The Metropolitan Police have arrested 46 people after disrupting a criminal network suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China.

A months-long investigation began last December when a box on its way to Hong Kong was found at a warehouse near Heathrow Airport containing around 1,000 iPhones.

Officers discovered almost all the phones had been stolen, the force said.

It then launched Operation Echosteep, bringing in specialist detectives to track down the suspects for what’s been described as the UK’s biggest ever crackdown on phone theft.

They intercepted further shipments and used forensics to identify two men in their 30s, who were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods on 23 September. They have since been charged and remanded in custody.

A number of phones were found in the men’s car and around 2,000 more devices were found at properties linked to them, the Met Police said.

Detective Inspector Mark Gavin, the senior investigating officer for Operation Echosteep, said: “This group specifically targeted Apple products because of their profitability overseas.

“We discovered street thieves were being paid up to £300 per handset and uncovered evidence of devices being sold for up to $5,000 (£3,700) in China.”

Police call on phone manufacturers to do more

Commander Andrew Featherstone, the Met’s lead for tackling phone theft, has described the operation as “the largest crackdown on mobile phone theft and robbery in the UK”.

He continued: “We’ve shown how serious we are about tackling this issue, but we need more help from the industry.

“We’re calling on phone manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung to do more to support us and protect their customers – especially around phone security and re-use.”

A total of 46 people have been arrested during two weeks of what the force has described as “targeted and precise activity”.

These include the arrests of 11 people during an operation targeting gangs robbing courier vans delivering the new iPhone 17 and the arrest of two men in their 30s – on suspicion of money laundering and handling stolen goods – after officers recovered almost £40,000 in cash at a phone shop in north London.

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Another man was charged with handling stolen goods after being stopped with 10 suspected stolen phones at Heathrow Airport on 20 September.

Further enquiries revealed the man – who also had two iPads, two laptops and two Rolex watches – had travelled between London and Algeria more than 200 times in two years, the force said.

London mayor Sadiq Khan said it is “simply too easy and profitable” for criminals “making millions by repurposing stolen phones and selling them abroad”.

“I will continue to call on the mobile phone industry to go harder and faster in designing out this crime by making stolen devices unusable,” he said. “We need coordinated global action to shut down this trade and build a safer London for everyone.”

Bitcoin is trading at all-time highs, surging beyond £93,000 for the first time.

The world’s biggest cryptocurrency has doubled in value over the past 12 months – buoyed by Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

However, its 10% surge over the past week is down to one specific factor: the US government shutdown.

Experts have told Sky News that the drama unfolding in Washington is undermining trust in the dollar – and pushing investors to alternatives.

Bitwise senior associate Max Shannon said stubbornly high inflation, which erodes spending power, is another factor.

Some countries are also increasing their monetary supply – watering down the value of cash in circulation – with government borrowing on the rise.

That’s led to what’s known as a “debasement trade”, where investors pile their cash into so-called “hard” assets like Bitcoin and gold instead.

Bitcoin has a fixed supply, meaning no more than 21 million will ever exist. Almost 95% of them are already in circulation, with a small number of coins entering the market every day.

Enthusiasts argue this creates a form of scarcity that pushes prices up, as demand for BTC is considerably higher than supply.

The latest figures from the Financial Conduct Authority suggest about seven million people in the UK have invested in cryptocurrencies. A single coin can be broken up into 100 million pieces, meaning many have a tiny chunk of Bitcoin in their portfolios.

But much of the current enthusiasm for Bitcoin isn’t coming from everyday investors – instead, it’s institutions leading the charge.

Deep-pocketed companies and individuals are buying into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Wall Street that track Bitcoin’s value – allowing them to gain indirect exposure to BTC’s price rises without owning it directly. A staggering $3.5bn (£2.6bn) flowed into these products last week.

Samson Mow is the chief executive of JAN3, a company that promotes Bitcoin adoption. He played a role in El Salvador becoming the first country in the world to adopt this cryptocurrency as legal tender.

While that experiment didn’t achieve widespread success, the Central American nation continues to invest in BTC – with estimated profits of more than £350m as a result.

When asked why Bitcoin has hit all-time highs, Mow told Sky News: “Bitcoin has been a ball pushed underwater for months – this move up was inevitable. Raw demand has simply caught up with the incredibly limited supply.”

He pointed to how 6.7% of Bitcoin’s supply is now tied up in ETFs – with Strategy, a company that has the goal of accruing as much BTC as possible, owning a further 3%. This means there’s less to go around overall, in what Mow describes as “the beginning of a massive supply shock”.

The entrepreneur believes a single Bitcoin will one day be worth $500,000 (£371,000), meaning the cryptocurrency’s total market capitalisation would surge to $10trn (£7.4trn). That’s more than double what Nvidia’s currently worth as the world’s most valuable company, and would make BTC the second-largest asset after gold.

Mow shrugged off any suggestion Bitcoin’s dramatic price rises aren’t sustainable – and insists the only thing that’s “definitely not sustainable” is BTC’s value remaining as low as it is.

“There are only 21 million BTC. Most corporations, billionaires, and even millionaires still have no exposure to Bitcoin. Nation-states have yet to seriously begin accumulation too, but many that we’re engaged with are very interested and are looking to move quickly,” he said.

Of course, not everyone shares his enthusiasm. Critics argue Bitcoin lacks intrinsic value, with some claiming it’s “worse than a Ponzi scheme”.

David Gerard, a journalist who’s deeply sceptical of the crypto industry, told Sky News that Bitcoin suffers from thin trading volumes – resulting in “unfeasibly volatile prices” and an “easily manipulated market”.

“Bitcoin trading is overwhelmingly in unregulated offshore exchanges, so Bitcoin is not a well-functioning market in the sense of, say, stocks,” he said. “If investors treat Bitcoin as a well-regulated market, they will get burned. ETFs are regulated instruments, the way Bitcoin’s price is set is not.”

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Gerard has railed against BTC for years, and wrote a book condemning the sector in July 2017. But in the eight years since it was published, Bitcoin’s price has risen by more than 5,200%. Has this changed his views?

“Everything that’s structurally wrong with Bitcoin is still wrong with Bitcoin,” he said. “Anyone who sees the big number and thinks ‘time to get in’ is the sucker the big boys are making their money from.

“You can definitely make money in Bitcoin! But statistically, you’re much more likely to be the sucker.”

Some banks, including Morgan Stanley, now encourage their clients to allocate 2% to 4% of their portfolios into crypto – but doing so when prices are so high is risky.

While it’s possible Bitcoin could keep on rising, this is an asset also known for punishing pullbacks that have seen investors, including people right here in the UK, lose a lot of money.

This tends to happen every four years. BTC surged to a record price of $20,000 in December 2017, but plunged by more than 80% a year later – falling below $4,000.

Another all-time high of $69,000 then followed in November 2021 – but 12 months on, a spectacular crash dragged it back down to $17,000, a 75% drop.

Four years on in October 2025, here we are again: BTC has never been higher. History doesn’t always repeat itself – but if past performance is a guide, 2026 could prove challenging.

The production shutdown at cyber attack-hit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has entered its sixth week, a week after it had raised hopes of a phased restart “in the coming days”.

The company reiterated a statement released last Monday when approached by Sky News for an update on its recovery efforts.

It also declined to comment on a report by The Times that it was considering a loan scheme, worth up to £500m, to help protect its supply chain from the financial turmoil caused by the hacking.

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JLR’s manufacturing operations have been at a standstill since the attack in late August but Sky News understands that testing to make progress on a controlled resumption is continuing.

The Wolverhampton engine plant could be the first to stutter back to life.

A £1.5bn loan guarantee offered by the government to the company is understood to have not been taken up, given that the carmaker has met its commitments to suppliers that it deals with.

Those further down the chain however, complain they are suffering financially and from uncertainty over when deliveries can resume.

The supply chain employs up to 200,000 people directly and indirectly.

Industry bodies say job losses are growing and the risk of smaller businesses folding has increased as cash inflows remain on hold and total outflows grow.

The main concern for such companies is that those which supply JLR indirectly can access some relief – either from JLR or in the form of an improved government scheme that can be tapped by employers directly.

It could be that without financial aid, JLR’s future production recovery risks damage from suppliers going out of business.

The government had hoped that JLR would take out a loan with commercial banks under the proposals for state support, saying that the loan guarantee offer also amounted to support for the supply chain.

Since that offer was made, the company is widely reported to have agreed a separate £2bn funding facility to maintain its funding buffers.

The loss of production alone is costing JLR £5m a day.

The company said in its statement, which mirrored last Monday’s update: “As the controlled, phased restart of our operations continues, we are taking further steps towards our recovery and the return to manufacture of our world-class vehicles.

“We have informed colleagues, retailers and suppliers that some sections of our manufacturing operations will resume in the coming days.

“We continue to work around the clock alongside cybersecurity specialists, the UK government’s NCSC [National Cyber Security Centre] and law enforcement to ensure our restart is done in a safe and secure manner.

“We would like to thank everyone connected with JLR for their continued patience, understanding and support. We know there is much more to do but the foundational work of our recovery is firmly under way, and we will continue to provide updates as we progress.”