Travel chaos as thousands hit by flight disruptions after cyberattack

Thousands of travellers have faced major flight disruption and cancellations after a cyberattack wreaked havoc on systems at airports across Europe.

Heathrow, Brussels, and Berlin airports are among those impacted by the attack on Collins Aerospace, a company that provides check-in and baggage drop systems for major transport hubs, with dozens of flights cancelled across the three sites.

Huge, hours-long queues were reported as flights to key travel destinations, including Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Paris, were hit by delays and cancellations. Passengers at Heathrow and Brussels were warned to check their flight status with their airline before heading to the airport.

Travel experts said the cyberattack was “deeply concerning” and warned flights could be disrupted for days if the issue wasn’t solved quickly.

Passengers are also facing delays at Dublin airport after Terminal 2 was evacuated due to a security alert. The terminal has since reopened.

Tereza Pultarova, a journalist from London, was one of the thousands of passengers affected at Heathrow, where at least 13 flights had been cancelled by Saturday afternoon.

She told The Independent she was unsure whether she would make a press trip to see the Square Kilometre Array Telescope in South Africa, after she missed her connecting flight in Amsterdam due to the delays.

“I’ve been at the airport since 4.30am,” she said. “Weirdly, KLM, the airline I booked with, couldn’t issue boarding passes digitally and requested us to collect them at the check-in desk.”

When she arrived, she said she was told the system used for checking in and boarding was down globally and that there were delays.

She claimed only a small number of people were allowed to check in before the flight had to leave. She was then told to leave check-in and that she would get an email with more information.

Ms Pultarova missed her connection in Amsterdam and said that although she was eventually offered an alternative flight, she was unsure whether she would be able to get to South Africa on time for her trip.

“I’ve been really kind of excited about this trip,” she said. “It’s one of those things where you don’t have really flexibility. So for me, it’s really been a big bummer.”

Jan Niemand was supposed to be on the same flight to Amsterdam, where he was planning to meet his wife for a connection to Johannesburg.

But he, too, was unable to board after describing queues that “barely moved” at the baggage drop.

“The line at baggage drop barely moved, and eventually we were told that the system to check us in was offline,” he said.

“The staff began manual check-ins, but it moved very slowly. The time of the flight, 6.30am, came and went and then we were told that the flight had departed.”

He said emotions ranged from “outrage” to jokes being cracked about the situation.

“Eventually, an official ground staff member gathered us together and stated that the flight had departed, and that KLM would be in contact with us from here,” Jan continued.

He said he had been forced to purchase a UK SIM card and, at the time of speaking, was on the phone with KLM to try to arrange an alternative flight.

Paul Charles, chief executive of The PC Agency and former communications director of Virgin Atlantic, told The Independent: “Many in the industry are surprised that a company of the stature and scale of Collins Aerospace has been victim of such a cyberattack. It is one of the most experienced systems suppliers in the world to airports and airlines, and governments, including the UK.”

The attack affected the multi-user system environment passenger processing system, known as Muse.

Mr Charles said: “If Collins can be hacked so easily, then you have to question all suppliers. I hope they’re able to get the Muse software affected back online quickly; otherwise, flights will be affected for many days to come.”

Collins Aerospace said it was working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

It said: “We have become aware of a cyber-related disruption to our Muse software in select airports. We are actively working to resolve the issue and restore full functionality to our customers as quickly as possible.

“The impact is limited to electronic customer check-in and baggage drop, and can be mitigated with manual check-in operations. We will share more details as they are available.”

The European Commission has said it was “closely monitoring” the cyber attack “that has disrupted airline check-in and boarding systems for several airlines across multiple airports globally.

“While passengers are facing disruption, aviation safety and air traffic control remain unaffected,” the statement continued. “The Commission is working closely with EUROCONTROL, ENISA, airports and airlines to restore operations and to support passengers.

“Current signs do not indicate a widespread or severe attack.”

The UK’s transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said she was aware of the incident and was monitoring the situation.

“If you’re flying at Heathrow today, check with your airline before travelling,” she added.

World’s oldest person tells King ‘all the girls were in love with you’

King Charles paid a special visit to the world’s oldest person, Ethel Caterham, who entertained him with her memories of how “all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you”.

The monarch travelled to see 116-year-old Mrs Caterham at her care home in Lightwater, Surrey, on Thursday, shortly after bidding a formal farewell to US President Donald Trump at Windsor.

Mrs Caterham became the oldest living person in April after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at 116.

She chose to celebrate her latest birthday in August quietly with just her family – but it was revealed at the time that she would have made a concession for the King. The monarch duly obliged just a few weeks later by travelling to see her in person. Charles held Mrs Caterham’s hand at the start as he introduced himself.

Then, sitting in an armchair next to Mrs Caterham, who was wearing gold fur-lined sequined slippers, a patterned sage dress and a pale pink shawl, the King listened intently as she told him: “I remember when your mother crowned you in Caernarfon Castle.”

The King expressed delight at her recollection of his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales when he was 21, saying “oh yes” and adding to others in the room: “You see, fascinating.”

Mrs Caterham continued: “And all the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.”

The remark prompted a hearty laugh from the King and a raise of his eyebrows.

One of Mrs Caterham’s granddaughters, Kate Henderson, added: “You were saying that the other day, weren’t you?

“You said ‘Prince Charles was so handsome. All the girls were in love with him’. A true prince – and now the King.”

Charles, who responded with a playful grimace, quipped: “Yes well, all that’s left of him anyway.”

The pair also spoke about Mrs Caterham’s fond memories of a Buckingham Palace garden party she attended in the 1960s.

On the table between the chairs was a previous birthday card from Charles and Camilla, one from the late Queen Elizabeth II, and a framed, signed letter from the King congratulating Mrs Caterham on her 116th birthday and becoming the world’s oldest living person.

The cards were just some of the 17 she has received from both the King and the late Queen Elizabeth II to mark her birthdays since turning 100, including the one marking her centenary.

In 2023, Mrs Caterham featured on the monarchy’s official Instagram when she was filmed receiving a card from the King in the post to mark her 114th birthday.

She was joined by three granddaughters, Kate, Julia Pauling and Lucy Robinson.

Mrs Caterham was born on August 21 in 1909, in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire, five years before the start of the First World War, as the second youngest of eight siblings.

She is the last surviving subject of Edward VII, who died in May 1910.

In 1927, aged 18 she travelled to India and worked as an au pair to a military family until she was 21.

She met her husband, Norman, who was a lieutenant colonel in the British Army and died in 1976, at a dinner party in the UK in 1931.

They lived in Salisbury before being stationed in Gibraltar and Hong Kong and Mrs Caterham set up a nursery school while in Hong Kong and raised two daughters, both of whom died before her.

One of her sisters, Gladys, lived to be 104.

Mrs Caterham drove until she was 97 and enjoyed playing contract bridge in her centenarian years. She survived Covid in 2020 aged 110.

The title of the oldest person ever is held by French woman Jeanne Calment, who lived to 122 years 164 days, according to Guinness World Records.

Elderly British couple detained by Taliban ‘thought they would be executed’

An elderly British couple who were detained by the Taliban for eight months have said they feared they would be executed in the first interview since their release.

Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband Peter, 80, were arrested and detained without charge for nearly eight months in Afghanistan while travelling to their home in Bamyan province. They arrived back in the UK on Friday after they were freed.

The couple, who had lived in Afghanistan for almost two decades while running an education company, were held in a maximum security prison and endured long periods of separation.

“We had begun to think that we would never be released, or that we were even being held until we were executed,” Mr Reynolds told The Sunday Times.

The couple revealed that they were held in solitary confinement together for the last few months, so were unaware that they were being released when they were taken to Kabul airport.

“The last few months we have been together in solitary confinement, cut off from all awareness of what was going on in the world,” he said.

Mrs Reynolds said they had been told “nothing” about their release.

“Even when we were taken to Kabul airport we thought maybe we were just flying somewhere for medical treatment.”

Instead they were put on a Qatari aircraft and flown to Doha. Mr Reynolds said that the worst moment of the ordeal came when the couple faced a period of separation while detailed, meaning they spent their 55th anniversary apart.

“Being led away and separated as a couple after 55 years of marriage to my best friend was the hardest thing. I pleaded to at least let me see her on our 55th wedding anniversary but they said no”, he said.

Their son, Jonathan Reynolds, said the family was “thrilled” and “overwhelmed with thankfulness” that the couple had been released and returned to the UK.

In a statement on Friday, the family said: “We are overwhelmed with gratitude and relief to share that our parents, Peter and Barbie Reynolds, have been released after seven months and 21 days in detention by the Taliban.

“This is a moment of immense joy for our family, and we are deeply thankful to everyone who played a role in securing their release.”

The family said they wanted to extend their appreciation to the emir of Qatar for his leadership and compassion, and also thanked Mohammed Al Khulaifi and Mirdef Al Qashouti for their “tireless diplomatic efforts and unwavering support throughout this ordeal”.

The statement said: “Their dedication and humanity have made an unforgettable impact on our lives.

“We are also extremely grateful to the UK Government for its commitment and support to our family, including ensuring that our parents had access to essential medication during their detention and upon release.

“We further thank the US government for its support to the US members of our family, and to the UN special rapporteurs for their intervention and support.

“This experience has reminded us of the power of diplomacy, empathy, and international cooperation.

“While the road to recovery will be long as our parents regain their health and spend time with their family, today is a day of tremendous joy and relief.

“We are forever grateful to the Qataris for standing with us during this difficult time.

“Thank you for giving us our family back.”

There were emotional scenes as the couple were reunited with their daughter Sarah Entwistle, when the couple landed in Doha, Qatar, on Friday afternoon.

Speaking to Sky News from Kabul Airport on Friday, Mrs Reynolds said when asked if the couple would return to Afghanistan again in the future: “If we can, we are Afghan citizens.”

The Taliban have never explained what prompted the couple’s detention.

A spokesman at the Taliban government’s foreign ministry, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, said on X the couple had “violated Afghan law” and were released from prison on Friday after a court hearing.

He did not say what law the couple were accused of breaking.

What it’s really like to live in the ‘most beautiful village in the world’

“Darling, isn’t it beautiful, an American tourist says, turning to his partner, who appears to be failing in an attempt to take a panoramic picture on her iPhone.

Sporting a visor hat teamed with a bum bag around his waist, the man stands open-mouthed while taking in the visual delights of Bibury as he stands on a now-iconic three-arched stone bridge crossing the River Colm at the village’s heart.

On the last Friday of the summer, the tourist, along with hundreds of other enthusiastic visitors, are being treated to warm afternoon sunshine that beams off the rows of honey-hued cottages along the narrow streets.

A century ago, the future Japanese emperor Hirohito, so enthralled by the calm and charm of the Cotswold village, declared it a “sacred place”. Not so long before, English textile designer, poet and artist William Morris described it as the “most beautiful village in England”.

And this month, seemingly not wanting to be outdone, American business magazine Forbes proclaimed the community of just 600 people the “most beautiful village in the world” – a good thing for locals, right?

“My heart sank,” says parish council chairman Craig Chapman. “Whilst we are not anti-tourists, this will only bring more tourists just at a time we are working to get the right balance between the number of tourists and villagers.”

Mr Chapman moved into the community with his wife from nearby Chipping Campden during the Covid pandemic. “I really didn’t know Bibury, I didn’t know the situation,” he recalls.

Standing near the line of tourists walking by, he pulls out an A4 folder packed with clear sleeves showing pictures of inconsiderate parking, damage to stone walls and tells of how a coach driver even assaulted a villager.

The problem, Mr Chapman says, is the number of tours arriving in larger coaches – some 25 a day, according to a council survey in January – which he says block the roads and drop off short-stay tourists, who mostly stay only for an hour and offer little financial benefit to the businesses.

One Sunday, the local vicar had to ditch his car and run to the village’s St Mary’s Church to make his service, so bad was the traffic.

The number of tourists, he says, has soared in recent years, partly due to the rise in influencers on social media who share pictures of Bibury across the world. Some posts are distorted, he claims, to include images from other Cotswold villages.

“We’re a small village, we know it’s beautiful here, but we just feel that no one here is benefiting from the overtourism we are seeing at present. It’s got to a point where the residents are suffering, and we want things to change.”

Efforts are taking place to manage the traffic. Rather unsightly red and white temporary bollards have closed off coach-parking bays at the centre of the village. Instead, two drop-off points for coaches have been set up, both policed by a parking official.

On Friday, it seems to be taking effect, with 15-metre coaches stopping only briefly to allow the tourists, with their smartphones aloft, off. “They [coaches] go off, park at a roundabout for 20 minutes, then come back to pick them [tourists] up again,” explains Mr Chapman.

Meanwhile, Gloucestershire County Council, which is behind the trial traffic scheme that ends this month, is encouraging visitors to arrive in smaller vehicles and even consider other “fantastic places” to go to in the Cotswolds.

But Mr Chapman wants the county council to go further and ban larger coaches completely from the village. “The larger coaches bring large groups that don’t spend a lot of time in the village and they don’t spend a lot of money; all they do is bring volume,” he says.

It’s not just coaches that are the problem, however. All in the village agree that the influx of tourists creates an issue over parking.

With only a couple of small car parks, which charge visitors £9 a day, motorists seek out street parking, some illegally on double yellow lines, while others park up outside villagers’ homes.

The array of languages overheard – from French to Japanese – is the first clue that many of the motorists parking up along side streets aren’t local.

“It’s ridiculous,” says Frank, a worker who returns to his house to find a tourist has parked an SUV outside, despite the positioning of “no parking” traffic cones.

“Get it all the time, I’ve had enough,” he bemoans, before questioning the motorist as they return to their car.

Pointing at a small window, he continues: “One day I was inside, and I looked up and saw a man poking his head inside the window, then telling someone, ‘oh, there is someone inside,’ before another person came and took a look.

“You want a little consideration and respect for people living here.”

Also outside the school, as parents came to pick up their children, one mother claims her two-year-old was almost knocked over by a car in the village.

Another mother, Lucy Lawrence, 43, says: “The tourists, they come here in droves and treat the village like a theme park.”

Parking is not only an issue for the school parents at pick-up, it is also for businesses, with the village home to two pubs, a trout farm, and an arts and crafts cafe.

Lady Anne Evans, owner of Eleven Bibury cafe, says the solution is to open a car park on a field outside the village, accommodating visitors and relieving pressure on the streets.

Her business is opposite arguably the biggest attraction in the village; Arlington Row, a row of 14th-century stone gabled cottages, said to be one of the most photographed terraces of cottages in the country.

At odds with Mr Chapman, Lady Anne says the community’s beauty should be celebrated and shared, not “gated” from the outside public.

“In times gone by, this village has been rightly recognised for its beauty and charm,” she says. “Why would we not want that, and to stop people enjoying where we live. It’s a free country.”

In agreement are American tourists Bruce and Lisa Taber, who arrived on a £135 coach tour from London, after a visit to Stonehenge the day before.

“I get the issue with the buses,” says Bruce, 65, “But then they bring in revenue, and people like us who can enjoy its beauty. It is so charming and relaxing, we love it, even if we are here for a short time.”

A Canadian tourist, overhearing the conversation, adds: “What do they [residents] expect if they choose to live in a place like this?”

As dusk falls on the village, the throngs of tourists slowly disperse into waiting coaches and into cars.

Staff at the ivy-clad Swan Hotel, where a pint of Peroni costs £7.05, take the quiet time to talk over the rota, and look ahead to yet another busy day when the sun comes up again.

“The fact is that Bibury is an internationally renowned beauty spot, and people want to visit it,” concludes Lisa Spivey, leader of the county council.

“The over-tourism phenomenon is experienced in many places globally and is not easily fixed, as highlighted by protests recently in Barcelona and Mallorca.

“The Cotswolds, and Gloucestershire as a whole, have many, many fantastic places to visit, and we’d encourage visitors to check out the offering in other parts of the county, and that if Bibury is on your list, to visit in a smaller vehicle more suited to the historic narrow street.”

Amorim handed Man Utd lifeline thanks to 20 minutes of Chelsea chaos

The Theatre of Dreams maybe needed a miracle, and it got one courtesy of a nightmare for Chelsea stopper Robert Sanchez as Manchester United eased the pressure on boss Ruben Amorim.

A storm was brewing over Old Trafford as the world champions came to town, the deluge of rain falling on a grey day in Manchester summing up the situation that the Portuguese found himself in this week.

However, in the end the bizarre weather only foretold an equally ridiculous match, with the game eventually defined by a whirlwind opening 14 minutes that saw Sanchez sent off before United captain Bruno Fernandes opened the scoring.

Amorim’s side started quickly but they were given a gift five minutes in as Benjamin Sesko rose highest to win a header that played Bryan Mbeumo clean through, with the winger taking it past the onrushing Sanchez before being scythed down.

There were few complaints from the visiting side as Enzo Maresca brought on defensive reinforcements, but they weren’t able to hold on for long as that rain was accompanied by a deluge of United attacks, the visitors barely able to get out of their own half before Fernandes tapped in from close range to open the scoring on 14 minutes.

Old Trafford was roaring and there was a sense that the afternoon could turn into a rout, with Chelsea’s misery compounded as they were forced to bring off Cole Palmer just after the 20-minute mark after their talisman suffered a recurrence of the groin injury that had kept him out of action until a week ago.

And yet it was to get worse for the visitors, with a weak Reece James clearance eventually leading to United’s second, as Harry Maguire’s header set up a tap-in for Casemiro at the far post.

But if many inside Old Trafford began to ask themselves just how many goals United could put past Chelsea, they were guilty of forgetting United’s capacity to make life difficult for themselves.

Casemiro, often the guilty party in United’s moments of rashness, went from hero to zero as he became the second player sent off, dragging down Santos near the box to earn himself a second yellow. It meant that the match received the “honour” of being the first in Premier League history to see two [or more] goals, red cards and substitutions within the opening 45 minutes, in what is a suitable statistic to sum up a bizarre afternoon.

And it was only to get more tense from there, with neither side really able to dominate the second half with the teams once again level in players, but it was the visitors who struck the next blow, Trevoh Chalobah’s impressive late header having felt somewhat inevitable given United’s performances in recent weeks.

But if each manager could take little from the previous 80 minutes, perhaps the final 10 was more helpful. The recently crowned world champions toiled as they searched for an equaliser, with the earlier removal of Palmer having felt like a watershed moment in terms of the likelihood of a Chelsea comeback. There were jeers from the home crowd that were almost tantamount to celebrations, as if the withdrawal of Palmer was almost as positive as scoring a goal themselves.

Maresca will likely be asking himself questions, primarily regarding why his team got off to such a poor start and why they struggled to create clear-cut chances in the second half once both sides were down to 10 men. The first could be shrugged off to bad luck; the second is a little more worrying for a side that currently has more questions than answers. For, despite their status as world champions, the fit of many players in their squad remains unclear, with little to show in attack once Palmer is removed from the equation.

But while Chelsea’s bloated squad and boardroom issues combine with Maresca’s luck of clarity about his “best” 11, the club remain a world away from the misery that has befallen Old Trafford in recent years, so whatever questions the Italian has, he’ll have plenty of time to find an answer.

His opposite number has less time to prove himself, and while Amorim may have learned something about the character of his players today, he emphasised that his team need to “return to that urgency” away at Brentford next week. His choice of words was perhaps fitting in a week where reports suggested that the Portuguese could have just three games to save his job.

Amorim admitted that his team “complicate our lives every time” with rash decisions or silly mistakes, and while United dug in deep – with some solid defensive performances from Matthijs de Ligt, Maguire and Luke Shaw – it was an evening that was a far cry from these sides’ matches of old, a rivalry that one defined the Premier League (and even Europe) now discarded to a pair of sideshow soap operas that illustrate some of football’s biggest problems.

Nevertheless, only one issue will bother either manager at the moment, and it is that of results. Chelsea lose to fall to sixth, United earn a win to take them to 10th, and Amorim has the perfect result against a side that may have originally been seen as a rival for European football this season.

There was very little to take from the performance on a one-in-a-million afternoon, but the Portuguese lives to fight another day in what may yet prove to be the first step in dragging United out of the nightmare that has enveloped the Theatre of Dreams.

What to expect from Heathrow’s ‘Redefine Your Beauty’ experiences

As someone who’s regularly jetting off to different corners of the globe for work, to me the airport has come to represent just a means to an end: Pret, security queue, working charging socket. After years of this, I’ve pretty much got my routine on lockdown, which usually involves some purely functional eating, a quick pint in Spoons, and a last-minute visit to Duty Free to buy a moisturiser because I forgot mine, again.

So, when I heard Heathrow was rolling out a new experiential beauty and wellness campaign across all four terminals, with pop-up beauty bars, luxury treatments and skincare tech that tells you things about your face you didn’t even know were possible, I was curious. Airports are not where I usually go to feel (or look) my best. But a quick massage and some free beauty advice before a flight? Oh, go on then.

I’m due to fly out of Terminal 5 soon, which means I’ll get to check out the Personal Shopper Lounge and see what the hype is about. There’s a full-on treatment menu, the kind you’d expect at a boutique spa, except here, it’s been designed for travellers on the move, like me, with treatments lasting between 10 and 20 minutes. How often can you say an airport is offering La Mer facials, Elemis LED masks, Molton Brown hand massages and Estée Lauder’s ‘Age Reversal Sculpt Ritual’ facial? From neck and shoulder massages to cryotherapy and ultrasonic peels, it’s the kind of thing you’d usually have to schedule weeks in advance, and here it is, just a stone’s throw from your departure gate. I might even consider swapping my pre-flight pint for something a little more restorative.

Outside the lounge, the terminals are set to be abuzz with pop-up beauty bars from brands like Charlotte Tilbury, MAC, Molton Brown and Penhaligon’s – offering live demos, free mini-treatments and genuinely helpful skincare advice. There’s even a skin analysis station (powered by tech that looks like it comes from the year 3000), and perfume engraving on the spot. Fancy.

I wasn’t planning to splurge £200 on more beauty products,​​ but it’s hard to resist when there’s a free luxury beauty bag up for grabs when you do, packed with products from Elizabeth Arden, Versace, Benefit, Amouage and Elemis, to name a few. The offer’s available in all the main World Duty Free stores, and if you’re a Heathrow Rewards member, you can earn double points on qualifying beauty buys (up to 1,000 points), which definitely makes me feel a little better about splashing the cash.

Even the food spots are jumping on board with the wellness vibes. I usually go for a failsafe Joe & The Juice Tunacado, but I’ve spotted a Clean Green smoothie at Jones the Grocer and a Firecracker Chicken Salad from Leon. I might even grab a poké bowl from YO! Sushi for the flight, although word on the street is the plane meal is steamed seabream with romesco.

I never thought I’d describe an airport experience as relaxing and rejuvenating, but this campaign is definitely out to challenge me. Between the luxurious treatments and nutritious food choices, Heathrow has created the first airport rendezvous that won’t leave you feeling like you need a holiday from your holiday.

If you find yourself passing through Heathrow between now and early October, don’t just bolt straight to your gate. Give yourself an extra 30 minutes, book yourself in for a quick massage or facial, and visit World Duty Free to grab that beauty bag full of goodies to make your holiday that little bit more special.

Find out more about Heathrow’s Redefine Your Beauty campaign, including treatment menus, participating brands and exclusive offers here

The sinister role of ‘black-pilling’ in the murder of Charlie Kirk

In the reporting of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, who was murdered in front of mostly college- and university-age students on 10 September at Utah Valley University, many have rushed to ascribe both motive and political ideology to Tyler Robinson, who has been charged with his murder. However, much of this has been wide of the mark – hugely missing the point about the strange and deeply complex online world that 22-year-old Robinson, and many youngsters like him, was immersed in.

Online subculture shot into the global conversation in March 2025 when the Netflix hit show Adolescence brought the term “red-pilling” into the mainstream. In the broadest terms, red-pilling means having your eyes opened to a hidden or uncomfortable truth, often about politics, society, or gender. The term is frequently used in far-right or conspiracy theory communities to describe someone being “liberated” from notions of equality, feminism, and “wokeness”. But what this conversation missed was how “black-pilling”, the darker and stranger cousin of red-pilling, is an even bigger threat – and is present in both far-right and far-left online culture.

From the many conversations I’ve had with Gen Alphas I have worked with, black-pilling tends to take two forms: nihilistic and anarchist. The first is the belief that absolutely nothing matters at all (which is why black-pillers are often dismissive of red-pillers, because that suggests a belief in someone or something). The second is a desire to disrupt and destroy the world through chaos.

The writer Ryan Broderick – who is highly knowledgeable about these online worlds and writes brilliantly about the black-pill universe in his Garbage Day Substack – recently brought the term “accelerationist” into this discussion. Describing it on Tim Miller’s podcast, he said it means “wanting to cause chaos and hurt people to speed up what they see as the downfall of society, because they don’t like it, or think it’s not helping them and is broken already”.

Robinson’s motives are still being investigated, but what we do know is that black-pilling and its intersecting offshoots are steeped in the language of meme culture. Meme culture – a way of signalling meaning through culturally understood symbols or in-jokes – was evident in markings on the casings of bullets found in the rifle used to fire at Kirk.

They carried engravings referencing “OwO,” often linked to furry culture; “Bella Ciao”, currently popular in gaming culture; and “if you read this you are gay, lmao” – a phrase widely used by kids and teens online and offline, often as a smirk at outsiders, particularly older people, who don’t understand the world and language they inhabit.

Memes also have layers upon layers of meaning, interpreted differently by different groups. They have appeared in many recent high-profile acts of violence, including the Christchurch mosque attack by Brenton Tarrant, the Charleston church shooting by Dylann Roof, and Luigi Mangione’s killing of CEO Brian Thompson.

Many perpetrators of modern violence are young men embedded in intense online communities such as Twitch and 4chan – where many memes originate. In some cases, the violence itself gets livestreamed on these platforms.

So, what does this have to do with your kids and teenagers? If they love gaming, howl with laughter at the “67” trend currently doing the rounds, or spent most of last summer yelling “skibidi toilet”, then quite a lot. This is not to say that if your child loves gaming or speaks in memes, they’ve been black-pilled or even red-pilled. But it does mean they exist in an ecosystem where, at the far end, violence and mass murder are filtered through irony and dark humour. And many within it hold contempt for a world they feel has wronged them.

If a youngster plays games and exists in communities on Discord or Telegram, they are potentially exposed to dangerous narratives – groups Broderick flags as the “Com network” and others, which he explains “recruit vulnerable young people around the internet, including inside multiplayer games like Minecraft and Roblox.”

He says: “They encourage their members to commit horrible crimes with the promise of internet clout, intentionally using conflicting political messages to obscure any larger motive besides inspiring other members of the group to do the same.”

Craig*, 19, who is deeply involved in the “far end” of the gaming world, told me he first got into it through Minecraft in his pre-teen years. Explaining the appeal of meme culture and black-pilling, he subscribes more to the nihilistic view than the anarchist or accelerationist one. He has no political affiliation, right or left, but says he admires Mangione, the prime suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Thompson. The shooting took place in New York City on 4 December 2024, and was met with a mixture of concern, fascination, and – in some quarters – surprising admiration.

“It’s hard to explain, but our view is at least an honest one. We are both fed and totally fed over in every way. Why should I care about trying to believe in or save or get worried about anything or anyone? We want it all to burn and can at least have a laugh while we watch it happen.”

Craig’s worldview may seem extraordinarily bleak, but worryingly, it is shared by a surprising number of Gen-Zers and, increasingly, Gen Alphas. Many parents saw this at first hand in their teen children’s reaction to the assassination of Kirk. Instead of horror at watching a murder in real time, many revelled in it – replaying and sharing the footage, and even creating darker memes from an already horrific event.

So, how can we protect young people from online extremism and recruitment? The obvious step is to ensure your child or teen has a life beyond the screen. In 2024, Gen-Zers averaged around six hours of screen time per day. Nearly half (48 per cent) of 16- to 24-year-olds also said they spent “too long” on social media. Teenage boys are now spending more time playing video games than they are in school. That’s according to a survey of more than 1,000 parents of seven- to 17-year-olds, conducted by gambling-addiction charity Ygam and published by Mumsnet. The survey found that 15- to 17-year-olds spend, on average, nearly 34 hours a week gaming.

Having friends, hobbies, and communities in the real world is the greatest protection against online radicalisation. It shows young people from an early age that, despite the challenges they undoubtedly face, the world can still be a good place, with people and things worth living for and believing in.

It’s also incumbent on government and wider society to ensure in-real-life experiences and opportunities are accessible to all young people, whether through youth clubs, sports clubs, or safe and welcoming third spaces.

If your child or teen games or spends too much time online – which is almost all of them – the key questions are where and for how long. Spending hours immersed in online worlds like Twitch, TikTok, or Telegram doesn’t benefit any impressionable, developing person. An obsessive need for privacy or secrecy when gaming or online is often the clearest warning sign that they have something to hide – and parents should make it an absolute priority to find out (sensitively) what that is.

We all need to really listen to what our young people are saying. If a young adult suddenly voices extreme views about gender, race, or equality that you know didn’t come from you – or if they crack jokes about, or even celebrate, shocking or terrible stories in the news – the chances are those views are being shaped online. That’s a red flag to investigate what spaces or people are influencing them.

Most parents and carers now have the “porn talk” with their children and teens. This needs to be widened into the “content talk”, where you try to figure out what they’re watching, who they’re listening to, and who may be influencing them. With the caveat, of course, that you will never fully understand their online worlds if you are not a digital native.

Ryan*, 16, recently recounted to me, laughing: “My dad was so obsessed with being ‘down’ with memes and especially who Pepe the Frog ‘was’. We got sick of trying to explain, and him not getting it, so we told him Pepe had gone full circle and was now a feminist meme meaning ‘no boys allowed’ online. We heard him telling his mates this at their dinner party and they were all like, ‘Oh really, he’s feminist now, isn’t that interesting,’ and we were just dying upstairs. Especially as they’ll probably tell their friends and it’ll cause even more confusion.”

It was ever thus that adults trying to get down with the kids often get it wrong. One of the funniest stories from the Nineties is when Megan Jasper, then 25 and working for Caroline Records, gave a New York Times journalist a “grunge lexicon” she made up on the spot. The NYT printed it in good faith, believing kids were using terms like “wack slacks” (ripped jeans), “lamestain” (uncool person), and “harsh realm” (bummer). Much to the hilarity of the grunge scene, it continued to be used with various layers of irony.

History doesn’t repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes. Only now, 30-plus years later, the stakes feel much higher and the culture much darker. And when murder becomes a joke, no one should be laughing any more.

Poland scrambles jets after Russia launches huge aerial assault on Ukraine

Polish fighter jets were scrambled overnight to protect the Nato-member country’s airspace during a major Russian air attack across Ukraine.

Polish aircraft and air defences were at the “highest state of readiness,” the operational command said on X, as more than 600 drones and missiles were fired at Ukraine overnight in an air attack which killed at least three and injured dozens.

European countries are on high alert following a string of Russian incursions into Nato territory, as Moscow’s forces continue to probe and provoke the alliance’s defences.

An incursion of three fighter jets into Estonian airspace last night was dismissed by Moscow as a “scheduled” flight carried out in “strict accordance” with airspace rules.

Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian territory on Friday night where they remained without permission for 12 minutes, the Estonian foreign ministry said.

US president Donald Trump has warned of “big trouble” as he grows increasingly dismayed by Russia’s provocations, including repeated drone and fighter jet incursions intoneighbouring countries including Poland and Romania.

“I don’t love it. I don’t like when that happens. Could be big trouble,” he told reporters, adding that he was yet to be fully briefed on the situation.

Nato will meet in Estonia early next week to discuss the Russian incursion.