first two hours of the storm, with flooding, trees falling on to the overhead lines and debris on the tracks.

“The safety of passengers and colleagues is priority, which is why all services to and from Glasgow Central have been suspended at this time.

“We have crews out surveying damage where it is safe to do so and we will do our best to clear lines overnight, but we do expect some disruption tomorrow morning.

“We apologise to people who were wishing to travel tonight and now need to make alternative arrangements.”

The Met Office chief forecaster, Neil Armstrong, said: “Storm Amy will be an impactful autumn storm for many in Scotland and Northern Ireland, though impacts will also spread to north-west England and Wales, as well as a more widespread windy period for the rest of the UK.

“Within the amber warning areas, damaging gusts of around 100mph are possible for a time on Friday evening for parts of western Scotland, especially Skye, Tiree, Barra and western Lochaber.

“This could lead to significant disruption, and brings the risk of power cuts and damage to buildings and trees.

“Elsewhere, gusts of 60 to 80mph are expected more widely in the amber warning areas, and slightly lower figures for those covered by yellow warnings.

“Rainfall is an additional hazard, in particular over western Scotland, where totals could exceed 30 to 50mm in six to nine hours, increasing the risk of flooding for some.

“A number of warnings have been issued covering the rainfall risk for the coming days.”

Japan is about to get its first female prime minister, after Sanae Takaichi was elected as leader of the governing Liberal Democratic party (LDP) – a victory that should see her installed as the country’s new leader in the middle of the month.

Takaichi, a rightwinger who has voiced admiration for Margaret Thatcher in her quest to build a “strong and prosperous” Japan on the international stage, beat her moderate rival, Shinjiro Koizumi, in a runoff election at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo on Saturday.

The election for party president was held after the outgoing prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, announced his resignation after just a year in office. Ishiba, a moderate whose election last year had angered the right of his party, said it was time to find a successor to lead a “new LDP”.

Takaichi, 64, inherits a party that has endured two bruising elections in the past year as voters punished it over a funding scandal and its failure to address the cost-of-living crisis.

“Recently, I have heard harsh voices from across the country saying we don’t know what the LDP stands for any more,” Takaichi said moments before the runoff vote. “That sense of urgency drove me. I wanted to turn people’s anxieties about their daily lives and the future into hope.”

As expected, Takaichi won the first round of voting, securing of 183 of 589 votes, with Koizumi in second place with 164 votes. Three other candidates were knocked out of the contest. The runoff, in which MPs’ votes were given greater weight than those of rank-and-file party members, theoretically favoured Koizumi, who was said to be more popular among lawmakers. But it was Takaichi who emerged the winner after the second, decisive round of voting.

Although the LDP-led coalition no longer holds a majority of seats in parliament, Takaichi is widely expected to be approved as prime minister when MPs vote in the middle of the month.

To deny her the prime ministership, opposition parties would have to unite behind their own candidate – a scenario observers agree is unthinkable.

Her immediate task will be to unite her party and win back public support after more than a year of scandal and poor election results.

She will also have to address public concern over migration and mass tourism, and try to win over younger voters who turned to populist minor parties such as Sanseito in this summer’s upper house elections. Japan should “reconsider policies that allow in people with completely different cultures and backgrounds”, Takaichi said during the campaign.

It is impossible to understate the symbolism of Takaichi’s victory in a country that has few female politicians and business leaders, and consistently ranks poorly in global gender gap comparisons. She has, though, opposed policies that many voters believe would advance the cause of gender equality, such as allowing women to become reigning empresses and married couples to use separate surnames.

Saturday’s vote had been described by analysts as a battle for the future of the LDP, which has governed Japan almost uninterrupted for the past seven decades. Its electoral dominance has been badly shaken, however, by a long-running scandal involving dozens of MPs who were found to have siphoned unreported profits from the sale of tickets to party gatherings into slush funds.

Takaichi, a foreign policy hawk, will also face a volatile security environment in east Asia, including the rise of a loose anti-western alliance comprising China, Russia and North Korea, and the redrawing of economic ties with the US under Donald Trump, who will reportedly visit Japan towards the end of the month.

Each of the LDP’s 295 lawmakers cast a vote in the first round of Saturday’s vote, with an equal number of votes distributed based on the preferences of just over 1 million grassroots members who had already cast their votes.

After none of the candidates secured an overall majority in the first round, Takaichi and Koizumi went head to head, with each of the LDP’s 295 lawmakers getting one vote and the membership’s share dropping to 47 votes, one for each of Japan’s prefectures.

Andrew Hastie has ruled out an imminent challenge to Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Liberal party after dramatically quitting the shadow cabinet.

But the former solider has vowed to keep publicly prosecuting his Australia-first agenda from the backbench, maintaining pressure on Ley as she attempts to unite her fractured party.

Hastie resigned from the frontbench on Friday over a split with Ley on immigration policy, following a series of provocative policy interventions that tested the opposition leader’s authority and raised speculation the former solider was preparing a tilt at the top job.

The West Australian MP claimed Ley made clear in a “charter letter” issued on Tuesday that the shadow home affairs minister would not be responsible for developing the party’s immigration platform, which he said made his position untenable given his outspoken stance on the issue.

Ley last week challenged Hastie’s suggestion that the rate of net overseas migration was making Australians “feel like strangers in our own home”, highlighting a split on the contentious policy.

“I was the senior lead for the portfolio, immigration is a core responsibility of home affairs, and so when it was made clear that I wouldn’t have any leadership in that role, I thought it was time for me to depart because essentially, I want to be able to speak about immigration, which I think is a critical issue for a lot of Australians at the moment,” Hastie told reporters in Perth on Saturday.

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In a statement late on Friday, Ley said Hastie did not raise specific policy positions when he phoned her earlier that day to tender his resignation but confirmed he could not adhere to the principle of shadow cabinet solidarity, which requires frontbenchers to support agreed positions.

The Coalition does not have a formal immigration policy but it does believe the government’s permanent migration cap for 2025-2026 – set at 185,000 places, the same as the past financial year – is too high.

The shift to the backbench will give Hastie total freedom to prosecute his nationalist agenda on immigration, energy and domestic manufacturing, creating a contrast with Ley and heightening expectations of a future leadership bid.

Hastie had already threatened to quit the frontbench if the party recommitted to net zero by 2050.

The 43-year-old said he retainsed an ambition to one day lead the Liberal party, but he was not positioning himself to challenge Ley. The former Special Air Service soldier did not contest the post-election leadership ballot, citing the need to spend time with his wife and three young children.

“There’s no challenge to Sussan – I support Sussan,” Hastie said on Saturday. His decision to quit the shadow cabinet would give Ley “clear air” to develop an agenda to fight the next election due in 2028, he said.

The decision forces Ley into a second frontbench shuffle in four weeks after she sacked Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in the fallout from her comments on Indian migration.

Hastie’s personal crusades have split the Liberal party as it wrestles with its future direction after consecutive election defeats.

On Saturday, Hastie rebuked party elder Arthur Sinodinos after he criticised MPs for focusing on “culture wars” rather than “bread and butter issues”.

“I think his framing is out of touch,” Hastie said. “And I just don’t think he’s out there in the community – he’s not listening.”

Hastie said the Coalition could win the next federal election and rejected suggestions his agenda would not resonate in the former Liberal heartland seats now held by teal independents.

“I just don’t think the Australian people are ideological,” he said.

“And if we just write off the teals as being deeply ideological and opposed to the Liberal party, we’re never going to win them back. So every seat in this country is winnable. If you come up with a good platform, you build a big tent and and you develop a vision for this country.”

The Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson will temporarily return to the shadow home affairs portfolio after filling that role under Peter Dutton.

Paterson – a friend and factional ally of Hastie – said his colleague’s decision was “honourable” given he could not adhere to shadow cabinet solidarity.

He said while the public debate about the party’s future direction was understandable given the scale of the May election defeat, it “can’t go on forever”.

“If we’re still doing this in a year or two’s time, as we get to the back end of the term, I think that will be to our political detriment,” he said.

Munich airport was forced to halt operations for the second day in a row on Friday over drone sightings, with dozens of flights and more than 6,000 passengers affected.

Airports in Denmark, Norway and Poland have recently suspended flights due to unidentified drones, while Romania and Estonia have pointed the finger at Russia, which has brushed off the allegations.

Munich airport said in a statement that on Friday “from 9.30pm air traffic was restricted and then cancelled due to drone sightings”, meaning 23 incoming flights were diverted and 12 bound for Munich were cancelled.

Forty-six departures from the airport had to be cancelled or delayed until Saturday, with a total of 6,500 passengers affected.

A police spokesman told AFP that there were “two simultaneous confirmed drone sightings by police patrols just before 11pm around the north and south runways”.

“The drones immediately moved away, before they could be identified,” he added.

“As on the previous night, the airport, in collaboration with the airlines, promptly provided supplies for passengers in the terminals. Camp beds were set up, along with blankets, drinks, and snacks,” the airport said.

The airport expects service to be resumed as normal at 5am on Saturday.

The initial disruption on Thursday caused more than 30 flights to be cancelled there and left nearly 3,000 passengers stranded.

The first incident began at 8.30pm local time on Thursday when police say drones were spotted in areas close to the airport, including the towns of Freising and Erding.

Erding plays host to an airfield used by the German military. The Bild newspaper said some of the drones were spotted flying over the facility, although police could not confirm this.

The first drones near the airport perimeter were seen at about 9.05pm on Thursday, and then over the airport complex about an hour later.

The sightings ended about midnight, but not before causing the closure of both runways.

Police helicopters were deployed but “no information is available on the type and number of drones”, police said.

Earlier on Friday the German interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said the first night’s incident was a “wake-up call” on the threat from drones.

“The race between the threat from drones and the defence against drones is becoming more and more difficult,” he told Bild, adding that “more financing and research” on the issue was urgently needed at the national and European levels.

The disruptions came as the country celebrated German Unity Day on Friday – a national holiday – and as Munich geared up for the final weekend of Oktoberfest, which draws hundreds of thousands of people to the city every day.

The annual beer gala and funfair had already closed for half a day on Wednesday after a bomb scare.

The German government is expected on Wednesday to sign off on plans for a change in the law to let the army shoot drones down if necessary.

The Bavarian state premier, Markus Söder, told Bild that “we must be able to shoot [drones] down immediately instead of waiting”, and said that the police should also have the power to do so.

The drone sightings in Denmark and high-profile aerial incursions in Estonia and Poland have heightened fears that Russia’s assault on Ukraine could spill over Europe’s borders.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned Europe on Thursday that the recent drone incursions showed Moscow was looking to “escalate” its aggression.

Germany is on high alert, saying a swarm of them had flown over the country last week, including over military and industrial sites.

Denmark also raised the alarm, with the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, reiterating last week that only one country “poses a threat to Europe’s security – and that’s Russia”.

Moscow said it “firmly rejects” any suggestion of involvement, with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, accusing Europe of stoking “hysteria” to justify rising military spending.

Emergency services are working to recover the bodies of two women who died in the Victorian high country.

The bodies of the women were found by hikers near a remote hut at Nelse, about 400km north-east of Melbourne, on Friday afternoon. Their deaths are not considered to be suspicious, police said.

Police were first called after two hikers found the bodies near Cleve Cole hut about 12.50pm.

“Uniform officers, along with the search and rescue squad and air wing, responded and made their way to the isolated scene,” Victorian police said in a statement late on Friday.

“At this stage the identity of the women is not known but it appears the pair, believed aged in their 20s or 30s, may have been in the area to hike and camp.

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“Police are appealing for information from the public to assist in identifying those involved as we are not aware of any current missing person reports.”

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Due to the conditions and isolated location, police camped at the scene on Friday night. Emergency services were expected to recover the bodies of the women from Mount Bogong on Saturday.

Police are expected to provide an update on the deaths on Saturday afternoon.

Tasmanian police also conducted a major extraction operation on Friday, after the death of a woman in a rafting trip on the Franklin River.

In a statement, Tasmanian police said search and rescue teams completed an operation to rescue 11 people stranded deep in the Tasmanian world heritage wilderness area.

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“Tasmania police search and rescue officers, helicopter resources and Ambulance Tasmania wilderness paramedics were involved in the treatment and retrieval of the group on Friday, near the Livingston Rivulet and the Coruscades rapid on the Franklin River.

“With permission from her family, sadly Tasmania police can today confirm a 49-year-old woman from southern Tasmania drowned on Thursday afternoon.

“Initial investigations indicate her raft flipped, and she was caught in rapids.”

No other members of the group – which included the woman’s partner – suffered serious physical injuries, police said.

Investigations are continuing but it is believed the group of friends were from Tasmania and interstate and had experience in the outdoors.

A white Kansas sheriff’s deputy charged with murder in the death of an incarcerated Black person shoved his knee into the cuffed man’s back for 1 minute and 26 seconds after he was wheeled back to his cell from the infirmary, newly released court records show.

Richard Fatherly was charged last month with second-degree murder and an alternative count of involuntary manslaughter in Charles Adair’s 5 July death in the Wyandotte county detention center in Kansas City, Kansas. Adair had been arrested one day before his death on misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on multiple traffic violations.

“The newly released affidavit confirms that Charles Adair was handcuffed, lying on his stomach with a severely injured leg, and posed no threat when a deputy pressed a knee into his back, resulting in his death,” Ben Crump, an attorney who is representing the family, said in a news release on Friday.

Fatherly has received a summons calling for him to appear in court next month but has not been booked into jail. His attorney has said he acted reasonably and will pursue an acquittal.

At the time, Adair’s leg needed to be amputated and was so badly infected that he was taken straight to the hospital, a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent wrote in the affidavit. The court records were released this week following a request from the Associated Press and other news outlets.

Before Adair was cleared to return to the jail, he was diagnosed with a type of bone infection that sometimes develops in people with diabetes. A medical screening also found he was schizophrenic, the affidavit said.

After having his leg rewrapped the following evening, he got into an argument with the deputy who was returning him to his cell. Adair ultimately threw himself out of the wheelchair, the affidavit said.

During interviews, several deputies described Adair as incoherent. One believed the infection from his leg was affecting his brain, the affidavit said.

Adair was handcuffed with his arms in front. Once he was back in his cell, he was placed on his stomach on the bottom bunk, with his legs and knees on the ground. He could be heard yelling “Help!” repeatedly, the affidavit said.

Fatherly then appeared on video, telling him, “You’re done” as he placed his left knee on the lower part of Adair’s back. Adair responded with “OK” and pushed his arms forward. Just as Adair ceased moving, Fatherly shifted his weight forward, appearing to apply more weight on Adair’s lower back, the affidavit said.

The autopsy listed Adair’s manner of death as homicide, and his cause of death as complications from “mechanical asphyxia”, a condition in which breathing is obstructed.

The sheriff’s office has declined a records request from the Associated Press seeking the body camera video that state investigators reviewed. Crump and another civil rights attorney, Harry Daniels, were allowed to view the video and have demanded that it be released publicly.

They also raised questions about why Fatherly remains free while Adair was jailed over traffic violations. “Because of the color of your skin, a traffic violation should not equal a death sentence,” Crump said at the news conference last week.

Fatherly’s attorney, James Spies, said last month that Adair’s death was “a tragic accident” but was not a result of Fatherly’s actions.