WORLD NEWS
Aria Thorpe cause of death after teenage boy charged with murder of 9-year-old girl
Nine-year-old Aria Thorpe’s cause of death has been revealed by a coroner, after her mum described her as her “world” and aa 15-year-old boy appeared in court charged with murder
Aria Thorpe died from a single stab wound according to her post mortem
A nine-year-old, described by her family as the “funniest little girl”, died from a single stab wound, a post mortem found.
A 15-year-old boy appeared in court charged with murdering the schoolgirl, named by police as Aria Thorpe. They said Aria’s tragic death had caused a “huge amount of shock and upset” to her family and the wider community.
Her mum, Victoria Hull, a hairdresser who previously described her children as “my world”, was left “devastated” by the tragedy and her aunt, Jordan Hull said the family had been in “extreme pain”. A heartbreaking message from one of her pal’s was left outside her nome in Weston-super-Mare simply saying: “Aria thank you for playing with me.”
READ MORE: Weston-super-Mare: Boy, 15, charged with murder of 9-year-old Aria ThorpeREAD MORE: Aria Thorpe: Images of tragic young life cut short at 9 as boy, 15, charged
Aria Thorpe on a family holiday with her mum Victoria Hull
Aria’s uncle Ashely Nicholls, posted a TikTok video on Wednesday, and said: “The last 24 to 36 hours have been an absolute nightmare…We ask for a little bit of privacy to protect the family and give time to process and mourn the loss of honestly, the happiest, funniest little girl…
“Most people will never experience what happened in that room and watch your partner just completely break down and be hysterical…it’s just so raw still.
A heartbreaking note from Aria’s friend to thank her for playing (Image: PA)
“There has been great support from family and friends and people that know the family. You can’t even imagine what everyone’s going through, it’s just absolutely crazy.”
Forensic officers at the scene in Lime Close, Weston-super-Mare(Image: Tom Wren / SWNS)
Aria died 10 days before Christmas at a house in Weston-super-Mare, on Monday teatime.
Forensic tent outside a house where a nine year old was stabbed to death(Image: SWNS)
Aria died 10 days before Christmas at a house in Weston-super-Mare, on Monday teatime. A post-mortem examination found the preliminary cause of Aria’s death was a single stab wound, Avon and Somerset Police said.
The teenage accused, who cannot be named due to his age, appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday. He spoke only to confirm his name and address during the brief hearing, which his dad attended.
Flanked by three dock officers and wearing a grey prison-issue tracksuit, the teenager was remanded into custody by District Judge Nicholas Wattam and told his next court appearance would be at Bristol Crown Court on Friday.
The teen was arrested less than half an hour after police were alerted to Aria’s death. He was found by officers at Worle railway station, half an hour away from the crime scene.
Superintendent Jen Appleford, reads a statement to the media outside Avon and Somerset Police Headquarters (Image: PA)
Announcing he had been charged, Chief Supt Jen Appleford, outside Avon and Somerset Police headquarters gave an update on Wednesday saying: “This remains an incredibly difficult time for Aria’s family, who we continue to support and update around our investigation. It is impossible to adequately describe how traumatic the past 36 hours have been for them and we’d like to reiterate in the strongest possible terms their request for privacy.
“The tragic loss of such a young girl has caused a huge amount of shock and upset, with there being a profound sense of loss felt throughout the community. We are working closely with partner agencies and schools across the Weston area to make sure those affected receive access to any support they need.
“We are grateful to local residents for the patience shown while we have been carrying out enquiries in the area. This work will need to continue over the next few days, but if anyone has any issues then please do not hesitate to speak to officers on the cordon who will be happy to help.”
Aria had celebrated her ninth birthday with a KPop Demon Hunters party just two weeks ago. And the night before she died, had been excitedly discussing her Christmas wishlist with a best pal.
Weston-super-Mare MP Daniel Aldridge described Aria’s death as an “utterly heartbreaking tragedy”. In a statement posted on the school’s website, the Trust which oversees Becket Primary School, where Aria was a pupil, said, “Our school and Trust community are devastated by the tragic death of one of our pupils, Aria Thorpe.
“We are working closely with professional agencies to ensure appropriate support is provided to our children, staff and families as they come to terms with this heartbreaking news. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with Aria’s family during this incredibly difficult time.”
The board decision comes a day after Affinity Partners, a fund backed by Trump’s son in-law Jared Kushner, pulled out of the deal.
Warner Bros Discovery’s board has rejected Paramount Skydance’s $108.4bn hostile takeover bid and accused the studio giant of misleading shareholders about its financing.
In a letter to shareholders on Wednesday, the Warner Bros board wrote that Paramount “consistently misled” Warner Bros shareholders that its $30-per-share cash offer was fully guaranteed, or “backstopped”, by the Ellison family, led by billionaire Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, whose son David runs Paramount Skydance.
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Paramount has been in a race with Netflix to win control of Warner Bros and its prized film and television studios, HBO Max streaming service and franchises like Harry Potter. After Warner Bros accepted the streaming giant’s offer, Paramount launched a hostile offer to outdo that bid.
“It does not, and never has,” the board wrote of the guarantee of Paramount’s offer, noting that the offer posed “numerous, significant risks”.
The board said it found Paramount’s offer “inferior” to Netflix’s $27.75 per share offer, which is a binding agreement that requires no equity financing and has robust debt commitments, the board wrote.
The board also said the offer could be terminated or amended at any time before the deal’s completion, which is not the same as a binding merger agreement.
Warner Bros has not yet set a date for a shareholder vote on the deal, but it is expected to happen sometime in spring or early summer, its chairman, Samuel Di Piazza, said in an interview with CNBC.
The Ellisons have cited their relationship with United States President Donald Trump as a reason why the deal would face an easier regulatory path.
“The Warner Bros Discovery Board reinforced that Netflix’s merger agreement is superior and that our acquisition is in the best interest of stockholders,” its co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement.
Netflix is already talking with the US Department of Justice and the European Commission, its other co-CEO, Greg Peters, told CNBC while expressing confidence in how regulators would view the deal.
Netflix has told Warner Bros it would keep releasing the studio’s films in cinemas in a bid to ease fears that the deal would eliminate another studio and major source of theatrical films, according to people familiar with the matter.
Paramount’s case
Paramount last week took its case directly to Warner Bros shareholders, arguing it had arranged “air-tight financing” to support its bid with $41bn in new equity assured by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital and $54bn of debt commitments from the Bank of America, Citi and Apollo.
The board decision came a day after Affinity Partners, a fund backed by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and one of the funding sources of the Paramount offer, pulled out of the deal. The amount Affinity Partners was contributing to the offer was not disclosed in Paramount’s latest filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“With two strong competitors vying to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided no longer to pursue the opportunity,” the firm said in a statement.
“The dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we initially became involved in October. We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer.”
The Warner Bros board countered that Paramount’s latest offer included an equity commitment “for which there is no Ellison family commitment of any kind” but rather the backing of “an unknown and opaque” Lawrence J Ellison Revocable Trust, whose assets and liabilities are not publicly disclosed and are subject to change.
“Despite having been told repeatedly by WBD how important a full and unconditional financing commitment from the Ellison family was, … the Ellison family has chosen not to backstop the PSKY offer,” the Warner Bros board wrote.
“A revocable trust is no replacement for a secured commitment by a controlling shareholder.”
Paramount had submitted a total of six bids to acquire the entire Warner Bros studio, including its television networks, such as CNN and TNT Sports.
It has previously said the Ellison family trust – which Paramount says contains more than $250bn in assets, including about 1.16 billion shares of Oracle – is more than adequate to cover the equity commitment.
Warner Bros had raised questions about Paramount’s financial condition and creditworthiness. The offer relied on a seven-party, cross-conditional structure with the Ellison Revocable Trust providing 32 percent of the required equity commitment while capping its liability at $2.8bn, Warner Bros said. It noted that the trust’s assets could have been withdrawn at any time.
On Wall Street, Paramount Skydance’s stock tumbled on the news. It was down 3.8 percent from the market open. Warner Bros Discovery was down 0.4 percent while Netflix was surging – up 2.8 percent.
WORLD NEWS
Susie Wiles interview might be a useful distraction from how poorly things are going for Americans | Trump administration
So it appears Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff, agrees with many of us: she thinks Donald Trump’s cabinet is bonkers.
From that bombshell Vanity Fair interview, which featured some truly terrifying close-up photos, we learned that Wiles considers JD Vance to have been “a conspiracy theorist for a decade”. She believes Elon Musk to be an “odd, odd duck”. Russell Vought, head of the Office of Management and Budget, is, in Wiles’ view, “a right-wing absolute zealot”.
Pam Bondi, the attorney general, “whiffed” her handling of the Epstein files, Wiles said. And Trump? He has “an alcoholic’s personality”, and is “wrong” about Bill Clinton having visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.
It was pretty incendiary stuff from a woman previously known for her calmness and aversion to drama. Wiles, who appears to retain the support of Trump, has responded by calling the Vanity Fair article “a disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest president, White House staff, and cabinet in history”, without pointing to any quotes or reporting that was incorrect.
The whole thing might have served as a useful distraction for Trump though, because – whisper it – things are not actually going that well.
A long overdue jobs report found this week that 41,000 jobs were lost across October and November. Manufacturing jobs are at a 3.5-year low, according to CNN, despite Trump promising a “manufacturing renaissance”, and pledging that his tariffs would create “millions and millions of blue-collar jobs and jobs of every type”.
“If we’re judging by these numbers, Americans are completely dissatisfied with the way things are happening in this country.”
It’s not ideal. And it gets worse.
The unemployment rate hit 4.6% in November, a four year high. Recent Republican election losses have sparked fears over next year’s midterm elections. Trump’s own party defied him over releasing the Epstein files; health subsidies are due to expire at the end of next year, which would send insurance premiums soaring for 22 million Americans; and Trump’s vendetta-driven lawsuits against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, and the former FBI director, James Comey, have been thrown out by courts.
The Trump administration isn’t having a great time of it, in other words. And people are starting to take notice. Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy, an area which was supposed to be his strength: only 36% approve.
An NBC poll found that more than half of low- and middle-income Americans have changed which groceries they buy to stay within their budgets, and a majority of Americans plan to spend less on Christmas or holiday gifts. Regarding his overall performance, 54% of Americans disapprove of Trump: just 43% approve.
“If we’re judging by these numbers, Americans are completely dissatisfied with the way things are happening in this country,” Emmitt Riley III, a professor of politics at Sewanee: The University Of The South and the chair of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, told me this week.
Riley said there’s good reason for that.
“If we think about the rate of inflation, if we think about the cost of living, if we think about how Americans are experiencing rising costs in groceries, rent, cars, what have you, then we would have to give him an F.”
Even his support among his base has dropped. In April, 78% of people who consider themselves Maga Republicans strongly approved of Trump – that’s fallen to 70%.
“It appears that Americans who – for whatever reason – believed that a billionaire would be a champion for the poor and working class have now grown sour on the actual implementation of the Trump agenda,” Riley said.
Trump’s response appears to be to tell people not to believe their own eyes and bank accounts, that, actually, the economy is doing great. The president has dismissed concerns about prices as a “hoax” and a “con job”, even as his vice-president this week asked people for “a little bit of patience” before they see an economic upturn.
With Trump due to deliver a live address from the White House on Wednesday night, perhaps he will adopt a more contrite tone. But this is Donald Trump, so I wouldn’t bet on it.
And while we’re discussing the lived experience of White House policies, I should point you to the stunning work of my colleagues, who have been documenting the impact of the Trump administration on real people.
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The prime minister has said Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich must “pay up now” to victims of the war in Ukraine or face court action.
Mr Abramovich, the former owner of Chelsea Football Club, pledged in 2022 that the £2.5bn he made from the sale of the club would be used to benefit victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But there has been a delay in releasing the funds, which are currently frozen in a British bank account, due to a standoff over how exactly they should be used.
Sir Keir Starmer told the Commons on Wednesday: “My message to Abramovich is clear: the clock is ticking.”
The government wants the money to be used for humanitarian aid, but Mr Abramovich insisted it should be used for “all victims of the war” – meaning that Russians could also benefit.
The oligarch cannot access the money under UK sanctions but the proceeds from the Chelsea sale still legally belong to him.
Updating MPs, Sir Keir said the UK had issued a licence “to transfer £2.5bn from the sale of Chelsea Football Club that’s been frozen since 2022.”
And, in a warning to Abramovich, he said: “Honour the commitment that you made and pay up now, and if you don’t we’re prepared to go to court and ensure that every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war.”
And Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC Mr Abramovich “needs to honour that commitment, pay that money”.
Asked if a legal battle could drag out the process for years, Ms Cooper said: “I’m urging him not to try and pursue further court action.”
But she confirmed the government will take the matter to court if he does not act.
Mr Abramovich’s representatives declined to comment.
The Treasury said that under the terms of the licence, the money must go to “humanitarian causes” in Ukraine and cannot benefit Mr Abramovich or any other sanctioned individual.
The government first threatened to sue Mr Abramovich in June.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “It is unacceptable that more than £2.5bn of money owed to the Ukrainian people can be allowed to remain frozen in a UK bank account.”
Mr Abramovich – a Russian billionaire who made his fortune in oil and gas – was granted a special licence to sell Chelsea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, providing he could prove he would not benefit from the sale.
He is alleged to have strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, something he has denied.
It is understood that Mr Abramovich has 90 days to act before the UK considers taking legal action.
On Thursday, EU leaders are set to review proposals to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine’s huge budget and defence needs. Russia has fiercely opposed the proposals.
12/17/2025December 17, 2025
Merz: EU must use Russian assets to increase pressure on Putin
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on the European Union to use frozen Russian assets to assist Ukraine, “increase pressure on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin” and “send a clear signal to Russia.”
Ahead of an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday, the European Commission has proposed a €90 billion ($106 billion) loan to Ukraine to sure up the country’s finances for the next two years — money which is to be taken from €200 billion worth of Russian assets frozen in the bloc.
“This issue is about no more and no less than the security and sovereignty of Europe,” said Merz in the lower house of Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, on Wednesday. He said it must be made clear to Putin that a continuation of his invasion of Ukraine is “pointless” and that he should engage in “serious negotiations.”
“We intend to use Russian assets to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine for at least two more years. This step is not about prolonging the war, but about bringing the war to an end as soon as possible,” Merz wrote late on X.
However, Merz and the European Commission have hurdles to overcome within the EU where the more pro-Russian leaders of Hungary and Slovakia have already said they would vote against such a plan.
Belgium, where around €185 billion worth of Russian assets are frozen with financial services provider Euroclear, has also expressed concern regarding its own liability should Moscow take legal action against the use of its assets.
On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni warned that the legal situation is “anything but simple.”
“Italy obviously considers the principle that Russia should be the first to pay for the reconstruction of the nation it has attacked to be sacrosanct, but this result must be achieved on a solid legal basis,” she told the Italian parliament. “If the legal foundation for this initiative isn’t solid, we would be handing Russia its first real victory since the start of this conflict.”
Also on Wednesday, the AFP news agency reported that the United States has been putting pressure on European countries to oppose the plan.
“The US administration is pressuring European countries to abandon the idea of using Russian assets to support Ukraine,” a senior Ukrainian official was quoted as saying, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected in Brussels on Thursday where he wants to “motivate European countries to adopt this decision.”
German chancellor pledges security guarantees for Ukraine
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Western countries immediately take action to battle antisemitism and ensure the safety of Jews around the globe.
“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” he said, according to the prime minister’s office, which issued the English translation of the remarks that Netanyahu delivered in Hebrew in a video posted on Tuesday.
“They would be well-advised to heed our warnings. I demand action from them — now,” he added.
POLICY GROUP PRAISES TRUMP’S 100 GLOBAL WINS SINCE TAKING OFFICE, FROM CARTEL CRACKDOWNS TO PEACE DEALS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is welcomed to the Pentagon with an official ceremony on July 9, 2025. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Netanyahu’s demand came in the wake of the heinous Sunday terror attack in Australia.
That attack was “deliberately targeted at the Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has noted.
ISRAELI KNESSET MEMBER SAYS AUSTRALIAN OFFICIALS ‘DID NOTHING’ AMID RISE OF ANTISEMITISM BEFORE SYDNEY ATTACK
President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrives at the West Wing of the White House on Sept. 29, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
During remarks Tuesday at a White House Hanukkah reception, President Donald Trump claimed that Congress “is becoming antisemitic.”
TRUMP ENCOURAGES JEWISH AMERICANS TO ‘CELEBRATE PROUDLY’ DURING HANUKKAH AFTER DEADLY BONDI BEACH SHOOTING
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu participates in a joint press conference with President Donald Trump in the State Dining Room of the White House on Sept. 29, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
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“You have AOC plus three. You have those people,” he said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and the progressive “Squad.”
“Ilhan Omar: She hates Jewish people,” he added, referring to the Minnesota congresswoman.
Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.
NEED TO KNOW
- Influencer Mary Magdalene was drunkenly carted back to her hotel by police weeks before her death at 33, per a newly surfaced video
- The internet personality fell from the ninth floor of a high-rise apartment on Dec. 9
- Gongora had over 400,000 followers across several Instagram accounts and was known across social media for her extensive cosmetic procedures and tattoos covering much of her body and face
Denise Ivonne Jarvis Gongora, a Mexican-Canadian influencer using the name “Mary Magdalene” online, was drunkenly carted back to her hotel by police weeks before she fell to her death at age 33 from the ninth floor of a high-rise apartment on Dec. 9.
In a newly surfaced video, recorded on Nov. 20, police and bystanders can be seen loading Gongora into a cart in Phi Phi Islands, Thailand, where she says, “I don’t know what’s happening,” and later, “I’m drunk,” as they walk her towards her hotel. At the end of the clip, an officer assists Gongora as she gets into her bed.
The 33-year-old internet personality had over 400,000 followers across several Instagram accounts and was known across social media for her extensive cosmetic procedures and tattoos covering much of her body and face. She also shared her elaborate psychedelic paintings and adult content on the subscription-based platform OnlyFans.
At 1:50 p.m. on Dec. 9, Gongora’s body was discovered in the parking area of the apartment by the building’s staff, the day before she was scheduled to check out of the building while on vacation in Patong, a beach town in Phuket Island, Thailand, local outlet The Phucket News previously reported.
Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene/instagram
The incident set into motion an investigation by the Patong police, who discovered a pair of flip-flops believed to belong to Gongora left behind on the ninth floor of the building, the outlet reported.
On Dec. 8, the day before her death, Gongora shared a haunting final post to one of her Instagram accounts: two images from the final scene of The Truman Show, including the character’s lines, “And in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening and good night.” Gongora also included what appeared to be a blurry childhood photo of herself at the end of the carousel.
In the days after her death, Gongora’s brother Ivan — who uses the handle “skinny_fists” — shared a series of photos and videos with his late sister over the course of her life, including written tributes to the late internet star.
“You are so funny and so creative way more than ill ever be,” he wrote in one post. “I love you much more than words will ever say. You are my world. I wish things were different. Thank you for everything I love you sis.”
Mary Magdalene.
Mary Magdalene/instagram
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“I jus wanna hangout with you one more time and tell you that I love so much you mean the world to me,” he penned in another tribute.
WORLD NEWS
Nick Reiner seen in court in first appearance since arrest for parents’ violent murder: Live updates
Nick Reiner made his first court appearance in Los Angeles today on homicide charges for his parents’ double murder.
Rob Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, 70, were found dead from apparent stab wounds in their $13.5 million Los Angeles mansion on Sunday.
Their son, 32-year-old Nick Reiner, has since been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of his Hollywood legend father and photographer mother.
Prosecutors added special circumstances of multiple murders and use of a dangerous weapon, a knife, meaning, if he is convicted, Nick could face life in prison without the possibility of parole or even the death penalty.
Romy Reiner, the couple’s daughter, allegedly fled the family’s home in anguish after finding her father slain on a blood-soaked bed and told police her brother Nick should be a suspect.
Nick had long struggled with drug addiction, and during a 2016 interview to promote Being Charlie, the film he worked on with his dad, Nick told Access Hollywood, ‘I get crazy. You don’t want to set me off.’
Follow along for the latest updates.
Breaking:Nick Reiner arrives at court
The hotel room Nick Reiner left ‘covered in blood’ and frantically ‘cleaned up’ after his parents’ murder… as detectives hunt for the missing knife
Nick Reiner could face the death penalty
Nick Reiner will appear in court after medical evaluation
Billy Crystal breaks silence on Rob Reiner’s death
Nick Reiner calmly buys drink hours after parents murder
Who is Nick Reiner? Hollywood director Rob’s son accused of murdering his parents
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Nick Reiner’s attorney, Alan Jackson, arrives at courthouse
Rob Reiner’s final film release ‘paused’
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Nick Reiner seen in court in first appearance since arrest for parents’ violent murder: Live updates
WORLD NEWS
Roman Abramovich: PM demands Russian oligarch transfers £2.5bn to help Ukraine or face legal action | Politics News
The UK government has demanded that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich gives £2.5bn from the sale of Chelsea Football Club to be used for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine, or face legal action.
Sir Keir Starmer announced at Prime Minister’s Questions at lunchtime that the Treasury is issuing a licence for the transfer of the frozen funds to a foundation to be used to provide aid in Ukraine.
If he does not do so within 90 days, the government will take him to court in the UK.
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The prime minister said: “My message to Abramovich is this: the clock is ticking, honour the commitment that you made, and pay up now.
“And if you don’t, we’re prepared to go to court, so every penny reaches those whose lives have been torn apart by Putin’s illegal war.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky News political editor Beth Rigby the government has “tried every possible avenue to get him to do the right thing”, but it has “come to nothing”.
Mr Abramovich rose to prominence in the UK when he bought Chelsea Football Club in 2003, before pumping billions into the club, winning several trophies including multiple Premier League titles and the Champions League.
He made his billions in the post-Soviet Russian era, and has been said to be an ally to Vladimir Putin.
However, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the Boris Johnson government due to his links to the Russian leader.
As part of this, he was forced to sell his stake in Chelsea, and he announced that the frozen proceeds would be earmarked “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine”, including “providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the long-term work of recovery”.
Roman Abramovich, pictured cheering on Chelsea in 2021. Pic: Reuters
But the £2.5bn received for the sale has stayed in the deep freeze ever since, not available to support Kyiv and kept in an inaccessible account.
Asked by journalists if Mr Abramovich has given a reason for not agreeing to transfer the funds for use in Ukraine, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “He disputes that the funds should be used exclusively for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.
“He wants to spend them more widely. And negotiations on this have not resulted in an agreed outcome.”
Ms Cooper said the government has been “very clear” the proceeds from the Chelsea sale “need to go into humanitarian support in Ukraine”.
“It is the Ukrainian people who have suffered as a result of Putin’s aggression as a result of this war, and that is where this funding needs to go,” she added.
Downing Street said Mr Abramovich would need to set up the foundation and arrange the transfer in line with the licence, otherwise legal action would be taken – although the spokesperson would not say under what legislation they would take action under.
This move from the UK government is in line with a wider European push for Moscow to foot the bill for deaths and destruction triggered by its invasion.
Sky News has contacted Mr Abramovich’s last known legal representatives in the United States and Belgium for comment.
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.
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 …