Funeral prayers for Saudi student killed in UK held in Makkah
The young man, who once was a devout volunteer serving pilgrims visiting the Kaaba in Makkah, will be buried in the same place he used to once serve. His funeral prayers took place on Friday after the Jummah prayers.
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The National
7 hours ago
- The National
At least 200 arrested in London over Palestine Action support protests
At least 200 people were arrested in central London on Saturday, for openly supporting the proscribed activist group Palestine Action. Up to 600 people attended the demonstration, the vast majority remaining silent, with many holding placards reading: 'I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action'. Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted 'shame on you' and 'hands off Gaza'. The Metropolitan Police said it would arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action. There were a further four arrests for assaults on officers. The Met had been warning people all week to expect to be arrested. By 3.40pm, there had been 200 arrests, 'with more to follow', police said. The protest was an escalation of the Lift The Ban campaign designed to end the terror ban on Palestine Action and to persuade the UK government to acknowledge Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide. Arrestees included former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg, NHS workers, Quakers and a blind wheelchair user. Robert Del Naja, of music group Massive Attack, and Human rights activist Bianca Jagger attended the protest holding signs and acting as spokespeople. Poet Alice Oswald and environmentalist Jonathon Porritt also attended. The police said the detained protesters were taken to prisoner processing points in the Westminster area, and those whose details could be confirmed were bailed, with conditions not to attend any further protest in support of Palestine Action. 'Those whose details were refused, or could not be verified, were taken to custody suites across London,' the force said. Organisers Defend our Juries said 50 people had been arrested by the end of the hour-long sit-in – 'only a fraction' of 600-700 sign-holders, as numbers passed their expectations. The Metropolitan Police said: 'That claim simply isn't true. 'We estimate there were around 500 to 600 people in Parliament Square when the protest began, but many were onlookers, media people or people not holding placards in support of Palestine Action. 'We are confident that anyone who came to Parliament Square today to hold a placard expressing support for Palestine Action was either arrested or is in the process of being arrested.' Counter-demo Several counter-demonstrators carrying placards that read 'Palestine Action terrorises Britain while Hamas hides in hospitals, schools and mosques', briefly walked along the crowd before being led away by police officers. Other clusters of protesters who were not holding placards gathered around the Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela statues in the square singing pro-Palestinian chants. Officers were holding individual demonstrators sat on the edge of the grass before escorting them through swelling crowds to police vans parked on the edge of the square. A separate group of officers attended to protesters lying next to the fenced-off Emmeline Pankhurst statue. They later began arresting protesters sat in the middle of Parliament Square. The officers lifted the protesters – some sitting and some lying flat – off the ground before escorting them away. Banned In July, parliament banned Palestine Action under antiterrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain's support for Israel. The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Legal challenge The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban. Amnesty International wrote to the Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley claiming any arrests would be in breach of international human rights law. Other police forces have taken the decision not to arrest sign-holders at demonstrations elsewhere. Counter-terrorism police said this week they had charged three of 130 sign-holders arrested in London at protests last month, a day after Defend Our Juries claimed they were holding back from prosecuting in case the law was changed. A representative for Defend Our Juries said: 'The fact that unprecedented numbers came out today risking arrest and possible imprisonment, shows how repulsed and ashamed people are about our government's ongoing complicity in a live-streamed genocide, and the lengths people are prepared to go to defend this country's ancient liberties.' A Home Office representative said: 'The Home Secretary has been clear that the proscription of Palestine Action is not about Palestine, nor does it affect the freedom to protest on Palestinian rights. 'It only applies to the specific and narrow organisation whose activities do not reflect or represent the thousands of people across the country who continue to exercise their fundamental rights to protest on different issues. 'Freedom to protest is a cornerstone of our democracy and we protect it fiercely. 'The decision to proscribe was based on strong security advice and the unanimous recommendation by the expert cross-government proscription review group. 'This followed serious attacks the group has committed, involving violence, significant injuries and extensive criminal damage.'
The National
a day ago
- The National
Funeral of Saudi student stabbed to death in Cambridge takes place in Makkah
The funeral of a Saudi student who was stabbed to death in Cambridge has taken place in his home city of Makkah. The 20-year-old was killed last weekend and his father spent the week in the university city making arrangements and trying to grasp what happened to his beloved son. Mr Alqassem's body was buried at the Al-Shuhada Cemetery after it was flown back from the UK, accompanied with his family. Prayers were earlier said for him in the Holy Mosque, where he used to provide Iftar to pilgrims on Haj during Ramadan. Before the family boarded a flight home, they shared with The National a picture of Mohammed relaxing in the Saudi desert. His family said they want schools and universities in the UK to play a greater role in ensuring the security of students. His father and cousins visited the spot where 'kind and generous' Mohammed died near the private residential block where he lived, reading the many messages from well-wishers placed with floral tributes at the scene. They spent time in the prestigious university city liaising with the Saudi Embassy and meeting other Saudi students. Mr Alqassem was one of just under 350,000 young students to come to the UK to learn English and was on a 10 week placement at a language school. His cousin Abdulmalik Alqassem spoke about the family's anger after seeing what they consider to be poor security and protection for students living in Cambridge compared with their home country. He said the families of students 'send them here believing that this country offers the highest standards of safety and pay large sums for that very reason'. 'Urgent, serious action' was required, he said. He did not go into detail of what kind of security he envisaged, but it would likely involve guarded communities as well as tougher penalties for offenders. He added: 'If the government is unable or unwilling to secure student housing, then schools and institutes must take responsibility and implement proper security systems.' Mr Alqassem said that since their arrival in Cambridge, they had witnessed older Saudi students now behaving protectively towards younger students, some of whom are children. 'Today in Cambridge, I saw young Saudi men, 21 or 22 years old, standing in the streets, urging the younger students to go inside,' he said. 'They were acting like security guards. Not because it's their job, but because they no longer trust that anyone else will protect these kids. They stepped up because they care, but it should never come to that.' The UK should follow the example of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states which are 'societies that uphold some of the highest safety standards in the world', he believes. 'Strict enforcement is not oppression. It's protection. And that is what's missing here.' A local man, Chas Corrigan, 21, has appeared in court charged with murder and will face trial next year. His barrister indicated he will plead not guilty. During the court hearing, it emerged that Mohammed Alqassem died from stab wounds to his neck despite the efforts of passing doctors to save his life. Students The National spoke to expressed their concerns about safety in the wake of the stabbing. They said that while they were aware of a wave of knife crime and robberies in the capital which had tarnished its reputation, it was unexpected in more provincial areas. Esmat Zeineldin, a 24-year-old from Cairo, said: 'Everyone knows there's a lot of stabbings in London but I didn't know there were stabbings in Cambridge. They always claim that Cambridge is safe. I don't find it safe any more.' Abdulmalik Alqassem previously described his cousin as 'a very lovely person' who 'had a big smile and liked to make jokes.' 'His life was for others. He was very kind,' he said. 'For Saudis who were coming to Cambridge, he started to help them out with the paperwork process regarding the college and make sure some of them are safe. He used to be a kind of mentor and look after people's safety. Mohammed was a friend to everyone.
The National
a day ago
- The National
Inside GCHQ: Britain's international eavesdropping nerve centre - where neurodivergence is welcome
Inside Britain 's most secret eavesdropping establishment its operatives would not, at first glance, instil fear among their arch adversaries. Formal it is not. Hawaiian shirts are more typical than a starched shirt or old school tie you might have expected to see in an official government building. The dress code is relaxed to cater for the diverse characters working there: one worker refuses to wear shoes, while another has taken fashion tips from DC Comics – a Superman of the mind, perhaps. It was one of the more arresting sights during an exclusive visit by The National to the UK's intelligence headquarters GCHQ, a giant ring-shaped building nicknamed The Doughnut on the outskirts of Cheltenham, a town better known for its annual horse racing festival. It is where some of Britain's sharpest minds are fine-tuned to take on adversaries, from enemy states to international criminals, with the evolving threat of artificial intelligence the latest weapon. 'We're an organisation that is a mix of minds,' says Paul 'Chich' Chichester, director of operations, in a rare interview at the intelligence hub. 'You cannot solve the hardest problems without thinking very differently. Plus, you get to work with brilliant minds here, bouncing ideas and having conversations that you would not experience anywhere else." You have to be "comfortable" in not being as clever as some others "in the room", he says. The hub for cracking codes and ciphers also welcomes those with neurodiversity, be it dyslexia, ADHD or autism. Their diversity approach also applies to education. Non-graduates are considered, if they can pass the rigorous aptitude test, and if its annual public Christmas Challenge decoding puzzle is a yardstick, only a few will succeed. Therefore you don't need an Oxbridge degree to get in, as many might expect? Absolutely not, answers the man known throughout GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) as 'Chich', whose mind likely holds some of Britain's most closely guarded secrets. Graduates of less high-profile universities would equally qualify, he adds. Shiny and secure While The Doughnut is a big, shiny building that cannot be missed when either driving down Cheltenham's main roads or from observers above, its security is extraordinarily strict – so much so that most of it cannot be reported. Navigation of layered checkpoint systems and access controls are needed to enter, and the use of all electronic devices, including mobile phones, is strictly prohibited: no recording devices for this interview. While the security officers are genial, they are also extremely vigilant, and everyone entering the site is subject to the strict security controls, with passes double-checked. If the interior is functionally office-like with inevitable banks of computer and offices, the 'hole' of The Doughnut at least provides some respite and perhaps inspiration with its green foliage and benches. We're listening The headquarters' key role is providing signals intelligence, largely through interception, to the British military and government, alongside allies. But it also defends the country against the growing number of cyber attacks that increased in 2023 from 62 'highly significant incidents' to 89 last year. The intelligence gathering is done through a series of listening posts around the world. There is a 24-hour incident centre to report cyberattacks and the 'wheels start turning' at GCHQ if the threat is serious. The heightened security becomes second nature to GCHQ's thousands of employees – the precise number is classified – many of whom dedicate their entire working life to the cause. They also work closely with MI6, says Chich, as he leans forward on the desk in a small office with a single window. 'People here love what they do, they see that it makes a difference and there's an element that you are contributing to something … a sense of duty.' Also appealing to the hundreds of bright minds, including many mathematicians, that inhabit The Doughnut is the 'cool tech that they cannot play with anywhere else'. Cyber Iran What tech his operators use is something he cannot divulge but it is certainly required to keep ahead of the increasing skills of Britain's adversaries. While Iran's cyber capabilities have 'matured in a relatively short period of time' and are 'good enough to be a threat we take very seriously' its espionage concentrates more on domestic surveillance to protect the regime. But Iran is also expanding its overseas venture with a recent report by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – an arm of GCHQ – highlighting that Tehran was 'willing to target the UK to fulfil its disruptive and destructive objectives'. AI forever That destruction and disruption is set to intensify as the power and reach of AI becomes ever more dominant. AI is 'one of the main threats that is going to change the landscape for us as an organisation', and the most serious Chich has seen in his 35 years at GCHQ. Some AI threats cannot yet be known, although some in Silicon Valley put its potential for humanity's extinction at between 10 per cent and 20 per cent. That existential moment GCHQ cannot mitigate against – although its brains would likely be foremost in the world in attempting to do so – but it is certainly fighting an increasing number of new battles against AI. 'The threat has grown and every piece of CNI [critical national infrastructure] is under threat,' says Chich. 'This is something that the world is waking up to, a significant tool that you can convert to statecraft.' While ensuring AI cannot help someone make a nuclear bomb through ChatGPT – 'although that's not particularly our remit' – it has many other evolving uses, including spear-phishing emails, that appear from an apparently trusted source to extract personal or financial information. With AI mastering English and other languages, grammatical blunders are eliminated which is 'definitely allowing people to do things at scale', says Chich. GCHQ also knows that 'some of our adversaries are certainly doing their homework' on AI that will produce technological advances that 'will definitely change our landscape'. The key, argues the affable Chich, is to use the mass of neurodivergent minds on hand to 'get ahead of the bad guys', with much intelligence investment in AI, 'a technology that will shape the next five or 10 years … or forever'. Code crackers That is some distance even from the imaginations of GCHQ's predecessors who more than a century ago set up the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, where the German Enigma codes were famously cracked, shortening the Second World War. GCHQ's early existence was secret but its role in intercepting Soviet warship communications and positions in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis greatly assisted Washington's intelligence community. GCHQ, as it became, wasn't even known by the public until 1976 but a decade ago, with the explosion of social media and smartphones, its secrecy was no longer prudent. 'Today all societies' security is digital, increasing the surface of vulnerability,' says Chich, who with a smile adds: 'But then our ability to gain intelligence is much bigger.' Unit 26165 Another country intent on 'disruptive objectives' towards Britain is Russia, especially given the UK's support for Ukraine. Moscow's cyber athletes are not only focused on the war but are continually operating beyond its borders, trying to discover what is being supplied to Kyiv. This includes, as another NCSC report highlighted, hacking CCTV cameras at the Ukraine border alongside a 'campaign of malicious cyber activity against western logistics entities'. These operations were conducted by 'military unit 26165 of Russia's GRU' – Moscow's overseas intelligence service - that has conducted cyber campaigns against public and private organisations, including airports and air traffic management systems. Much of this was done by 'credential guessing, spear-phishing and exploitation of Microsoft Exchange mailbox permissions', the report said. While there have been major advances in drone warfare, has the Ukraine conflict also increased Moscow's cyber edge? 'History would say most innovation has been done through war,' Chich answers cryptically.
