EXCLUSIVE Mom was caught committing sickest act imaginable on her daughter in a hospital bed. It revealed an even darker past
It was August 26 2011 when Brittany Phillips used a laptop to access an online true crime forum called Dreamin' Demon.
She wound up finding a post about Emily McDonald, a 23-year-old mom from Austin who, four months earlier, had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for poisoning her daughter by smearing human feces on her IV catheter.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Bereaved and survivors call for justice on eighth anniversary of devastating Grenfell fire that killed 72 people ahead of tower block being pulled down
Grenfell bereaved and survivors shouted for justice in what is likely to be the final anniversary in the shadow of the tower before it is pulled down. The Government announced earlier this year that the remains of the 23-storey building will be demolished. It is thought the earliest that process will start is September and it is expected to take around two years. The Met Police investigation into what led to the 'avoidable' tragedy in 2017 which claimed the lives of 72 people – 18 of whom were children - remains ongoing. Many families and survivors believe the tower should not be removed until there are criminal prosecutions, although some local residents say they find it difficult to see every day. Hundreds walked in silence through west London on Saturday evening before hearing the names of the dead and speeches by campaigners, as the tower overlooked them. Vice chairman of Grenfell United, Karim Mussilhy, who lost his uncle in the blaze, told the crowd: 'Eight years have passed, eight years since the fire - lit by negligence, greed and institutional failure - tore through our homes, our families and our hearts. 'And still no justice has come. The truth is, there's almost nothing new to say because nothing has changed. 'As we stand here eight years on, the only decision this Government has made is to tear down the tower - our home.' The crowd shouted 'shame' and Mr Mussilhy continued: 'Not because justice has been delivered, but despite the fact it hasn't - before a single person has been held accountable, to make what happened disappear. 'The tower has stood not just as a reminder of what happened, but of what must change - a symbol and a truth in the face of denial, of dignity in the face of power, of our resistance, of our 72 loved ones who can't fight for their own justice. 'And now they want it gone, out of sight out of mind, a clear skyline and a forgotten scandal.' The crowd faced the tower and chanted: 'Justice, justice.' At the close of the speeches people filed in through the gates, which are rarely opened, and paid their respects at the base of the tower. Attendees held each other and children wrote tributes on electric candles that were left on a podium between the flowers. What remains of the tower has stood in place in the years since the disaster, with a covering on the building featuring a large green heart accompanied by the words 'forever in our hearts'. Grenfell survivors and their supporters take part in the annual silent walk on June 14, 2025 The 72 victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 are pictured as follows - (top row left to right) Mohammad Al-Haj Ali, Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye, also known as Khadija Saye, Anthony Disson, Khadija Khalloufi, Mary Mendy, Isaac Paulos, Sheila, Gloria Trevisan, Marco Gottardi, (second row left to right) Berkti Haftom, Ali Yarwar Jafari, Majorie Vital, Yahya Hashim, Hamid Kani, Jessica Urbano Ramirez, Zainab Deen, Nura Jemal, Jeremiah Deen, (third row left to right) Yasin El-Wahabi, Firdaws Hashim, Hashim Kedir, Debbie Lamprell, Ernie Vital, Sakina Afrasehabi, Denis Mur-phy, Raymond 'Moses' Bernard, Biruk Haftom, (fouth row left to right) Yaqub Hashim, Mehdi El-Wahabi, Ligaya Moore, Nur Huda El-Wahabi, Victoria King, Mo-hammed Amied Neda, Maria del Pilar Burton, Hesham Rahman, Gary Maunders, (fifth row left to right) Alexandra Atala, Vincent Chiejina, Steve Power, Rania Ibrahim, Fethia Hassan, Hania Hassan, Fathia Ahmed Elsanousi, Abufras Ibrahim (silhouette), Isra Ibrahim (silhouette), (sixth row left to right) Mariem Elgwahry, Eslah Elgwahry (sil-houette), Mohamednur Tuccu, Amal Ahmedin, Amaya Tuccu-Ahmedin, Amna Mahmud Idris, Abdeslam Sebbar (silhouette) , Joseph Daniels (silhouette), Logan Gomes, (seventh row left to right) Omar Belkadi, Farah Hamdan, Malak Belkadi (sil-houette), Leena Belkadi (silhouette), Abdulaziz El-Wahabi, Faouzia El-Wahabi, Fatemeh Afrasiabi, Kamru Miah, Rabeya Begum, (eighth row left to right) Mohammed Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Husna Begum, Bassem Choukair, Nadia Choucair, Mierna Choucair, Fatima Choucair, Zainab Choucair and Sirria Choucair Some campaigners pose for a selfie during the silent march on Saturday The final Grenfell Tower Inquiry report, published in September, concluded victims, bereaved and survivors were 'badly failed' through incompetence, dishonesty and greed. The tower block was covered in combustible products because of the 'systematic dishonesty' of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation, inquiry chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said. It was Britain's worst residential fire since World War II. News of the Government's demolition decision earlier this year was met with criticism from some bereaved and survivors of the 2017 fire who expressed their upset and shock, saying they felt they had not had their views considered before the decision was taken. Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner later said in an interview that she knew the meeting with those most closely affected was going to be 'really difficult' and that there was 'not a consensus' among everyone over what should happen to the tower. On Saturday, placards read 'this much evidence still no charges' and 'Tories have blood on their hands. Justice for Grenfell'. Large green papier-mache hearts were held aloft, with words including 'hope', 'integrity', 'enough is enough' and 'justice' written across. Around a dozen fire fighters stood to attention on each side of the road outside Ladbroke Grove station, facing the passing crowd with their helmets at their feet. Some members of the Grenfell community walked up to hug them and shake hands. After an hour of walking in silence the crowd gathered for the speeches outside Notting Hill Methodist Church. The Government confirmed in February that engineering advice is that the tower 'is significantly damaged' and will get worse with time. Separately, the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission has been consulting on plans for a permanent memorial in the area of the tower, with recommendations including a 'sacred space', designed to be a 'peaceful place for remembering and reflecting'. It is expected a planning application for a memorial could be submitted in late 2026. According to the Government's latest figures, published last month, there were 5,052 residential buildings in England which are 11 metres or taller identified as having unsafe cladding as of the end of April. Fewer than half - 2,477 buildings or 49 per cent - had either started or completed remediation works, with just a third - 1,652 buildings or 33 per cent - having had remediation works finished. Labour unveiled its remediation acceleration plan last year, pledging that, by the end of 2029, all buildings more than 59ft (18 metres) tall with unsafe cladding that are on a Government scheme will have been remediated. Grenfell Tower was originally built with reinforced concrete in 1974. The refurbishment with external flammable cladding and insulation that caused the disaster was completed just a year before the fire. A structural engineer's report from December 2024 said the tower was 'stable' but it concluded the 'underlying structure will worsen over time' due to fire damage. Engineers advised it would 'not be practical to remediate all or part of the damaged structure', especially above the 10th floor.
The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
‘No Kings' protests span 2,000 locations across the US
Nationwide 'No Kings' demonstrations spanned 2,000 locations, protesting against President Trump and his administration. Protests were largely peaceful, but clashes with police were reported in some areas, including downtown Los Angeles, where tear gas was used to disperse crowds. In San Francisco and Virginia, drivers struck protesters, with police investigating the incidents as possible intentional acts. Law enforcement officials in Texas evacuated the state capitol in Austin following a 'credible threat' to lawmakers attending the protests. Demonstrations took place in numerous cities, including West Palm Beach, Philadelphia, and New York, with speakers like Rep. Jamie Raskin and Martin Luther King Jr's eldest son addressing crowds.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Australian deported from US says he was ‘targeted' due to writing on pro-Palestine student protests
An Australian man who was detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport and deported back to Melbourne says United States border officials told him it was due to his writing on pro-Palestine protests by university students. Alistair Kitchen said he left Melbourne on Thursday bound for New York and was detained for 12 hours and interrogated by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials during the stopover in Los Angeles. The 33-year-old said he was 'clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons' and said officials spent more than 30 minutes questioning him about his views on Israel and Palestine including his 'thoughts on Hamas'. Kitchen said officials asked him for his 'thoughts about the conflict in a very broad sense', including about student protesters, what Israel 'should have done differently' and 'how I would resolve the conflict'. 'It was quite an in-depth probing of my views on the war,' he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email Kitchen said he was deported and landed back in Melbourne on Saturday morning. 'The CBP explicitly said to me, the reason you have been detained is because of your writing on the Columbia student protests,' he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The US Department of Homeland Security has been contacted for comment. Kitchen said he lived in New York for six years and wrote about the protests staged in support of Gaza at Columbia University while he was a master's student at the college, before he moved back to Australia in 2024. 'Because I was a creative writing student, I took the opportunity to witness the protests and wrote about them in depth on my personal blog,' he said. This year, Kitchen published a piece on his blog, Kitchen Counter, on the Department of Homeland Security's detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the lead negotiator of the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment. In the article, Kitchen said Khalil had been arrested 'on utterly specious grounds by a neo-fascist state' with the goal of 'the deportation of dissent'. He referred to the Trump administration's executive order of 30 January in which the government promised to go on the 'offense to enforce law and order' and 'cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses'. Kitchen, who was planning to return to New York for two weeks to visit friends, said he deleted 'sensitive political posts' from his blog as well as 'some social media' because he was aware of the increased risk of crossing the US border. However, he believed US border officials had used technology to link his posts to his application for a Electronic System for Travel Authorization (Esta), which allows eligible visitors to make a short trip to the US without a visa. He said he was called for over the intercom shortly after exiting the plane at Los Angeles international airpot and 'taken into a back room' for secondary processing 'Clearly, they had technology in their system which linked those posts to my Esta … a long time before I took them down,' he said. 'Because they knew all about the posts, and then interrogated me about the posts once I was there.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Kitchen said he wanted other Australians to be aware that 'cleaning' their phones wouldn't necessarily mean they would be able to get their Esta approved upon arrival in the US. 'They had already prepared a file on me and already knew everything about me,' he said. Kitchen said he agreed to give officials the passcode for his phone, which he now regretted. 'I had at that time, the wrong and false hope that once they realised I was, you know, just a Australian writer and not a threat to the US that they would let me in,' he said. 'But then they took my phone away and began downloading it and searching it.' Kitchen said he was 'terrified of retribution and reprisal from the US government' for speaking out about his experience but he wanted people to know what had happened. He urged other Australians who were detained upon arrival into the US to accept 'immediate deportation' instead of handing their phones over the border officials. He said he had put the 'offending posts' back online on his blog. Kitchen said his phone and passport were handed to a Qantas flight attendant at the start of his deportation flight and he was unable to get them back until they landed in Melbourne. Qantas confirmed that its staff received a sealed envelope from US customs officials containing the passenger's personal items which was returned upon arrival in Australia. The airline declined to comment further.
