Teen sentenced to 52 years in prison for deadly stabbing at Taylor Swift-themed party
(LONDON) — A teenager has been sentenced to 52 years in prison for fatally stabbing three girls at a children’s Taylor Swift-themed event in the United Kingdom last year.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to all charges, including three counts of murder, earlier this week, avoiding a trial.
The horrific stabbing spree unfolded in July in Southport, a seaside town about 20 miles north of Liverpool. Merseyside police said the children were attending a Taylor Swift-themed event at a dance school.
Three girls — 6-year-old Bebe King, 7-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and 9-year-old Alice Dasilva Aguiar — were killed. Ten people were also injured in the attack, police said.
Rudakubana, from Banks in Lancashire, was initially charged with three counts of murder, as well as 10 charges of attempted murder and one charge of possession of a knife in the incident. He subsequently faced a terror charge for possessing a jihadi training manual and was charged with producing ricin, a toxin.
He pleaded guilty to all 16 charges on Monday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Despite President Donald Trump’s push for the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza — a move that, if carried out, would be a violation of international law that some experts and U.S. allies have called ethnic cleansing — he is facing significant pushback from allies and states in the region.
There is “zero possibility” that Palestinians will be forcibly displaced from Gaza and into Jordan and Egypt, one expert told ABC News.
“I see no scenario where this happens,” Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Middle East Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told ABC News. “This is their home. They’ve endured so much to stay in their home, even if their home — literal homes, family homes — have been destroyed.”
“It’s a model that just won’t work in today’s Middle East,” Katulis said, referring to the forced displacement of Palestinians.
“The risk is that [this] comes at a very uncertain time with the ceasefire and hostage release deal on thin ice, and it actually serves to distract from the important work of trying to keep that process moving forward — to get hostages released and much-needed aid into the people … and to actually try to move forward to something that is realistic,” Katulis said.
Trump at one point threatened to withdraw aid to Egypt and Jordan if they didn’t agree to take in Palestinians, though less than 24 hours later, he said, “I don’t have to threaten that, I don’t think. I think we’re above that.”
“The point of this is to ostensibly force Egypt and Jordan to accept all of the Palestinians currently living in the Gaza Strip, so they can engage, so the U.S. can annex the territory. I think it’s safe to say it’s a non-starter for the Saudis,” Daniel Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, told ABC News.
“The Jordanians, in particular, need the money. They’re not oil rich, and same with Egypt, but in some ways the expectation would be that if Trump actually threatened to cut them off, they would likely turn first to Saudi Arabia and the Emiratis,” Drezner said.
Arab nations quickly rejected Trump’s proposal to forcibly displace Palestinians and relocate them in neighboring states, with several calling it a hard line.
“The Foreign Ministry affirms that Saudi Arabia’s position on the establishment of a Palestinian state is firm and unwavering. HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister clearly and unequivocally reaffirmed this stance,” Saudi Arabia said last week, just hours after Trump called for the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
As much as a bind Jordan is in, it is unlikely that it would accept anything along the lines of what Trump proposed, Drezner said, adding the proposal is worse than losing the $1.5 billion in annual aid that it receives from the U.S.
“The question is the extent to which the Saudis are willing to bankroll both the Jordanians and the Egyptians,” Drezner said.
“Pay attention to how the Gulf states are reacting to all this, because they’re the ones that are simultaneously most likely to be able to resist Trump’s pressures, and also it will send a regional signal to Egypt and Jordan as to what their options are,” Drezner said.
After Trump’s comments, Egypt expressed its support for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, calling for the need for a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
As Trump continued to double down on forcing out the Palestinians, Egyptian President Abdelfatah El Sisi announced he will indefinitely postpone his plan to visit Trump at the White House. According to Saudi-owned Al Arabiya News, Sisi said he won’t attend any White House talks if the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza is on the agenda.
“They’re probably trying to figure out how do they reposition themselves in light of Trump’s incendiary remarks, because they come directly at odds with Egypt’s own positions on this issue and its national security interests. And I don’t think they want to be put in any sort of position to actually directly challenge Trump right now until they assess,” Katulis said.
“[Egypt]’s security aid from the U.S. is part of a package that came out of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. And if Trump wants to play games with that, he’s actually going to undercut a lot of America’s long-standing traditional security relationships in the region,” Katulis said.
Egypt also announced it plans to host a meeting with Arab states in Cairo later this month where they will discuss a counterproposal.
After meeting with Trump, King Abdullah of Jordan said in a statement he “reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all.”
Trump appeared to walk back his threat of withdrawing aid after his meeting this week with King Abdullah resulted in the news that Jordan would take in 2,000 sick Palestinian children for treatment.
“This is a replay of what we’ve seen with regard to threatening Canada and Mexico [with tariffs] — it’s the shining orb strategy. It turns out if you offer Trump like a pretty gaudy but not terribly significant concession, he’ll back down,” Drezner said.
“Jordan can never agree to this — to Trump’s proposal — that would be the end of the regime. And that’s the fundamental thing that I assume someone must have told Donald Trump,” Drezner said.
In addition to opposing the forced displacement of Palestinians, Jordan and Egypt also have strains on their economies and taking in millions of refugees could potentially produce more economic and security challenges.
For the last 20 years, Jordan has faced an influx of refugees from Iraq and Syria, which has strained their economy and their social fabric, according to Katulis.
Egypt’s economy has also faced strains, with the Egyptian pound being depreciated several times in recent years. According to the World Food Programme, from January 2016 to January 2025, the Egyptian pound was devalued by 84.5% relative to the U.S. dollar — a move that governments use to increase its competitiveness or trade balance. And the U.S. dollar appreciated by 543.8% relative to the Egyptian pound during that same time period, based on the official exchange rate, according to the World Food Programme.
Taking in all Palestinians living in Gaza could also pull other countries into a confrontation with Israel, Drezner noted.
“There is no scenario whereby the Palestinians that are displaced are not going to want to return. Essentially, you’re introducing the possibility of violent non-state actors to operate within your territory,” Drezner said.
Other international powers
While Egypt and Jordan are most likely to look to Gulf states for alternate sources of aid, other international actors could also fill a gap created by the U.S. if Trump follows through on his threats.
“I’m not sure Russia is really in all that strong a position, particularly in the Middle East, since they lost their last port [when the regime fell in Syria] and we just saw what happened to Bashar Al Assad. I’m not sure that [Vladimir Putin]’s necessarily a reliable benefactor,” Drezner said.
“It would make much more sense to make a pivot towards China, in no small part because, among other things, China actually has reasons to want to be involved in the region, given their various energy demands,” Drezner said.
But, Jordan and Egypt rely on military supplies from the U.S. and the West.
“The longer-term issue is that you can argue that the militaries in both Jordan and Egypt are a little bit stuck in that they rely primarily on U.S. weaponry. So to engage in a radical pivot means that in some ways you’re also weakening your own coercive apparatus at the same time,” Drezner said.
It would take time before the militaries would be prepared to use weaponry from a different source, and weapons from another source would likely also be incompatible with their existing military stock, according to Drezner.
“It would be hard to pivot to either Russia or China as your primary arms manufacturer,” Drezner said.
(WASHINGTON) — In his first public comments following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated on Monday that he sees a second Trump presidency as an opportunity for a new era in U.S.-Russian relations.
Putin spoke of the challenges Trump faced in the weeks running up to the November election, including the assassination attempts, and said Trump had “showed courage to win in a convincing manner.”
In a televised statement made from his official residence, the Russian leader said he recognized “the desire [of Trump’s team] to restore direct contacts with Russia,” blaming the rupture of U.S.-Russian relations on the Biden administration — while neglecting to mention his decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which saw tensions spike between Washington and Moscow.
Putin also recognized Trump’s stated desire to de-escalate the conflict, saying “we also hear [Trump’s] statement about the need to do everything possible to prevent World War III. We certainly welcome this attitude and congratulate the president-elect of the United States of America on his assumption of office.”
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin has been increasingly isolated on the world stage. In June 2024, fresh off the heels of his closely watched visit to North Korea, Putin met with Vietnamese President To Lam in Hanoi to reaffirm the Kremlin’s ties to its long-time ally Vietnam in a bid to boost trade.
Trump has already indicated he would meet with Putin, saying during an Oval Office spray on Monday that “I’ll be meeting with President Putin.” Trump didn’t say when the meeting might occur. Later, when asked for his message to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump suggested the Ukrainian president is willing to come to the negotiating table, but said he’s unsure if Putin would.
“He told me he wants to make a deal. He wants to make — Zelenskyy wants to make a deal. I don’t know if Putin does,” Trump said.
During his latest January press conference at Mar-a-Lago, Trump had indicated he hoped to meet with Putin within six months into his second presidency.
“I know that Putin would like to meet,” Trump said at the time. “I don’t think it’s appropriate that I meet until after the 20th, which I hate because, you know, every day, people are being — many, many young people are being killed.”
This comes as Russia and Ukraine exchanged large drone attacks on Sunday night into Monday, with UAVs forcing flight restrictions at three Russian airports and prompting reports of an attack on a major military aviation hub.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “ready to work together with Americans to achieve peace,” referring to Trump as a “strong person.”
“The inauguration of the new president of the United States, Donald Trump. He is a strong person. I wish President Trump and all of America success. Ukrainians are ready to work together with Americans to achieve peace, true peace. This is an opportunity that must be seized,” Zelenskyy said during his daily remarks on Monday.
This moment “is a good opportunity” to establish security “for ourselves and for everyone in Europe,” Zelenskyy added.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Hamas will release six more hostages on Saturday and the bodies of four deceased hostages on Thursday, Hamas and Israel confirmed.
Four more dead hostages are expected to be released next week in accordance with the ceasefire agreement, according to Israeli officials.
The hostages who will be released on Saturday have been identified as Eliya Cohen, 27; Tal Shoham, 40; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Omer Wenkrat, 23; Hisham Al-Sayed, 36; and Avera Mengistu, 39, according to Israeli officials and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum
Hamas accused Israel of procrastinating and evading engaging in the negotiations of the second phase and said it is ready to engage in negotiations to implement the terms of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.
Last week, Hamas threatened to not release hostages over the weekend, saying Israel was not holding up its end of the ceasefire by delaying the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, targeting them with gunfire and slowing down aid and said the hostage-prisoner exchange would be postponed.
Hamas later said the exchange will take place as planned and released three hostages on Saturday. The three hostages freed from captivity were U.S. national Sagui Dekel Chen, Iair Horn and Sasha Troufanov.
In exchange for Hamas releasing three more Israeli hostages, Israel freed another 369 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, most of whom were arrested in the Gaza Strip after the terror attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
President Donald Trump had issued a deadline last week, telling Hamas to release all remaining hostages by Saturday or he would leave it up to Israel to decide whether to violate the ceasefire and continue fighting.
