WORLD NEWS
Ukraine struggling to keep lights on under Russian attack, says energy boss
Jonathan BealeDefence correspondent in Kyiv
YURIY DYACHYSHYN/AFP
Across Ukraine electricity is being rationed – with supplies turned on for a few hours each day
Ukraine’s biggest energy provider is living in permanent crisis mode because of Russian attacks on the grid, its chief executive has told the BBC.
Most of Ukraine is suffering from lengthy power cuts as temperatures drop and Maxim Timchenko, whose company DTEK provides power for 5.6 million Ukrainians, says the intensity of strikes has been so frequent “we just don’t have time to recover”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that Russia knew the winter cold could become one of its most dangerous weapons.
“Every night Ukrainian parents hold their children in basements and shelters hoping our air defence will hold,” he told the Dutch parliament.
As the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full scale invasion approaches, Maxim Timchenko says Russia has repeatedly targeted DTEK’s energy grid with “waves of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles” and his company has found it difficult to cope.
Tens of thousands of people in the southern city of Odesa have been without electricity for three days this week, following a co-ordinated Russian attack.
Reuters
Much of Odesa has been without power in recent days
“Life has been difficult, but people are very supportive of each other,” says Yana, who is among those lucky enough still to have power. She has invited friends to her home to charge their phones.
Power outages also cut off heat and water supplies and Yana says those still connected to the grid have offered strangers the chance to wash or take a shower.
Across Ukraine electricity is being rationed – with supplies turned on for a few hours each day.
Many Ukrainians rely on power banks and generators as a back-up, and the sound of generators in the capital is now more constant than the air raid warnings.
Kyiv resident Tetiana says the first thing she does in the morning is to check her phone to find out the daily schedule for when her power will be switched on. Like many she has invested in power banks to make life more bearable:
“You need to remember when you leave home to leave the powerbanks on so that you have them charged when you get back home.”
Shutterstock
Many Ukrainians rely on powerbanks and generators during regular power cuts
About 50% of Ukraine’s energy is currently supplied by three large nuclear power plants in central and western Ukraine. But the network that transfers that power has been severely damaged.
DTEK runs about 10 power stations, most of them fuelled by coal.
One was recently targeted by five 5 ballistic missiles and Mr Timchenko said some of their power plants and sub stations had been attacked “every three or four days”.
“I don’t remember a single day when I had no reports about some damage to our grid.”
Matthew Goddard/BBC
DTEK chief executive Maxim Timchenko says his company has found it hard to cope
Finding spare parts to repair damaged equipment has become a significant challenge.
The energy provider used to be able to source equipment from within Ukraine, but now it has to scour the ret of Europe for replacement parts.
This year DTEK has had to spend $166m (£123m) on repairing its damaged thermal power plants and coal facilities.
“We will not give up,” Maxim Timchenko insists: “We have a responsibility to millions of mothers to have power and heat”.
DTEK’s origins are in the Donbas in Eastern Ukraine where the fighting is fiercest and where power supplies have been disrupted the most.
Eight of its engineers have been killed doing their job.
“Every day they risk their lives to keep power in this area,” Mr Timchenko said.
Additional reporting by Anastasia Levchenko and Kyla Herrmannsen.
NewsFeed
Australia’s government is fending off political attacks from inside and outside the country after the Bondi massacre. Israeli leaders and interest groups have been condemned for trying to politicise the killings, as Soraya Lennie explains.
Published On 16 Dec 2025
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Elio Della Ferrera, Arch. PaleoStelvio
Initial research was carried out before snow covered the area
Thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back 210 million years have been found in a national park in northern Italy.
The footprints – some of which are up to 40cm (15in) in diameter – are aligned in parallel rows, and many show clear traces of toes and claws.
It is thought the dinosaurs were prosauropods – herbivores with long necks, small heads and sharp claws.
“I never would have imagined I’d come across such a spectacular discovery in the region where I live,” said Milan-based paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso.
Illustrazione di Fabio Manucci, Arch. PaleoStelvio
Artist’s rendition of a herd of prosauropods walking across a muddy plain during low tide. Smaller footprints suggest the herd also included young specimens
Last September a photographer spotted the footprints stretching hundreds of metres on a vertical mountain wall in the Stelvio national park, north-east of Milan.
In the Triassic period – between about 250 and 201 million years ago – the wall was a tidal flat, which later became part of the Alpine chain.
“This place was full of dinosaurs; it’s an immense scientific treasure,” Mr Dal Sasso said.
The herds moved in harmony, he added, “and there are also traces of more complex behaviours, like groups of animals gathering in a circle, perhaps for the purposes of defence.”
The prosauropods, which could be up to 10m (33ft) long, walked on two legs but in some cases handprints were found in front of footprints, indicating that they probably stopped and rested their forelimbs on the ground.
Elio Della Ferrera, Arch. PaleoStelvio
Photographer Elio Della Ferrera snapped the first picture of the mountain wall showing the footprints
Elio Della Ferrera, the photographer who discovered the site, said he hoped the discovery would “spark reflection in all of us, highlighting how little we know about the places we live in: our home, our planet”.
According to a press release from the Italian culture ministry, the area is remote and not accessible by paths, so drones and remote sensing technology will be employed instead.
The Stelvio national park is located in the Fraele valley by Italy’s border with Switzerland, near where the Winter Olympics will take place next year.
“It’s as if history itself wanted to pay homage to the greatest global sporting event, combining past and present in a symbolic passing of the baton between nature and sport,” said the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Polish authorities said on Tuesday that they had arrested a 19-year-old university student on suspicion of plotting an attack on a Christmas market and seeking contact with the self-styled “Islamic State” terrorist group.
A spokesman for Polish special services, Jacek Dobrzynski, said that the suspect wanted to commit an attack using explosives that could have caused mass casualties.
What investigators said about the case
“The man was very fascinated by Islam, sought to establish contacts with the Islamic State, and was preparing an attack in Poland, in one of the cities during a Christmas market,” Dobrzynski said.
He declined to say which city the alleged attack plot targeted so as “not to cause panic.”
Dobrzynski said that the suspect — a student at the Catholic University in the city of Lublin, to the southeast of the capital Warsaw — had been detained in November and had been trying to procure materials for the attack.
He said he was arrested in his apartment. Investigators seized data storage devices and items related to Islam.
The suspect was charged with “undertaking preparatory actions to carry out a terrorist attack that could have resulted in the death or serious injury of many people,” and a court ordered that he be detained for three months.
Call for vigilance
Dobrzynski noted the arrest in June of three young men accused of gathering explosive materials and planning terrorist actions, reportedly including a plan to attack a school in the northern Polish city of Olsztyn.
“You are familiar with this issue from Olsztyn, now we have another example of preparing an attack before Christmas,” Dobrzynski said, also making reference to the Bondi Beach attack in Sydney.
“We are shocked by the incident in Sydney, we are shocked by the attacks that occured in previous years before Christmas in other European countries. Let’s remain vigilant.”
German authorities announced five arrests on Saturday in connection with an alleged plot to attack a Christmas market in Bavaria.
Edited by: Wesley Dockery
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FIRST ON FOX: Senior Israeli intelligence officials say warnings delivered to Australia ahead of a deadly attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach were part of a much broader alert: an accelerating global rise in attempts to execute terror attacks across Western countries, increasingly aimed not only at Jewish targets, but also at Christians and large gatherings especially during religious holidays.
According to a senior Israeli intelligence official, Israel’s foreign intelligence service has been tracking a sharp increase in attempted attacks worldwide, many of them low-tech, quickly mobilized and designed to exploit open societies and crowded public events.
“We stopped a few ticking bombs, the target was on people’s heads,” the senior official told Fox News Digital.
ISRAELI KNESSET MEMBER SAYS AUSTRALIAN OFFICIALS ‘DID NOTHING’ AMID RISE OF ANTISEMITISM BEFORE SYDNEY ATTACK
People attend a floral memorial in honour of the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. (Flavio Brancaleone/Reuters)
Israeli intelligence officials say Australia is not an outlier. From their perspective, recent months have revealed a pattern of attempted and disrupted plots across Europe, North America and beyond, pointing to a sustained global threat rather than sporadic violence.
“If you knew how many terror attacks we exposed and prevented,” the senior official said, “your jaw would drop.”
Israeli intelligence officials say the rise in attempted attacks is driven in part by how extremist and state-linked networks build terror infrastructure globally while deliberately masking their origins.
Officials say the networks frequently rely on non-Iranian nationals to carry out different roles along the operational chain, including logistics, intelligence gathering, financing and execution, in order to blur any connection to Tehran. In some cases, operatives are recruited from migrant or refugee backgrounds, while in others criminal elements or hired proxies are used to carry out acts of violence.
People gather around a tribute for shooting victims outside the Bondi Pavilion at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025, a day after the shooting. (Mark Baker/AP Photo)
To avoid detection, officials say the networks rely on encrypted communications and clandestine in-person meetings, sometimes conducted outside the country where an attack is planned. In other cases, instructions are delivered remotely through secure channels that bypass standard telecommunications monitoring.
According to Israeli assessments, extremist networks are increasingly overlapping: jihadist ideology, lone-actor violence and state-linked activity now exist in the same ecosystem, fueled by online radicalization and geopolitical instability. Many plots, officials say, are unsophisticated, making them harder to detect early while still capable of causing mass casualties.
‘WE WARNED THEM’ JEWISH LEADER SAYS AFTER BONDI BEACH TERROR ATTACK THAT KILLS 15
A member of the public leaves the scene with her child, who is covered in an emergency blanket, after a shooting at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Two gunmen dressed in black fired several shots at Sydney’s world-famous Bondi Beach, causing at least 10 injuries and three deaths, and setting off mass panic on a Sunday evening. (Photo by George Chan/Getty Images)
Israeli intelligence officials and foreign diplomatic sources warn that the threat is not limited to Jewish targets and is global. “We exposed terror cells in Germany, Greece, Austria — but not only Europe — also in South America, India and Thailand.” The senior official said he cannot elaborate further.
A senior foreign diplomatic source said the current environment is being shaped by what they described as a global contagion effect, in which attacks are amplified online, celebrated across extremist networks and rapidly imitated elsewhere.
According to the source, attacks are increasingly attractive to extremists because they are relatively easy to carry out while producing outsized psychological and political impact.
RABBI SLAMS AUSTRALIA OVER BONDI MURDER OF TWO JEWISH LEADERS, ONE WITH ‘DEEP US TIES’
Heavily armed police officers can be seen at the Christmas market in Essen, Germany. (Roland Weihrauch/picture alliance via Getty Images)
The source cautioned that Christian communities and broader civilian gatherings are also vulnerable, particularly during religious holidays and symbolic events that attract large crowds.
This concern has been reflected across Europe in recent weeks, when authorities sharply increased security at Christmas markets and holiday celebrations amid warnings that seasonal events present prime targets for extremist violence. Armed patrols, barriers and surveillance were expanded in multiple cities as officials assessed elevated risks tied to jihadist-inspired attacks and lone actors.
On Monday, federal authorities announced they foiled a New Year’s Eve terror plot, arresting suspects accused of planning coordinated attacks involving improvised explosive devices, according to the Department of Justice. Prosecutors said the plot was disrupted before explosives were fully assembled, underscoring both the scale of the threat and the importance of early intelligence intervention.
A second senior Israeli intelligence source said the broader threat environment has deteriorated after two years of war in the Middle East, which they said has energized radical Islamist movements globally.
According to the source, instability in Syria is of particular concern, creating conditions that could allow ISIS to regroup and once again project influence beyond the region.
“I’m worried about Syria and that ISIS will return,” the source said, warning that renewed activity there could inspire further attacks in Europe, Australia and North America.
MAMDANI CONDEMNS ‘ANTISEMITIC TERROR’ AFTER HANUKKAH MASSACRE — BUT MUM ON ‘GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA’
Police vans and ambulances stand next to the annual Christmas market in the city center following a possible terror incident on Dec. 20, 2024 in Magdeburg, Germany. (Craig Stennett/Getty Images)
The source said the growing prevalence of lone actors and sleeper cells poses a significant challenge to Western security services, as individuals with minimal resources can still carry out deadly attacks and trigger copycat violence.
While Australian authorities have not linked the Bondi Beach attack to foreign intelligence direction, Israeli officials say the case fits into a wider global picture: a sustained rise in attempted terror attacks, many of which never become public because they are disrupted early.
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“We see it everywhere,” the senior intelligence official said. “And most of what we stop, the public never hears about.”
Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.
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Even as primary races heat up, influential Democrat and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is withholding her endorsements for contests in her own backyard.
“It looks like he’s built a strong coalition,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent, but said “I haven’t endorsed” for the race.
It is a sign of Ocasio-Cortez’s maturing from being a progressive insurgent who pulled off an improbable win in 2018 against a member of House Democratic leadership to becoming a major power broker.
In New York’s 10th district, outgoing Comptroller Brad Lander is challenging incumbent Democrat Dan Goldman. In the 15th district, Michael Blake is running against Rep. Ritchie Torres. Both Goldman and Torres have been criticized by progressive Democrats for their support for Israel amid the war in Gaza. Lander has long been an ally of Ocasio-Cortez. During the primary for New York City’s mayoral race, which uses ranked choice voting, she ranked Lander third behind city council speaker Adrienne Adams and her main choice, eventual winner Zohran Mamdani.
Still, Ocasio-Cortez has held off on giving any endorsements heading into 2026 and the upcoming Midterm elections.
“We are in a cycle of very high democratic voter enthusiasm, and I think that we’re seeing that in the results in some of our special elections,” Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent.
open image in gallery
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is holding out on endorsing a candidate in New York even as races heat up. (AFP via Getty Images)
Ocasio-Cortez has become a sought-after voice in the Democratic Party. During California’s Proposition 50, which allowed for a one-time redistricting, she cut an ad in English and Spanish. In addition, after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voted to keep the government open in March, many Democrats pushed for her to challenge Schumer in 2028.
Polling shows she is often considered in the top four Democrats voters are considering for a run for president.
Still, Ocasio-Cortez and her team have remained mum about any higher ambitions. Despite her not being selected to serve as the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, she recently joined the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which allows her to shape policy on climate change and health care, two of her major policy priorities.
Ocasio-Cortez came to Congress under similar circumstances in 2018 that are unfolding in 2026 with Democrats seizing a wave of voter angst. In 2018, she challenged House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley and pulled off an upset win for her district in the Bronx and Queens.
In the wake of that victory, she would support primary challengers to incumbent Democrats, such as Cori Bush in Missouri’s 1st district against incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay and New York’s Jamaal Bowman against incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel.
She also endorsed Jessica Cisneros in Texas’s 28th district against Rep. Henry Cuellar, a conservative Democrat opposed to abortion, in 2020 and 2022. But when Trump pardoned Cuellar earlier this month after he had been under federal indictment, she did not comment when The Independent asked.
open image in gallery
Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have previously endorsed progressive insurgents such as New York’s Jamaal Bowman. (Getty Images)
AOC’s approach to the 2026 midterms differs from another major Democratic player, New York City Mayor-Elect Mamdani. He has already endorsed Goldman in his New York race.
“I don’t really have any thoughts,” Goldman told The Independent.
Goldman withheld his endorsement of Mamdani after he won the Democratic primary earlier this year, though Goldman defended the mayor-elect from Islamophobic attacks from Republicans.
“I feel good about the work I’ve been doing, and that’s what I’m focused on,” Goldman said.
Goldman and Torres are not the only Democrats who face primary challenges in New York. Rep. Adriano Espaillat also faces one from Darializa Avila Chevalier. Espaillat endorsed former governor Andrew Cuomo in the primary, but backed Mamdani after the primary.
The chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus said he welcomed a primary challenge.
“I think is, I’ve always thought it was a mistake for any elected–any elected–to try to avoid primary,” he told The Independent. “Every two years we got to face our voters, and they have to sign our contract, and they got to say, yeah, you can continue to represent us or not.”
But not every incumbent Democrat in New York faces a viable challenger. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries faced a potential tough fight against city council member Chi Ossé, but Ossé ultimately backed out.
Jeffries said he would back incumbent Democrats.
“I stand in support of every single one of my colleagues in New York City and beyond,” he told The Independent.
NEED TO KNOW
- Ten people, including three children, have died following a private jet crash in central Mexico
- The jet, which was traveling between Acapulco and Toluca, attempted an emergency landing on a soccer field before bursting into flames
- Mexico State Civil Protection Coordinator Adrián Hernández confirmed the accident killed ten people, including three minors, per abc7
Ten people, including 3 minors, have died after a small plane crashed in central Mexico, according to local authorities, per abc7.
On Monday, Dec. 15, the private jet was forced to attempt an emergency landing on a soccer field in San Mateo, Atenco — 32 miles west of Mexico City — when it instead hit a warehouse and burst into flames, according to The Telegraph, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and abc7.
The plane had been traveling from Acapulco and was on the way to Toluca, according to ABC.
Due to the warehouse storing fuel and gas tanks, an evacuation of the building was carried out following the incident, Secretary of Security for the State of Mexico Cristóbal Castañeda said, per abc7.
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Industrial warehouse in the Santa Maria Totoltepec neighborhood near Toluca International Airport in Mexico state on December 15, 2025.
MARIO VAZQUEZ / AFP via Getty
Around 130 people were evacuated from the area, San Mateo Atenco Mayor Ana Muñiz told Milenio Televisión, per abc7. Mexico State Civil Protection Coordinator Adrián Hernández confirmed the accident killed ten people, including three minors.
“It spun around like when a fan breaks loose,” local resident Octavio Contreras said of the private jet, per the outlet. “Then we heard the explosion, the truck even moved, and then we saw smoke coming out.”
Emergency responders at an industrial warehouse in the municipality of San Mateo Atenco, in the state of Mexico, Mexico, 15 December 2025.
FELIPE GUTIERREZ/EPA/Shutterstock
Pictures of the incident show emergency responders from the Toluca fire service near the burnt warehouse with smashed windows and a scorched soccer field.
“In support of a disaster following the collapse of a small plane at the intersection of Industria Automotriz and Miguel Aleman, we immediately went to the site in coordination with Metepec Firefighters, San Mateo Atenco and Lightning, applying the relevant safety protocols,” the Civil Protection Firefighters of Toluca, known as PC Bomberos Toluca, wrote in a statement on Facebook.
They added, “We continue to work in solidarity and jointly with state emergency bodies and neighboring municipalities to achieve the total fire extinguishing and safeguarding the population.”
An investigation has been launched by the Attorney General’s Office, per abc7.
PEOPLE has reached out to the Attorney General’s Office and the Toluca fire service for an update but didn’t immediately hear back.
WORLD NEWS
Moment ex-marine screams ‘get out the f***ing way’ as he ploughs car into Liverpool victory parade crowd in fit of rage – as he is jailed for 21 years and six months
A former royal marine was today jailed for 21 years for mowing down crowds at the Liverpool victory parade – as newly released footage showed the moments leading up to the terrifying attack which left 134 people injured.
Paul Doyle, 54, a married father-of-three, from Croxteth, Liverpool, tried to lie that he ‘panicked’ and drove the car into the crowds on May 26 out of fear for his own life.
But the truth, captured on his own dashcam and in CCTV footage, shows that he lost his temper and deliberately drove his car as a ‘weapon’ in a fit of rage.
For the first time, Doyle can be heard calling fans ‘f***ing pr****’ and beeping his horn, as he ploughed into crowds celebrating the club’s Premier League title win on Water Street in Liverpool city centre.
Sentencing judge Andrew Menary KC told Doyle he acted in an ‘inexplicable and undiluted fury’ when the horror unfolded.
‘It is almost impossible to comprehend how any right-thinking person could act as you did. To drive a vehicle into crowds of pedestrians with such persistence and disregard for human life defies ordinary understanding,’ he said.
Doyle – who had been sobbing throughout his two-day sentencing hearing – did not react as he was handed a jail term of 21 years and six months.
He will serve two-thirds of the prison term in custody and will also be banned from driving for three years after his release – despite victims’ calls for him to be handed a lifetime disqualification.
Today, as Doyle was sentenced to prison it emerged:
- Far from the ‘family man’ he painted himself to be, Doyle had a number of previous convictions and was discharged from the military for assault;
- In 1994, Doyle was jailed for 12 months after biting off a sailor’s ear during a drunken brawl;
- A terror attack victim, cancer survivor, Ukrainian refugee and six-month-old baby were among the 134 people injured during the rampage;
- The carnage only stopped when hero ex-soldier Daniel Barr opened the car door and put the automatic into park mode – despite Doyle continuing to push the accelerator.
This is the horrifying moment an ex-royal marine screamed ‘move, get out the f***ing way’ as he mowed down Liverpool fans with his car at a victory parade
Paul Doyle has been sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court after driving into football fans in May
Doyle previously pleaded guilty to 31 offences relating to seriously injuring people during the victory parade in May. He injured a total of 134 people in seven minutes
He previously pleaded guilty to 31 offences relating to seriously injuring people during the victory parade in May.
Prosecutors said in the space of two minutes, his Ford Galaxy – which weighed nearly two tonnes – collided with ‘well over 100 people’.
The 29 victims named in the indictment ranged in age from six-month-old Teddy Eveson, whose pram was thrown in the air in the crash, and 77-year-old Susan Passey.
In bodycam footage released today, Doyle can be heard saying ‘oh Jesus Christ, sounds horrible’ as he sat in a police van following the rampage.
The camera also appears to show Doyle slumped against a seat inside the vehicle, before saying: ‘My life’s ruined now.’
He continued to tell officers: ‘It’s ruined so many people’s lives, that. That’s just ruined and affected so many lives.’
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Menary KC told the defendant he acted in an ‘inexplicable and undiluted fury’ when he ploughed into crowds.
He told Doyle: ‘It is almost impossible to comprehend how any right-thinking person could act as you did.
‘To drive a vehicle into crowds of pedestrians with such persistence and disregard for human life defies ordinary understanding.’
The judge added: ‘Your actions caused horror and devastation on a scale not previously encountered by this court.’
Join the debate
Should drivers who endanger crowds ever be allowed back behind the wheel?
An artist’s sketch of Paul Doyle as he was today sentenced to 21 years and six months in prison
Footage shows the moment Doyle was detained by police
Doyle’s sentencing hearing was told the 54-year-old was ‘in a rage’ and his ‘anger had completely taken hold of him’
Doyle had travelled to the city centre from his home in Croxteth, Liverpool, to collect friends who had been at the parade.
During his drive into the city he undertook other vehicles and ran a red light.
Footage showed the father-of-three driving down Dale Street, appearing not to slow down despite Liverpool fans filling the roads.
His dashcam footage captured him saying ‘f****** pricks’ as people pulled their children out of the way to prevent him hitting them.
When he reached a line of cars turning right, away from Water Street which was closed to traffic, he paused before swerving into crowds filling the left lane.
People could be seen on the bonnet of his car and falling underneath as Doyle accelerated into the street.
His car was only brought to a stop when fan Daniel Barr climbed into the back seat of the automatic vehicle and held the gearstick in park mode.
Daniel Barr jumped into the back of Paul Doyle’s car and applied the hand brake
After sentencing, ex-solider Mr Barr insisted he is not a hero, saying countless other Liverpool supporters would have done the same thing.
Mr Barr, who did tours of Iraq where his role included searching for improvised explosive devices, jumped into the back of the 54-year-old’s car as he began mowing down fans streaming away from last May’s victory parade and grabbed the gearstick.
Mr Barr spoke of how he shoved it into ‘park’ and held it there even as the raging father-of-three kept revving the engine.
‘He had no chance, he wasn’t going to move my arm,’ the 41-year-old said, adding that Doyle would have had to ‘chop it off’.
Describing his mindset as ‘Get amongst it, do something’, he said anyone with the opportunity to intervene would have done the same.
‘If they could have, they would have.’
And the lifelong Liverpool fan described the horror at feeling the two-ton people carrier ‘going over’ terrified families, ‘sailing through’ as if there was ‘no resistance at all from the people’.
‘It was like it was gliding through, indiscriminately.’
Doyle, who has previous convictions for violence in the 1990s, continued to try to accelerate but the car, which had people trapped underneath it by this point, was unable to move further.
When interviewed, he said he had seen someone with a knife and drove in panic for fear he would be attacked, but police found no evidence from CCTV or witnesses that anyone in the area had a knife.
No defects were found with the car and Doyle was not under the influence of drink or drugs.
He initially denied all 31 offences he was charged with but last month, moments before the prosecution was due to open his trial, he changed his pleas.
James Allison, from the Crown Prosecution Service Mersey-Cheshire, said: ‘Why did he do it? I think the simple answer is he lost his temper. He went into a rage.
‘He just wanted to get down that road, and in trying to get down that road those next couple of minutes probably devastated a lot of people’s lives.’
Detective Chief Inspector John Fitzgerald said: ‘Doyle’s total disregard for the safety of others-particularly the many young children present on Dale Street and Water Street that day-is beyond comprehension.
‘It is sheer luck that no lives were lost.’
He added that the dashcam footage – which is not being released due to its upsetting nature – was ‘the most distressing and graphic’ he had come across in his 20 years of policing.
Donald Trump was forced to sign a bill that would see the Epstein Files released within just a few days, with eyes across the world ready to see what secrets they contain
Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein
The Epstein Files are expected to be released in the coming days after Donald Trump was forced into a humiliating U-turn.
The US President signed a bill that ordered the release of government files connected to the child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Trump vowed to make the documents public during the 2024 race for the White House and was, in part, a reason why millions voted for him.
But he struck a combative tone since his return to the Oval Office and has had public spats with Republicans who wanted the files to be made public. Trump’s apparent tonal shift raised questions about why he would be so reluctant to release the documents.
READ MORE: Brits visiting US face ‘life-altering consequences’ if ‘anti-American’ content foundREAD MORE: Jeffrey Epstein files finally UNSEALED as judge dramatically reverses decision
What has Trump said about Files?
Trump had vowed to release the files while he was on the campaign trial (Image: Getty Images)
Trump was friends with Epstein before the late billionaire was first convicted of child sex offences in 2008. A 2003 “birthday letter” allegedly sent from Trump to Epstein was released earlier this year by House Democrats.
The letter appeared to show the outline of a woman with a suggestive message speaking about a “wonderful secret”. Trump has strongly denied the message was written by him, though it carried his name and what appeared to be his signature.
Trump has dismissed the Epstein Files as a Democrat-organised “hoax” that is being carried out to distract away from his administration’s work in office.
Battle for release
Thomas Massie battled to get the files released (Image: Getty Images)
Republicans dominate Congress and had expected an easy ride to release the Epstein Files but Trump got into public spats with those who wanted to make them public. A bitter battle ensued between Trump and a few Republicans such as Thomas Massie who wanted to get the files out.
Massie eventually teamed up with Democrats to pass a bill that would force the files to be released by December 19. The Department of Justice is, in theory, compelled to release them.
When will Epstein Files be released?
Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 (Image: AP)
The US justice department must release the Epstein Files by Friday December 19. Trump saved to mounting pressure from Republicans and publicly backed the release of the files, leading to an avalanche of Congressmen to back the bill.
Lawmakers passed the legislation by 427 approving votes to one. The Senate passed the bill through unanimous consent. Trump then signed the bill into law, despite having powers to release the files at any time.
NewsFeed
Thailand and Cambodia have had disputes over land going back generations, causing thousands to be displaced along their shared border. Al Jazeera’s Victoria Gatenby breaks it down.
Published On 16 Dec 2025
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A trial got underway in Seoul last week for 46 South Koreans, mostly men in their 20s, accused of participating in online scam operations in Cambodia.
Since mid-October, South Korea has repatriated 107 nationals from Cambodia where officials estimate upwards of 1,000 of its citizens are working either “voluntarily or involuntarily” in scam compounds.
The repatriation effort follows public outrage over the death of a South Korean college student, who was reportedly lured to Cambodia and forced to work in a scam center. The 22-year-old’s body was discovered with injuries consistent with torture, suggesting that he may have been beaten to death.
An autopsy revealed he “died as a result of severe torture, with multiple bruises and injuries across his body,” according to a Cambodian court statement.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said “the government’s greatest responsibility is to safeguard the lives and safety of our people.”
Lee added that, “we must protect the victims and swiftly repatriate those involved in these incidents back to Korea.”
A trial is underway in Seoul for 46 Korean suspects accused of participating in online scam rings in CambodiaImage: Hwawon Ceci Lee/Anadolu/picture alliance
South Korea recently joined the US, UK and Singapore in imposing sanctions on Cambodia’s Prince Holding Group, a multinational network whose founder is accused of running large-scale fraud operations across Southeast Asia — charges the company has rejected.
“What we have seen recently is that like South Korea, there has been a push towards following the money and putting sanctions and freezing people’s money,” said Brian Hanley, Asia-Pacific director for the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA), a global non-profit fighting online fraud. “And we think this has started to make a dent.”
Billions lost to Southeast Asia scam networks
Southeast Asia has become a major hub for digital scam operations. It is estimated that over 200,000 people have been trafficked into countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia under the guise of lucrative job offers. There they work in massive scam centers that are part of a multibillion-dollar cyber fraud industry running online scamming schemes.
These large scam operations are concentrated in remote conflict zones of Southeast Asia, particularly along Thailand’s borders with Cambodia and Myanmar.
Recent clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces have included strikes on suspected scam compounds in Cambodia. In Myanmar, such centers have proliferated and are reportedly financing both sides of the country’s ongoing civil war.
Freed captives describe scam operations in Myanmar
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Scam center workers are typically citizens of Asian countries who are often victims of human trafficking, while the scams primarily target people in Western, English-speaking nations.
“We’re talking about human trafficking and slavery so obviously this is a major human rights issue,” said Hanley. “But it is also a national security issue, not just for the region but for the whole world.”
In its State of the Scams 2025 report, GASA estimates that $442 billion (€375.4 billion) has been lost to scams worldwide in the 12 months ending October 2025. That figure could be higher as many people do not report their losses to online scams.
GASA also found that 57% of adults worldwide have had a scam experience in the last 12 months.
Examples of scams include online shopping, investment and romance scams, which fraudsters refer to as “pig butchering” — a term referring to “fattening” victims by gaining their trust, often through fictitious romantic relationships.
Once trust is established, scammers convince victims to transfer funds into fake cryptocurrency investment platforms, which are then laundered through accounts across Asia, making recovery extremely difficult.
Why the US is a top target for scammer networks
The FBI estimates that the scam industry in Southeast Asia defrauds Americans of $9 billion to $10 billion (€7.7 billion to €8.5 billion) per year.
The GASA report says that $64.8 billion was stolen from Americans in the year ending in October 2025, with each victim losing an average of $1,087. It added that the average American now encounters a scam attempt every single day.
Authorities in Myanmar detain a group of suspected scam centre workers and victims during a crackdown operationImage: AFP/Getty Images
In response to rising instances of cyber fraud, US authorities established the Scam Center Strike Force in November. It is an interagency task force focused on investigating, dismantling, and prosecuting scam centers and those who finance them.
“My office will not stand by as these Chinese organized crime enterprises empty out the bank accounts of hardworking Americans,” said US Attorney Jeanine Pirro when launching the task force.
The US partnered with the UK in 2025 to sanction individuals and entities that operate illegal scam centers across Southeast Asia.
Australia and Singapore also made strides in enacting legislation to protect their citizens from scams and also cooperate with the US on law enforcement operations and sanctions.
For Jacob Sims, a visiting fellow at the Asia Center at Harvard University who has been tracking transnational crime in Cambodia and greater Southeast Asia, the issue of scams has gained significant political traction in the US over the past year.
“A year ago today in DC there was one sanction,” said Sims. “And today, a large number of the prominent names and entities have been sanctioned and there are a dozen bills in Congress.”
However, these actions have also been hampered by cuts to USAID programs in Southeast Asia that monitored human trafficking along the Thai-Myanmar border and in Cambodia, which were eradicated under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“The response thus far, as much momentum as there clearly is, does not yet constitute a truly strategic response and is not yet commensurate to the threat or sufficient to meaningfully disrupt it,” said Sims.
The role of China in scam centers
Many of the massive scam centers across Southeast Asia are said to be run by Chinese criminal networks.
Scam factory: Behind Asia’s cyber slavery
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China has taken steps to shut down scam centers in Cambodia and Myanmar — but only those targeting Chinese people.
A report submitted to the US Congress in July found few links between these criminal networks to the Chinese government or members of the Chinese Communist Party (CPP), but stated that the actions of these organizations often further fuel these regional conflicts through corruption and crime.
Even with the recent announcements of sanctions and criminal investigations, countries like South Korea and even the US appear reluctant to criticize the governments of China or Cambodia and instead target the criminals and their networks directly.
According to Sims, as long as Phnom Penh performs just enough cooperation to preserve the illusion that it remains strategically “in play,” Western capitals have proven reliably willing to tolerate industrial-scale scams targeting their own citizens.
“Many governments hesitate to confront Cambodia directly because they still view it as a pivotal chess piece in a China-versus-the-West geopolitical game,” he said.
Edited by: Keith Walker