An alleged neo-Nazi youth accused of planning a terrorist attack on synagogues faces a trial next year.

The 15-year-old boy, from Northumberland, is charged with engaging in conduct in preparation for committing acts of terrorism, contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

It is alleged he began to discuss planning a terrorist attack with an unidentified individual earlier this year.

He acquired equipment and weapons including a crossbow that were purchased online in 2024 and had downloaded extremist manuals, it is claimed.

Among items allegedly found at his home were nails tied together with duct tape, a life-size skeleton covered in body armour, and Nazi memorabilia.

The boy is also charged with one count of membership of a proscribed organisation, contrary to Section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Base, an extreme right-wing white supremacist group, was proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Home Office in July 2021.

The teenager was arrested as part of a pre-planned, intelligence-led operation on Thursday February 20.

On Friday, he appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing before Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb.

He spoke to confirm his identity by video-link from HMP Wetherby in West Yorkshire.

Prosecutor Birgitte Hagem told the court the charges relate to alleged plans to attack local synagogues and a phone mast.

A provisional trial was set for January 13 at Leeds Crown Court, with a plea hearing on July 18 this year at the Old Bailey.

The defendant, who cannot be identified because of his age, was remanded back into custody.

Violent videos which Southport killer Axel Rudakubana watched are still online after the Government asked social media companies for them to be removed, Yvette Cooper has said.

The Home Secretary wrote to Elon Musk’s X, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, TikTok, Google and YouTube in late January calling on them to “urgently review” material accessed by Rudakubana.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Cooper claimed material remains online despite her calls for it to be removed.

She told the BBC: “There has been some further contact with some of the social media companies, but our understanding is that many of those materials… that material is still available online.

“I think, frankly, that is disgraceful, because I think they have a moral responsibility to act.”

Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, from March platforms will be required to remove illegal content, including violent material.

Ms Cooper said the Government is willing to go further if social media giants do not comply.

She said: “We need to bring in the requirements to make sure we’ve got those legal powers in place and we will implement that.

“We are being clear that we are prepared to go further if the Online Safety Act measures are not working as effectively as we need them to do.”

Ms Cooper previously warned failing to remove the videos from social media could lead to further attacks like that carried out by Rudakubana.

The 18-year-old was jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years after pleading guilty to murdering Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, at a dance class in Southport last July.

He also admitted attempting to murder eight other children and two adults, possession of a knife, production of a biological toxin, ricin, and possessing information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing to commit an act of terrorism.

Before leaving home, he had searched online for “Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing” – the knife attack on a bishop in Sydney, Australia, in April last year.

The graphic video was removed in Australia but is still available to view in the UK, Ms Cooper and Science Secretary Peter Kyle said in a letter to the tech bosses.

Rudakubana also had a PDF file entitled Military Studies In The Jihad Against The Tyrants, The Al Qaeda Training Manual, which led to him facing the charge under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The ministers warned the killer had been able to easily obtain this document online and it “continues to remain available”.

A University of Birmingham PhD student plotted to supply Islamic State terrorists with a drone capable of delivering a bomb or chemical weapon, a terror trial jury has heard.

Prosecutors allege Mohamad Al-Bared was designing and building the unmanned aerial device, found in a bedroom at his home, when he was arrested in January this year.

The 26-year-old mechanical engineering graduate, of Kare Road, Coventry, went on trial before a jury at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday.

He denies a charge alleging he engaged in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts to benefit a proscribed terrorist organisation.

Opening the Crown’s case, prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the court: “His home was searched and police found a drone.

“They also found material suggesting this defendant supported Islamic State, a terrorist organisation.”

The court heard Al-Bared, who lived with his parents, was arrested while driving at the same time as the raid took place, and had a mobile phone which police also seized.

Al-Bared was studying for a PhD at the University of Birmingham, the court heard, and a 3D printer was also found at his home, which could be used to make parts for the drone.

Ms Heeley alleged that evidence gathered from devices said to belong to Al-Bared showed he was a supporter of Islamic State and that “this drone was being built” to help the organisation.

After showing the drone, which was contained in a large see-through plastic bag, to the jury, the prosecutor said it was of a type which has landing gear and a small digital camera.

“It had all the components required for it to fly,” Ms Heeley added. “We suggest it was being manufactured to deliver a bomb … to fly into IS enemy territory and deliver a chemical weapon or some other kind of device.”

During the opening day of the trial, Ms Heeley also alleged that Al-Bared had filled in an Islamic State application form and set up a UK-registered company to help plans for future foreign travel.

Ms Heeley continued: “He says he is not responsible for filling in the application form, but we say how else has it got there?”

Written material saying the idea for the drone was “somewhat inspired by the design of the Tomahawk missile” was put before the jury, in what the Crown claims was Al-Bared describing his build process.

Ms Heely said of the evidence found on an electronic device, which also included reference to fuses, mechanical detonators and an “explosive” head: “He is literally reporting back to someone about what it is that he is doing.

“What drone for legitimate use needs an explosive head?

“What does need an explosive head is a drone that has been designed on a missile.”

Ms Heeley told the jury: “That’s the real reason this drone is being built.

“That one sentence tells you what this case is about and why we say the defendant is guilty.

“The only reasonable conclusion you can reach is you can be sure that he was preparing for acts of terrorism.”

Al-Bared, whose PhD work involved laser-based micro-drilling, denies a single charge covering the period between January 1 2022 and January 31 this year.

The trial continues next Tuesday.

Denmark is taking threats from the Islamist terrorist network al-Qaeda very seriously, Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said on Tuesday, according to broadcaster DR.

On Monday, reports had emerged that al-Qaeda was calling on Muslims to launch retaliation attacks for recent desecrations of the Koran in Sweden and Denmark.

The Danish domestic intelligence service PET had earlier confirmed a new threat against Sweden and Denmark, in response to Koran burnings in the two countries.

Several anti-Islamic protests involving the damaging and burning of the Koran in Sweden and Denmark have triggered protests in Muslim-majority countries in recent months.

The reactions in Iraq were particularly strong. In July, the Iraqi government expelled the Swedish ambassador, while demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set fire to it.

The Koran burnings have been carried out by small groups seeking to provoke Muslims. The protests fall under freedom of speech in both countries and are legal.

Al-Qaeda is said to have posted an online statement calling for severe punishment against everyone involved in such acts, including blowing up Swedish and Danish embassies around the world.

But Hummelgaard reassured Danes that they should not be nervous. Police and secret services were keeping a very close eye on the situation, he said.

He reiterated that the government intended to ban the provocative Koran burnings, however it was initially unclear what steps would be taken.

The terror alert level in Denmark has not been raised, despite the multiple threats. It is currently on the fourth of five levels.

Read more: Denmark ponders law to ban burning of the Koran in front of embassies

A teenage Islamic State fanatic has been jailed for life for plotting a terror attack on British police officers or soldiers after being radicalised online in the pandemic.

Muslim convert Matthew King, 19, expressed a desire to kill military personnel as he prepared to stake out a British Army barracks in Stratford, east London.

He discussed his plans and shared a “gory fantasy” with an online girlfriend with whom he struck up an adolescent flirtation, the Old Bailey heard.

His desires to launch an attack in Britain or travel to Syria to join so-called Islamic State were thwarted when his mother reported him to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme.

Authorities were also tipped off through an anti-terrorist hotline after he posted a video on a WhatsApp group on April 13 last year.

While in custody, King had made a violent threats to “behead an imam” and “kill and chop up staff”, the Old Bailey was told.

In January, King, from Wickford in Essex, pleaded guilty to preparation of terrorist acts between December 22 2021 and May 17 2022.

On Friday, he was handed a discretionary life sentence with a minimum term of six years in the first terrorism sentencing in England and Wales to be televised.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC praised King’s mother, saying: “She took the very bold step of alerting Prevent when she had concerns for her son. That cannot have been an easy thing to do in the first place and in my view she absolutely the right thing.”

Judge Lucraft found King was a dangerous offender and carried a risk of future harm to the public, despite claims by his barrister the defendant was on the path to deradicalisation.

In mitigation, Hossein Zahir KC said King was “immature” and the prospect he would carrying out either of his terrorist plans were “remote”.

The defence barrister argued that despite incidents of “offensive and abusive” behaviour in custody, King was “slowly and steadily” disengaging from the excesses of extremism.

After the sentencing, Scotland Yard described King as a “committed, self-initiated terrorist” who was “self-radicalised” online during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the Met’s counter terrorism command, said: “We had seen an escalation in Matthew King’s behaviour, in his reconnaissance, in his online activity.

“I genuinely believe this was an imminent terrorist attack. Without the public’s help and without the efficient investigation of my officers, officers from the eastern region and members of the intelligence community, we wouldn’t have been able to disrupt what, for me, was an imminent attack.”

Setting out the facts at a previous hearing, prosecutor Paul Jarvis had described how King had developed an “entrenched Islamist extremist mindset”.

In his early teens, King “dabbled with drugs” and was expelled from school after becoming aggressive, eventually leaving education entirely at the age of 16.

Around 2020, he became interested in Islam, began to attend mosques and watched Muslim videos on YouTube.

By May 2021, his family noticed he had become more extreme and his mother became concerned he was watching material online promoting hatred, Mr Jarvis said.

He had developed a friendship with a girl – identified in court only as Miss A – who he met online.

He spoke of wanting to get his hands on an American or British Marine and told the girl: “I just wanna die a martyr.”

When Miss A appeared to support and encourage him, King responded: “I guess jihadi love is powerful. I just want to kill people.”

In further graphic chat, Miss A talked about torturing, mutilating and beheading a soldier and then cutting up the body parts.

As part of his terror attack planning, King had set up an online account with the retailer Knife Warehouse, searched for IS tactical training videos in the use of knives and bought “tactical gloves” and goggles.

On one occasion, he went into his sister’s bedroom dressed up in his combat outfit and asked if she liked his clothes.

King made videos as he checked out potential targets including Stratford army barracks, police officers outside Stratford Magistrates’ Court and at the railway station.

Some of his hostile reconnaissance videos were overlaid with nasheeds – Islamic chants – and he posted on Snapchat: “Target acquired”.

Meanwhile, King had searched the internet for terrorist killers including the Manchester Arena bomber and Jihadi John.

While planning acts of terrorism in Britain, King had also expressed a desire to join Islamic State in Syria and sought advice on a WhatsApp group about the best way to get there.

Authorities were alerted after King posted on WhatsApp an image of a male holding a knife with the words: “Those who said that there is no jihad and no battle. They are lying!”

King was arrested at his home on May 18 last year by officers from the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command.

He described his former Islamic name as “Abdul Kalashnikov” and told police: “The only thing which is black and white is the sharia, the law of Allah.”

King’s barrister told the court that more recent conversations with his supportive family showed signs the defendant was turning away from his radical beliefs.

And in a prison phone call, King told his mother: “I’m not extreme anymore.”

A Lebanese-Canadian academic has been convicted in absentia of terrorism charges and sentenced to life in prison over a bombing outside a Paris synagogue in 1980 that killed four and wounded 46.

The court in the French capital issued an arrest warrant for Hassan Diab, who lives in Ottawa, Canada, and denies wrongdoing.

His lawyers say he was in Lebanon at the time of the attack and is a victim of mistaken identity.

The trial marked the culmination of decades of investigation into one of France’s longest unsolved crimes.

French authorities accuse Diab of planting the bomb outside the synagogue where 320 worshipers had gathered to mark the end of a Jewish holiday on the evening of October 3 1980, including children celebrating their bar mitzvahs.

French investigators attributed the synagogue attack to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations but no one ever claimed responsibility.

The conviction was a surprise to many even in the court. Among the defence witnesses was a magistrate who investigated the case and testified that there was not enough evidence to convict Diab.

The head of France’s leading Jewish group, CRIF, welcomed the conviction, and urged Canada to arrest Diab.

The victims’ lawyers said the long-awaited trial will serve as a deterrent to other terrorist acts and antisemitic sentiments.

French authorities accused Diab of planting the bomb on a motorbike outside the synagogue on Rue Copernic.

Investigators initially suspected far-right extremists before shifting their focus to Palestinian militants.

Canada authorised Diab’s extradition to France in 2014 as part of the investigation, but after three years in pre-trial detention, anti-terrorism judges ordered him to be freed due to lack of evidence.

Then an appeals court ruled that he should stand trial on terrorism charges. Diab remained in Canada throughout the trial, which started earlier this month.

For those touched by the attack, the trial was a long-awaited opportunity to speak publicly about what happened.

Survivors described years of physical and mental trauma. Some said the sound of motorcycles haunted them after that night. Families of those killed mourned lost children or siblings.

Prosecutors argued that Diab has been lying to himself for 40 years and is caught up in his denial and escape from reality.

Diab’s lawyer William Bourdon had pleaded for an acquittal, saying that convicting someone would be “a judicial mistake”.

Amnesty International was among those which called for the court to drop what they called a flawed and baseless case, arguing that it “undermines effective justice for victims”.

Some lawyers for the 18 people and six groups that were party to the case acknowledged that it was hard to build a case so many years later, especially without the kind of DNA evidence or mobile phone data used in current investigations.

A Twitter user accused of encouraging others to decapitate anyone who insulted Islam has told a jury he retweeted praise for a terrorist “just to have some more followers”.

Ajmal Shahpal told Birmingham Crown Court he did not believe that the killer of French school teacher Samuel Paty was “as brave as a lion” or that the victim “deserved to be killed” in France in October 2020.

Prosecutors allege Shahpal, of Birkin Avenue, Radford, Nottingham, encouraged others to commit, prepare, or instigate acts of terrorism in a series of retweets, including one containing an image of Mr Paty’s severed head.

Shahpal, 41, is also alleged to have tweeted messages backing a Pakistan-based political party which supported the “out-of-hand murder of those who it thinks have committed blasphemy”.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Dan Pawson-Pounds on Monday, Shahpal, who is originally from Pakistan and was assisted by an Urdu interpreter, denied pretending to have a poor understanding of English to try to escape responsibility for his tweets.

Mr Pawson-Pounds told Shahpal, who passed a taxi exam and studied for a diploma in English and business management after coming to the UK in 2009: “The Crown suggests that you were a radicalised follower of extreme Islam and that you both supported and encouraged the murder of people for what you considered to be blasphemy.

“You used your Twitter account to encourage people to do this by saying on that account repeatedly that blasphemers should be killed and should be killed immediately.”

After the defendant accepted that Mr Paty did not deserve to die and that the teacher’s killer was not “as brave as a lion” – contradicting statements in one of his retweets – Mr Pawson-Round asked him: “Why did you retweet a tweet saying all these things then?”

Shahpal responded: “As I have already told you, the reason behind this was just to have some more followers.

“At the time when I retweeted it, that picture (of a severed head) wasn’t fully open at that time on the feed of Twitter.

“So at the time I did not know what picture it was that I was retweeting.”

Claiming he had only read the first line of the message before retweeting it, Shahpal added: “I did not fully read it.

“What I have read, it did not say that his chopped off head was lying on the floor.

“A friend of mine who set up this account for me, he told me that if you do this, you are going to get more followers.”

Questioned about a further tweet which called for rapists to be stoned to death, Shahpal said it did not accord with his beliefs and he had “just copied and pasted” a message written in English “because the issue was ongoing” in Pakistan.

After Shahpal denied that he had intended to encourage terrorism, he was asked if he had realised there would be a risk that his tweets would encourage acts of terror.

Shahpal answered: “I was just posting them (tweets). I didn’t have a clue.”

Later in his evidence, asked about a tweet containing a call for someone to be “killed immediately”, Shahpal added: “My English is not that good. I just copied and pasted.”

The defendant denies two counts of encouraging others to commit, prepare, or instigate acts of terrorism, and two alternative charges of the same offence being reckless as to whether such acts would be encouraged.

The trial continues.

The Manchester Bombing Inquiry by Sir John Sawyers presented its third report today that highlighted the influences on Salman Abedi and how a confluence of familial, social and political factors came together to produce a radicalised and dangerous individual. Twenty two people were murdered in the bombing and hundreds injured with many unable to forget the horrors that they saw when families and children suffered the catastrophic brunt of the terrorist attack.

Sir John Sawyers said,

“Based on everything the Security Service knew or should have known, I am satisfied that such an investigative action (on Abedi’s activities), would have been a proportionate and justified step to take. This should have happened.

“Although I accept that Salman Abedi demonstrated some security consciousness and that this might have affected the efficacy of the investigative action that I have identified, there was the real possibility that it would have produced actionable intelligence.”

Sir John Sawyers went onto say:

“The Abedi family holds significant responsibility for the radicalisation of Salman Abedi and Hashem Abedi.

“That includes their father Ramadan Abedi, mother Samia Tabbal and elder brother Ismail Abedi, each of whom has held extremist views.”

He also highlighted Abedi’s lack of involvement in the British education system, the lack of good parenting, the Libya war and friends and family members that were a toxic influence on Abedi. This confluence of factors led to Salman Abedi turning his back on his country and ultimately his people, the British people.

The bomb used in the Liverpool Remembrance Sunday attack was a homemade explosive with ball bearings attached to it and could have caused “significant injury or death”, police have said.

Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, died when the taxi he was a passenger in exploded outside the Liverpool Women’s Hospital just before 11am on Sunday.

In an update on Friday, Assistant Chief Constable Russ Jackson, head of Counter Terrorism Police North West, said: “Although there is much scientific work to do on the device to determine what made it up, we have learned a great deal over the past five days.

“It was made using homemade explosive and had ball bearings attached to it which would have acted as shrapnel.

“Had it detonated in different circumstances we believe it would have caused significant injury or death.

“We still do not know how or why the device exploded when it did, but we are not discounting it being completely unintentional, and it is a possibility that the movement of the vehicle or its stopping caused the ignition.

“We are spending considerable time seeking to understand the way the purchases for the ingredients to make the device were made.

“This is complicated because purchases have spanned many months and Al Swealmeen has used many aliases.

“We are confident however that in time we will get a full picture of what purchases were made and how, and if anyone else was involved or knew what Al Swealmeen was up to.”

He said there was no link between the incident and the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, which he said involved a different type of device.

Taxi driver David Perry escaped from the explosion with injuries.

Mr Jackson said “significant progress” was being made in the investigation, which includes ongoing searches at addresses in Sutcliffe Street and Rutland Avenue in Liverpool.

He said: “Officers spoke with the brother of Al Swealmeen yesterday evening and this has given us an insight into his early years and an understanding of Al Swealmeen’s life and his recent state of mind which is an important line of investigation.

“We are grateful for members of the public who knew him and have contacted us.”

While an Islamist plot is one line of inquiry, the PA news agency understands investigators are still keeping an open mind and the motivation is still yet to be established.

Police and security services are still thought to be working on the current understanding that the hospital was the intended target.

The asylum seeker, who had converted to Christianity, reportedly arrived in the UK from the Middle East in 2014 and had an application for asylum rejected the following year, but had a fresh appeal ongoing at the time of his death.

Earlier this week, Home Secretary Secretary Priti Patel claimed he had been able to exploit Britain’s “dysfunctional” immigration system by staying in the country.

Police said Al Swealmeen had been renting the property in Rutland Avenue, near Sefton Park, since April and was making “relevant purchases” for his bomb from at least that time.

Read more: Liverpool attacker had been buying bomb parts since April

Police in the Maldives said an explosion that injured former president Mohamed Nasheed was an act of terrorism.

Mr Nasheed, 53, was wounded in the blast Thursday night outside his home and was being treated in a hospital in the capital, Male.

Home minister Imran Abdulla told a local television that the former leader’s injuries are not life-threatening.

Mr Nasheed is the current parliament speaker and was the first democratically elected president of the Indian Ocean archipelago, in power from 2008 to 2012.

Maldives police did not give details on possible suspects or what type of device was used.

No-one has claimed responsibility for the blast. Photos circulated on social media showed a destroyed motorcycle at the scene.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said in a televised speech that Australian federal police investigators will arrive on Saturday.

The Australian Federal Police said its members will engage with Maldives police and assess the assistance that can be provided to their investigation.

Mr Nasheed has been an outspoken critic of religious extremism in the predominantly Sunni Muslim nation, where preaching and practicing other faiths are banned by law.

The Maldives is known for its luxury resorts but has seen rare violent attacks. In 2007, a blast in a park in the capital wounded 12 foreign tourists.

Violence has been blamed on a rise in religious extremism. The Maldives has one of the highest per capita numbers of militants who fought in Syria and Iraq.

Arrests have been made from time to time.

Maldives authorities announced in January that a group of eight people arrested last November were found to have been planning to attack a school and were in the process of building bombs on board a boat at sea.

Police said they also conducted military training on uninhabited islands and had recruited children.

Mr Nasheed’s presidency ended a 30-year autocratic rule, but his own term was cut short when he resigned amid protests.

He was defeated in the subsequent presidential election and became ineligible to enter the 2018 race because of time served in jail. His party colleague, Mr Solih, won the vote.

Mr Nasheed remained an influential figure and was elected parliament speaker in 2019. He has championed global efforts to fight climate change, particularly rising seas which threaten the low-lying islands of his archipelago nation.

Neighbouring India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar said of Mr Nasheed in a tweet: “Wish him a speedy recovery. Know that he will never be intimidated.”