Grandfather of incoming MI6 chief was leading Nazi spy, reports say
Blaise Metreweli was announced as the new chief of MI6 earlier this month – becoming the 18th person to take on the role in the organisation's 116-year history.
The Daily Mail reported her grandfather Constantine Dobrowolski had previously defected from the Red Army to become a Nazi informant in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine.
The newspaper said German archives showed Mr Dobrowolski was known as 'The Butcher' or 'Agent No 30' by Wehrmacht commanders.
Reports also said the Nazi spy chief had a 50,000 rouble bounty placed on him by Soviet leaders, and was dubbed the 'worst enemy of the Ukrainian people'.
Ms Metreweli's grandfather also sent letters to superiors saying he 'personally' took part 'in the extermination of the Jews', the newspaper said.
Ms Metreweli will take over as head of MI6 from Sir Richard Moore, a senior civil servant who will step down in the autumn after five years in the role.
Commonly referred to as C, the chief has operational responsibility for MI6, and is the only publicly named member of the organisation.
She first joined the service as a case officer in 1999 and has carried out operational roles in the Middle East and Europe.
In her new post, she will be accountable to the Foreign Secretary.
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Scottish Sun
34 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Mystery of Disneyland ‘child marriage' paedo Jacky Jhaj's hidden fortune as not even COPS know how he funds sick stunts
COPS still don't know how the convicted paedo who staged a 'fake wedding' to a nine-year-old girl at Disneyland Paris is paying for his sick stunts, a court heard today. Jaskarn "Jacky" Jhaj's bizarre mock marriage involved booking out part of the theme park and is believed to have cost him more than €130,000 (£110,000). 9 Jaskarn "Jacky" Jhaj is a convicted paedophile wanted by the Met Credit: MET Police 9 In a sick stunt he faked a marriage in Disneyland Paris with a 9-year-old Credit: 9 Disneyland is a popular holiday destination for children Cops were called to the vile event on Saturday by an actor hired to play the dad of the nine-year-old Ukrainian bride flown out two days before the vile "wedding". Around 100 extras had been hired to pose as congregation members, with the wedding thought to have been filmed by wannabe director Jhaj. He is currently being held by French cops on fraud, identity theft and money laundering charges. The 39-year-old is a convicted paedophile currently wanted by Scotland Yard for breaching court orders imposed when he was caged for four years in 2016 for molesting two 15-year-old girls. Jhaj, who changed his name by deed poll last August to 'London JA', was last seen leaving the UK for Milan in November. This morning, cops told a judge at Isleworth Crown Court in West London that the creep organised fake movie shoots and a Leicester Square film premiere costing thousands of pounds to get close to underage girls. But the authorities - who were at court to beef-up a sexual harm prevention order aimed at stopping Jhaj from having contact with kids - still have no idea how the fame-obsessed paedo is funding his stunts. Benedict Scantlebury, representing the Metropolitan Police, said: 'I can't make any submissions as to the provenance of his wealth. 'But he's a man who clearly seems to have the ability to draw on significant sums of money and he's willing to use that money to spend hundreds of thousands.' He had registered multiple firms with Companies House to arrange and pay for his films, naming as directors people who 'do not appear to be genuine'. Mr Scantlebury said the police wanted to close a loophole in Jhaj's existing sexual harm prevention order that meant he could hire child actors for his stunts as long as they are accompanied by a chaperone. Moment convicted paedophile wandering street with girl, 6, is snared by cops His long history of bizarre stunts includes renting out the Odeon in Leicester Square for a fake film premiere in October 2023, hiring hundreds of kids to act as his fawning fans. Some of the children, who had been hired from casting agencies, were in primary school. Teen girls said they'd been asked to scream for him and try to touch him. Two years earlier - in 2021 - cops were called over concerns about his behaviour towards a 'young girl' on set. A 999 caller told police Jhaj 'tried to get himself and the female actress in a room together', adding that he left in a hurry saying 'I think I'm about to get arrested.' 9 Jhaj, features in a two-hour film uploaded online called "Dangerous Sexual Predator" 9 Jhaj previously held a similar event in which he hired young girls to pretend to faint as he walked up and down a red carpet in Leicester Square A trailer from the film - shown to the court this morning - showed Jhaj apparently firing a machine gun from the top of an armoured car at National Trust-owned mansion Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire. Jhaj hired around 100 mourners to attend a fake funeral at Brompton Cemetery, West London, in March 2024. He'd booked using a fake name and the actors - including young girls - were unaware he was a sex offender. Three months later, in June, he pulled up in a rented Bugatti supercar outside a dance school in Tower Hamlets, East London, handing out gifts to the students, aged between eight and 14. Jhaj had hired a choreographer to go into the school earlier in the day and hold auditions for another fake production. Then in August 2024 he staged a bizarre shoot near the O2 that saw him blow up a mocked-up BBC News-branded lorry while completely naked. Firefighters were called to the massive blast. On Friday, the court was told: 'The crew did not know that he would be naked during the shoot, and one of the drone operators filming the shoot had his children present at the scene.' Jhaj is suspected of uploading videos from his stunts online using anonymous bot accounts on social media sites. Giving evidence at Isleworth Crown Court this morning, Detective Constable Andy Hawes of the Metropolitan Police said he had 'no doubt' the sicko was also responsible for a two hour YouTube video from 2020 showing the topless pervert driving around picking up girls outside schools. One of the girls was in school uniform. The dash cam-shot video described Jhaj in a title card as a 'dangerous sexual predator' and it promised: 'This footage has never before been seen. Until now.' DC Hawes said blowing up a lorry at the O2 was a 'display of defiance towards the authorities'. 9 A disturbing advert used to rope in children for the fake wedding Credit: Facebook 9 A band for the fake guests as the wedding Credit: Instagram/bfmtv And the other bizarre stunts betrayed his sense of 'gratuitous entitlement'. The detective added: 'He surrounds himself with children. He enjoys their attention. He wants their affection. 'Thankfully, when he has hired casting agencies to provide children it is their legal requirement to provide chaperones.' He said: 'All of the stunts or the most recent ones are done in alias names, some wearing prosthetics, so in the future he can regale these stories to other females without it being linked to his true identity.' On Friday, a judge was told that perv Jhaj has never admitted what he does is wrong and has refused to take part in sex offender workshops aimed at treating his sick obsession with kids. Probation officers have previously flagged him as posing a 'grooming risk to female children' and required him to take polygraph - lie detector - tests, police said. Jhaj, of Feltham, West London, was first convicted in 2016 - when he was jailed for four years for molesting two 15-year-old girls he'd tricked into thinking he was a bigshot film producer. He later staged a video of him allegedly being mobbed by adoring teens - played by actors - while coming out of prison. Last July, he got a let-off £500 fine after he admitted breaching sex offender register notification requirements by failing to tell cops about a new passport. He was last seen by cops in November 2024, when he told officers at Hampstead police station that he would be flying to Munich on November 10 and returning the next day. Jhaj in fact jetted to Milan, Italy, and has not been seen since - although he is currently wanted for breaching court orders. The cop responsible for investigating the paedo producer, DC Hawes, said this morning: 'There have been extensive checks and at borders, airlines, all means of trying to locate Mr Jhaj but no success.' 9 A massive fireball near the O2 saw black smoke float across the Thames Credit: X 9 Jhaj (left) walked away from the fire while being naked Credit: Twitter/@gale_hunte He eventually emerged last Saturday, when he was arrested at Disneyland Paris over the sick wedding prank. Mr Hawes told the court: 'This morning, I took a phone call from the National Crime Agency in Paris who stated that Mr Jhaj has been remanded for four months pending a trial. 'He has lodged an application for bail, which has to be heard within 20 days.' On Friday, Judge Martin Edmunds - who said he'd learnt of Jhaj's arrest from news reports - ruled the case could go ahead in his absence. He stressed that the fake wedding in France was not part of the evidence supporting the police's application to extend the Londoner's sexual harm prevention order. But the judge added: 'I am not in a position to determine the rights or wrongs of the events at Disneyland nor do I purport to do so. 'But I do note they appear similar to other attention seeking stunts which are the subject of this application.' He extended the sexual harm prevention order for a decade and updated its requirements, banning Jhaj from unsupervised contact with kids without prior approval from the cops. In his ruling, Judge Edmunds said: 'The total absence of any evidence showing that the defendant is seeking to address appropriately his preoccupation with children means that a lengthy order is necessary.' He added: 'The stunts show absurd, grandiose thinking, access to very substantial funds to feed his attention-seeking behaviour, and persistent work to generate the illusion that he is a film maker.'
Scottish Sun
34 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Russians advance slower than a SNAIL with 50k pinned down as Putin's summer offensive mired in Ukraine's ‘dronegrinder'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) THE Russian invasion of Ukraine has been advancing at an incredibly slow pace - with Kyiv's "dronegrinder" warfare miring Putin's summer offensive. The rate at which Moscow is capturing land has been dubbed "slower than a snail" - all while the human cost of Russian casualties is sky high. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 8 Ukrainian soldiers of 43rd artillery brigade fire self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions Credit: AP 8 Ukrainian service members firing an anti-tank guided missile weapon system Credit: Reuters 8 Firefighters try to extinguish after a Russian drone attack in Kharkiv Credit: Getty After 448 days of fighting inside Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, the Russians reportedly only managed to take control of 50 per cent of the city. Which means the troops, on average, are only able to take 0.00629 square miles of land per day - which is a painfully low conversion rate. Even snails, which have a speed of 0.03 miles per hour, can cover more land than what the Russians have gained in the region. Meanwhile, Kyiv has ramped up its defences as it seeks to thwart Vladimir Putin's final killer summer offensive, which military analysts say could start as early as July. Ukraine's fierce resistance forced Russian troops to stop in the Sumy region's border area, Kyiv's military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky revealed. The military boss said that the Ukrainian armed forces managed to tie down a 50,000-strong force and stabilise the frontlines "as of this week". It comes after Putin cemented his territorial ambitions by proclaiming "all of Ukraine" belonged to Russia and threatening to seize Sumy. Syrsky added: "In the Pivnichnoslobozhanskyi and Kursk sectors, we've managed to tie down about 50,000 Russian troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades." Some 125,000 Russian soldiers are reportedly massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers, according to Ukraine's military intelligence. Ukrainians have now tasked a special defence group to strengthen fortifications near the frontlines, build anti-drone corridors and 'kill zones' Vladimir Putin rages 'all of Ukraine is ours' as he threatens to seize key city while Kyiv slams tyrant as 'deranged' Though the Russian forces recently seized Andriivka (north of Sumy City) and advanced southeast of Oleksiivka, according to the ISW assessment. Putin's battlefield casualties have soared past the bloody one million milestone after 40 months of meatgrinder war. Ukraine's fierce resistance forced Russia to pay a mighty toll for every inch of land it has taken, and its advances remain painfully slow. The staggering milestone includes troops who have been killed or wounded so severely that they cannot fight on. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, one million Russian military troops have been put out of action since February 24, 2022, with 628,000 of those casualties occurring in the last six months. Burning through a million troops has won Putin just 20 per cent of Ukraine's total territory - mainly in southern and eastern areas - which is a humiliating conversion rate. A defiant Ukraine stunned the world with its new-age drone warfare, which now kills more Russians than conventional battlefield techniques, such as artillery firing and battle tanks. One-way attack drones now account for almost 80 per cent of all the casualties in the war, with experts now dubbing it a "dronegrinder" war. Inside Operation Spiderweb By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter UKRAINE'S shock sleeper drone blitz on Russia's bomber fleet has delivered a hammer blow to Vladimir Putin's nuclear arsenal. The SAS-style strike against four airfields deep inside Russia is reminiscent of the most daring raids of the WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis. Volodymyr Zelensky oversaw Operation Spiderweb - much like Winston Churchill did as Britain struck deep behind enemy lines. Putin's doomsday bomber fleet is now crippled with 41, or a third, of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks on tarmac. Ukraine said the sneak attack was worth $7bn (£5.2bn) in damage to Russia - caused by only 117 cheaply made drones. Ukraine's spies spent 18 months putting the plan into action and struck on the eve of fresh peace talks in Istanbul. The drones and the containers were smuggled into Russia separately and were pieced together right under Vlad's nose. Clueless lorry drivers then parked the containers next to Russian airbases - where they sat and waited in plain sight. Then, on the morning of June 1, the fleet of flying bombs rose over the far reaches of Russia - and the most daring military operation of the war began. Nondescript shipping containers parked in laybys and verges had attracted little attention - before their lids blew open and the drone swarms poured out. The craft buzzed as they took off into the air and only had to travel a short distance to their valuable targets. Each of the 117 drones had their own dedicated pilot and Russia had little defences to protect their bases and stop them. Drones with cameras sent video back to HQ in Ukraine of the moment craft struck their targets and explosions ripped into the sky. Thick black smoke climbed high, with civilians near the bases sending video of Ukraine's successes around the world. The furthest strike was Belaya Air Base - so far inside Russia that the closest neighbouring country is Mongolia. Olenya Air Base near Finland and Ivanovo and Dyagilevo near Moscow were also struck in the country's west. IS PUTIN BLUFFING? Some senior commanders in Ukraine believe the Russian attack on Sumy could be a feint and that Moscow is actually preparing to attack further south to push further into the Donbas. If so, Russia is likely to attack through three areas near each other in the Donbas - Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk. Vlad already controls more than 95 per cent of Luhansk, but capturing Donetsk would cement his control over the Donbas region and achieve a war aim, albeit a scaled-down one. The Donbas is an important industrial and mining area - and some 200,000 to 300,000 people still live in four cities controlled by Ukraine. Moscow's military planners will be weighing up whether they want to fight through the cities like they did in Bakhmut or encircle them by going around through farmland. 8 Kramatorsk is the closest city to the front line and is under constant attack by Russia. Brutal fighting is going on in the city - with a recent kamikaze drone strike that managed to get inside an armoured vehicle carrying Ukrainian soldiers. Russia has an opportunity to conduct a pincer movement around Kostiantynivka with its soldiers controlling land to the east and west of the city. Instead of attacking the city directly, the could bypass it and attack Druzhkivka behind it - thereby cutting Kostiantynivka and any Ukrainian soldiers still there off. In nearby Pokrovsk, Russia already has a salient, a bulge, out from the front line after a previous advance. The Pokrovsk front line is also very near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast - a region of Ukraine the Kremlin hasn't yet officially claimed. A successful breakthrough there might mean Putin can actually expand his war goals. 8 Russian soldiers lined up Credit: Reuters THE SOVIET RHETORIC It comes after Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people". He declared: "In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours. "There is a saying: wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours," he added. The narrative is central to Putin's rhetoric, which he has used to justify his invasion of Ukraine. He reiterated his demand that Kyiv accept the realities of Moscow's territorial gains and abandon plans to join Nato. Putin said: "We aren't seeking Ukraine's surrender, we want them to recognise the realities on the ground," adding that Moscow has repeatedly warned Kyiv to make a deal. 8 Members of Ukraine's White Angel police unit evacuate people from Pokrovsk Credit: Reuters 8 Ukrainian soldiers fly a drone near Pokrovsk Credit: Getty Asked about Moscow's goals in Ukraine, Putin threatened to take Sumy - a key Ukrainian city - as part of the creation of a "buffer zone". He repeated that Moscow was "advancing on all fronts" and that his troops had penetrated up to seven miles into the Sumy region. Putin said: "We have to create a security zone along the border. "We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out... They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Putin's comments as "deranged" and called for Kyiv's allies to slap "devastating sanctions" on Russia.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Starmer admits he 'deeply regrets' his 'island of strangers' immigration remark
Keir Starmer said he and his advisors were unaware of similarities between his words and Enoch Powell's vile Rivers of Blood speech - saying he said it hours after his family home was targeted by arsonists Keir Starmer has said he "deeply regrets" warning the UK was at risk of becoming an "island of strangers". The PM made the remark in a press conference just hours after his family home was attacked by arsonists. The words sparked a fierce backlash amid comparisons to notorious Tory racist Enoch Powell, who said white people were set to become 'strangers in their own country' in 1968. In an interview with The Observer, Mr Starmer said he would not have used the phrase if he or his advisors were aware of the similarities. He said using the words "wasn't right" and conceded: "I'll give you the honest truth: I deeply regret using it.' The PM admitted he should have read through the speech more carefully and 'held it up to the light a bit more' before delivering it. He said he was "really, really worried" after the arson attack, and his wife Vic was "really shaken up" - prompting him to consider calling the press conference off. READ MORE: Tory MP launches astonishing attack on Kemi Badenoch after staggering Commons blunder He said he just wanted to "get back" to his loved ones as quickly as he could as he unveiled a white paper setting out plans to drive down net migration. The PM recounted: "It's fair to say I wasn't in the best state to make a big speech." But he said the fault was his own, stating: "I wouldn't have used those words if I had known they were, or even would be interpreted as an echo of Powell." The PM also accepted there were 'problems with the language' in his foreword to an immigration white paper which said the high level of arrivals had done "incalculable damage" to the country. In the days that followed the PM was accused of making "shameful" remarks. Labour peer Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child, said: "I'm unhappy that we have senior politicians who use language which is reminiscent of Powell, and I'm sorry that Keir Starmer used some of the phrases that you've just quoted.' Three men have been charged over the attack on the PM's family home in North London, which was being rented by the PM's sister-in-law and her partner. Mr Starmer said it could have been a "different story' if his wife's sister had not been awake and able to call the fire brigade. Ukrainian nationals Petro Pochynok and Roman Lavrynovych, as well as Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc are accused of conspiring to endanger life. In the days before the attack on the PM's family home, a flat he had previously lived at and a car close to his home were also targeted.
