A man who acknowledged trying to murder the late Queen Elizabeth II after being discovered on the Windsor Castle grounds carrying a loaded crossbow was given a nine-year sentence on Thursday.

The 21-year-old Jaswant Singh Chail will begin serving his sentence at the high-security Broadmoor psychiatric institution and transfer to prison as his mental condition permits.

In order to become psychotic, the former supermarket employee “lost touch with reality,” according to sentencing judge Nicholas Hilliard at London’s Old Bailey court.

On Christmas Day 2021, Chail acknowledged to an armed officer on the scene that he had broken into the grounds of the queen’s home “to kill the queen.”

He apparently made allusion to her son, the current King Charles III, when he wrote in a journal that if he couldn’t have the king, he would “go for” the “prince” as a “suitable figurehead”.

Chail was the first individual to confess to treason in the UK in many years when he entered a guilty plea to three charges at an earlier hearing.

In the most recent instance, Briton Marcus Sarjeant admitted guilt to shooting blank bullets at the queen when she was taking part in a horse-drawn parade in downtown London and was given a five-year prison sentence in 1981.

Chail, who showed up in court on Thursday wearing black combat pants and a black shirt, also acknowledged threatening to kill people and having a dangerous weapon.

Relationship with Chatbots
At the time of sentencing, Judge Hilliard stated that Chail had also been “informed by the fantasy world of Star Wars” and had carried out the planned attack while wearing a Sith Lord’s iron mask, a crossbow, and other accessories.

The judge said that Chail also thought he was in contact with an angel through an AI chatbot and that he planned the assault in retaliation for the 1919 British colonial troops’ slaughter of Indians at Jallianwala Bagh.

In a prior statement, prosecutor Alison Morgan noted that the defendant “demonstrated a wider ideology focused on destroying old empires spilling over into fictional events like Star Wars, in addition to that fixation with a real historic event.”

It was discovered after his arrest that he had declared his intentions in a video shot four days prior and transmitted to his phone contacts list about 10 minutes prior to his capture.

After a year of deteriorating health, Queen Elizabeth passed away peacefully on September 8 at the age of 96. This was nearly nine months later.

The queen was spending Christmas Day at Windsor Castle with Charles and his wife Camilla when Chail’s incursion took place.

The would-be assailant scaled the perimeter of the grounds using a nylon rope ladder while wearing all-black clothing, a hood, gloves, and a metal mask.

Before being taken into custody without a struggle, he was in the premises for around two hours.

According to the prosecutors, the crossbow he was in possession of was loaded and ready to shoot, with its safety catch in the “off” position.

The court previously heard that Chail had previously applied to join the Ministry of Defence Police and the Grenadier Guards in an effort to mingle with the royal family.

Before entering the castle grounds, Chail stated he was “sorry for what I’ve done and what I will do” in a video he posted with his acquaintances on Snapchat.

He said, referring to the 1919 carnage in India, “I will try to assassinate Elizabeth, Queen of the Royal Family.”

Although the exact number of victims in that atrocity is still debatable, hundreds were slain when British forces in Amritsar opened fire on a crowded throng.

The Metropolitan Police has extended a heartfelt apology to Patsy Stevenson and Dania Al-Obeid, two courageous ladies who were detained during the moving Sarah Everard vigil in London back in 2021. They have also been compensated financially.

It was confirmed in a statement from their attorney on Thursday that Patsy and Dania would get “significant” compensation in addition to a formal apology from the London police force.

This mournful gathering was conducted in Clapham Common in London during strict COVID-19 restrictions in honor of Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old who tragically lost her life to a serving Met officer in early March 2021 while walking home.

Women’s rights advocates harshly criticized the police for how they handled the demonstrators near the end of the event. Officers used force to eject ladies from the bandstand, pinning some of them to the ground, including Patsy Stevenson.

The MPS has issued a sincere apology in addition to large settlements to Dania Al-Obeid and Patsy Stevenson, according to a statement from the law firm Bindmans LLP.

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), in accordance with the legal firm, has stated that the women’s attendance at the vigil was a result of their feeling “deeply disappointed by the Met.” It acknowledged that people’s attendance at the vigil was protected by their fundamental right to protest and that its goal was to provide a forum for the public expression of sadness and indignation.

“The MPS has expressed profound regret that Patsy and Dania’s opportunity to express their grief and anger was ‘interrupted by their arrest and removal,’ and that legal proceedings became necessary,” the law firm continued.

According to a statement issued by Bindmans LLP, Patsy Stevenson described the procedure as “exhausting and challenging.”

It has taken more than two years to get here, and the journey there has been incredibly arduous and tiring. Nevertheless, it felt absolutely essential to continue pursuing some sort of accountability and justice, not only for myself but also for all the women who attended the vigil to express our grief and rage over the tragic loss of Sarah Everard, who was killed by an active Metropolitan Police officer, Stevenson said.

“I’m relieved that the police have acknowledged our fundamental right to protest,” she concluded. However, the Public Order Act has since further weakened and eroded this very prerogative.

Stevenson expressed her relief at the conclusion of this chapter and stated that she will “continue to stand in solidarity with all those fighting for truth, justice, and accountability arising from racist, misogynistic, or homophobic policing.”

In her own words, Dania Al-Obeid found the experience “incredibly difficult but very important as a survivor of domestic violence and someone who has been failed by the police in that context.”

In her statement, Al-Obeid claimed she felt “empowered holding the police to account for how they have treated me and other women who attended the vigil.”

“Through this process, I’ve found my voice, and I finally feel like I’m being heard,” she continued. Although I appreciate the Met Police acknowledging the reason we came to the vigil, to say we were “badly let down” would be an understatement. Before, during, and after the vigil, I felt harassed and abandoned by the police. I don’t feel safe or protected by any police agency.

In a press statement released on Thursday, a representative for the Met Police noted that the Clapham Common vigil took place under unusual circumstances, during a pandemic with legitimate public health restrictions in place. It was also held soon after Sarah Everard was tragically murdered by a serving Met officer.

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Observing that cooperation is essential to overcoming the issues, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres asserts that the world has the power to look for solutions to the climate crisis and growing inequality.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Guterres noted that as the world’s population faced significant problems for which there is a potential for global cooperation, divisions were widening and geopolitical tensions were rising.

Mr. Guterres made this statement while speaking to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council, the largest regional security organization in the world in terms of landmass and population.

Along with Iran, the SCO now includes China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Since 2010, the UN has had a cooperation agreement with the SCO, which focuses on Asia and collaborates with numerous UN agencies.

India is hosting the summit this year via videoconference.

The UN Secretary-General informed Member States that growing divisions had been exacerbated by disparate national and reasonable responses to international crises, disagreements over security threats, the COVID’s effects, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But the only way to address the world’s problems today—from the climate crisis to rising inequality and the control of new technologies—is through dialogue and cooperation. And working together is the only way that can happen.

He listed three key areas where he thinks Member States could work together to find solutions.

The climate crisis comes first. We are headed for disaster unless humanity comes together. We must work together and move quickly, he said.

In support of the support for emerging economies, he cited his Climate Solidarity Pact, which is aimed at major carbon emitters and developing nations.

He emphasized that “climate action is the fight of our lives” and that “SCO members have an important role to play.”

He continued by saying that as the world “completely unprepared” sleepwalks into the new tech era, solutions must be forthcoming.

Our capacity to responsibly develop and regulate the industry and companies leading it “are falling far behind” in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, and bioengineering.

He mentioned the UN’s proposed Global Digital Compact, which would bring together governments, regional organizations, the private sector, and civil society to help forge an international consensus on the rules.

He announced the formation of a new UN High-Level Advisory Group on Artificial Intelligence.
He continued, “I am open to any initiative by Member States to establish a global agency for AI.

“SCO members are leaders in many of these fields on a global scale, and we depend on your participation and support.”

Thirdly, he emphasized the deterioration of trust within and between nations, which has led to an increase in inequality.

The pandemic only made it worse while consuming funds that could have been used for climate action and sustainable development and burdening developing economies with excessive debt and interest payments.

“Reducing globalization is not the answer to unjust globalization. To lessen injustice, that is.

He urged governments to work for equitable globalization, climate justice, and global financial reforms that would balance and bring equity to the Security Council and the Bretton Woods institutions.

“We are advocating for significant changes to global frameworks in order to better reflect and respond to the needs of emerging and developing economies.

Additionally, I’m urging for an immediate SDG stimulus to boost the economy’s liquidity, ease the debt on developing nations, and restart the 2030 Agenda.

He claimed that social protection and employment needed to be given top priority at the national level. A new social contract must be built on respect “for all human rights,”

He claimed that the SCO is well positioned to promote Eurasia’s peace and security and combat violent extremism and terrorism.

Following the Taliban takeover in 2021, which restored religious authoritarianism and severely weakened women’s rights, he applauded the commitment of Afghanistan’s neighbors to a peaceful and united Afghanistan “with an inclusive broad-based Government”.

“A Government that will safeguard the rights of all its people, particularly women and girls, and prevent the country from becoming a hub for terrorism and violent extremism,” he said, was what Afghans needed.

According to an impact assessment released on Tuesday, the controversial UK plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda will cost £169,000 ($210,000) per person, despite the government’s insistence that it would recover most of the costs.

Immigration reform is a top goal for the UK’s Conservative government, and it was a fundamental pledge made as the nation exited the EU.

In order to dissuade thousands of migrants from traveling across the Channel on small boats, it intends to criminalize any asylum claims made by unauthorized entrants and send them to “safe” third nations, like Rwanda.

The government claimed that by cutting back on asylum help, savings of up to £165,000 would be realized.

Additionally, London thinks the initiative will serve as a deterrence.

To get support for the law in parliament, the administration has emphasized the expense of hosting asylum seekers while their claims are being adjudicated.

According to the estimate of the interior ministry, the first expense of moving a person to a third country will be roughly £169,000, which includes a payment of £105,000 to the host nation as well as airfare and administrative fees.

However, it also stated that sending each asylum seeker to Rwanda or another third country would save an estimated £106,000 in costs over the course of four years.

If lodging expenses continue to climb at the trend rate seen since 2019, this might increase to £165,000, it was stated.

The evaluation stated that the numbers were “highly uncertain” and that in order for the expenditures to be recovered, the strategy would need to prevent about 37% of small boat crossings.

– “Hardship” – In 2022, more than 45,000 migrants traveled in small boats to reach the southeast coast of England. This represents a 60% annual increase on a perilous path that has seen an increase in traffic every year since 2018.

Beyond the price tag, the proposed law, which is presently up for discussion in parliament, has drawn criticism for how it would affect refugees in Rwanda.

Enver Solomon, director of the Refugee Council, stated that if the bill were to be passed in its present form, tens of thousands of refugees would be denied access to the protection to which they are legally entitled.

It would be difficult, expensive in the billions of pounds, and have no effect on easing the current problem or the strains on the asylum system.

The Rwanda proposal, announced by the EU’s separate European Court of Human Rights last year, was abruptly halted. Boris Johnson was the then-prime minister.

The government plan is still bogged down in legal issues. There haven’t been any deportation flights to Rwanda until date.

On Thursday, judges in London will issue their ruling regarding the scheme’s legality.

Rights organizations charge Rwanda, which has been ruled by President Paul Kagame with an iron fist since the end of the 1994 genocide that claimed about 800,000 lives, with repressing free expression and opposition.

Ben Wallace, the defense minister for the United Kingdom, has disqualified himself from consideration to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general.

Wallace predicted that “it’s not going to happen” and noted that NATO still has many outstanding problems.

The U.S., he claimed, wants Stoltenberg to continue in his position.

When he met with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the White House earlier in the month, US President Joe Biden declared that he would back a NATO leader from the UK.

He said Wallace was “very qualified,” but added that it is “to be seen” if she would be hired.

Prior to his visit to the White House, Sunak claimed that Wallace enjoys high regard all across the world. “Ben does an excellent job. He is a fantastic defense secretary, Sunak declared at the beginning of June.

“Ben is well-liked by his coworkers all throughout the world.

We’re one of the few nations that takes part in each and every NATO mission. In NATO, we are largely regarded as a thinking leader.