The death of the 11-year-old, named only as Lyhanna, has pushed the issue of male violence against girls to the top of the agenda
A lawyer for the family of an 11-year-old girl whose disappearance and murder sparked protests across France has called for more funding for the struggling justice system, amid a political row over the French state’s failure to tackle sexual violence against children.
“Frankly, if the justice system had more resources, this tragedy and all the others wouldn’t have happened,” said the family’s lawyer, François Roujou de Boubée, on Tuesday. “The victim’s family and I trust in the justice system. So enough is enough.”
Father and mother of Annabel Rook praised her dedication to helping others and want to focus on her legacy
A retired Old Bailey judge has paid tribute to his daughter after her killer was jailed for life.
Today at Snaresbrook crown court, Clifton George, 45, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty of the murder of Annabel Rook, 46, whom he stabbed in the living room of her own home in Stoke Newington, north London.
A Lithuanian court has convicted a man who ran a cyclist off the road and attacked him for wearing a shirt with Ukrainian symbols, according to LRT. Judges treated his hatred of people who support Ukraine as an aggravating circumstance. The verdict is now final, and the court found the assault was deliberate, not an accident.
As Russia continues its all-out war against Ukraine, open support for Ukrainians across the Baltic states through flags, clothing, and fundraisers has become a marker of identity, even as it occasionally provokes hostility.
The roadside attack
On the evening of 27 March 2025, the man drove up to the cyclist on a road in Lithuania's Širvintos district. He repeatedly ordered the cyclist to take off the shirt bearing Ukrainian symbols. When the cyclist refused, the driver passed him, then swung the front of his car toward the roadside and blocked his path. The cyclist braked hard and fell with his bicycle. He suffered injuries, and the bicycle was damaged.
When the cyclist got back up, the man ran over to him. He again demanded that the cyclist remove the shirt, grabbed it, and tried to pull it off. The cyclist reached for his phone to call for help. The man struck him and knocked the phone onto the asphalt, breaking it, the court found.
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A hate motive, the court ruled
The Vilnius Regional District Court found the 1987-born man guilty of damaging another's property and causing minor bodily harm. Evidence from the investigation showed the violence was not random, the court said. It stemmed from the man's hatred of the victim as someone publicly backing Ukraine against Russia's invasion. The court treated that motive, hostility toward a group for supporting Ukraine, as an aggravating circumstance.
The court handed the man a non-custodial penalty of one year and three months' restriction of liberty. During that time, he must work or register as a jobseeker. He must also complete a program aimed at changing violent behavior. On top of that, he owes the victim for material and non-material harm, and he must repay Lithuania's State Patient Fund for the cost of treating the injuries.
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A Vilnius District Prosecutor's Office prosecutor, Edvinas Navickas, led the pre-trial investigation and the prosecution. Vilnius County police officers gathered the evidence. The court issued its verdict on 12 May, and it has since taken effect, the prosecutor's office reported. Lithuania, a NATO member bordering Russia, has been one of Ukraine's strongest backers since 2022, sending weapons and welcoming Ukrainian refugees.
Lithuania has prosecuted this hatred before, convicting a man who smashed a displaced family's car.
Ukrainian refugees
Millions of Ukrainians live outside their country because Russia's invasion made home unsafe. Some 5.9 million are abroad as of 2026. Most settle in the European Union, where Poland and Germany host the largest communities. That visibility and open support for Ukraine sometimes draw hostility. Other reported attacks on Ukrainians abroad don't have a clear anti-Ukrainian motive.
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In Poland, isolated cases include a Ukrainian beaten over his accent and a woman detained for telling two Ukrainian women to go back to Ukraine, while a separate knife attack on a Ukrainian selling his car in Wrocław has not been tied to nationality.
In Germany, an attacker killed a teenage athlete, a man went after children for speaking Ukrainian, and others assaulted teenagers while chanting pro-Russian slogans; one Berlin assault and a Murnau double killing both pointed to anti-Ukrainian motives, and a Russian was jailed for life over the latter.
The violence is not confined to those two countries: other attacks on Ukrainians have occurred in other places. Earlier, a Ukrainian was stabbed to death in Ireland in an attack police have not linked to his nationality, and a Ukrainian woman was murdered in the United States by a man who cited a delusional reason.
Measures being considered to crack down on practice that has grown as a result of Britain’s housing crisis
London councils could be banned from “dumping” homeless families hundreds of miles across England under measures being considered by ministers, the Guardian has learned.
MPs said vulnerable people, including women fleeing abuse, were being “coerced” into choosing between rough sleeping or moving to cheap, sparsely furnished properties in some of the poorest parts of the country.
A search in Ohio for suspects who opened fire near a busy street festival stretched into Sunday after 12 people were wounded in the weekend shooting that sent crowds scrambling for cover in a historic Toledo neighborhood.
Mexican authorities have uncovered a sophisticated underground tunnel near the U.S.-Mexico border that was equipped with lighting, ventilation and an electronic transport system, which they say may connect Tijuana to a street in San Diego.
Mexico's Attorney General's Office, known as the FGR, announced the discovery Saturday following a search warrant executed at a property in the Nueva Tijuana neighborhood of Tijuana, Baja California.
Authorities said the tunnel stretched approximately 265 meters, or about 870 feet, and reached a depth of roughly 6.3 meters, or 21 feet underground.
According to investigators, the tunnel contained operational infrastructure, including lighting and ventilation systems, as well as an electronic sliding mechanism designed to move items in both directions between Mexico and the U.S.
The tunnel was discovered through intelligence work conducted by agents with the FGR's Criminal Investigation Agency in coordination with Mexico's Security Cabinet.
Officials said the search warrant was executed as part of an investigation into alleged violations of Mexico's firearms and explosives laws as well as drug-related offenses.
Authorities said they believe the property may have functioned as a storage, logistics and trafficking center for firearms, explosives and illicit drugs.
Photos released by the FGR appear to show agents navigating the underground passageway, access points leading into the tunnel and evidence recovered during the operation.
Images released by Mexican authorities also appear to show ventilation infrastructure inside the tunnel, underscoring what officials described as a sophisticated operation.
The FGR said its investigation indicates the tunnel likely connects to a street in San Diego, though authorities have not publicly identified the location or confirmed whether the U.S. side of the tunnel has been located.
The tunnel discovery comes as U.S. authorities announced charges against four individuals accused of trafficking more than a ton of cocaine through a sophisticated cross-border tunnel stretching between Tijuana and San Diego.
According to federal prosecutors in San Diego, the tunnel extended approximately 1,933 feet, reached a depth of about 55 feet and was equipped with reinforced walls, electricity, ventilation systems and rail infrastructure.
Federal investigators said the tunnel connected Tijuana to a storefront in Otay Mesa known as "Buy 4 Less," where agents discovered a concealed exit point hidden beneath the floor of a storage room.
Authorities seized approximately 1,029 kilograms, or more than 2,269 pounds, of suspected cocaine during the investigation, an amount prosecutors estimated was worth roughly $45 million.
Homeland Security Investigations said the seizure dealt a significant blow to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations.
The investigation resulted in charges against four suspects accused of using the tunnel to move narcotics into the U.S.
Federal officials said the tunnel was discovered after months of surveillance that began in late 2025 and culminated in coordinated enforcement actions on May 29.
Officials described the discovery as a significant blow to criminal organizations that rely on underground smuggling routes to move narcotics and other contraband across the border.
"For these defendants, it wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. It was lights and sirens," U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California, said.
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