We have a date for the ‘trial of Boris Johnson’ – and now know what his plan may be

Published

3 years ago

March 4, 2023

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The “trial of Boris Johnson” – the televised hearings to determine whether the former prime minister lied to parliament – is now barely three weeks away, and after Friday’s document dump we know roughly what that confrontation will look like.

And we know it will be explosive.

MPs on the Tory-dominated privileges committee on Friday morning gave Johnson questions they will be asking in advance – as well the copious evidence these were based on. Moments after, Boris Johnson gave his response, denying everything and saying he was vindicated. At first glance, the two do not match up.

The MPs say law-breaking parties did take place and claim they have found four reasons to think Johnson may have misled parliament:

• By telling MPs in December 2021 that no rules or guidance were broken, when Sue Gray and the police judged otherwise

• By failing to tell the Commons he knew about events where rules and guidance were broken, with evidence showing he was present

• By claiming he had “repeated assurances” rules were not broken, when this was only given about one event – and not intended to be used in the Commons

• By hiding behind the Sue Gray report while it was happening when he knew enough to give MPs answers earlier

Johnson contends that the committee has found no evidence and that nobody told him that laws and guidance was broken.

“I believe implicitly that these events were within the rules. Nor did anybody tell me before or afterwards anything to that, to the contrary.”

What is fascinating about the committee report is they set out why they believe this not to be right in quite some detail.

They say he took part. They visited Number 10 in person, and established you could see the press office vestibule – where parties took place – from the entrance to the private Johnson family flat, implying it would have been impossible to miss what was going on.

And critically, they claim key figures around him never advised that the gatherings were within the rules.

They quote an interview with one unnamed adviser who saw Mr Johnson at a meeting on 1 December, the day the PM told MPs “all guidance was followed in Number 10”. The person says “I do not believe we discussed this with Mr Johnson during the meeting.”

On 8 December, the day Johnson said “the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”, the same official was in a discussion about what to say, and told the committee: “I did not advise the PM to say this, no.”

This is damaging for Johnson because it suggests intimate advisors from his inner circle are now speaking candidly about his time in power.

Johnson knows it is impossible to prove a negative, and the committee will never be able to comprehensively say that he wasn’t told the rules were followed since they can’t ever know about every conversation.

This is the gap Johnson will hope to exploit in making the case for his defence.

World

130 children and staff abducted from Nigerian school last month freed ‘in time for Christmas’

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2025

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130 children and staff abducted from Nigerian school last month freed 'in time for Christmas'

The remaining 130 schoolchildren and staff abducted by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria last month have been freed.

They are among more than 300 pupils and 12 staff taken from St Mary’s Catholic boarding school in Niger State on 21 November.

Fifty children managed to escape at the time, the Christian Association of Nigeria previously ‌said, while the government said on 8 ⁠December that it had rescued 100 of those abducted.

Now the last of the pupils have been released, a spokesman for President Bola ⁠Tinubu said, bringing a close to one of the country’s biggest mass kidnappings in recent years.

“The remaining 130 schoolchildren abducted by terrorists… have now been released,” wrote presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga in a post on X.

“They are expected to arrive in Minna on Monday and rejoin their parents for the Christmas celebration.

“The freedom of the schoolchildren followed a military-intelligence driven operation.”

The abduction has fuelled outrage over worsening insecurity in northern Nigeria, where armed gangs frequently target schools for ransom.

School kidnappings surged after Boko Haram militants abducted 276 girls from Chibok in 2014.

Over a decade later, dozens of the girls taken on that occasion remain missing.

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Bondi Beach shooting suspect trained with father before attack, police say

Published

4 hours ago

December 22, 2025

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Bondi Beach shooting suspect trained with father before attack, police say

A man suspected of killing 15 people during a shooting in Bondi Beach “conducted firearms training” with his father before the attack on a Jewish event, Australian police have said.

Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, allegedly attacked people at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach on 14 December, killing victims aged 10 to 87 and injuring 40 others.

Fifty-year-old Sajid Akram was killed by police at the scene, while Naveed was injured and treated in hospital. He has since been charged with 59 offences, including a terror charge, and police transferred him to a prison on Monday.

New South Wales Police have released pictures of Naveed Akram and his father holding guns, as they “conducted firearms training in a countryside location, suspected to be NSW” in late October, according to a police fact sheet seen by Sky News.

“The accused and his father are seen throughout the video firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner,” police said.

‘Homemade bombs’

On the day of the Bondi Beach attack, the pair allegedly threw homemade bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at the crowd of people at the gathering near the beach, but these did not detonate.

An analysis indicates that both were “viable” IEDs, according to the police file.

The information on the fact sheet was released after a suppression order was lifted by an NSW court.

Police allege the men had stored the explosives – three pipe bombs, one tennis ball bomb and one large IED – in a silver Hyundai vehicle, alongside two single-barrel shotguns, a Beretta rifle and two Islamic State flags.

The Hyundai was parked near the scene of the shooting, with the Islamic State flags allegedly displayed in the front and rear windows.

‘Justification’ video found

A phone belonging to Naveed Akram was also found in the car, on which officers identified several videos, including the alleged firearms training video.

Another video shows Naveed Akram and his father sitting in front of an image of an Islamic State flag, with four long-arm guns with rounds attached seen in the background, police said.

The men “appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack” in the footage, according to the fact sheet.

Their Hyundai was previously seen on CCTV entering the car park at Bondi Beach before Naveed Akram and his father walked around the area at around 10pm on 12 December – two days before the shooting.

Police allege that this is evidence of reconnaissance and planning of a terrorist act.

On the day of the shooting, CCTV showed the men leaving a rental house in the nearby suburb of Campsie at around 3pm before driving to Bondi at around 5pm, police said.

The pair were seen carrying bulky items wrapped in blankets, which officers allege were the rifles and homemade bombs.

In the room they rented throughout December, police said they later discovered a firearm scope, ammunition, a suspected IED, 3D-printed parts for a shotgun speed loader, a rifle, a shotgun, numerous firearms parts, bomb-making equipment and two copies of the Koran.

Police said Naveed Akram’s mother told officers that she believed her husband and son were on a fishing trip when they allegedly launched the attack. She said Naveed had been calling her every day from a public phone at around 10.30am.

New gun laws

Meanwhile, the NSW government announced new draft gun laws on Monday, which the state’s premier, Chris Minns, promised would be the toughest in Australia.

The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a firearms licence.

But a law like this would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa for Australia.

He also legally owned six rifles and shotguns, which would be limited to a maximum of four guns under the new legal limit for recreational shooters.

This comes as Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday that his government would introduce a new offence of adults trying to influence and radicalise children after already introducing legislation to criminalise hate speech and doxing.

World

Israel approves 19 new Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank

Published

16 hours ago

December 21, 2025

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Israel approves 19 new Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank

Israel has approved 19 new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank in a fresh blow to the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The move brings the number of new settlements over the past few years to 69, a new record, according to Israel‘s far-right finance minister Betzalel Smotrich.

Widely considered illegal under international law, the settlements have been criticised for fragmenting the territory of a future Palestinian state by confiscating land and displacing residents.

Under Israel’s current government, figures show, the number of settlements in the West Bank has surged by nearly 50%, rising from 141 in 2022, to 210 with the new approvals, according to Peace Now, an anti-settlement watchdog.

The government’s latest action retroactively authorises some previously-established outposts or neighbourhoods of existing settlements, and the creation of settlements on land where Palestinians were evacuated.

It also approves Kadim and Ganim, two of the four settlements dismantled in 2005, and which Israelis were previously banned from re-entering as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel repealed the 2005 act in March 2023, there have been multiple attempts to resettle them.

The move comes amid mounting pressure from the US to move ahead with the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.

Mr Smotrich is one of a number of figures now prominent in Israel’s government who back the settlements.

The West Bank, east Jerusalem, and Gaza are claimed by the Palestinians for their future state, but were captured by Israel in the 1967 war.

Today over 500,000 Jews are settled in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 in contested east Jerusalem.

Settlements can range in size from a single dwelling to a collection of high-rises, and the occupied territories are also host to a number of unauthorised Israeli outposts.