World News
About 1,700 policemen under probe for sexual assault on colleagues
British Metropolitan Police will institute an investigative team to probe a total of 1,633 sex offences and domestic abuse cases involving 1,071 officers in the last 10 years.
The decision to probe the cases emerged after it was discovered that officer David Carrick, turned out to be a serial rapist.
Reports on Monday said that Carrick pleaded guilty to dozens of rape charges as he used dating sites like Badoo and Tinder to meet his victims.
The cases are now subject to urgent scrutiny after it emerged the 48-year-old Carrick was allowed to remain in the Met despite being accused of rape, assault, harassment, domestic abuse and burglary.
The force said Monday that the allegations range from arguments to rape – and many of those involved continue to serve without restrictions and without being charged or subject to a misconduct hearing in each of the cases.
End Violence Against Women Coalition director Andrea Simon said: “This is an institution in crisis. That Carrick’s horrific pattern of egregious behaviour was known to the Met and they failed to take appropriate action demonstrates just how broken the systems which are supposed to keep the public safe from perpetrators of rape and abuse are.
“This case is a horrendous example of police failures and their complete lack of oversight and accountability. The police are clearly incapable of identifying perpetrators in their midst, even when they exhibit textbook patterns of predatory behaviour.”
The cases are understood to include that of a serving Police Constable previously accused of a sexual assault who was last year held on suspicion of groping a female colleague in a police station.
The officer, in his 40s, was released under investigation after he was arrested in June when the woman reported being grabbed while on duty.
A woman also accused him of sexual assault in 2011, the Met said, but the Serious Crime Directorate found the case “failed to meet the evidential threshold”.
The cases are endless in the system and should be addressed as they are already getting out of hand.
Concerns have also been raised nationally about how forces deal with allegations of domestic abuse.
Michael Parker, a North Yorkshire Police officer, was jailed last October for five years for subjecting a colleague he was in a relationship with to controlling or coercive behaviour.
The report showed that a total of 1,080 out of 1,319 police and staff reported for the offence in a three-year period were still working.
Only 36, or 2.7%, were sacked, while 203 resigned or left the police.
And the findings came after a report last year found hundreds of Met officers have been getting away with law-breaking and misconduct.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has said he believes hundreds of corrupt officers are serving within the Met and should be sacked.
Culled from News Express
Volodymyr Zelensky, on Monday, expressed his readiness for a face-to-face meeting with Vladmir Putting, after a devastating overnight Russian blitzkrieg from Russian forces, which hit Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, setting fire on Dormition Cathedral, one of the iconic Orthodox monasteries in the country.
Reports, about the incident, narrated how residents, scampered in different directions as they sought safety from the projectiles intercepted in the sky and glowing debris falling across the city, with Zelensky, for the umpteenth times calling on world leaders to mount more pressure on Moscow from G7 summit in France.
As onslaught, said to have killed five people and wounded 34, following the outbreak of the fire on the grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a UNESCO world heritage site, Zelensky, reportedly told US President Donald Trump he was willing to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the United States.
Quoted as calling it an offer Putin would find “harder to refuse,” the Ukrainian leader, reportedly, said on his social media handles: “This is one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date.
Denying a direct attack on the iconic monument, founded in the 11th century, with huge significance for Orthodox believers in both Ukraine and Russia, Russia’s military said it only carried out a “massive strike” on military sites in Kyiv, as well as the Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, saying the facility was hit by an outdated US Patriot air defence missile.
But Zelensky, who visited the site said two Russian drones “deliberately” targeted Kyiv’s monastery quarter in the attack where Moscow was said to have fired 70 missiles and 611 drones, mainly targeting the capital, Ukraine’s air force said, adding that it had downed 50 of the missiles and 582 drones.
Makariy, a resident monk in the monastery, quoted as saying that he jumped from his bed after having been woken by a strong roar at five in the morning, was reported to have added that after stepping out of his room, he saw the complex engulfed in “fire and smoke” and took cover in a shelter.
Kyiv’s Metropolitan Epiphanius, heading the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who joined the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO in condemning the attack, said to have killed 11 people, including four in Kyiv and five — rescue workers and a civil servant — in the northeastern city of Kharkiv was quoted to have said: “What more must the Kremlin antichrist do for the world to realise that decisive action must be taken to stop Russian terror against Ukraine and against the very principles of peace?”
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike also killed three people and wounded three others in the city of Tula, around 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Moscow, the regional governor Dmitry Milyaev said on Monday.
Zelensky said he was waiting to see what came of his proposal to meet Putin in the US, warning that if Russia again refuses talks, “additional pressure will be needed.”
Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for a face-to-face meeting, including a fresh invitation from Zelensky to meet during the G7 summit.
Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has turned into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, with thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops killed.
As the near-daily pummelling of its cities by Russian drones and missiles continues, Ukraine has in recent weeks stepped up its own aerial attacks, which it says mostly target Russia’s oil infrastructure to sap its profits that fund the war.
Journalists and other guests, were forced to dock under their tables, fended by security operatives after sounds of gunshots were heard within the precinct of the venue where Donald Trump, President of the United States was hosting media personalities to a dinner on Saturday.
The POTUS and his wife Melania, were declared unhurt after the incident, in which one person was arrested and taken away and is said to be currently in custordy, as a result.
The incident took place at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday night, with the United States Secret Service confirming that a suspect was been taken into custody, adding that investigations were ongoing in collaboration with local law enforcement.
The shooting occurred near the main security screening area at the event venue, the Washington Hilton, where hundreds of journalists, politicians, and guests had gathered, reports say, quoting the statement as saying: “The President and first lady are safe along with all protectees.”
The report maintained that the condition of those involved in the incident was still being assessed, while witnesses said they heard what sounded like gunshots shortly after 8:30 p.m., triggering panic as attendees fled the ballroom.
Security operatives were seen swiftly evacuating top officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance and members of the cabinet with a video footage from the scene showing Secret Service agents clearing the stage and ushering the President and other dignitaries to safety, while voices were heard urging people to “stay down.”
Trump, who spoke shortly after the incident, praised security agencies for their swift response, saying via a post on social media: “Secret Service and law enforcement did a fantastic job. They acted quickly and bravely. The shooter has been apprehended.”
He added that while he initially suggested the event continue, final decisions would be made by security authorities, noting that the evening’s programme had been significantly disrupted.
Organisers later confirmed that the president would address the press, with plans to possibly reschedule the event within 30 days.
The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is an annual gathering that brings together journalists, political leaders, and public figures, and is often seen as a key moment celebrating press freedom in the United States.
With the announcement of a $10million bounty on the head of Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new Supreme Leader, The United States, appears to be showing no let in its campaign in the Middle East country, where it had already killed scores of its previous leaders.
“These individuals command and direct various elements of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which plans, organizes and executes terrorism around the world,” the State Department said, to indicate Washington’s preparedness to pay $10 million reward for information about the whereabouts of Khamenei, whose father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the campaign a fortnight ago.
The department’s Rewards for Justice Programme (RFJP) placed a bounty on 10 of Iran’s most senior remaining leaders, including Khamenei and Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and the country’s top security official, said to lead the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused of planning, organising and executing terrorism around the world.
The RFJP has previously offered bounties for terrorists like former al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, as well as Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who was the subject of a $10 million reward under the programme until he was removed in 2024.
Five of the people designated on Friday are listed by their titles with no name or photograph, including “secretary of the defense council” and “the IRGC commander.”
The United States and Israel have killed many of Iran’s top leaders, including former IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the former supreme leader and Mojtaba’s father.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of the country’s Supreme National Security Council, who had also appeared in a live interview with Iranian media during the march, had posted a video of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian walking in Tehran on Friday for the country’s annual Quds Day demonstrations against Israel.
Taunting U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s claim that Iranian leaders were hiding undergroundm, he wrote: “Mr. Hegseth, our leaders have been, and still are, among the people. But your leaders? On Epstein’s island!”
Earlier Donald Trump, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News in an interview that aired Friday morning to underscore his belief that Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he was elevated to supreme leader, was wounded, said: “I think he’s damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form,”
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