Headline
UK To Bar Criminals From Football Matches, Pubs, Travel Under New Policy

The United Kingdom (UK) has unveiled new sentencing powers that will ban criminals from pubs, concerts, and sports matches as part of its Plan for Change.
According to a statement available on the UK government website on Sunday, Judges will be able to curtail offenders’ freedoms with driving limits, travel bans, and restriction zones confining them to specific areas.
The release, which quoted Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said: “Widening the range of punishments available to judges is part of our Plan for Change to cut crime and make streets safer.
“When criminals break society’s rules, they must be punished. Those serving their sentences in the community must have their freedom restricted there too.
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“These new punishments should remind all offenders that, under this Government, crime does not pay.
“Rightly, the public expect the government to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, and that’s what we’re doing.’
The UK government further explained that the changes will toughen up community punishments to deter reoffending and force offenders back onto the straight-and-narrow.
“As part of the Government’s work to do everything in its power to keep Britain safe, offenders coming out of prison and supervised by the Probation Service will also face similar restrictions and an expanded mandatory drug testing regime,” the statement added.
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The government also explained that criminals without known drug habits will, in the future, face this scrutiny, not just those with a history of substance misuse.
Offenders who break the rules face being brought back to court or hauled back to prison as punishment, depending on the sentence they are serving.
Limited bans for Crimes amid prison congestion
Before this new policy shift, judges in the UK are able to give out limited bans for specific crimes, for example, football bans for crimes committed inside a stadium on match day, to prevent further antisocial behaviour.
However, the Government will change the law shortly so that such bans can be handed down as a form of punishment for any offence in any circumstance.
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“It will form part of wider reforms to sentencing to ensure punishments cut crime and prisons never again run out of places for dangerous offenders.
“Over 2,400 prison places have opened since July 2024 with the Government investing £7 billion to create a total of 14,000 as the prison population increases.
“Investment in the Probation Service will also receive a huge boost with an increase of up to £700 million by 2028/29, up from the annual budget of around £1.6 billion today.”
This week, it was revealed that the number of Probation Officers has increased by seven per cent in the last 12 months, with trainee probation officer numbers also seeing a surge of 15 per cent. This follows the Government’s commitment to recruit a further 1,300 this year, in addition to the 1,000 trainee probation officers recruited last year.
New technology, including artificial intelligence, will lighten the administrative burden and free up time for probation staff to increase supervision of the most dangerous offenders and keep the public safe.
Headline
Woman Wanted Over Mutilation Of Boyfriend’s Genitals In US
Authorities in Toledo, Ohio, United States, are searching for a 45-year-old woman, Jeanita Hopings, accused of breaking into her boyfriend’s home and attacking him with a sharp object, causing serious injuries to his genitals.
As reported by PEOPLE on Thursday, warrants issued for Hopings’ arrest show she faces charges of felonious assault and aggravated burglary in connection with the October 7 incident.
Investigators allege that Hopings “forcefully kicked open the front door” of her boyfriend’s home before entering “without permission,” according to one of the warrants.
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Once inside, she allegedly attacked the victim with an “unknown instrument,” inflicting a deep wound.
“The victim’s testicle was clearly exposed as the result of the laceration,” the warrant stated.
The man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, police confirmed.
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Hopings has not yet been arrested and has not entered a plea to the charges. Court records from Lucas County indicate that she has no prior felony history, though she has previously faced several traffic-related misdemeanour offences.
Police say Hopings remains at large as the investigation continues.
Headline
US To Execute Man Convicted Of Rape, Murder Of Teen
A 53-year-old man convicted of the 2001 rape and murder of a teenage girl is to be executed by lethal injection in the US state of Indiana on Friday.
Roy Lee Ward was sentenced to death in 2002 for the murder of 15-year-old Stacy Payne at her home in the town of Dale.
Payne was repeatedly stabbed and died of her injuries several hours after the attack.
Ward was arrested at the scene while still holding a knife.
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The execution is to be carried out between midnight and sunrise on Friday morning at a state prison in Michigan City.
Ward will be the third person put to death in Indiana since the state resumed executions last year after a 15-year hiatus because of difficulties obtaining the lethal drugs used in them.
There have been 34 executions in the United States this year, the most since 2014, when 35 inmates were put to death.
Florida has carried out the most executions — 13 — followed by Texas with five and South Carolina and Alabama with four.
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Twenty-eight of this year’s executions have been carried out by lethal injection, two by firing squad and four by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a face mask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.
The use of nitrogen gas as a method of capital punishment has been denounced by United Nations experts as cruel and inhumane.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.
President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and on his first day in office called for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”
AFP
Headline
Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal
Trump Gives Update On Israel, Hamas Peace Deal
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he may go to the Middle East at the end of this week as a peace deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is “very close.”
Trump said during an event at the White House that he would “go to Egypt most likely” but that he would also consider going to war-torn Gaza.
“I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday, actually. And we’ll see, but there is a very good chance. Negotiations are going along very well,” Trump told reporters at the start of the event.
“Our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas, and it seems to be going well. So we’ll let you know, if that’s the case, we’ll be leaving probably on Sunday, maybe on Saturday.”
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Near the end of the meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio unexpectedly entered the room and handed Trump a note.
The US president told reporters the note said that “we’re very close to a deal” and that his presence was needed. “I have to go now to try and solve some problems in the Middle East,” he added.
Hamas and Israeli officials are having indirect talks in Egypt on a 20-point peace proposal unveiled by Trump to end the two-year-old war.
– ‘Very close’ –
Trump said as he began the event that he had come off the phone with officials in the Middle East, where his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner had just joined discussions in Egypt.
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“‘Peace for the Middle East,’ that’s a beautiful phrase, and we hope it’s going to come true, but it’s very close, and they’re doing very well,” Trump added.
“We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and they’re, unfortunately, great negotiators on the other side also. But it’s something I think that will happen.”
Asked if he would consider going to Gaza if a deal happens, Trump replied: “I would, yeah. I would. I might do that. I may do that. We haven’t decided exactly.”
Trump said he would insist on the release of hostages held by Hamas before traveling to the region.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said earlier that he had received “encouraging” signs and hailed the support of Trump.
Hamas too expressed “optimism” over the indirect discussions with its foe Israel.
Trump’s plan calls for a ceasefire, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza, Hamas’s disarmament and a gradual Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
AFP
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