chilling

HAMAS does not believe in peace and still poses a chilling threat to the West, analysts have warned.

The terror group signed up to Trump’s peace plan which says it must disarm, but has not specifically pledged to do so – and experts have taken this as a bad omen.

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A ceasefire officially came into force on Friday – clearing the way for the first phase of Donald Trump’s sweeping peace plan to return the hostages and demilitarise Gaza.

The US announced it would deploy up to 200 troops to Israel to help support peacekeeping efforts in Gaza.

However, signs of trouble are already brewing after a Hamas official rejected the idea of Tony Blair running the strip – one of Trump’s cornerstone measures.

Egyptian-born scholar Dalia Ziada said the much-heralded Gaza ceasefire could prove a deadly illusion.

Ziada, who defied her country’s consensus by backing Israel and was forced to flee after death threats, told The Sun: “Part of me is very happy because finally this brutal war is coming to an end.

“The hostages will be returned. The people in Gaza will be relieved from the horrors of the war.

“Hamas is obviously defeated to the point that they had to finally accept a ceasefire deal.”

But she praised Washington’s muscular return to Middle East power politics: “I am excited to see the United States coming back to the Middle East with its heavy weight and being involved on that level as a partner.”

Ziada’s optimism about a deal stops there, however – warning that the world is underestimating the nature of the enemy.

“This deal is being made with a terrorist organisation, Hamas,” she said.

“Hamas adopts the jihad ideology, violent resistance ideology. They do not believe in peace.”

Even the language, she noted, betrays Hamas’s intent.

“Actually, what they believe in is Hudna. Hudna is truce,” Ziada explained.

“It’s mainly: ‘Let’s take a break so we can rearm, regroup and come back and kill you again’.”

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, an experienced war journalist and researcher, agrees that Hamas will “absolutely not” honour disarmament.

He pointed to their reluctance throughout negotiations to relinquish weapons – and emphasised they have agreed to “freeze their activity and take a break” rather than “give this up for good”.

Abdul-Hussain believes the ceasefire will hold for a while, but not forever.

He ominously warned: “It [fighting] will come back. We just don’t know when.”

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Ziada argues that Hamas only accepted Trump’s ceasefire plan because they ran out of options.

She said: “Actually, it’s the last card in Hamas’ hands. The last card in Hamas’ hands was hostages. And that’s why they did everything they can to avoid giving away this card.

“But now Hamas has no other option but to accept, especially after President Trump’s very clear and very direct threatening to them that in case they do not agree, there will be total obliteration.”

But the deal is being struck with “Hamas leaders in suits” in Doha, not the hardened fighters still embedded in Gaza.

That split could prove explosive.

Ziada warned: “I don’t expect that the militia on the ground will be very cooperative.

“We started to see the first sign of this lack of cooperation from the very confused reports coming out of Hamas.”

‘Heavyweight murderers’ loose on the streets

While the remaining Hamas leaders have decided to make enough of the right noises to satisfy the peace deal conditions, they have had no contact with the prisoners who are to be released from Israeli jails.

As part of the deal, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners – who likely harbour a severe grudge against Israel and the West.

Richard Pater, CEO of the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM), said: “250 heavyweight murderers, Palestinian terrorists, are being released,

“They’re not being released back into the West Bank and they’ll never be allowed to enter Israel – but some of them are going to be moved to Gaza.”

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He said it is a major concern that one of the released convicts will become the new Yahya Sinwar – the terrorist mastermind of October 7.

Sinwar was himself released in a similar prisoner exchange.

Pater fears this deal is “kicking the can down the road”, because “there will be the motivation and the ability of these hardened terrorist leaders to potentially rebuild”.

‘Zero trust’

Asked whether she believed Hamas would stick to the deal, Ziada was brutally clear: “There are no guarantees. First of all, I have zero faith or zero trust in Hamas.

“One hundred per cent. I mean, zero, zero trust in Hamas.”

Even with heavyweights like Egypt, Qatar and Turkey leaning on Hamas to comply, she believes this first stage — halting fighting and releasing hostages — will be the easy part.

The rest of Trump’s 20-point peace plan will be far harder.

She said: “This is, by the way, the easiest step because this is mainly about stop the war, release the hostages, exchange prisoners. That’s it.

“The most difficult part is the other 19 points on the plan.”

Pater warned “there are 101 problems that can still occur” throughout stages two and three of the peace plan – when Hamas is supposed to disarm and the IDF eventually withdraw entirely.

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‘They will never disarm’

If anyone imagines Hamas laying down its weapons, Ziada said, they are deluding themselves.

“At this moment Hamas did not say very clearly that they will disarm,” she said.

“They will not disarm under any condition or any pressure. I cannot even picture it like Hamas going and handing their weapons because this means their end.”

Even a temporary pause in violence could serve to revive Hamas’s jihadist ambitions.

“Hamas was drained in the past month to the extent that they started to reach out to the camps of the people displaced inside Gaza and recruit teenagers,” Ziada revealed.

“This will once again revive Hamas appetite to go back to this jihadist struggle.”

And Hamas has already signalled its intent.

Ziada said: “Only days ago in the anniversary of October 7, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued a celebratory statement wherein they said, ‘we will continue our Jihad, we will continue our violent resistance’.”

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The terror within

Ziada’s most chilling warning, however, goes far beyond Gaza.

She said the threat has now metastasised into Western societies themselves.

“People are so focused on Gaza like we are all zooming in into Gaza, but we fail to see the consequences of what the past two years has done to our world,” she said.

“The threat to the UK is coming from inside the UK. The threat to the US security is coming from inside the US.

“The attack on the West will continue — the attack on Western values and Western principles and Western way of life will continue in different forms, either by violence or even through nonviolent means as we see in political arenas.”

Abdul-Hussain reminded us that violent Islamist attacks predate October 7, and similarly warned that threat is not going away.

He said: “This is an issue that the West will have to deal with, with or without peace or ceasefire or whatever arrangement exists between Israel and the Palestinians.

And Pater insisted that the UK needs a programme of deradicalisation just as much as Gaza.

He said: “For example, the UK banning the Muslim Brotherhood movement, proscribing it as a terror organisation, not being afraid to call out Islamic extremism for what it is, will be important steps to deradicalise the population.”

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“Palestine has become the all-encompassing flag and image for this Islamist global movement. But this movement exists.

“It exists in the West and Gaza is just an extension of it.”

A fragile hope

Yet even amid the warnings, Ziada said there is reason to hope.

She said: “The tears I saw in the eyes of the hostages’ families, their excitement that their children and family members will finally be coming back from this hell… it puts a smile on my face.”

For now, she admits, the world will celebrate a pause in the bloodshed.

But her message is clear: Hamas is not finished — and the West ignores that reality at its peril.

THIS is the chilling moment a woman was dragged down a river between the jaws of a crocodile.

Footage of the sinister creature was caught by witnesses after 57-year-old Soudamini Mahala was snapped up as she bathed in the Kharastrota River in India.

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The huge reptile can be seen swimming through the water with Mahala’s lifeless body in its mouth.

The shouts of shocked villagers were shouting in surprise in the background audio of the video.

Despite cries for help, nobody was able to reach her in time.

Witnesses said the crocodile lunged at the unsuspecting woman and pulled her into the water before anyone could react.

Locals rushed to the river, too late to save the victim from the crocodile’s death grip.

The ordeal took place in Kantia village, in the Jajpur district Odisha, in eastern India.

“The woman was taking a bath in the Kharasrota river around 4pm on Monday,” a police spokesperson said.

“A crocodile dragged her into the high stream of the river.

“Villagers present on the riverbank tried to chase the reptile but failed to rescue her,” they added.

Emergency services rushed to the river after being alerted to the attack and have since launched a search operation to recover Mahala’s body.

Eyewitness Naba Kidhore Mahala said villagers had jumped in to try and save Mahala.

“As we noticed that the crocodile was dragging the woman into the river, we jumped to rescue her,” he said.

“All our efforts went in vain.”

The tragic crocodile attack comes just days after a camper was found dead after sending his family photos of a bear.

The man’s body was discovered with extensive wounds two days after snapping pics of the forest giant.

Family of the unidentified camper raised the alarm after he went radio silent from Sam’s Throne Campground in Arkansas.

The 60-year-old from Missouri was found several yards from the campsite on October 2 after his son requested a welfare check as he had not heard from him “for a couple of days”.

The Newton County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release that he had been dragged from the campsite which has been “disturbed” and where officers found “evidence of a struggle and injury”.

“There were also drag marks leading from the campground into the woods,” the release added.

While officials await autopsy results to confirm the cause of death, they said his body had “extensive injuries consistent with those expected from a large carnivore attack”.

This is in line with pictures he sent his family just days before his body was found showing a “young male bear” near his campsite on September 30.

“Until the Arkansas Crime Lab completes the autopsy, we can’t 100% say it was a bear, but everything strongly indicates it,” Sheriff Glenn Wheeler said.

“We are attempting to find the bear and dispose of it so the Game and Fish Commission can test it for anything that may have led to the encounter.

“We know without a doubt that a bear was in camp with our victim and the injuries absolutely are consistent with a bear attack.

“This is a highly unusual case. We are very early in the investigation and search and will update as we can.

“If you are in the area, just be aware and use caution, especially with children,” he added.

“History tells us that once a bear becomes predatory, it often continues those behaviors.”

As the hunt for the bear continues, the Sam’s Throne Campground has been shutdown to the public.

The camper’s death, if confirmed to be caused by a bear, will be the state’s second fatal bear attack in one month, which is highly unusual.

THE dad of a missing schoolboy – who vanished 18 years ago – has revealed how cops initially pointed the finger at him before coming up with a bizarre second theory.

Kevin Gosden claims he was told by investigators Andrew, 14, could have become a jihadi fighter and fled the UK due to some books he’d checked out from the library for a school project.

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Andrew vanished without a trace after skipping school and taking a train from his hometown of Doncaster to London on September 14 2007.

Weeks later, detectives were able to track down CCTV showing the teenager in King’s Cross station – but from there the trail has run cold.

In December 2021, two men were arrested on suspicion of kidnap and human trafficking, but police confirmed no further action was being taken in September 2023.

Dad Kevin has told The Sun how in the early weeks of the investigation, officers put the family through “traumatising” questioning in which he claims the finger was pointed at him for possible murder.

“They only wanted to get hold of the station CCTV to prove he wasn’t buried in the back garden,” Kevin said. 

Asked if cops ever directly accused him of killing Andrew, he added: “That was their assumption. They’re really good at inventing stories.”

At one point Kevin and wife Glenys went to a meeting with investigators in which it was proposed their son may have become a jihadi – which refers to armed militant Islamic movements that seek to establish states based on Islamic principles.

Kevin said: “They came up with some really bizarre ideas. 

“He’d taken out some books from the library about Islam and they’d come up with the idea that perhaps he was joining some sort of jihadi group. 

“We had this meeting and got back in the car – we looked at each other and said ‘is that the most ridiculous thing you’ve heard in your life?’ 

“He was doing a school project.” 

Kevin said the jihadi theory was an example of “this horrible spiral, that was entirely unhelpful and non-productive”. 

He said it was extremely frustrating dealing with cops in the early weeks and months of the investigation.

“They’d come up with something insanely unlikely, that it was laughable,” he explained. “It really wasn’t good in 2007, at the beginning.”

He felt such lines of enquiry seemed to be distracting from following more obvious leads and when detectives finally did try to track down CCTV, much of the footage had already been wiped.

Investigators questioned both of Andrew’s parents, and older sister Charlotte prior to releasing the station video, a month after the disappearance.

Describing his own interrogation, Kevin said: “I did get the good cop bad cop routine.” 

He added: “A couple of officers involved were in our house for five minutes, 10 minutes… 

“They turned to us and said ‘how did you discipline him?’ 

“We said ‘we didn’t, we never had problems with him’.” 

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Referring to the family’s treatment, he said: “It’s wrong. I still have no idea what they said to Charlotte. 

“She came back (from police questioning) really shaken and said ‘just don’t ask because what they asked me was disgusting’, so we can guess.”

He continued: “There were too many statistics and assumptions.

“They traumatised all three of us, but just because I’m a man I got the worst of it. 

“It was so off beam and so wrong, that it did end up with a suicide attempt because I just thought we’re never going to find him like this, I just need to be out of the way because clearly they’ve got this idea in their head.

“I know it’s not true but they’re never going to find him if that’s where they’re putting their time and resources.”

Referring to the idea he or anyone else in the family had hurt Andrew, Kevin went on to say: “I said to them more than once, if you find him, you can ask him and he’ll tell you it’s rubbish. 

“You’ve asked my daughter and my wife, the neighbours, his teachers, school friends and you’ll have come across no hint that there was ever a problem.”

‘All we can hope is something comes up’

Andrew, if he’s still alive, would be 32 now. 

Kevin said: “All we can hope is that something comes up and someone volunteers something and remembers something, anonymously if necessary, and gives us something revolutionary.”

The dad-of-two, 59, is currently refurbishing the family home, including repainting Andrew’s old bedroom, which is adorned with photos of the then-schoolboy.

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Kevin said: “It never gets any damn easier… nightmares and flashbacks overnight. I finally get to sleep and I’m like ‘how have I woken up at one in the afternoon?’”

The refurbishment is addressing “all the stuff I haven’t paid notice to for the last 30 years”, he explained. 

Asked if keeping his mind occupied has helped him to process what happened to Andrew, he said: “I don’t know about processing things. It never gets any easier. 

“I’ve never made the mental illness stuff a secret.”

Kevin attempted suicide early in the search for Andrew, saying he was tipped over the edge by cops implying he was involved in his son’s disappearance. 

It never gets any damn easier… nightmares and flashbacks overnight. I finally get to sleep and I’m like ‘how have I woken up at one in the afternoon?

Kevin GosdenMissing Andrew’s dad

“Sadly, I had reached the conclusion that it isn’t going to get any better.”

He left his job at the NHS after Andrew disappeared and was doing part-time cleaning work before being made redundant. 

In November, when he turns 60, Kevin is due a “big payout” from the NHS, having been employed there for 20 years. 

He said keeping himself occupied with any little projects is essential.

“I know an awful amount of people retiring, I can’t,” he admitted. “All of this distracts.

“Since Andrew disappeared, my concentration, memory, all that stuff… mood and anxiety in particular, it paralyses your brain.

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“All of that has been constant so I struggle to think straight. 

“Things like refurbishing, you have to pay enough attention on it to not ruminate on things. I have several little projects on the go.”

He went on to say: “I do most days wake up in a bit of a panic, thinking I need to get this done, I need to get that done. 

“My wife goes, ‘you never sit still’. You propel yourself into doing stuff with far too much anxiety behind it and rush it. That tends to be how it goes. 

“You get the days when depression will kick in and I just can’t do anything. It’s constantly tough.

“Every day it is a struggle. Partly I just keep doing these things, you have to persevere, or I do, just to keep going. As opposed to giving up.”

Sick trolls posting fake updates

Most recently, Kevin and his family have been forced to consult with police over sick clickbait articles falsely claiming that Andrew has been found, or further CCTV footage has been unearthed, and some include falsified statements from his loved ones.

“That’s been causing me a lot of anxiety,” said Kevin. “What I worry about is, you just don’t want to end up going through the same thing Nicola Bulley’s family went through.”

Nicola Bulley was a mum-of-two young children who vanished aged 45 in January 2023 during a dog walk in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, before her body was found weeks later in the river.

However, the search for the mum saw a media frenzy, with TikTokers and other social influencers flooding the scene and some spreading misinformation online.

Kevin has been alerted to countless possible sightings of Andrew over the years, and at one stage the family had age progression images done showing what he might look like now.

“One of my fears is I could walk past him in the street, if he’s alive,” he said. 

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“He might have grown a beard, he would look so different. You worry you could trip over him in the street and have no idea.”

Asked what he believes became of Andrew, Kevin said he, his wife and daughter have “fluctuated on this for years”.

He continued: “None of us can imagine that the Andrew we knew would not have made some kind of contact at some point because we never fell out, we never argued. 

“It still boils down to we’re still absolutely clueless, but that makes us think he probably isn’t alive but that makes you think how come we’ve never found remains and no one ever saw him or noticed anything. 

“It turns around in your head and you can never come to any definite conclusion, which is the whole problem with ambiguous loss and why the mental health issues never resolved.”

He added: “We try to maintain hope, there’s that little voice in your head that says someone somewhere must know something, surely.”

Kevin said it would be easier, in a sense, if it could be proven either way what happened to his son.

“If we had a bag of bones or something that would be incredibly tough, and obviously would raise a whole lot of other questions as to how we’ve ended up with that,” he said. 

“It’s a double-edged sword, it’s the answer you just don’t want to know. But on the other hand, it feels like knowing would be better than not knowing.”

Andrew went missing at a time before the smart phones craze, the first iPhone was released the same year as his disappearance, and he didn’t even have a mobile.

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Kevin said: “You are going back to the days of a lot less social media and internet. People weren’t carrying around a computer in their pocket the whole time.”

However, he said the fact that it appeared to go “pear-shaped” when trying to retrieve further CCTV at one of Europe’s most heavily surveillanced areas, “is still rather upsetting”.

Kevin said he and his family told investigators, after witnesses came forward, that King’s Cross was unlikely to be Andrew’s final destination as it’s a “transport exchange with links to everywhere”.

But he said the sluggish start meant the golden window of collecting evidence within the first 48 hours was missed.

He said there seemed to be a lack of communication between South Yorkshire Police, with the Met and British Transport Police.

Kevin said: “It’s worth saying that policing is still inconsistent when looking for a missing person, but it is very much improved. 

“I’m pretty sure every police force has a dedicated team for missing persons now. Things are done a lot better now.”

Andrew’s disappearance

Looking back to the time Andrew disappeared, Kevin said it was a Friday and they weren’t certain he’d gone missing until the Monday morning.

The family spoke to train station staff, including a woman who said she’d sold the schoolboy a one-way ticket.

They then trekked down to London and began putting up posters in any places they thought Andrew might have been.

They have relatives in the capital and he had been on trips there before.

“A couple of commuters saw posters we put up and said ‘we sat on the same carriage’ and we established he got to King’s Cross,” Kevin said.

The dad had also rung around Andrew’s friends and local hospitals, and even considered his son may have gone to Whitby, another place he liked.

“Our gut instinct was right,” he continued. “We were saying to police ‘we know he went to King’s Cross, most likely he got a train because he was most familiar with that transport’.

“The point is, it took them 27 days or something to get the CCTV of him walking out of King’s Cross station, which is what we were saying he would probably do from the start.”

But Kevin said he doesn’t believe cops at the time wanted to believe Andrew had simply gone missing, and rather the attention turned to something more sinister involving the family.

He said: “There were potential sightings that sounded quite plausible but the police weren’t following those up. 

“They weren’t liaising with the Met and then it’s six weeks later and they’re saying ‘the CCTV’s been overwritten’, that was frustrating at the time.”

Kevin and Andrew’s other loved ones still have no idea why the schoolboy even decided to skip school and head down south. 

“This is why it was a complete shock to us,” Kevin said. “It never occurred to us that he would go missing at all.

“The whole thing was awful and I can’t remember how many days, weeks it was and when certain events occurred. 

“It was such a blur. You’re in such a state of panic. We were all three of us very traumatised by the fact of the matter that Andrew had disappeared and we had no clue why.”

At the time, there were theories Andrew had perhaps travelled down for a gig or to meet up with friends, and would suddenly turn up.

“He was going to do something that he knew we wouldn’t want him to do – just doing whatever it was,” said Kevin. 

“He maybe thought ‘I can always get to my grandparents or my uncle’s and I’ll face the music later on and they’ll have a chance to calm down.’

“We thought he’d show up somewhere and say ‘I’ve done something foolish and I need a bit of help’. It just never happened,” said Kevin.

Other theories suggested Andrew had been groomed online and had headed down to London where he was trafficked.

Kevin said: “There’s no evidence, not one shred of evidence.”

Instead, he believes it was as simple as Andrew skipped school to do something in London he knew his parents otherwise wouldn’t be happy about, and he came across the wrong people.

“That’s what my gut has always said, really,” Kevin admitted. “We brought both kids up to think for themselves and be independent and they were both extremely capable, more than.

“Andrew was exceptionally gifted academically, so he could be lost in deep thought.

“He was insanely intelligent, but you wouldn’t have put him in the hanging round street corners and being streetwise category.”

He added: “One day, we hope that we’ll find out what happened.”

DCI Andy Knowles, of South Yorkshire Police, who has led the investigation in recent years, told The Sun: “I’m in regular contact with the Gosden family and I’m incredibly grateful for their support as we work together to answer the questions which have remained unanswered for so long. 

“We carefully consider any information received ensuring it is recorded, catalogued and, where there are reasonable lines of enquiry, it is pursued.”

I am sitting in a tent placed inside the parlor of a Victorian-era house. Before me lies a spirit board, a lone tarot card and a black scrying mirror. I am here to commune with the dead.

There is no medium. It is only myself and eight other attendees— our guide has left the tent. Though earlier we could hear tension-rattling music setting a cryptic mood, now there is nothing. Lights? Off. The tent has gone pitch black. At this particular moment, there’s only the sound of our breaths, our thoughts and perhaps some new guests.

Welcome to “Phasmagorica,” what composer-turned-magician-turned-spiritual explorer BC Smith describes as “a séance reimagined as art.” It’s running this month at the Heritage Square Museum, itself a location imbued with history and mystery, the site of the homes of Los Angeles as they existed a century ago.

I’ll get right to the point: I did not have an encounter with the dead. And yet I left “Phasmagorica” deeply curious. That’s because Smith sets up the evening as an exploration of the modern Western history of communing with the deceased, attempting to conjure the feeling of a séance as it occurred in late 1880s America, albeit with a better sound system and all the Death in the Afternoon cocktails you can consume (note: you should not consume very many).

The “experiment” — Smith shirks at the word performance — is designed, he says, for believers and nonbelievers. He himself falls somewhere in the middle.

“I’m a hopeful skeptic,” Smith says. “If I were a 100% believer, ‘Phasmagorica’ would be a church. I just wanted to create a space that started a conversation for people.”

It is relevant to point out that Smith is also a magician, a member of the Magic Castle, home itself to a popular séance. While Smith has not conducted a Magic Castle séance, he has — and will — orchestrate what he refers to as a “theatrical séance,” for which he is present as a storyteller. “Phasmagorica” is different, Smith says, and was born out of those more dramatic performances, in part because he kept encountering the unaccountable.

“It’s highly curated,” Smith says of a core difference between a theatrical séance and “Phasmagorica,” as the former will be tailored specifically to guest needs and requests. “But people were experiencing a lot in those séances that I could not explain,” Smith says. He recites a story that opens “Phasmagorica” of a shadow reaching out and touching someone on a shoulder. Smith says he witnessed this phenomena, and at that point decided to create an event that focused on realism and dispensed with the notion that there could be any illusions or magic.

BC Smith’s “Phasmagorica” is not a theatrical or magic performance. The event aims to recreate the feel of a vintage séance.

(Roger Kisby / For The Times)

I was surprised, for instance, when Smith left the room. At that point, we were with only a television, which narrates a short history of séances in America before instructing us to hold a pendulum over a spirit board. Knowing Smith’s past, I went in expecting more of a show. Instead, we are prodded to examine a tarot card, peer into the scrying mirror and ask questions to our spirit board.

“It becomes more personal,” Smith says. “Even in my theatrical séances, I’ve had people want to cut me off mid-sentence and say, ‘This just happened to me.’ And they want to spend the next five minutes talking about it. At the end of the day, I think what people like is that this is all about them.”

And still, Smith says, audiences are looking for wizardry. But there’s no tricks of the light, no hidden fans. He stresses multiple times in this interview and at the start of “Phasmagorica” that this is “not theater, not a performance, not a show.”

“I’ve had people walk out of the room and swear there was a magnet in the pendulum board,” he says. “Or swear there was some effect that made them see a person standing. People still have an explanation that I had something to do with it. Whatever helps you sleep with the light off.”

While numerous cultures and spiritual movements have throughout history long attempted to commune with the dead, a séance, says Lisa Morton, author of “Calling the Spirits: A History of Séances,” is a relatively recent occurrence. She and Smith trace their popularity to the Fox sisters, Kate and Maggie, who performed to packed crowds in the late 1880s in New York, attempting to demonstrate that spirits could speak via a series of raps on the walls.

BC Smith calls “Phasmagorica” an “experiment,” shirking at the word performance. (Roger Kisby / For The Times)

Prior to the Fox sisters, Morton says, attempts to commune with the beyond, broadly speaking, were a more personal and ritualistic affair. “The Greeks believed that sleeping on a grave might give you dreams in which you communed with a spirit,” she says. Popular myths, too, would portray the practice as borderline arcane. In Homer’s “The Odyssey,” for instance, a bridge to the spirit world is reached only after a complex series of sacrifices and offerings — a potent mix of sweet wine and the blood of a lamb.

“The séance comes along, and not only is it a group activity, but it suggests that anyone can communicate with the spirits of the dead,” Morton says. “You just need a medium — someone who can enter a trance state and open themselves to receiving spirit communications. It was done with a group, and in the comfort of someone’s home. Those were startlingly new ideas.”

Morton has taken part in Smith’s “Phasmagorica.” She, too, appreciated the historical emphasis, specifically the way a musician performs after the séance as guests mingle with one another and share their experience. Music was a big part of early séances, Morton says.

“People would sit around a table and the lights would be lowered and they would sing,” Morton says “Now, singing did have a scammy double purpose, as they allowed the medium to start doing things in the dark unheard. But these evenings were wondrous for people, and I thought that was what BC Smith captured really well.”

“Phasmagorica” has been running on select weekends at Heritage Square since the late summer. Smith intends to continue adding events throughout the fall as his schedule allows, announcing them on Instagram. Though intimate, they do typically sell out. It’s traveling via word of mouth, theorizes Smith, because people today are increasingly searching for “connection and meaning.”

Heritage Square Museum is itself a location imbued with history and mystery, the site of the homes of Los Angeles as they existed a century ago.

(Marcus Ubungen / Los Angeles Times)

“The experience is really up to you,” he says. “I think we’re all searching for something. This is a safe space to explore.”

Late in life, Maggie Fox denounced the spiritualism movement that she and her sister Kate had helped start, demonstrating the ways in which they had fooled their audiences. Smith again stresses that he himself is a “hopeful skeptic,” and purposefully stays out of the experience so that guests aren’t trying to figure out if he’s holding onto any secrets.

And yet he says, “Phasmagorica” has permanently changed him. He notes that his wife is a commercial airline pilot and must travel often.

“When she’s away, I sleep with a night-light,” he says. “Maybe that’s the answer to the question whether I believe or not.”

Netflix have released an exclusive clip of Liam Hemsworth’s Geralt in The Witcher season 4, which is coming sooner than you think.

During the highly-anticipated Canelo vs Crawford boxing match on Saturday night, Netflix released a brand new exclusive clip from season 4 of their hit show, The Witcher.

Fans had the chance to catch never-before-seen footage of Liam Hemsworth as the new Geralt of Rivia in a chilling new clip.

Moreover, Netflix also revealed the release date for season 4, announcing it will launch on October 30, 2025.

Via a pre-recorded message for those watching the fight, the famous Hunger Games actor said: “Hey everyone, Liam Hemsworth here. I am excited to announce that Season 4 of The Witcher will be streaming on Netflix, October 30th. Here is a quick clip of me in action as Geralt of Rivia.”

A chilling clip then played of Hemsworth as Geralt, channelling the same intensity and quiet strength that former Superman star Henry Cavill famously brought to the role.

Cavill played the character in the first three seasons of the Netflix series, but has been replaced by Hemsworth this coming season, reportedly leaving the series due to creative differences.

The official Netflix synopsis for The Witcher season 4 reads: “After the Continent-altering events of Season Three, Geralt, Yennefer, and Ciri find themselves separated by a raging war and countless enemies.

“As their paths diverge, and their goals sharpen, they stumble on unexpected allies eager to join their journeys. And if they can accept these found families, they just might have a chance at reuniting for good…”

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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.

This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things and The Last of Us.

The Witcher season 4, which comprises eight 50-minute episodes, has been created by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, who also serves as Showrunner and Executive Producer.

Alongside Hemsworth, the cast includes Sherwood’s Anya Chalotra as Yennefer of Vengerberg, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes star Freya Allan as Princess Cirilla of Cintra, Whitechapel’s Joey Batey as Jaskier and The Matrix legend Laurence Fishburne as Regis.

Also joining the star-studded line-up are Hollyoaks actress Anna Shaffer, Doctor who’s Mimi M Khayisa, Bridgerton star Cassie Clare, Neighbours’ Mahesh Jadu, Meng’er Zhang from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Outlander icon Graham McTavish.

The Witcher season 4 is coming to Netflix on October 30, 2025.

HARROWING new details have emerged after a decomposing body was found stowed in a bag inside a Tesla car belonging to the singer D4vd.

Cops are still working out how the person ended up in the vehicle and how they died. 

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The body was found inside the car that had been impounded and sitting in a Hollywood, Los Angeles, tow yard. 

Cops suspect the human remains had been in the abandoned car for about five days before it was towed.

The grim discovery has sparked a probe and coroners have now started to release details about the person found inside the car.

A Los Angeles County medical examiner revealed a woman with “wavy black hair” was found inside the car.

The body had been put inside a bag and was discovered in the front trunk.

She had a distinctive tattoo that said: “Shhh,” as reported by TMZ. 

The woman was wearing black leggings and a tube top. 

She was also wearing a metallic stud earring and a bracelet that was in the shape of a letter W.

Cops are probing the case as a homicide. 

But, coroners didn’t reveal her age, nor the cause of death.

D4vd himself has not commented on the investigation.

More to follow… For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos.

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Good Morning Britain’s Ranvir Singh shared an important news update during the latest episode of the ITV breaking show alongside hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls

Good Morning Britain star Ranvir Singh shared a “chilling” news update on Monday (September 8) as fans said the same thing.

During today’s edition of the hit ITV programme, hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls updated viewers on the latest news across the UK and around the world.

Ranvir delivered the rest of the day’s news, while Laura Tobin presented regular weather updates.

Later in the show, Ranvir revealed that an Australian woman convicted of murdering three elderly relatives of her estranged husband with poisonous death cap mushrooms has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 33 years.

However, the show’s viewers were left confused, with one person writing on X (formerly Twitter): “Might be big in Australian news, but why report it here?”

Another said: ” GMB……. An Australian woman get life for murder in Australia? UK headline news.”

This is a breaking showbiz story and is being constantly updated. Please refresh the page regularly to get the latest news, pictures and videos.

You can also get email updates on the day’s biggest stories straight to your inbox by signing up for our newsletters

Sheridan Smith stars in ITV’s new four-part series, I Fought The Law, as Ann Ming, whose daughter, Julie Hogg, was tragically strangled to death by Billy Dunlop

Ann Ming’s relentless fight for justice for daughter is nothing short of remarkable. On 16 November 1989, Billy Dunlop, 25, strangled 22-year-old mum-of-one, Julie Hogg, to death – and hid her corpse behind a bath panel in her home in County Durham.

Julie was tragically found decomposing by her mother, Ann, 80 days later and, despite evidence against Dunlop, juries twice failed to find him guilty of the crime.

However, while serving a prison sentence for unrelated violent offences, Dunlop confessed to Julie’s death. But there was a twist: under the centuries-old double jeopardy rule, he couldn’t be tried again for the same crime.

READ MORE: I Fought The Law’s Sheridan Smith left ‘shaking mess’ over murdered woman hidden under bathREAD MORE: ‘I discovered my daughter’s body after she was murdered and her killer didn’t get jailed for years’

However, for Ann, played by Sheridan Smith in ITV’s new adaptation of the tragedy, I Fought the Law, giving up wasn’t an option. She petitioned politicians for more than a decade, lobbied the media and refused to let Julie’s case go unheard, with unwavering support from her husband Charlie, played by Daniel York Loh, in the crime drama.

So, as we wait to watch the four-part series, which starts on ITV at 9pm tonight, here’s the chilling discoveries that lead to Dunlop’s arrest and eventual life imprisonment…

Ann Ming finds her daughter’s body

When Julie disappeared from her home in November 1989, leaving behind her toddler son Kevin. Her mother, Ann, immediately sensed something awful had happened.

Three months later, her maternal instincts were tragically vindicated. She discovered Julie’s body, hidden under the bath at her home.

Ann agreed that her daughter’s husband, who Julie had been in the process of separating from when she was killed, could move back into her daughter’s house with their three-year-old son, Kevin.

However, when her son-in-law went inside the home, he complained a strange smell was coming from the bathroom. Ann noticed the bath panel was loose and pulled it away, uncovering her daughter’s body, wrapped in a blanket: “That was the start of a living nightmare,” she said.

Chilling evidence heard at trial

Dunlop, who knew Julie from their local area and visited her at home after a day’s drinking before killing the mum-of-one, went on trial at Newcastle Crown Court on 7 May 1991, where a jury heard that there was finger print evidence on Julie’s keys.

Dunlop’s sperm was also on the blanket he’d wrapped her in, and there were fibres from the jumper he’d been wearing.

The prosecution team felt it was strong enough evidence to satisfy a jury – but, sadly, they were mistaken. The jury failed to reach a verdict and the judge ordered a retrial for 3 October 1991.

Dunlop’s defence team tried to then convince the jury that Julie had died of natural causes following a consensual act between her and Dunlop. However, they failed to reach a verdict for a second time and Dunlop was acquitted and could never be trialled again due to the double jeopardy law and walked away a free man.

Dunlop confesses

While serving a prison sentence for unrelated violent offences after the trial, Dunlop confessed to Julie’s killing. But there was a twist: under the centuries-old double jeopardy rule, he couldn’t be tried again for the same crime.

The police wanted to arrest him for perjury, but needed more evidence than just an admission.

As a result, a female prison officer wore a wire and obtained 90 hours of material about what happened on the night of Hogg’s death. He was arrested, pleaded guilty to the murder, and jailed for six years to be served consecutively to his existing sentence.

Ann’s battle for justice – ‘For once in my life, I’m speechless’

Driven by grief and determination, Ann launched a 15-year campaign to overturn the centuries-old double jeopardy law – which once prevented a person from being tried twice for the same crime.

Of course, Ann wasn’t satisfied with Dunlop’s perjury sentence and asked her MP, Frank Cook, to help her meet Home Secretary Jack Straw to scrap the double jeopardy law. He recommended she speak to the Law Commission and, in 2002, her 13 years of campaigning finally came to fruition.

A white paper advising changes be made to the legislation, to affect both future and retrospective cases, was presented in parliament by David Blunkett, and in April 2005, the 800-year-old law was binned for good. Ann told reporters at the time: “I just can’t believe it. For once in my life I’m speechless.”

In September 2006, Dunlop went on trial at the Old Bailey and was found guilty and sentenced to life behind bars. All his requests for parole and to be moved to an open prison have been denied.

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If the Trump administration succeeds in barring undocumented immigrants from federally funded “public benefit” programs, vulnerable children and families across California would suffer greatly, losing access to emergency shelters, vital healthcare, early education and life-saving nutritional support, according to state and local officials who filed their opposition to the changes in federal court.

The new restrictions would harm undocumented immigrants but also U.S. citizens — including the U.S.-born children of immigrants and people suffering from mental illness and homelessness who lack documentation — and put intense stress on the state’s emergency healthcare system, the officials said.

Head Start, which provides tens of thousands of children in the state with early education, healthcare and nutritional support, may have to shutter some of its programs if the new rules barring immigrants withstand a lawsuit filed by California and other liberal-led states, officials said.

In a declaration filed as part of that litigation, Maria Guadalupe Jaime-Milehan, deputy director of the child care and developmental division of the California Department of Social Services, wrote that the restrictions would have an immediate “chilling effect” on immigrant and mixed-status families seeking support, but also cause broader “ripple effects” — especially in rural California communities that rely on such programs as “a critical safety net” for vulnerable residents, but also as major employers.

“Children would lose educational, nutritional, and healthcare services. Parents or guardians may be forced to cut spending on other critical needs to fill the gaps, and some may even be forced out of work so they can care for their children,” Jaime-Milehan said.

Rural communities would see programs shutter, and family providers lose their jobs, she wrote.

Tony Thurmond, California’s superintendent of public instruction, warned in a declaration that the “chilling effect” from such rules could potentially drive away talented educators who disagree with such policies and decide to “seek other employment that does not discriminate against children and families.”

Thurmond and Jaime-Milehan were among dozens of officials in 20 states and the District of Columbia who submitted declarations in support of those states’ lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s new rules. Six other officials from California also submitted declarations.

The lawsuit followed announcements last month from various federal agencies — including Health and Human Services, Labor, Education and Agriculture — that funding recipients would be required to begin screening out undocumented immigrants.

The announcements followed an executive order issued by President Trump in which he said his administration would “uphold the rule of law, defend against the waste of hard-earned taxpayer resources, and protect benefits for American citizens in need, including individuals with disabilities and veterans.”

Trump’s order cited the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, commonly known as welfare reform, as barring noncitizens from participating in federally funded benefits programs, and criticized past administrations for providing exemptions to that law for certain “life or safety” programs — including those now being targeted for new restrictions.

The order mandated that federal agencies restrict access to benefits programs for undocumented immigrants, in part to “prevent taxpayer resources from acting as a magnet and fueling illegal immigration to the United States.”

California and the other states sued July 21, alleging the new restrictions target working mothers and their children in violation of federal law.

“We’re not talking about waste, fraud, and abuse, we’re talking about programs that deliver essential childcare, healthcare, nutrition, and education assistance, programs that have for decades been open to all,” California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said.

In addition to programs like Head Start, Bonta said the new restrictions threatened access to short-term shelters for homeless people, survivors of domestic violence and at-risk youth; emergency shelters for people during extreme weather; soup kitchens, community food banks and food support services for the elderly; and healthcare for people with mental illness and substance abuse issues.

The declarations are part of a motion asking the federal judge overseeing the case to issue a preliminary injunction barring the changes from taking effect while the litigation plays out.

Beth Neary, assistant director of HIV health services at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, wrote in her declaration that the new restrictions would impede healthcare services for an array of San Francisco residents experiencing homelessness — including undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens.

“Individuals experiencing homelessness periodically lack identity and other documents that would be needed to verify their citizenship or immigration status due to frequent moves and greater risk of theft of their belongings,” she wrote.

Colleen Chawla, chief of San Mateo County Health, wrote that her organization — the county’s “safety-net” care provider — has worked for years to build up trust in immigrant communities.

“But if our clients worry that they will not be able to qualify for the care they need, or that they or members of their family face a risk of detention or deportation if they seek care, they will stop coming,” Chawla wrote. “This will exacerbate their health conditions.”

Greta S. Hansen, chief operating officer of Santa Clara County, wrote that more than 40% of her county’s residents are foreign-born and more than 60% of the county’s children have at least one foreign-born parent — among the highest rates anywhere in the country.

The administration’s changes would threaten all of them, but also everyone else in the county, she wrote.

“The cumulative effect of patients not receiving preventive care and necessary medications would likely be a strain on Santa Clara’s emergency services, which would result in increased costs to Santa Clara and could also lead to decreased capacity for emergency care across the community,” Hansen wrote.

The Trump administration has defended the new rules, including in court.

In response to the states’ motion for preliminary injunction, attorneys for the administration argued that the rule changes are squarely in line with the 1996 welfare reform law and the rights of federal agencies to enforce it.

They wrote that the notices announcing the new rules that were sent out by federal agencies “merely recognize that the breadth of benefits available to unqualified aliens is narrower than the agencies previously interpreted,” and “restore compliance with federal law and ensure that taxpayer-funded programs intended for the American people are not diverted to subsidize unqualified aliens.”

The judge presiding over the case has yet to rule on the preliminary injunction.

BBC’s powerful new drama Unforgivable has one renowned Shameless star among its leading star-studded cast but fans will simply not recognise him

Shameless actor David Threlfall couldn’t look further away from his former alter-ego Frank Gallagher even if he tried, in BBC‘s new drama feature, Unforgivable.

The dark story plot follows a harrowing tale that centres around child grooming and sexual abuse and shines a light on how a heinous crime can ripple through an entire family, with the Mitchells at the heart of the 90-minute long feature.

David, 71, who is best known for his alcoholic, chain-smoking days as Frank on the popular working-class comedy sitcom, has ditched his iconic long dark locks to star in the role of Anna Mitchell’s father.

Anna, is a mother of two children and her brother Joe is the perpetrator – who had been behind bars serving a two year prison sentence for his despicable crimes.

Joe is now to be released from jail and undertake rehabilitation which takes further toll on Anna, who is played by award-winning actress, Anna Friel, as she attempts to deal with the aftermath and emotional strain.

David plays the angry dad of Anna, after learning she’d been to visit her brother Joe, despite his chilling crimes. His character in Unforgivable appears to be worlds away from his former head-of-the-clan character Frank on Shameless.

In the brand new production, the esteemed actor is totally unrecognisable, boasting short gray hair and a neatly trimmed matching beard.

Another distinctive observation that’ll no doubt throw fans off of his Frank Gallagher scent, is that he is also presented as a well kept man, sporting a black tie and blazer with a crisp white shirt – nothing like his oversized green parka-style coat from a past on-screen life.

Previously, David’s appearance and accent have also proved to be a talking point among baffled fans with the actor bearing no real-life resemblance to his character at all.

He played Frank so well, that viewers were unable to get past that he may not be anything like him off-screen.

Shameless aired on Channel 4 for eleven series and 139 episodes from 2004 until 2013 and was adapted in the US, where it ran between 2011 and 2021.

Speaking about his pursuits away from television, David previously shared with the Mirror that he is a family man at heart, sharing two children with his accomplished actor wife, Brana Bajic.

Underscoring the disparity between himself and his fictional counterpart, he told the publication 2010: “I can’t imagine getting up in the morning and taking a drink. My body doesn’t take more than four pints. I was doing a scene yesterday where he was drinking cough medicine. He’s lost.”

Unforgivable will air on BBC Two at 9pm this Thursday and will be available on BBC iPlayer from the same day.

Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were stabbed to death in their home in Moscow, Idaho, in 2022, with roommates Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke surviving

Friends of the two University of Idaho students who survived the brutal stabbing of four roommates in 2022 have revealed why the pair didn’t call 911 for several hours after the massacre.

The revelations come in One Night in Idaho, a new Prime Video docuseries that premiered on July 11. The show includes interviews with relatives and friends of the victims – Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin – as well as insight into the surviving roommates’ state of mind in the hours following the killings.

Dylan Mortensen and Bethany Funke, who lived in the Moscow, Idaho, off-campus house where the four students were murdered, were home at the time but were unharmed. They placed the 911 call at 11:58am on November 13, 2022 – roughly eight hours after the attack, which investigators believe happened between 4am and 4.20am.

READ MORE: True Crime fans told to watch Prime Video’s new ‘gut wrenching’ documentary

Dylan later told police she had opened her bedroom door around 4am after hearing noises and saw a masked man with bushy eyebrows walking toward a sliding glass door before locking herself in her room, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Speaking in the docuseries, friends Hunter Johnson, Emily Alandt and Josie Lauteren shared how Dylan and Bethany contacted them that morning asking for help. “She was like, ‘Something weird happened last night. I don’t really know if I was dreaming or not, but I’m really scared. Can you come check out the house?’” Emily recalled.

Dylan told her she had been in the basement with Bethany and had tried calling Xana several times but received no response. Emily said she didn’t initially think the request was serious. “I was like, ‘Ha, ha, sure. Should I bring my pepper spray?’ Not thinking anything of it,” she said.

Josie explained that Dylan had previously called friends for support after hearing strange noises in the house. “She’s called us before and been like, ‘Oh, I’m scared. Can you bring your boyfriends over?’ But it was never anything serious… because it’s Moscow.”

When Emily, Josie and Hunter arrived at the house, they quickly realised something was terribly wrong. “Dylan and Bethany had exited the house. They looked frightened, just kind of like, hands on their mouth, like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’” Emily said.

“As soon as I stepped in the house, I was like, ‘Oh, something is so not right.’ Like, you could feel it almost,” Josie added. Hunter, who entered the home first, urged them to call police without revealing what he actually saw when entering Xana and Ethan’s bedroom.

“Hunter had enough courage to tell them to call the police for not a real reason,” Alandt said. “He worded it very nicely. He said, ‘Tell them there’s an unconscious person.’ Hunter saved all of us extreme trauma by not letting us know anything.”

Dylan made the 911 call, but was too distraught to speak. “I had to take the phone from her because she was so completely hysterical,” Josie said. “They’re like, ‘What’s the address, what’s the address?’ and I was like, ‘1122 King Road.’”

Even then, Josie said she believed paramedics might revive the victims. “I mean, even when [Hunter] said they had no pulse, I still was like, ‘Oh, the paramedics are gonna come and revive them.’”

In the series, the friends say Dylan and Bethany’s delay in calling 911, and hazy memory, was likely caused by shock and confusion. “It wasn’t until the morning that [Dylan] realised, holy s***, that couldn’t have been a dream,” Emily said.

“She just called and said, ‘Something weird happened, I thought it was a dream, I’m not quite sure anymore. I tried to call everybody to wake them up and no one’s answering.’”

Bryan Kohberger was arrested nearly six weeks after the murders and charged with four counts of murder and one count of felony burglary. On July 2, Kohberger pleaded guilty to all charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23 and faces life in prison.

Dylan and Bethany did not take part in the documentary and have not commented publicly about the new revelations. A psychologist in the docuseries said it’s likely Dylan – who came face to face with the killer – acted in a “trauma response”.

READ MORE: Boots slashes price of Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty set by 53% saving more than £40

A MAN was left with brain damage after a vicious attack as he walked home from a night out.

Al Moreton woke up in hospital two days after the incident, with no memory of what happened.

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The 46-year-old was left with two bleeds on the brain, brain damage and four fractures to his skull, and has lost his job as a HGV driver as a result.

Doctors told him his injuries were consistent with being struck repeatedly, rather than a fall, he says.

But with police closing the case after being unable to find any CCTV footage, Al posted about it on Facebook before receiving an odd response.

He was sent a DM from a stranger telling him he may know who committed the attack but was too scared to give any further details.

Al had been attending a friend’s private birthday party at Bomba nightclub in Exeter on Friday, February 28.

He drove from his home in Cullompton, Devon, arriving at the club around 8pm – with the plan to get the last bus home at 11pm and pick up his car the next day.

However, Al is told by pals he became quickly intoxicated despite only having a few drinks, and fears he may have been spiked.

He told The Sun: “I don’t remember anything from after leaving the house due to my injuries.”

Al understands he left the club, in The Quay area of the city centre, at 10.30pm with the intention of heading for the bus station.

But he said witnesses told him he was seen walking the opposite direction towards the River Exe.

At around 11am the next day he was found by a passerby lying unconscious at Marsh Barton industrial estate, around two miles from the club.

“All I’ve been told is someone who spotted me picked me up and dropped me at the hospital,” he explained.

“He didn’t leave his name or anything, he just dropped me off and didn’t want to be involved in any other way.”

Al added: “I’d like to be able to thank the person. I’ve no idea who they are. It was a very strange event which has caused me massive problems.”

I’d like to be able to thank the person. I’ve no idea who they are. It was a very strange event which has caused me massive problems.

Al Moretonattack victim

He explained he had a “small recollection” of Saturday, March 1, “but thought that was a dream”, adding: “When I woke up on Sunday I realised it wasn’t a dream. I had family around me.”

Al said his injuries, according to hospital staff, “aren’t consistent with falling over – the injury to my forehead is consistent with being hit by something”.

He continued: “I’ve got no scraping – if I’d fallen over I would have hit something and scraped.

“I’ve just got particular points where I might have been hit by something.

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“They discounted the fact I had fallen over and must have been from an attack.”

Al said he reported it to police and they “investigated for a month or so” and was told officers had done door to door inquiries and searched for CCTV footage – but came up with nothing.

“It’s odd that there’s no footage of me, considering I ended up on an industrial estate where I assume there’s loads of cameras,” he said.

Judging by his route, Al believes he likely walked passed a couple of pubs too.

“Pubs would’ve been kicking out that sort of time and people would’ve been around and about,” he said.

Strangely, Al didn’t have any possessions missing when he woke up in the hospital.

“My phone was apparently missing but was actually picked up by a doctor who worked at the hospital, so I had it back when I woke up,” he explained.

“My wallet was there and there was no money missing, so it wasn’t a robbery.”

Roaming gang

Al theorised it could have been a gang roaming around who attacked him at random.

“They may have seen how vulnerable I was and decided to start something,” he said.

“I’m not a violent person, I wouldn’t have been aggressive, I never am when I’m drunk, I’m more of a lover than fighter when I’m drunk.”

He posted about the incident on Facebook a few days after getting out of hospital and then a couple of weeks ago noticed he had “four or five” messages in his spam folder.

“There was someone who had said that they thought they saw me actually not at the Quay but further away in a different direction, stumbling around drunk.

“I’ve got to hand that onto the police and see if they pursue that.”

He said another message was very strange. “Someone on Facebook said ‘I know who the people are’.

“They said ‘I’m a bit afraid to talk about it’ – but then said they would give further information for money, so I don’t know how real that was. I passed it onto police.”

The event Al was attending was a private, invite-only do for around 50 people.

Asked how likely it is he could’ve been spiked, he said: “I find it hard to believe, usually it’s women who get spiked. But speaking to someone else, they said actually all sorts of people get spiked because you’re left vulnerable and can be followed.”

He’s not sure if he was tested for substances in his blood while he was in hospital but said it wasn’t mentioned by the doctors.

Referring to his injuries, Al continued: “I had two bleeds on the brain, one on each side at the front and then four fractures around my right eye socket.

I’m not working, so struggling to pay rent and pay bills. It’s led to a dramatic change in my circumstances

Al Moretonattack victim

“That’s now been fixed and plated. One of the points I had a bleed I had some damage to the brain on that side, which has caused me to effectively lose my job because I’m a lorry driver.

“I’ve had my licences revoked for 12 months because I’m at a risk of seizures.

“I’m not working, so struggling to pay rent and pay bills. It’s led to a dramatic change in my circumstances.”

Al has been told he suffered “serious significant head injuries” but that his cognitive functions will improve over time.

“Like with a lot of injuries, it takes time while I recover – they said I should recover 100%, but they can’t be sure at this stage.”

Al says he was told by the DVLA he needed to prove he’s “less than a two percent risk” of seizures over a 12 month period before he can be given his licence back.

“I’ve not had a seizure and I don’t feel like I’ve been on the verge of having one,” he explained.

Al is currently suffering with post concussion syndrome, having spent a couple of months living at his mum’s home following the attack.

“I wasn’t bedridden but I was extremely tired and had constant headaches which were debilitating in themselves,” he said of that initial recovery period.

“I had constant headaches, woke up with them and went bed with them – I was drained and worn out by the injuries, so mostly stayed in bed.”

He added: “I’m keeping myself to myself. I’ve got a little bit of social anxiety after what happened.”

The Sun has approached Devon & Cornwall Police for comment.

Do you know more? Email [email protected]

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CHILLING new audio reveals the moment OceanGate’s founder fired the company’s operations director who voiced safety concerns about the ill-fated Titan sub.

The audio clip was obtained by Netflix and has been used in its documentary Titan: The OceanGate Disaster.

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American businessman Stockton Rush, who would go on to be one of the victims of the Titan disaster, can be heard David Lochridge in the clip.

Lochridge had raised concerns around the safety of the submersible ahead of its doomed voyage.

Rush tells him: “I don’t want anybody in this company who is uncomfortable with what we are doing. 

“We’re doing weird s*** here. I’m definitely out of the mold, I am doing things that are completely non-standard.

“I’m sure the industry thinks I’m a f****** idiot.

“That’s fine, they’ve been doing that for years. And I’m going to continue on the way I am doing.”

A woman can be heard saying: “We need David on this crew, in my opinion we need him here.”

Lochridge says Rush’s remarks left him “a tad let down” and “pretty gutted”. 

 “This is the first time on paper I’ve ever put any health and safety concerns,” he adds.

“You know every expedition we have had, we’ve had issues.”

Rush concedes the point, and Lochridge asks him: “Do you now want to let me go?”

But Rush bluntly replies: “I don’t see we have a choice.”

Rush would later die on board the Titan alongside Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.  

The vessel imploded during a June 2023 expedition that initially prompted a major rescue operation.

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Speaking to filmmakers, Lochridge said: “To me it was just sheer arrogance.

“I didn’t know what to say, but I was blown away that at this point they were willing to play Russian roulette.”

Lochridge was fired back in 2018 after he had worked at the firm for three years.

In one email to an associate, he expressed fears that Rush would be killed, the MailOnline has reported.

“I don’t want to be seen as a tattle tale but I’m so worried he kills himself and others in the quest to boost his ego,” he said.

“I would consider myself pretty ballsy when it comes to doing things that are dangerous, but that sub is an accident waiting to happen.”

Lochridge would go on to inform the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of Titan’s safety issues after he was fired.

He reportedly got a settlement and release agreement from OceanGate’s lawyers after flagging these concerns with OSHA.

How the Titan tragedy unfolded

By Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)

FIVE men plunged beneath the surface of the North Atlantic in a homemade sub in a bid to explore the Titanic wreckage.

Four passengers paid £195,000 each to go on the sub, with the fifth member of the trip being a crew member.

But what was supposed to be a short trip spiralled into days of agony as the doomed Titan vanished without a trace on June 18, 2023.

The daring mission had been months in the making – and almost didn’t happen at the hands of harsh weather conditions in Newfoundland, Canada.

In a now chilling Facebook post, passenger Hamish Harding wrote: “Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.

“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.”

It would be his final Facebook post.

The following morning, he and four others – led by Stockton Rush – began the 12,5000ft descent towards the bottom of the Atlantic.

But as it made its way down into the depths, the vessel lost all contact with its mother ship on the surface, the Polar Prince.

It sparked a frantic four-day search for signs of life, with the hunt gripping the entire world.

There was hope that by some miracle, the crew was alive and desperately waiting to be saved.

But that sparked fears rescue teams faced a race against time as the passengers only had a 96-hour oxygen supply when they set out, which would be quickly dwindling.

Then, when audio of banging sounds was detected under the water, it inspired hope that the victims were trapped and signalling to be rescued.

It heartbreakingly turned out that the banging noises were likely either ocean noises or from other search ships, the US Navy determined.

Countries around the world deployed their resources to aid the search, and within days the Odysseus remote-operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down to where the ghostly wreck of the Titanic sits.

The plan was for the ROV to hook onto the sub and bring it up 10,000ft, where it would meet another ROV before heading to the surface.

But any hopes of a phenomenal rescue were dashed when Odysseus came across a piece of debris from the sub around 1,600ft from the Titanic.

The rescue mission tragically turned into a salvage task, and the heartbroken families of those on board were told the devastating news.

It was confirmed by the US Coast Guard that the sub had suffered a “catastrophic implosion”.

POLICE have issued CCTV footage in the hopes of finding a woman who went missing three months ago.

Portia Vincent-Kirby, 33, disappeared on February 21 at around 8.45pm after seeing friends in Hyde Park, London.

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Portia was reported missing on March 13, prompting police to begin trawling CCTV footage in a bid to trace her

The last confirmed sighting of her was at the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel on Friday March 14.

Portia, who is single and lives alone in a flat in North Finchley, is described as slim with blue eyes and shoulder-length dyed blonde hair, but often wears a baseball cap.

The sociable, outgoing young woman ran as the Green Party candidate for Hendon, North London, in 2019 – with her brother saying “she’s not the kind of person who just vanishes“.

Her family are urging her to contact them, after it was revealed by police her phone and bank cards have not been used in weeks.

Her mum, Janina said: “We are all very worried as Portia is very vulnerable.

“Portia has not been in contact with or seen by any family or friends since February.

“We appeal to the public for anyone to please come forward if they know anything about her or her whereabouts.

“We also appeal to Portia directly, please get in touch with any of your family or friends.”

PC Harjinder Kang, from the Met’s north west missing persons unit, added: “We are growing increasingly concerned for Portia’s safety, as this behaviour is out of character for her.

“We urge anyone who may have seen her to contact police.

“Officers have been carrying out a number of enquiries in an effort to trace her and we are now turning to the public for help.

“Please get in touch if you can help us locate Portia.”

Speaking previously, her brother Max, 31, said: “She’s got a master’s degree, she’s an intelligent girl, she’s not the kind of person who just vanishes.

“It’s like she’s dropped off the face of the earth.

He added: “She is very much her own person, but she has lots of friends.

“We reported her missing on March 13 after we realised none of her friends had seen her in weeks.

“The police were then able to look at her bank cards and phone, they can check when it was last used unlike using the ticks on Whatsapp to see if messages were delivered.

“They found out that they hadn’t been used for nearly three weeks, since the start of March.

“Who doesn’t need money for nearly three weeks? Even if you’d met someone you’d go out and get coffee or something, it just doesn’t make sense.”

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Portia also has strong links to Medway, where she is from.

Police would urge anyone with information on her whereabouts to call police on 101 or anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111, quoting 01/7262039/25.

Federal Communications Commissioner Anna M. Gomez traveled to Los Angeles this week to sound an alarm that attacks on the media by President Trump and his lieutenants could fray the fabric of the 1st Amendment.

Gomez’s appearance Wednesday at Cal State L.A. was designed to take feedback from community members about the changed media atmosphere since Trump returned to office. The president initially expelled Associated Press journalists from the White House, for example. He signed an executive order demanding government funding be cut to PBS and NPR stations.

Should that order take effect, Pasadena-based radio station LAist would lose nearly $1.7 million — or about 4% of its annual budget, according to Alejandra Santamaria, chief executive of parent organization Southern California Public Radio.

“The point of all these actions is to chill speech,” Gomez told the small crowd. “We all need to understand what is happening and we need people to speak up and push back.”

Congress in the 1930s designed the FCC as an independent body, she said, rather than one beholden to the president.

But those lines have blurred. In the closing days of last fall’s presidential campaign, Trump sued CBS and “60 Minutes” over edits to an interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, alleging producers doctored the broadcast to enhance her election chances. CBS has denied the allegations and the raw footage showed Harris was accurately quoted.

Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, upon taking office in January, revived three complaints of bias against ABC, NBC and CBS, including one alleging the “60 Minutes” edits had violated rules against news distortion. He demanded that CBS release the unedited footage.

The FCC’s review of Skydance Media’s pending takeover of CBS-parent Paramount Global has been clouded by the president’s $20-billion lawsuit against CBS. The president rejected Paramount’s offer to settle for $15 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which said Trump has demanded more.

Two high-level CBS News executives involved in “60 Minutes” were forced out this spring.

Gomez, in an interview, declined to discuss the FCC’s review of the Skydance-Paramount deal beyond saying: “It would be entirely inappropriate to consider the complaint against the ’60 Minutes’ segment as part of a transaction review.” Scrutinizing edits to a national newscast “are not part of the public interest analysis that the commission does when it considers mergers and acquisitions,” she said.

For months, Gomez has been the lone voice of dissent at the FCC. Next month, she will become the sole Democrat on the panel.

The longtime communications attorney, who was appointed to the commission in 2023 by former President Biden, has openly challenged her colleague Carr and his policies that align with Trump’s directives. She maintains that some of Carr’s proposals, including opening investigations into diversity and inclusion policies at Walt Disney Co. and Comcast, go beyond the scope of the FCC, which is designed to regulate radio and TV stations and others that use the public airwaves.

The pressure campaign is working, Gomez said.

“When you see corporate parents of news providers … telling their broadcasters to tone down their criticisms of this administration, or to push out the executive producer of ’60 Minutes’ or the head of [CBS] News because of concerns about retribution from this administration because of corporate transactions — that is a chilling effect,” Gomez said.

Wednesday’s forum, organized by the nonprofit advocacy group Free Press, was punctuated with pleas from professors, journalists and community advocates for help in fending off Trump’s attacks. One journalist said she lost her job this spring at Voice of America after Trump took aim at the organization, which was founded more than 80 years ago to counter Nazi propaganda during World War II.

The Voice of America’s remaining staffers could receive reduction-in-force notices later this week, according to Politico.

Latino journalists spoke about the difficulty of covering some stories because people have been frightened into silence due to the administration’s immigration crackdown.

For now, journalists are able to carry out their missions “for the most part,” said Gabriel Lerner, editor emeritus of the Spanish-language La Opinión.

But he added a warning.

“Many think that America is so exceptional that you don’t have to do anything because fascism will never happen here,” Lerner said. “I compare that with those who dance on the Titanic thinking it will never sink.”

The White House pushed back on such narratives:

“President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history. He regularly takes questions from the media, communicates directly to the public, and signed an Executive Order to protect free speech on his first day back in office,” spokesperson Anna Kelly said. “He will continue to fight against censorship while evaluating all federal spending to identify waste, fraud, and abuse.”

FCC Commission Chairman Brendan Carr on Capitol Hill.

(Alex Wroblewski / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Traditionally, the five-member FCC has maintained an ideological balance with three commissioners from the party in power and two from the minority. But the senior Democrat — Geoffrey Starks — plans to step down next month, which will leave just three commissioners: Gomez, Carr and another Republican, Nathan Simington.

Trump has nominated a third Republican, Olivia Trusty, but the Senate has not confirmed her appointment.

Trump has not named a Democrat to replace Starks.

Some on Wednesday expressed concern that Gomez’s five-year tenure on the commission could be cut short. Trump has fired Democrats from other independent bodies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Gomez said if she is pushed out, it would only be because she was doing her job, which she said was defending the Constitution.

Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Indio) applauded Gomez’s efforts and noted that he’s long appreciated coordinating with her on more routine FCC matters, such as ensuring wider broadband internet access.

“But now the fight is the survival of the free press,” Ruiz said.

He noted that millions of people now get news from non-journalist sources, leading to a rise of misinformation and confusion.

“What is the truth?” Ruiz said. “How can we begin to have a debate? How can we begin to create policy on problems when we can’t even agree on what reality is?”

A MASS grave of more than 50 skeletons has cast light on tribal warfare in Iron Age Britain, where gangs engaged in bloody turf wars.

Historians previously believed mass slaughter events involving hill fort tribes in the west country were caused by invading Romans.

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But radiocarbon dating of human remains unearthed in 1936 have revealed the victims were actually killed a century before the Romans arrived.

Researchers believe “localised gangland infighting” was actually behind the killings, which happened to be at one of Europe’s biggest hill forts, the Daily Mail reported.

“We can now say quite categorically that these individuals died a long time before the Romans arrived and over a long period of time, not in single battle for a hill fort,” Dr Miles Russell, principal academic in prehistoric and Roman archaeology at Bournemouth University, said in a statement.

The Romans didn’t arrive in Dorset until 43AD.

Cut marks on the victims suggest they were killed by “lethal weapon injuries” – and in very public displays.

Experts say their deaths could have acted as a warning to others not to fall out of line.

Dr Russell, who has spent several years researching the burial site at Maiden Castle near Dorchester, added: “The deaths were a series of gangland-style executions.

“People were dragged up there and put to death as a way of one group exerting control over another.”

The executions took place between the late first century BC to the early first century AD – suggesting the violence was lethal across multiple generations.

“These were Mafia-like families. Game of Thrones-like barons with one dynasty wiping out another to control trade links and protection rackets for power,” Dr Russell continued.

“What we are seeing is the people who lost out being executed.

“Most of them had cranial trauma with no sign of defensive wounds. They were repeatedly struck with a sword to the head with the skulls smashed to oblivion.

“You are talking overkill, not a single death blow. These were gangland executions carried out in a very prominent and obvious way as a warning to others.”

The Maiden Castle grave site is one of the most famous archaeological discoveries in Britain.

When it was unearthed in 1936, dig director Sir Mortimer Wheeler suggested the injuries were “the marks of battle” with the Romans.

The misinterpretation of the Maiden Castle site, dubbed the “war cemetery”, brings into question how other archaeological cemeteries across the south west have been understood.

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CHILLING travel warnings have been issued for tourists visiting Turkey amid Brit mum Beth Martin’s mysterious death in Istanbul’s public hospital.

Ms Martin, 28, tragically died after suddenly falling ill during her dream holiday in the country.

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She was rushed to a two-star-rated public hospital, where she is said to have taken her last breath and had her heart allegedly removed without any permission.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) warns that coroners in Turkey can take small tissue samples and organs for testing “without the family’s permission” under Turkish laws.

The advisory says that these orphans are usually returned before the person’s body is released.

However, Turkish authorities “might keep he body parts without permission in exceptional circumstances”, the foreign office warned.

The travel warning was placed before Ms Martin’s death and has nothing to do with her tragic case.

That’s because hospitals in Turkey have faced accusations of stealing organs and facilitating illegal transplants.

Meanwhile, the British government in its travel advisory warned tourists to be aware of medical treatments in the country.

The Foreign Office suggested that people visiting the country for medical tourism should exercise caution and discuss plans with a UK doctor beforehand.

The travel advisory reads: “We are aware of six British nationals having died in Turkey in 2024 following medical procedures.

“Some British nationals have also experienced complications and needed further treatment or surgery following their procedure.”

Ms Martin was wheeled to Marmara University Pendik Training and Research Hospital – a low-rated public hospital built on the outskirts of the Turkish capital.

After scrambling for an ambulance, she was finally admitted to the hospital, which offers Istanbul‘s International Patient Service serving foreign patients.

The doctors are understood to have checked her heart by performing an angiogram – a form of X-ray that shows blood vessels.

After doing the checks, the doctors told husband Luke they did not find anything suspicious.

However, Ms Martin was dead by the very next day – leaving Luke to explain the tragedy to their two young children, aged 8 and 5.

Her family claims they were left completely in the dark by Turkish authorities throughout the whole ordeal.

And sickeningly, once they finally got back to the UK with her body, a UK autopsy revealed her heart had been removed – without any prior consent or authorisation.

Marmara Pendik Hospital is now facing a negligence investigation over Ms Martin’s sudden death, according to Ms Martin’s family.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) is also making its own enquiries with local authorities, the Daily Mail reports.

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The public hospital has a low rating on Google, averaging just two stars.

A website operated by the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Health states that the hospital’s principles are “transparency and accountability [with] people at the focal point of the fairness of the health service that is excellent”.

The Sun has reached out to the hospital for comment.

Meanwhile, Luke told how he was then shocked when Turkish police initially accused him of poisoning and killing his wife after her shocking death.

She was being treated in intensive care, he said, before adding he was banned from seeing her.

Beth and Luke’s parents flew out the following day and were again kept in the dark.

They were then shocked to discover Beth had been transferred to another hospital overnight, due to “concerns with her heart”, with none of the family members informed.

Close friend Ellie, who travelled to Turkey to try and help, detailed her experience of what happened after Beth’s death.

She revealed that Beth was supposed to be transferred to a private clinic.

But the public hospital was slow to act and “stopped her” from doing so.

She told how the doctors were acting strangely.

Ellie explained: “All they went on about is ‘are you going to sue the hospital? Sign this bit of paper’.

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“I said: ‘Is there something we should be suing for? Do you know something we don’t? Because that’s really suspicious.'”

The family, who have not been told her cause of death, claim they were also forced to carry Beth in a body bag through the hospital.

She blasted the hospitals, saying: “The insurance company wanted to move her to a private hospital but the public hospital in Istanbul were not cooperating, they were being slow and delaying reports and not sending information over.

“They stopped her.”

She noted how suspicious it was that Beth’s hair was in “perfect” shape despite the mum undergoing “45 minutes of CPR”.

She speculated: “They said they did 45 minutes of CPR but anyone who has ever had CPR or has seen CPR knows how brutal it is.

“When I saw Beth in the morgue after she had her hair in two French plaits and they were perfect.

“There is no way they did CPR for 45 minutes, I know that,” she defiantly stated.”

She added that medical reports rule out food poisoning as a cause of death, but they still do not confirm how exactly the mum died.

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THIS is the chilling moment the doomed Titan sub imploded as it was captured on video from its own support ship.

Footage reveals the sound of when OceanGate’s submersible catastrophically failed during its descent to the Titanic wreck in June 2023.

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The haunting video was obtained by the BBC and presented to the US Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation.

It shows Wendy Rush – wife of OceanGate boss Stockton Rush – staring at a computer used to receive messages from the Titan when a deep metallic thud rings out.

Wendy, visibly startled, freezes before glancing up and asking the crew: “What was that bang?”

Seconds later, a message arrives from the sub: “dropped two wts” – a reference to the Titan shedding weights to control its dive.

But the timing of the message was tragically misleading.

According to investigators, the sub had already imploded.

The sound reached the surface faster than the delayed text, giving the false impression all was well.

All five people onboard were killed instantly when the vessel collapsed under immense pressure at a depth of around 3,300m – just 90 minutes into the £195,000-a-head journey.

The doomed expedition claimed the lives of CEO Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.

A BBC documentary, in which the footage is featured, will also reveal chilling new findings – including that the Titan’s carbon fibre hull began failing a full year before the fatal dive.

Lieutenant Commander Katie Williams from the USCG said: “Delamination at dive 80 was the beginning of the end.

“And everyone that stepped onboard the Titan after dive 80 was risking their life.”

The documentary details how carbon fibre, an unconventional choice for deep-sea vessels, started to separate in 2022.

On that dive, passengers heard a loud bang, but Rush reportedly reassured them it was “the sub shifting in its frame.”

The USCG has since confirmed that noise was a sign the hull was beginning to break apart.

Despite warnings from experts and former OceanGate staff – one calling the sub an “abomination” – Titan continued making dives.

Deep-sea explorer Victor Vescovo admitted: “I specifically told them that it was simply a matter of time before it failed catastrophically.”

Businessman Oisin Fanning, who was onboard for the last two successful dives, said: “If you’re asking a simple question: ‘Would I go again knowing what I know now?’ – the answer is no.”

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The mangled wreckage of the Titan was later recovered from the Atlantic seabed, along with clothing, stickers and business cards.

The USCG has confirmed “presumed human remains” were found and matched to the victims.

Christine Dawood, who lost her husband Shahzada and son Suleman, told the BBC the tragedy had changed her forever.

“I don’t think that anybody who goes through loss and such a trauma can ever be the same.”

The harrowing footage comes as the USCG prepares to release its final report later this year, with legal fallout already beginning.

In April, billionaire heiress Karen Lo launched a £1million lawsuit after her trip aboard Titan was axed.

The Hong Kong businesswoman, worth around £758million, paid £680,000 for the once-in-a-lifetime voyage – only for it to be cancelled after the sub was struck by lightning in 2018.

She was promised priority rebooking, but after the sub imploded in 2023, she demanded her money back.

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Lo is now suing Henry Cookson’s ultra-luxury travel firm, arguing it broke the contract.

The company denies wrongdoing, insisting she declined to use her credit for alternative trips and that the refund policy was clear.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, a 20-second audio clip recorded 900 miles from the implosion site emerged, capturing what experts believe was the actual moment the Titan was crushed.

The eerie recording revealed the “acoustic signature” of the vessel’s final seconds.

Rescue hopes were initially high when Titan vanished from sonar on June 18, 2023.

But days later, its shattered remains were discovered scattered across the ocean floor – an area the size of six football pitches.

The Titan was last heard from at 10.47am with the message: “dropped two wts.”

Six seconds later, it vanished from sonar.

The support ship Polar Prince sent a final message at 10.49am: “lost tracking.”

Communication was never re-established.

OceanGate later issued a statement: “We again offer our deepest condolences to the families of those who died on June 18, 2023… It would be inappropriate to respond further while we await the agencies’ reports.”

The investigation continues.