News 06/03/26

A van driver has been jailed for eight years after crashing into gates near a London university campus and killing a student.

Christopher Jackson, who is twenty seven and from Southampton, had previously admitted causing the death of Aalia Mahomed by dangerous driving on the eighteenth of March last year. The Old Bailey heard that the twenty year old student had been sitting on a bench close to King’s College London’s campus on The Strand at the time of the crash. She was in the second year of a physics and philosophy degree when she was struck and killed.

The BBC says it regrets what it calls a serious mistake during its broadcast of the BAFTAs.

The corporation’s outgoing director general Tim Davie made the comment after a racial slur was heard during the programme. During the ceremony on the twenty second of February, actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award on stage when the slur was shouted by Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson, who had been invited to celebrate a film about his life. The BBC failed to remove the moment from the broadcast and it remained visible to viewers on BBC iPlayer for more than twelve hours before the programme was taken down.

Around fifty Israeli fighter jets have carried out strikes on an underground bunker built for Iran’s supreme leader, according to the Israeli Defence Forces.

The military says the operation took place in central Tehran this morning and targeted a bunker beneath the Iranian regime’s leadership compound. Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the initial United States and Israeli strikes last Saturday. The IDF says Khamenei was eliminated before he could use the bunker during Operation Roaring Lion, but the compound continued to be used by senior Iranian regime officials. The military says the latest strike was directed at the underground facility used within the leadership compound.

A man who killed his former partner’s sister and her three children in a house fire has been sentenced to life in prison.

Sharaz Ali, who is forty, has been given a whole life order, meaning he will never be released. He was found guilty in December of murdering Bryonie Gawith, who was twenty nine, along with her three children. They were Denisty Birtle, aged nine, Oscar Birtle, aged five, and Aubree Birtle, who was twenty two months old. The murders happened on the twenty first of August twenty twenty four.

Police have condemned what they describe as abhorrent misinformation shared online following the death of a man in Slough.

Thames Valley Police says officers were called to St Paul’s Avenue by South Central Ambulance Service on Thursday night. The force has confirmed that a man died and a file is now being prepared for the coroner. Officers say they are aware of reports circulating online claiming a murder investigation has been launched. Police say those claims are incorrect.

Four men with links to Iran have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police as part of a counter terrorism investigation into suspected spying.

Officers say the men were detained shortly after one oclock this morning at addresses in Barnet in north London and in Watford. Police say they are suspected of assisting a foreign intelligence service connected to Iran. Investigators also say the case relates to suspected surveillance of locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community in the London area. Detectives say enquiries are continuing as officers work to establish the full circumstances around the suspected activity and the possible intelligence links involved.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy says the war involving Iran could continue for a number of days yet.

He says the war aims belong to the United States and Israel, who began the offensive action, and Britain is not part of those objectives. Speaking to Sky News, he said the UK response is defensive and focused on supporting allies, British soldiers and people across the region during the conflict.

FBI documents linked to sexual abuse allegations involving Donald Trump have been posted online by the US justice department after being missing from the first release of files connected to Jeffrey Epstein.

American media, including NBC News, had reported the absence of the material. Officials say the files were wrongly labelled as duplicative in a spreadsheet, meaning they were not visible to the public. The documents include summaries and notes from three FBI interviews with a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and abused by the now president.

Donald Trump says Iran has lost everything and insists a ground invasion is not needed now, calling such a move a waste of time.

As the conflict enters its seventh day, he told NBC News that remarks from Irans foreign minister about being ready for a ground invasion were a wasted comment. He says the US has massive ammunition available.

A flight chartered by the government to bring back some Britons stranded in the Middle East has arrived in the UK.

The aircraft had been due to leave Muscat in Oman on Wednesday but was delayed by technical issues. It eventually departed almost twenty four hours late on Thursday night local time and landed at Stansted Airport early Friday morning.

A woman who woke to find a man sexually assaulting her in a hotel bed says she was failed by Travelodge after staff gave him a key card and her room number.

Kyran Smith had been at the same party during a night out in December 2022 before people returned to rooms at the Maidenhead hotel. He was later jailed.

No UK government ministers or officials will attend the Winter Paralympics opening or closing ceremonies after Russian and Belarusian athletes were invited to compete under their national flags.

Six athletes from Russia and four from Belarus will represent their countries rather than competing as neutrals, as they did at the recent Winter Olympics. The IPC lifted a partial ban previously.