التصنيف: أخبار

Three Britons, including a skipper from Stornoway, have been arrested after the French navy intercepted a boat where 1.2 tonnes of cocaine worth £96m was seized.

The 29-year-old from Scotland was allegedly at the helm of a Spanish-registered yacht that was raided on Monday, around 1,200 miles east of Martinique in the Atlantic Ocean.

The three alleged crew members were arrested and taken to the island to face criminal charges.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said its officers worked alongside agents in France and Spain as part of an operation targeting a crime group suspected of shipping cocaine to Europe.

The NCA said officers recovered around 40 bales of cocaine from the vessel, with an estimated UK street value of £96m.

Spanish authorities in Marbella and Valencia have also arrested five other people suspected of involvement in the shipment.

The suspects included a 62-year-old British man, originally from Lincolnshire but now a resident in Spain, and his 24-year-old son.

The NCA said police swooped in on the pair as they sat down at a restaurant in Marbella on Tuesday.

The operation included officers from the NCA, Spanish Policia Nacional, French customs (DNRED), the French navy, and the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre Narcotics (MAOC-N) in Lisbon.

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Paul Owen, the NCA’s international liaison officer in Madrid, said: “This multi-national operation has seen a huge consignment of cocaine prevented from reaching Europe, and huge profits denied to organised criminals.

“I have no doubt that some of these drugs were destined for the UK.

“Tackling these global networks requires international law enforcement cooperation, and I’m grateful to our partners in France, Spain, the Caribbean and MAOC-N for their assistance.

“Working together we are determined to do all we can to target, disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking groups, and prevent them from fuelling violence, intimidation and decay in UK communities.”

The main road into Bethlehem is closed. What is normally a simple 20-minute journey from Jerusalem now takes us an hour, as cars queue to get through the one Israeli military checkpoint open further south.

It’s been like this since the war began, and it’s just one way that life in the West Bank has become much harder for Palestinians.

In Manger Square, the shops selling Christmas decorations and souvenirs are mostly closed, shutters pulled down.

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We find one shop open, it has been owned by three generations of the Tabash family since 1927, but they haven’t done any business for months and say that even during the coronavirus pandemic, it was never as bad as it is now.

“We never have this situation. Even in COVID time, we used to have a little bit of some people coming,” Rony Tabash tells me.

“Usually we are full of pilgrims, full of tourists. Now we can see Bethlehem. It’s like the desert, we are almost two months without any business.

“We open every day because this place is part of our heart, part of our history, so we come here. Me and my father, my brother, to greet the people, to stay, to drink coffee.

“Because really, this place is part of our heart. We always hope for a better future for all the world, especially not for us, for our children, for our future, for our real future.”

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The Church of the Nativity, normally heaving with tourists and pilgrims, is quiet, even during a Sunday mass in December.

A few Palestinian Christians attend the weekly service and pray in the grotto where Jesus is said to have been born, but the excitement and joy of Christmas time are absent this year.

For the first time in living memory, there won’t be a Christmas tree in Manger Square this year.

“This year we will pray at Christmas and we will celebrate the progress. But there will be no festivals, nothing. So we hope that after Christmas it will be good. I hope so,” says Rony.

A few hundred metres away, through the market and up the hill is the Church of Lutheran Christmas.

Inside they have made a crib of rubble and laid in it a baby wrapped in the black and white Palestinian kufiyah – an image that has gone around the world as a sign of the suffering in Gaza this Christmas.

“Every year at this place, we have a Christmas tree with lights and gifts,” Reverend Munther Isaac explains.

“However, this year there are no celebrations in Palestine and Bethlehem, for it is impossible to celebrate with a genocide taking place in our land against our people.

“No one is in a mood to celebrate, yet at the same time in our church we wanted to bring the meaning of Christmas to life and to explain what Christmas means to our people.

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“We want to send a message to the world that in the homeland of Christmas, that this is what Christmas looks like. The world is celebrating Christmas right now in different ways, with joyful celebrations, lighting of Christmas trees and celebrations and events, but in the home of Christmas, this is what Christmas looks like.

“Children being pulled from under the rubble.”

The holy land is a place of hope and miracles for many, and they will be praying for a ceasefire here this Christmas.

But amid the echoes of Gaza, the sounds of war and the images of death, peace feels a long way away.

Manchester City have become the fourth English team to win FIFA’s Club World Cup after a 4-0 win over Brazilian side Fluminense.

Julian Alvarez opened the scoring in the second minute before an own goal, a strike from Phil Foden, and a second late on from Alvarez secured a comprehensive victory.

City follow rivals Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in winning the competition.

They’ve now won the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup in 2023.

Pep Guardiola’s side qualified as European champions, and reached the final after a 4-2 win over Japanese team Urawa Red Diamonds in the semis.

Fluminense made the competition after winning South America’s Copa Libertadores.

The match took place in the Saudi city of Jeddah, with the Sky Blues playing without injured striker Erling Haaland.

It’s Guardiola’s fourth Club World Cup win – and he’ll be hoping a second-half injury to midfielder Rodri is not serious.

Fluminense started the match with a veteran team comprised of six players born in the 1980s.

City’s oldest player was 33-year-old Kyle Walker – who had a shoving match with Fluminense’s Fernando Diniz after the final whistle.

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The gulf between the clubs is also evident in the cash at their disposal.

City banked about £700m last season, while the Brazilian team is expecting to make £58m this year.

The third-place match in the tournament was won by African champions Al Ahly, from Egypt, who beat Japan’s Asian champions Urawa 4-2.

European sides have won the competition 16 out of 17 times.