United States President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, who is known for operating from well behind the scenes, has suddenly come under the media spotlight as candid interviews with Vanity Fair magazine have stirred controversy.

In the interviews, Susie Wiles was quoted as describing Trump as having an “alcoholic’s personality”, tech tycoon Elon Musk as an “odd, odd duck” and Vice President JD Vance as a “conspiracy theorist”.

Wiles slammed the two-part Vanity Fair article, which was published on Tuesday, calling it a “hit piece”.

Trump is standing by his top aide, whom he has called the “ice maiden”, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The entire administration is … united fully behind her.”

Here is a closer look at who Wiles is and what the report says:

What is the basis of the Vanity Fair article?

Vanity Fair published a two-part report about the second Trump administration, which began in January. The report is based on the interviews with Wiles by American documentary filmmaker and journalist Chris Whipple over the course of the past year.

Wiles chronicled the first year of Trump’s second term “amid each moment of crisis”, Whipple, who conducted 11 on-the-record interviews with Wiles, wrote.

The first of these interviews took place on January 11, a week before Trump’s inauguration.

White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles speaks with fellow attendees during a reception for Sergio Gor, the recently sworn-in US Ambassador to India, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, US, on November 10, 2025 [File: Nathan Howard/Reuters]

Who is Susie Wiles?

Wiles, 68, is the chief of staff at the White House. She is the first woman in history to hold this position.

In 2015, Wiles was invited to Trump Tower in New York to meet Trump as he was transitioning from being a real estate developer to a presidential candidate.

In the Vanity Fair piece, Whipple described her as “the most powerful person in Trump’s White House other than the president himself”.

Whipple quoted an unnamed former Republican Party leader as saying: “So many decisions of great consequence are being made on the whim of the president. And as far as I can tell, the only force that can direct or channel that whim is Susie.”

Wiles has risen from a Capitol Hill intern in the 1970s to a top Republican strategist. At the age of 23, she landed a job as a scheduler in the White House when Republican Ronald Reagan was president.

Wiles’s childhood was difficult. Her father, Pat Summerall, a well-known American football announcer, was an alcoholic. She was raised in Stamford, Connecticut and Saddle River, New Jersey, according to the Vanity Fair article.

What did Wiles say about Trump and his aides?

Here’s what Wiles told Vanity Fair about Trump and his aides, and here is how some of them reacted:

Trump

According to the Vanity Fair report, Wiles said she never doubted Trump would win the presidential election in November 2024.

She added that she was going to present a “new Trump” to the public and even told Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives, before Trump’s inauguration that he would see a different side of Trump in his second term. Trump would be calmer and without a temper, she said.

“I’ve not seen him throw anything, I’ve not seen him scream. I didn’t see that really horrible behaviour that people talk about and that I actually experienced years ago,” Whipple quoted Wiles as saying in his article.

Although Trump is a teetotaller, Wiles was quoted as saying Trump “has an alcoholic’s personality” and he “operates [with] a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing”.

In an interview with the New York Post published on Tuesday, Trump defended Wiles.

About the alcoholic comment, Trump said: “She meant that I’m – you see, I don’t drink alcohol. So everybody knows that, but I’ve often said that if I did, I’d have a very good chance of being an alcoholic. I have said that many times about myself. I do. It’s a very possessive personality.”

Talking about Whipple’s report, Trump said, “I didn’t read it, but I don’t read Vanity Fair, but [Wiles has] done a fantastic job.”

“I think from what I hear, the facts were wrong, and it was a very misguided interviewer, purposely misguided,” the New York Post quoted Trump as saying.

Leavitt also backed Wiles during a Fox News appearance on Tuesday.

“I would just echo my boss, Susie Wiles, who is the best chief of staff in our nation’s history, working for the greatest president in our nation’s history,” Leavitt said. “This was, unfortunately, another attempt at fake news by a reporter who was acting disingenuously and really did take the chief’s words out of context.

“The reporter omitted all of the positive things that Susie and our team said about the president and the inner workings of the White House.”

JD Vance

Wiles said the vice president went from opposing Trump to fully supporting him mostly for political reasons. She also described Vance as being into conspiracy theories for about 10 years.

Vance, who also said he had not read the Vanity Fair article, backed Wiles during an address in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

“You know why I really love Susie Wiles? Because Susie is who she is in the president’s presence [and] she’s the same exact person when the president isn’t around,” Vance said.

“I’ve never seen her be disloyal to the president of the United States, and that makes her the best White House chief of staff that the president could ask for,” he said.

Elon Musk

Wiles also expressed opinions about billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, CEO of the private space exploration company SpaceX and the electric car company Tesla.

During the first few months of Trump’s second term, Musk was his close aide, overseeing the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was meant to slash US government bureaucracy. DOGE became known for carrying out mass layoffs of federal government workers and abruptly shutting down the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Wiles described Musk as a “solo actor”, telling Whipple that “the challenge with Elon is keeping up with him.”

“He’s an avowed ketamine [user]. And he sleeps in a sleeping bag in the EOB [Executive Office Building] in the daytime. And he’s an odd, odd duck, as I think geniuses are. You know, it’s not helpful, but he is his own person,” Wiles was quoted in the Vanity Fair article as saying.

Musk has not publicly reacted to the article. In March, he posted on X – formerly known as Twitter, the social media platform he bought in 2022 – saying, “I’m a big fan of Susie Wiles,” in response to a video of him helping Wiles out with a bag.

When Trump named Wiles his chief of staff after winning the November 2024 election, Musk posted a screenshot of news about the announcement and wrote: “Susie Wiles is great.”

Pam Bondi

In the interview, Wiles also criticised Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The wealthy convicted paedophile died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell. Epstein was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Conspiracy theorists claim, however, that he might have been murdered because he maintained a secret client list of powerful individuals, including politicians, who allegedly abused underage girls. In July, the US Department of Justice, which Bondi heads, concluded that Epstein had no client list.

The Justice Department memo angered right-wing conspiracy theorists and a section of the US president’s base of supporters because it was seen as a retreat from a narrative once promoted by members of the Trump administration.

When Bondi was asked in an interview with Fox News in February about a supposed list of Epstein’s clients, she responded: “It’s sitting on my desk right now to review.”

The same month, political commentators and far-right influencers were invited to the White House and presented with documents called “The Epstein Files: Phase 1”. Bondi released these documents, which did not contain anything revelatory about the Epstein case.

Whipple wrote that Wiles said Bondi “completely whiffed” on understanding that the conservative influencers she invited to the White House were exactly the audience most interested in the documents.

Wiles was quoted as saying Bondi gave the influencers “binders full of nothingness”. Wiles emphasised: “There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”

What was Wiles’s  opinion on other issues?

Trump’s January 6 pardons

On January 6, 2021, thousands of rioters, fuelled by false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, stormed the US Capitol to try to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.

More than 2,000 people broke into the seat of the US Congress, vandalised offices and fought with police, leaving at least five people dead and many injured.

About 1,270 people were convicted of federal crimes over the riot, and their prison sentences ranged from a few years to more than two decades for leaders of far-right groups.

On the day he was inaugurated for his second term, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,500 people who were convicted or indicted in the riots, calling their treatment “outrageous”.

Wiles told Whipple that she questioned Trump pardoning all 1,500.

She was quoted in Vanity Fair as saying: “I said, ‘I am on board with the people that were happenstancers or didn’t do anything violent. And we certainly know what everybody did because the FBI has done such an incredible job.’”

She added that Trump asserted that even the violent offenders were unfairly treated.

The USAID shutdown

Wiles said she was “aghast” when she learned USAID had been shut down.

“I think anybody that pays attention to government and has ever paid attention to USAID believed, as I did, that they do very good work,” she was quoted as saying by Whipple.

Attacks on alleged drug boats

Since September, US military strikes on more than 20 boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have killed more than 80 people. The Trump administration has alleged, without evidence, that these boats belong to drug cartels and carry drugs. It has also accused Venezuela’s left-wing government of being involved in drug trafficking.

“We save 25,000 people every time we knock out a boat,” Trump claimed during an interview with Politico published last week.

Wiles was quoted by Whipple as saying: “The president believes in harsh penalties for drug dealers, as he’s said many, many times. … These are not fishing boats as some would like to allege.

“The president says 25,000. I don’t know what the number is. But he views those as lives saved, not people killed.”

Wiles also affirmed that Trump wants to keep bombing alleged drug boats in the waters off the coast of Venezuela until that country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, “cries uncle”.

How did Wiles react to the Vanity Fair piece?

Wiles criticised the Vanity Fair article as a “disingenuously framed hit piece”.

“The article published early this morning is a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history,” she wrote on X on Tuesday.

“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story. I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team,” she added.

She then went on to claim that Trump has achieved more in his second term in 11 months than any president in eight years.

SOURCE PAGE

The conciliation service Acas has offered to help to try to break the deadlock in the resident doctors’ strike in England.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service has become involved in an effort to find a resolution to the long-running dispute as medics strike for the 14th time over pay and jobs.

Acas’s intervention comes after NHS bosses and the Patients Association in recent days urged the government and the British Medical Association to agree to independent mediation to break the deadlock.

“Acas is in contact with all the parties involved in the resident doctors’ dispute,” said Kevin Rowan, the independent industrial relations conciliation body’s director of dispute resolution, confirming the move.

More details soon …

SOURCE PAGE

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a high-stakes, closed door hearing about his two defunct criminal investigations into President Donald Trump.

In his opening statement, he told Congress his team “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that Trump “engaged in a criminal scheme” to overturn the 2020 election results. Smith also charged Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents.

Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases, and the prosecutions ended after his re-election.

Since returning to office, Trump has demanded investigations of officials who criminally charged him.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, a staunch Trump ally, called Smith’s investigations “partisan and politically motivated”.

In an October letter to Smith, Jordan accused the career prosecutor of using “disturbing tactics”.

Republicans also expressed alarm at the decision to subpoena the phone records of several Republican lawmakers as part of his election investigation.

Smith is testifying in a closed setting on Wednesday, meaning that the public will not be able to hear from him in real time.

According to sections of his opening statement obtained by the BBC’s US partner CBS News, Smith told lawmakers that in both of his investigations, the “basis for those charges rests entirely with President Trump and his actions”.

Smith also said the investigators found “powerful evidence” that Trump had retained classified documents and obstructed efforts to return them to the government.

He will likely face tough questions from the Republican-controlled committee, currently chaired by Jordan, a long-time Trump ally who was a staunch defender of the president during both of his impeachment inquiries.

Democrats on the panel said they wanted to learn more about the results of Smith’s inquiries.

“We want to hear exactly what he found, and what he did,” Congressman Jamie Raskin the top House Judiciary Democrat, told Politico.

According to Smith’s attorney Peter Koski, the special counsel had volunteered to testify in an open hearing.

Smith, was “disappointed that offer was rejected, and that the American people will be denied the opportunity to hear directly from Jack on these topics,” Koski told Politico earlier this month.

The stakes are high for Smith, who Trump has deemed a “criminal” and suggested should be “investigated and put in prison” along with other Department of Justice officials involved in the 2020 election inquiry.

In September, the Department of Justice indicted former FBI Director James Comey based on testimony he gave to Congress in 2019. In November, a federal judge tossed out the case after finding the prosecutor who brought it was improperly appointed.

SOURCE PAGE

The British government on Wednesday said it was giving Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich a “final chance” to donate 2.5 billion pounds (roughly $3.4 billion or €2.85 billion) to Ukraine from the 2022 sale of Chelsea Football Club, or face legal action. 

The funds have been frozen since Abramovich hastily sold the club in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Two successive British governments and Abramovich have been locked in a dispute over how to use the football funds for years.

The UK is calling for them to be donated to humanitarian causes inside Ukraine, while Abramovich argues it should go to “all victims” of the war, including those in Russia. 

Roman Abramovich owned Chelsea for 19 years, helping propel the club into the European elite for the first time in its history [FILE: March 2022]Image: Paul Terry/Sportimage Photo/Newscom/picture alliance

Government threatens legal action

The government alluded to past commitments from Abramovich, made amid intense scrutiny of the sale so soon after Russia’s invasion, to donate the proceeds to charitable causes. 

“It’s unacceptable that more than £2.5 billion of money owed to the Ukrainian people can be allowed to remain frozen in a UK bank account. It’s time for Roman Abramovich to pay up,” Chancellor of the Exchequer (the equivalent to a finance minister) Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday. 

She and Prime Minsiter Keir Starmer both threatened legal action in the case of non-compliance. 

“This government is prepared to enforce it through the courts so that every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war,” Starmer said.

Freezing assets easier than seizing them

However, the government made no mention in its statement of what legal basis it would use for a lawsuit to seek to seize the funds, amid doubts over the feasiblity of doing so. 

Europe and the US have been struggling more generally ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine with the reality of it being relatively easy for governments to freeze assets legally, but much more difficult to appropriate them.

EU member states are currrently in the process of trying to unlock frozen Russian assets to give to Ukraine, having so far only donated the interest earned by this money, not the money itself.

European Union leaders are expected to review proposals aimed at using these frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s budgetary and defense needs at their monthly Brussels summit starting on Thursday. 

Frozen Russian assets key to fund Ukraine: Dutch FM Van Weel

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

License issued to release funds, ‘any proposal’ would be considered

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would issue a licence to release the funds. This would allow the transfer of the money to a new charitable foundation.

“We will consider any proposal from Mr Abramovich to make use of this clear legal route to establish the foundation and transfer the funds under the terms of the licence,” Reeves said in a separate statement issued to parliament.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the British government had been trying to agree a way forward with Abramovich and his company Fordstam Ltd ever since the 2022 sale.

She also appeared to hint at a compromise proposal on Abramovich’s past calls for some of the funds to go to people inside Russia impacted by the war.

“Under the terms of the licence, proceeds must go to humanitarian causes in the country,” Cooper said. “Any future gains earned by the foundation can be spent more broadly on victims of conflict worldwide. In neither case can the funds benefit Abramovich or other sanctioned individuals.” 

Within weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich was able to offload the club to a US consortium [FILE: March 2022]Image: Paul Terry/Sportimage Photo/Newscom/picture alliance

Abramovich transformed Chelsea 

Abramovich bought Chelsea for just 140 million pounds in 2003 at a time when Manchester United and Arsenal were the dominant forces in the Premier League.

The Russian oligarch, who also has Portuguese and Israeli citizenship, is credited with transforming the club’s fortunes. He routinely helped to bankroll blockbuster transfers as the club spent more than $1 billion on playing personnel.

He was rewarded with a staggering 19 major trophies in his 19-year reign, including five Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two Champions League triumphs, and ultimately sold the club for 4.25 billion pounds.

He did not immediately respond to the British government’s comments on Wednesday.

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko

SOURCE PAGE

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox

Get our free Inside Washington email

Get our free Inside Washington email

Americans are waiting with baited breath to see if President Donald Trump will fulfill his promise to send $2,000 tariff rebate checks next year – an idea he has repeatedly floated in press conferences, on social media and meetings.

Over the last 12 months, Trump has taken the U.S. economy on a rollercoaster – starting out high, plummeting the stock market with worldwide tariffs, pressuring the Federal Reserve to make interest rates cuts, overseeing a rise in unemployment and always claiming the country is more affordable than ever.

Trump, who is expected to address the nation Wednesday evening, has made it clear he wants to give Americans cash, especially as he attempts to reclaim the affordability messaging that Democrats managed to win with in November.

“People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! …. A dividend of at least $2000 a person (not including high income people!) will be paid to everyone,” Trump said on Truth Social in November.

But it’s unclear if that reality is possible.

open image in gallery

The White House has not released a formal plan for the alleged $2,000 tariff rebate checks, mostly because the future of tariffs hangs in the balance of the Supreme Court (Getty Images)

The White House has not released a concrete plan and when asked about it, members of the administration and Trump allies have varying degrees of confidence.

“We will see. We need legislation for that,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures last month. Bessent later told ABC News that tariff revenue could come in many forms – indicating it may not necessarily be a paycheck akin to the first Trump administration’s stimulus checks.

Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, told reporters in November, there was enough tariff revenue “to cover those checks and not go into the rest of the budget.”

One major factor as to whether the tariff rebate checks are even possible is how the Supreme Court rules in Trump’s tariff case. If the court upholds Trump’s attempts to impose sweeping tariffs through the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, then the president could move forward with his one-time checks.

But if the court deems the tariffs unconstitutional, it would likely cause major economic disruption and certainly remove the possibility of rebate checks.

The president has also previously suggested next year could see the “largest tax refused season ever,” after a series of tax cuts in July.

open image in gallery

For a majority of imported goods, Americans have seen shorter supply or increased costs as a result of Trump’s tariffs (Getty Images)

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who has consistently praised the president’s unpopular tariff policy, is confident the Supreme Court will side with the administration.

Lutnick told Fox Business that giving Americans a one-time $2,000 check would also “prove to the American people how great tariffs are.”

The administration has been working overtime to try and sell the president’s key economic policy, tariffs, which many predicted would raise consumer prices, increase inflation and lower GDP.

But giving Americans rebate check is an expensive policy that requires sign-off from Republicans in Congress.

So far, Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated he’d rather see money from tariffs go toward paying down the national debt.

Senator Josh Hawley, a staunch ally to Trump, introduced legislation this summer that would give $600 million worth of tariff rebates to Americans.

Some economists have raised concerns that one-time tariff payment checks could raise inflation in the country.

Alex Durante, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation told the New York Times that “pumping money” into the economy without underlying changes threatens to generate higher prices.

But Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, dismissed those concerns last month, claiming it’s “not some kind of ongoing new welfare program or something that would exacerbate inflation.”

SOURCE PAGE

NEED TO KNOW

• Authorities have identified the victims killed in the Mexico plane crash on Dec. 15
• The jet, which had 10 people on board, left the Port of Acapulco and headed toward Toluca when it crashed into the metal roof of a nearby business, officials said
• An investigation is ongoing

The 10 people who were killed when a small plane attempting an emergency landing crashed in central Mexico have been identified as new details emerge about the fatal incident.

The jet crashed south of the Toluca International Airport just after 12:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Dec. 16, Mexico’s Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation previously said in a statement.

At a press conference on Tuesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum said the victims were members of a family who were traveling from Acapulco to Mexico City, according to Mexico News Daily.

Eight of the victims were passengers on the plane, including three children, who have been identified by authorities as Natalia, 2, Raúl, 4, and Ximena, 9, Mexico Daily News and newspaper La Gaceta reported.

The adult passengers who died include Gustavo Palomino Olet, 50; Ilse Lizeth Hernández Téllez, 32; Raúl Gómez Ruiz, 60; Raúl Gómez Buenfil, 31; Olga Janine Buenfil Cardone, 60.

The pilot, Juan Carlos Olivares Casas, 61, and the co-pilot, Walding Sánchez Manzano, 72, also died in the crash.

Members of Civil Protection, firefighters, and forensic experts work at the site of a Cessna Citation 650 light aircraft crash at an industrial warehouse in the municipality of San Mateo Atenco, in the state of Mexico, on Dec. 15, 2025.

FELIPE GUTIERREZ/EPA/Shutterstock

Records showed the plane took off at 12:02 p.m. before crashing at 12:31 p.m., according to La Gaceta. The pilot of the ill-fated plane reportedly sent a message to the control tower minutes before the crash, warning of a malfunction.

As the jet allegedly attempted an emergency landing at a soccer field in San Mateo Atenco, about 32 miles west of Mexico City, it struck the metal roof of a nearby business, igniting a large blaze, according to The Telegraph, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Associated Press.

Photos from the crash site showed emergency responders near the charred warehouse as well as the scorched soccer field.

According to the reports, Ana Muñiz, the mayor of San Mateo Atenco, told Milenio Television that the fire led to the evacuation of around 130 people from the nearby area.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Sheinbaum said at Tuesday’s press conference that the crash appeared to be due to “a technical failure,” according to Mexico Daily News. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

“The Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC), the Directorate of Aviation Accident and Incident Analysis (DAAIA) and the Directorate of Air Navigation Services in Mexican Airspace (SENEAM) are conducting the corresponding investigation,” the Secretary of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation said in its statement.

PEOPLE has reached out to Mexico’s Federal Civil Aviation Agency and the Toluca fire service for more information.

SOURCE PAGE

A 12-year-old child has been detained in Sweden for allegedly killing the wrong person after being paid £20,000 to carry out an assassination.

It comes after a 21-year-old man was murdered in a car in Malmö, southern Sweden, on December 12.

According to Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet, the alleged child assassin shot the man by mistake, meaning to target someone else in the vehicle.

The fatal shooting occurred when the 21-year-old and his friends were travelling in an Audi along Galgebacksvägen in Oxie, at around 10.30pm.

Police received reports about the shooting at around 11pm and the victim – sitting in the back seat – was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after.

Following a murder investigation, police identified a 12-year-old as their prime suspect, according to a report in Sydsvenskan, and took him into custody on Tuesday.

Because he is below the age of legal responsibility, he has been taken into care. 

However, prosecutor Caroline Carlquist has decided to initiate proceedings against the minor in these circumstances, because of the severity of the alleged crime.

The suspect, from central Sweden, has allegedly been given several assassination assignments and was promised £20,000 for this particular murder, Expressen claimed. 

A police van pictured on site at Galgbacken in Oxie after a man was found shot in a car on Kastanjegatan

Forensic experts analyse evidence at the scene of the crime 

The suspect previously lived with his grandmother and was placed there by social services when he was seven years old, according to the court.

He has been the subject of multiple investigations, primarily regarding concerns about his parents’ behaviour, including alleged instances of violence and abuse.

He is apparently the youngest person to be suspected of committing a fatal shooting in Sweden to date, according to local media.

‘I am not aware of any completed murder with such a young suspect,’ Manne Gerell, associate professor of criminology, told Sydsvenskan.

Rasem Chebil, responsible for the investigation at Malmö Police, expressed concern that an increasing number of perpetrators of violent crime are minors.

‘We see that it is creeping down in age. We have had some very young perpetrators, especially in acts with hand grenades… Then you think about how it could have become like this, and how we can stop this development,’ he said.

Chebil blamed social media for the rise in teenage and child assassins in Sweden, suggesting that young people get scouted on their mobile phones by strangers looking to take advantage of them.

‘But before you know it, you’re in the clutches of those who recruit you for serious acts of violence,’ he said.

‘Often these young people believe that their families will suffer if they don’t carry out the tasks.’

Following the shooting, the fellow passengers drove into the city centre and parked the car on a residential street in Hindby, before abandoning the vehicle.

They then contacted another person, who was assigned to alert the police that the 21-year-old had been shot. 

Across Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, Sweden stands out for having the highest prevalence of youth street gang involvement, according to the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU).

In 2022, 73 Swedish youths aged between 15 and 20 were suspected of murder or attempted murder with firearms, a sharp increase from just 10 a decade earlier. 

In 2023, Reuters claimed that 55 people were fatally shot in 363 separate shootings in Sweden, a country of just 10.6 million people. 

In contrast, only six fatal shootings occurred across Norway, Finland, and Denmark combined during the same period.  

Evin Cetin, an author of a book on youth gangs and a former Swedish lawyer, argued that minors are recruited as assassins because of the assumption that they aren’t on the police’s radar.

Many of the children started with petty drug dealing aged 12 or 13 before working as contract killers.

‘They are child soldiers,’ she told the Telegraph, drawing comparisons to ISIS and the Lord’s Resistance Army in parts of Africa. 

‘They are getting used by older people who manipulate them. They are doing it with drugs, they are isolating them from society. It’s really easy to control children – and it is scary how fast they can actually do it.’

SOURCE PAGE

Colliers Wood station stabbing: Everything we know as Northern Line hit by closure – The Mirror

Need to know

A man has been left with a head wound after ‘three young men fought with knives’ at Colliers Wood Tube station

Police were called to the Tube station at 10.30am on Wednesday(Image: MyLondon)

Here’s what we know so far about the reported knife fight at Colliers Wood Tube station in London:

1. Reports of a stabbing at Colliers Wood Underground Station in south-west London were made to the London Ambulance Service (LAS) at around 10.30am today (Thursday, December 17).
2. LAS dispatched an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and a paramedic in a fast-response car. A man was treated at the scene after receiving a head wound and was rushed to hospital.
3. British Transport Police (BTP) officers also attended following reports of a fight between three young men involving knives. A man in his 20s was arrested at the station on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon. He was taken to hospital with injuries that are not thought to be life-threatening or life-changing. It is understood the man arrested is the same individual taken to hospital.
4. Colliers Wood Underground Station remains closed while police carry out enquiries. The closure of Colliers Wood station means passengers need to find alternative travel options. There are four bus stops outside the station, which are served by multiple routes, including the 57, 131, 152, 200 and 219 buses. South Wimbledon Underground Station is just a three-minute walk from Colliers Wood station. It’s also on the Northern Line.
5. Anyone with information or who witnessed the incident is urged to contact BTP by texting 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40, quoting reference 211 of 17 December.

FOLLOR OUR LIVE BLOG: Colliers Wood emergency LIVE: Man stabbed in the head as Tube station sealed off

Follow Daily Mirror:

‌

‌

At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Terms and Conditions.

Accept



SOURCE PAGE

Last Sunday, smiling at the camera, showing off freshly applied face paint and cuddling a baby goat, 10-year-old Matilda was the picture of happiness. And yet minutes later she was fighting for her life.

Inseparable from her younger sister Summer, the girls had been enjoying the Hanukkah party with their parents.

Her funeral on Thursday will be another difficult day for Sydney’s Jewish community as they bury the youngest victim of the Bondi massacre.

Her traumatised parents have visited the makeshift memorial just metres from where Matilda was shot.

Through tears her father, Michael, told journalists: “I named her Matilda because she was our first Australian, we came here from Ukraine and Matilda was the first born in Australia and I thought that ‘Matilda’ is the most Australian name that can ever exist so just remember the name, remember her.”

Image:
Matilda’s father holds a photo of his daughter at a vigil on Bondi Beach. Pic: Reuters

I meet Matilda’s aunt Lina Chernykh who describes her niece as “friendly and happy, and with a lot of friends”.

After first hearing the news about the massacre Lina prayed Matilda would not die, even if it meant life-changing injuries.

She broke down in tears telling me how she would have pushed Matilda round in a wheelchair if it had meant she survived.

I ask her what she thinks about the gunmen who went on the rampage.

“I feel sorry for them,” she says. “They must never have had love – how can someone happy in love do this? They are evil.”

Read more:
Alleged Bondi Beach attacker charged with 59 offences
Mourners pay respects at funeral of Bondi victim

Image:
Matilda’s mother hugs her son after speaking at a vigil at Bondi Beach. Pic Reuters

Only a few weeks ago Matilda was practising her dance moves at her grandad’s birthday party.

Now her family are carrying out her funeral.

Inundated with messages of support from strangers around the world – they want Matilda’s love of life to be passed on.

Lina tells me quietly that she hopes people will remember Matilda as the smiling youngster she was, rather than the child who was killed. “Remember her just as a happy child, a happy person… I hope people around the world give love to their kids and not hate.”

SOURCE PAGE

Not all EU members are in favour of freezing Russian assets due to concerns over legal basis and reprisal from Moscow.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow will achieve its objectives and rejected war with the West as the European Union considers seizing Russian monies to fund Ukraine, as the war is now in its fourth punishing winter.

During a high-level meeting on Wednesday with Ministry of Defence officials, Putin was quoted by state media as describing calls in the West to prepare for war with Russia as “hysteria and a lie”.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

However, he emphasised that the Kremlin’s war goals will “undoubtedly” be achieved, adding that 300 territories were “liberated” over the past year.

The Russian president repeated Moscow prefers to deal with what it calls the root causes of the conflict through diplomacy, but remains prepared to “achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means” if the West refuses substantial talks.

The comments come a day before European Union leaders are to gather for a summit to see if they can agree on using some of the 210 billion euros ($246bn) in assets of the Russian central bank in Europe to advance Ukraine’s economic and military needs.

“One thing is very, very clear,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers on Wednesday. “We have to take the decision to fund Ukraine for the next two years in this European Council.”

European Council President António Costa, who will chair the summit, has pledged to keep the leaders negotiating until an agreement is reached, even if it takes days.

EU officials want to use the frozen assets to underwrite a 90 billion euros ($105bn) “reparations loan” to Ukraine.

But amid concerns that the idea is on legally shaky ground and could lead to investors losing their trust in European markets, Belgium, Italy and several other members of the 27-nation bloc have expressed rejection or serious reservations.

Speaking in the Italian parliament on Wednesday, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said negotiations in Berlin were “constructive” and accused Russia of making “unreasonable” demands to keep hold of Ukrainian territory as part of a potential agreement.

But she admitted that finding a legal way to use frozen Russian assets to help finance Ukraine remained “far from easy”, and said Rome would require a strong legal basis for all proposed actions.

In the meantime, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the House of Commons on Wednesday that his government will formally issue instructions to transfer 2.5 billion pounds ($3.3bn) from Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea FC to humanitarian causes in Ukraine.

The Russian billionaire, who sold the club in 2022 under pressure from the British government after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, must “pay up”, Starmer said.

Battlefield state of play

Ukraine claimed on Wednesday it had taken 90 percent of the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, which Moscow said it had captured in November.

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov later told a televised meeting of top defence officials that Ukrainian forces were trying unsuccessfully to take control of Kupiansk.

Of the regions of Ukraine that Russia has claimed as its own territory, it currently controls all of Crimea, around 90 percent of the eastern Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk, and 75 percent of Kherson and Zaporizhia. Russia also holds some territory in the adjoining regions of Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv.

Russia and Ukraine have escalated targeting of each other’s energy sites and oil refineries in recent weeks.

SOURCE PAGE