French authorities have ordered Omar bin Laden, a son of slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, to leave the country over posts on social media, France’s interior minister announced on Tuesday.

Born in Saudi Arabia, where he spent his early years, Omar bin Laden, 43, has also lived in Sudan and Afghanistan. He left his father at the age of 19 and eventually settled in Normandy in northern France in 2016, taking up painting.

France’s new interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, said on X (former Twitter) that Omar bin Laden had lived in the department of Orne in Normandy as a spouse of a British national.

The minister said that the jihadist’s son “posted comments on his social networks in 2023 that advocated terrorism.”

“As a result, the prefect of Orne issued an order to leave French territory,” Retailleau said.

“The courts have confirmed the legality of this decision taken in the interests of national security,” he added.

The interior minister also said he had signed off on a ban preventing Omar bin Laden “to return to France for any reason whatsoever.”

He did not provide further details and it was not clear if Omar bin Laden had already left France.

Omar bin Laden’s marriage to British woman Jane Felix-Browne, a grandmother who had been divorced five times previously and over two decades his senior, had caused considerable media interest when it was confirmed in 2007.

After marriage she took on the Muslim name of Zaina Mohammed. Omar bin Laden sought to live in the UK, but his bid was rejected by the British authorities.

Osama bin Laden, himself the son of a hugely wealthy Saudi construction magnate, is believed to have had some two dozen children.

US special forces killed the Al-Qaeda founder in Pakistan in 2011.

Retailleau has vowed to bring “order” on immigration and crime, insisting that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred.”

His appointment as France’s top cop is emblematic of the rightward shift of the government under new Prime Minister Michel Barnier following this summer’s legislative elections that resulted in a hung parliament.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Sunday, pledged victory and claimed that his country’s military has “drastically changed the situation” since Hamas’s October 7 attack, which has led Israel to fight on two fronts.

Netanyahu addressed troops, stating that Israel “will win” as it continues to engage militants in both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, while also preparing for a potential conflict with Iran, almost a year after the unprecedented assault by Palestinian Hamas militants triggered the Gaza conflict.

Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said that, one year on, “we have defeated the military wing of Hamas”.

Netanyahu had vowed to “crush… and destroy” the militants when the conflict began last October, but troops have returned to various parts of Gaza where they had previously targeted Hamas, only to discover the militants regrouping.

In late September Israel turned its focus north, intensifying military action against Iran-backed Hezbollah, which had been routinely sending rockets over the border from Lebanon in support of Hamas.

“A year ago, we suffered a terrible blow. Over the past 12 months, we have completely transformed reality,” Netanyahu said during a visit to the Lebanon border, according to his office.

Hamas on Sunday called the October 7 attack “glorious” and said the Palestinians were “writing a new history with their resistance”.

Their attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity. Dozens of other hostages are still held.

At last 370 people were killed at one location alone, the Nova rave in the Negev desert, which was commemorated with candles, prayer and music in Tel Aviv on Sunday.

Italy has moved towards legalising chemical castration for rapists and paedophiles under a proposed new law.

The parliament in Rome gave its approval on Wednesday to the creation of a committee that could draft laws on treating violent sex offenders with androgen-blocking drugs.

The treatment would be consensual and reversible with the aim of preventing reoffending, Politico has reported.

It is the latest move by Italy’s Right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to crack down on law and order.

Since she came to power in 2022, Meloni has spearheaded legislation establishing new crimes and tougher penalties.

Pictured: Chemical castration being carried out in Kazakhstan (file photo)
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has launched a campaign to crack down on law and order
The new law, however, was proposed by a far-Right branch of her governing coalition who previously made chemical castration for paedophiles and rapists a key part of its platform.

Under the proposal, violent sex offenders could avoid jail in exchange for taking hormone-blocking drugs.

The plans, however, have been criticised by opposition groups for being ‘extremist’ and a ‘violation of humanity and justice’.

Enrico Borghi from the centrist Italia Viva party posted on social media: ‘What’s next? Tar and feathers, or rope and soap?’

Simona Bonafè from the centre-Left Democratic Party added that the plans were ‘unconstitutional’ and undermined ‘the foundation of our legal system that has overcome the use of corporal punishment for centuries’.

Chemical castration involves a person taking hormone-blocking drugs to prevent the production of testosterone.

However, concerns have been raised about physical and psychological side effects and its effectiveness at stopping reoffending.

The method has already been introduced in a number of countries as a punishment for certain crimes.

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The new sentences come amid a campaign in Kazakhstan for a toughening in the current laws to permit surgical castration for the most serious child sex offenders
Details were not given of the cases, but the child sex offenders are this year starting to forcibly receive libido-sapping injections (pictured: a nurse conducting the chemical castration of a paedophile convict)
Last month, Kazakhstan announced the mass chemical castration of 11 paedophiles amid a campaign for the worst offenders to have their genitals surgically removed.

All the men reportedly ‘committed crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors’ in the Kostanay region in the north of the country.

Approval was given for the paedophiles to be jabbed 24 times a year at an annual cost of £278 each.

And in March Madagascar’s parliament approved a new law that will see paedophiles surgically castrated for their crimes.

Under the plans, anyone found guilty of raping a child under ten-years-old will be surgically castrated and sentenced to life imprisonment.

While if the victim is between ten and 13-years-old, they will instead be chemically castrated and face 15 to 20 years of forced labour.

Whereas Russia is also moving towards the forced chemical castration of paedophiles.

A pro-Putin political party in Moscow proposed the legislation last year following a series of paedophile attacks on children.

The new draft laws would impose forcible chemical injections on convicted paedophiles in the months before they are released at the end of sentences.

A rape offence is reported every hour in London, according to data obtained by the BBC.

More than 8,800 rape incidents were reported to the Metropolitan Police in 2023 – an average of 24 a day.

Charities have called the findings “horrifying” but say the true extent of sexual offending will be far higher.

The Met says it remains determined to tackle sexual violence, is “striving to do better” and that the number of rape charges has more than doubled since 2022.

The data – obtained via Freedom of Information requests to the Met and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – also shows a further 11,000 reports of other sexual crimes were reported to the force last year, with almost a quarter of all reported crimes from people aged under 18.

The figures represent the number of reports issued from 2018 to 2023, but do not necessarily mean all the crimes happened within that time period.

For example, if someone reported historical sexual abuse in 2023, that would be filed as a 2023 report.

There were two offence datasets: one on reported rape only, and another comprising sexual assault, assault by penetration and attempted rape offences.

From 2018 to 2023, of all these crimes, total reported incidents increased by 14% to almost 20,000.

To put this into context, a report of sexual violence or rape was made to the Met on average every 26 and a half minutes.

London-based Rape Crisis centres, Solace and Nia have called the findings “horrifying” adding that it “clear urgent change is needed”.

Sexual offence reports on London transport up 10%

Amy has waived her right to anonymity.

She says she handed the police a phone with evidence and said the Met returned it after six months.

She said: “I found out that they didn’t take any of the evidence off it so they called me again to ask for my phone back to get that evidence but my phone broke so effectively, from that moment on, I knew that the case was going to be dropped because literally all of the evidence was gone.

“That moment was a terrible moment in time and put me into absolute paralysis but it was the police that put me on suicide watch.

“Victims already feel that everything is the victim’s fault but the police will definitely ensure that you feel that way.”

Tirion Havard, professor of gender abuse and policy at London South Bank University, said the figures were “depressing” both because of the extent of the offending and also in that it was “depressing that I’m not surprised”.

Prof Havard added the actual problem was far worse than the figures released by the Met indicate.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg. This is almost best-case scenario.”

Rape Crisis says only one in six women who are raped report the crime – that figure is one in five for male victims – while only one in four will report other types of sexual assault.

Additionally, data from the Office for National Statistics shows that in the year ending in March 2022 almost 800,000 females aged 16 and over reported that they were raped or sexually assaulted every year in the UK – that’s about one in 30. This figure was 275,000 for male victims.

Nearly a quarter of all reported victims were 17 or younger. This makes it the second-largest age bracket, behind 18 to 29 years old.

According to the data, more than 4,300 children reported being a victim of rape or sexual assault to the Met in 2023, equating to a report of sexual abuse about every two hours.

Kellie Ann Fitzgerald, National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) assistant director for London and the South East, said child sexual offences in London “remain close to record levels”.

She also noted the true extent of offending was likely to be much higher.

Ms Fitzgerald believes “it is crucial that the new government overhauls the criminal justice system” to tackle crime backlogs and to fast-track cases involving children.

Charges for sexual crimes have risen significantly in recent years.

There were 818 charges in 2018, falling to 800 the following year but have steadily risen since then to 1,419 in 2023.

However these figures represent only a small fraction of complaints made.

While the data shows an increase in the number of people reporting such crimes, and an increase in charges, the charity Rape Crisis UK believes “urgent” change is needed.

“We want to see a robust criminal justice system that victims and survivors and the wider public can have faith in.”

While the charity acknowledged commitments by the Met and CPS to tackle sexual violence, it said “we are yet to see this impact”.

In response to the criticism, the Met told the BBC it was “determined to tackle sexual violence and our teams have transformed the way we investigate rape and sexual offences”.

‘Survivors need to be believed’

In 2023, the figure of 1,419 charges made compares to 10,991 reports of rape in London, although the number of prosecutions does not represent the number of alleged crimes committed in a given year. Some of the prosecutions will be from cases reported in 2022 or earlier.

In addition, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says it can only work on cases sent to it by the police.

The data obtained from the CPS shows the number of prosecutions and convictions for “rape-flagged cases and cases where the principal offence was sexual offences” from January 2018 to December 2022.

Across this five-year span the CPS recorded 1,527 prosecutions and 925 convictions – a conviction rate of 60.6%.

A spokesperson for the CPS said “more must be done to drive up the overall number of cases charged”.

They added that this was why the CPS was “working closely with the police from the earliest stage of an investigation to build strong cases from the outset”.

The conviction rate for rape “seriously undermines survivors’ confidence in the criminal justice system”, according to Rape Crisis.

“Survivors need to be believed and supported; they need to trust that the system will fight for justice.”

As of January this year, there were 3,355 rape cases awaiting trial in England and Wales, with an average wait time for defendants on bail of 358 days.

But tackling these crimes cannot be done by the police alone, says Cdr Kevin Southworth, lead for public protection at the Met Police.

“Listening to those with lived experience, and working together with charities and partners across the criminal justice system, we’re working to ensure that all victims and survivors get the justice they deserve,” he told BBC London.

Rape survivor ‘disgusted’ over no free transcripts

Reporting a sexual crime can be extremely traumatic and any legal proceedings add extra turmoil, says Prof Havard.

She believes the investigation procedures and cross-examinations into rape cases leave women feeling “virtually strip searched”.

“There’s a double victimisation. First of all, she’s raped and then she’s blamed for that rape. Why would anybody want to put themselves through that?”

Combine this with entrenched societal stereotypes and victims feel helpless, she says.

It’s not just faith in the system. It’s faith in the Metropolitan Police too, says Prof Havard.

In response, the CPS said it was improving its service to victims and that complainants could pre-record their cross-examination by the defence and so not have to give evidence in front of a jury.

In recent years, London has witnessed a number of Met officers convicted of sexual offences, the most high profile of which was the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021 by off-duty constable Wayne Couzens.

On the third anniversary of the attack, London Mayor Sadiq Khan said it would “take years” to repair damage to trust in the police.

Since then, there have been further high profile cases involving Met officers.

In February of last year, David Carrick admitted to dozens of rapes and sexual offences against 12 women.

Meanwhile in May, another former police officer, Cliff Mitchell, was jailed for 10 counts of rape, including three of raping a child under the age of 13.

‘Striving to do better’

Det Ch Supt Angela Craggs said: “We know reporting a sexual offence to police can be difficult and we have worked hard in recent years to improve and support those who take this step.

“Significant progress has been made in relation to digital forensics, including obtaining evidence from mobile devices when someone reports an offence, to ensure this is as unobtrusive an experience as possible.

“In most cases we try and ensure a mobile device is returned within 24 hours and ensure our evidence gathering is targeted to extract only relevant information.

“We have also invested £11m in our technology and staff to speed us this process and minimise the impact on victims.

“We are always striving to do better and know that listening to and understanding the experiences of those who report sexual offences to us is a key part of this process.”

Credit: BBC News

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has announced her intention to seek a second four-year term as Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This was revealed on Monday, September 16, 2024, by WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng.

“We can confirm that Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has officially announced her intention to seek a second term as Director-General of the WTO,” Dieng said in a statement.

Okonjo-Iweala, who is the first woman and first African to head the WTO, will seek a second four-year term when her mandate expires in August 2025.

Her decision to seek another term was officially communicated to WTO Chair and Norwegian Ambassador Petter Olberg on Monday.

According to Dieng, Okonjo-Iweala had taken into account the overwhelming and broad-based support expressed by members.

The WTO’s African Group formally requested that she make herself available for a second term at that same meeting and proposed that the process to re-nominate her should begin as soon as possible.

It is gathered that so far no other candidates have come forward.

Okonjo-Iweala, who took over in March 2021 as WTO DG, was the first Nigerian woman to serve two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria—initially under President Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003 to 2006, and secondly under President Goodluck Jonathan from 2011 to 2015.

From June to August 2006, she served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria.

In 2005, Euromoney named her Global Finance Minister of the Year.

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and “onto the footy fields”.

Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a “scourge”.

The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.

The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.

Age verification trials are being held over the coming months, the centre-left leader said, though analysts said they doubted it was technically possible to enforce an online age limit.

“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts,” Albanese said.

“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” he told national broadcaster ABC.

“This is a scourge. We know that there is mental health consequences for what many of the young people have had to deal with,” he said.

Australia’s conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said he would support an age limit.

“Every day of delay leaves young kids vulnerable to the harms of social media and the time for relying on tech companies to enforce age limits,” he said.

– ‘Easy to circumvent’ –

But it is not clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said the University of Melbourne’s associate professor in computing and information technology, Toby Murray.

“We already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy,” he said.

Analysts warned that an age limit may not in any case help troubled children.

It “threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world,” said Daniel Angus, who leads the digital media research centre at Queensland University of Technology.

“There is logic in establishing boundaries that limit young people’s access,” said Samantha Schulz, senior sociologist of education at the University of Adelaide.

“However, young people are not the problem and regulating youth misses the more urgent task of regulating irresponsible social media platforms. Social media is an unavoidable part of young people’s lives.”

The prime minister said parents expected a response to online bullying and harmful material present on social media.

“These social media companies think they’re above everyone,” he told a radio interviewer.

“Well, they have a social responsibility and at the moment, they’re not exercising it. And we’re determined to make sure that they do,” he said.

Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to regulate social media platforms, with its online safety watchdog bumping heads notably with Elon Musk’s X over the content it carries.