Trump defends Hegseth over Venezuela boat strike ‘war crime’

President Donald Trump has defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over reports that he ordered a second military strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat in September after the first attack failed to kill everyone on board.

The House and the Senate have opened inquiries into the reported Sept. 2 “double tap strike” by U.S. Navy SEALs on the vessel in the Caribbean, which Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly said “seemed” to be a war crime.

“Going after survivors in the water; that is clearly not lawful,” Kelly said Sunday on CNN. “If what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, added: “This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true.”

Hegseth reportedly gave a verbal order to “kill everybody” on board the supposed narco terrorist vessel as the Trump administration launched the first of more than a dozen attacks on boats that have killed more than 80 people over the last three months.

But Trump backed Hegseth when quizzed by reporters Sunday. “He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100 percent,” Trump said.

“I wouldn’t have wanted that – not a second strike,” the president added.

Hegseth said the strikes were “lawful under both U.S. and international law.”

Max Verstappen is laughing at McLaren – how many warnings do they need?

For all the smugness radiating off the face of Max Verstappen and, by the same token, the fumes of red mist emitting from furious McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, perhaps the first words should go to the true winner of the Qatar Grand Prix: Red Bull’s cool-headed strategy chief Hannah Schmitz.

For it was Schmitz, the 40-year-old Cambridge-educated engineer, who made the critical call amid yellow flags and muddled thinking on Sunday night. On lap seven, a crash and a safety car created a door of opportunity. Red Bull, and every other team on the grid for that matter, walked straight through. McLaren, however, turned a blind eye.

“I think they [McLaren] are in a very difficult situation where they obviously want to treat the drivers fairly,” Schmitz told Dutch broadcaster Viaplay, moments after deservedly collecting the constructors’ trophy on the podium alongside race winner Verstappen.

“I guess we’re in a position to take advantage of that.” You can say that again.

It is the latest curveball in this impossible-to-predict F1 title race. Verstappen duly raced two supreme 25-lap stints to victory with a raging Piastri languishing behind in second. Verstappen now trails by 12 points, with Piastri a further four points behind. Norris endured a torrid final few laps and looked set for a damaging fifth-place finish before Kimi Antonelli’s mistake saw him nick fourth.

Two vital extra points which mean, despite the recent screw-ups which include last week’s shock disqualification in Las Vegas, a podium next week in Abu Dhabi will still be enough for the 26-year-old from Somerset to clinch his maiden championship. Anything less and a Verstappen win would complete the most remarkable of comebacks.

And boy will McLaren CEO Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella be hoping and praying that Norris ends up victorious next Sunday, such is the manner in which the papaya-clad outfit have allowed the irrepressible Verstappen to claw back a deficit which looked completely unobtainable.

Eight races ago, Verstappen trailed title leader Oscar Piastri by 104 points. In every round since, bar Brazil, the Dutchman has chewed away at that gap. Now, it is a mere 12 points. Verstappen is now actually four points clear of Piastri who, despite a much-needed strong weekend in Qatar, needs a minor miracle at the Yas Marina Circuit to win the championship from here.

Yet it was Piastri who was the main fall guy in Lusail. With overtaking a rare commodity – a high-speed circuit but one with no clear overtaking opportunities, something which must be changed by organisers moving forward – track position was everything. Piastri grabbed pole position on Saturday with a stunning final lap and on Sunday got off the line sharply to keep the lead, while Verstappen stormed around the outside to take second place from Norris.

Pierre Gasly, an ex-teammate of Verstappen’s at Red Bull, then collided with Nico Hulkenberg. A heavy crash, debris everywhere, and a safety car. This 57-lap race was already proceeding with a pre-set regulation surrounding tyres: no stint could be longer than 25 laps, given the risk of blowouts. The incident occurred on lap seven; it was almost too good to be true.

It should be noted that McLaren, with Piastri the race leader, were in the unenviable position of being the first team to act. And while in hindsight a “free” pit-stop under yellow flags was the obvious route to pursue, the heat of battle can do funny things to the boffins on the pit-wall. Even Mercedes back in their pomp, in a similar scenario with Lewis Hamilton in Hungary in 2021, miscalculated and sent their star driver to last on the grid. It happens. Quite ironically, McLaren have recently hired ex-Red Bull strategy guru Will Courtenay as their sporting director, working alongside long-term racing director Randeep Singh.

But the underlying question here is: why did it happen? Was it an honest error in the moment? Or did McLaren make the call to stay out, as they have stated all year, because they wanted to be fair to both drivers? Surely, at a minimum, it was in their best interests to at least split the strategy, pitting one and not the other?

For what it’s worth, Stella denied that the infamous “papaya rules” came into their thinking.

“In fairness, we didn’t expect everyone else to pit,” he admitted afterwards. “Once everyone has pitted, it makes that the right thing to do. When you have the lead car, you don’t know what the others are going to do.

“There could have been a loss for Lando if we pitted both cars with the double stack, but, effectively, the main reason was not expecting everyone else to pit. It was a decision. As a matter of fact, it was not the correct decision.”

Sat in his Red Bull cockpit, Verstappen could be forgiven for rubbing his hands together when the events unfolded in front of him. Asked about McLaren’s error, the provocative Dutchman replied: “Another one, yep!”

Much like their disastrous double disqualification in Vegas, another McLaren mishap has given Verstappen a sniff in Abu Dhabi, where he so contentiously won his first title four years ago. This correspondent stated last week that McLaren must now ditch their ‘fairness’ ethos and prioritise Norris before it’s too late. The leaderboard, with Verstappen in second and Piastri 16 points off Norris, makes that call altogether more digestible.

How many more warnings do they need? Heading into the final furlong in Abu Dhabi, it is now or never.

UK special forces chief ‘knew of Afghan war crimes but covered it up’

The head of the UK’s special forces (UKSF) knew soldiers had probably committed war crimes in Afghanistan but failed to act and conducted a “fake exercise” to cover it up, according to damning new testimony.

One of the most senior special forces officers in the British Army told the Afghan war crimes inquiry that he first raised concerns that Afghans were being killed unlawfully and that stories were being invented to disguise the deaths in February 2011.

In a new batch of documents released by the inquiry, the senior officer, known only as N1466, said he tried to get the special forces chief to act, but instead, the director conducted a “fake exercise” of a review that did not get to the bottom of what was happening.

He told the independent inquiry in secret evidence sessions: “I will be clear we are talking about war crimes.”

N1466, who was the assistant chief of staff for operations in UKSF headquarters between 2010 and 2011, said he first became concerned about reports of Afghans being killed on operations around February 2011, when the deaths didn’t tally with the number of weapons recovered.

He became further alarmed by reports of Afghans dying in custody after they had apparently tried to make futile attempts to attack their captors, but he said some accounts were “so implausible as to be ridiculous”.

He explained his shock when he was later shown photos of dead Afghans by military police, which showed people with headshot wounds, despite the official write-up of the incident saying they had been caught in crossfire.

He told the inquiry: “If we had got this right, we could have stopped it in February 2011… Me trying to argue the case with the director, who has clearly, in my view, made a conscious decision that he is going to suppress this, cover this up and do a little fake exercise to make it look like he’s done something, that’s a charade.”

The whistleblower said he came to the view in early 2011 that the military’s Special Investigation Branch (SIB) needed to launch a criminal probe, but that the UKSF in-house lawyer did not provide clear legal advice to that effect.

He said the worrying patterns of deaths were clearly explained to the director of special forces, who “was clearly cognisant back in February that there were things going wrong”.

He accused the director of controlling the information about alleged murders “in a way that I think indicated a desire to keep it low profile”.

He described the director as a “capable, intelligent, astute individual who would have known exactly what was happening”. But instead of referring the incidents to the police, or launching a full investigation, the director commissioned a review into the practice of bringing Afghans with soldiers to search a house after it had been cleared, the inquiry heard.

N1466 said the review “seemed to me to be completely missing the point or, and not necessarily accidentally missing the point”.

He added that “not just one director” of the special forces knew about the war crimes allegations, saying: “Other directors…clearly knew there was a problem in Afghanistan”. Talking about his decision to report the evidence directly to the Royal Military Police in 2015, he said in a witness statement: “I had lost confidence in the willingness of the UKSF chain of command to report the allegations….to SIB”.

In an extraordinary plea to other members of the special forces community to come forward and speak up, N1466 told the inquiry: “It is time to decide what you stand for.”

“We didn’t join UKSF for this sort of behaviour… toddlers to get shot in their beds or random killing. It’s not special, it’s not elite, it’s not what we stand for, and most of us I don’t believe, would either wish to condone it or to cover it up.

“It’s not loyalty to your organisation to stand by and watch it go down a sewer,” he said.

N1466 said that Afghan partner units began withdrawing their support for UKSF in protest at the crimes they believed were being committed. This happened for short periods in 2011 but became more sustained in 2013.

In one incident explained to the inquiry, a soldier from an Afghan Partner Unit pulled out a grenade on the way back from a joint operation with Special Forces Unit 1 and threatened to pull it because he was so unhappy with what he had just witnessed.

In another case recalled by N1466, an Afghan burst into a room with UK special forces colleagues, pulled a pistol from its holster, and pointed at a member of UKSF and said something along the lines of “these guys are all murdering our people”.

Referring to one photo of an Afghan killed by UK special forces, N1466 told the inquiry: “Quite clearly the narrative talks about ‘as they moved towards the target area, two men were seen moving around the guesthouse’. Well, this character doesn’t look like he’s been moving around the guesthouse. He looks like he’s in bed. He’s got a blanket over him and he certainly doesn’t look like he’s running around or engaging anybody with a grenade or about to engage anyone.”

Referring to photos of another incident, he said that “you’re not seeing many other bullet wounds other than head shots”, which didn’t tally with the narrative in the operation reports. He told the inquiry about other casualties: “No one can control a long burst of AK47 fire and put a hole in everyone’s head … It is not plausible and not true.”

He said it didn’t make sense for the individuals to be caught in crossfire, saying: “Why are they all hit in the head?… That really, to me, stood out as being wrong and it doesn’t matter how recently you’ve been to theatre. That makes no difference. That’s wrong.”

He was again concerned about pictures of another incident where dead bodies had weapons laid parallel to them with the stocks up, positioning that “for me isn’t right” if the Afghans had been killed in combat.

Included in the batch of documents released by the inquiry was a summary of an interview between N1466 and the Royal Military Police (RMP).

During the October 2018 interview, he told the RMP of an incident where UKSF1 members sent to clear a compound found people hiding in a room under a mosquito net.

The document read: “They did not reveal themselves, so the UKSF1 shot at the net until there was no movement.

“When the net was uncovered, it was women and children. The incident was covered up, and the individual who did the shooting was allegedly given some form of award to make it look legitimate.”

The Afghanistan Inquiry has released summaries of closed hearings in which members of special forces have given evidence about alleged murders in the wartorn nation between 2010 and 2013.

The inquiry continues.

The small daily acts that deliver measurable improvements to your health

Improving your health takes time. You won’t see transformative changes after a single nutritious meal or workout, so it can be hard to know what’s working and what isn’t

Someone who doesn’t have this problem is Emily Capodilupo, senior vice president of research, algorithms and data at wearable company WHOOP. It’s a role that grants her access to research from thousands of data points, so she knows exactly what behaviours have the biggest positive impacts on your health.

She shares the routines, rituals and habits that consistently deliver benefits to sleep, fitness and mobility.

“Having a consistent bedtime and wake time is one of the absolute best things you can do, not only for your sleep, but also your health,” says Capodilupo. “It reduces inflammation, reduces your risk of cancer and type 2 diabetes, and improves metabolic health.”

The reason for this is that regular sleep and wake times can align with your circadian rhythm – our in-built 24-hour clock based on light-dark cycles. The circadian rhythm plugs into nearly every system in the body, so if your regular routine lines up nicely with it, your metabolism, endocrine system and more can get into a rhythm and function better.

“Sleep is much higher quality if you allow your body to anticipate that sleep is coming,” Capodilupo explains. “When your bedtime and wake time are consistent, hormonally, you prepare for sleep about two hours before you go to bed.”

This will increase the quality of your sleep, which in turn can lead you to fall asleep faster and wake up less during the night, upping your sleep quantity too, leaving you more well rested.

Read more: This one thing could be ruining your sleep – and you were probably told it would help it

“If you can’t create a perfectly consistent bedtime and wake time, there are things you can do surrounding that theory that will improve your quality of sleep,” says Capodilupo.

An example of this is access to at least 10 minutes of bright sunlight shortly after waking up. Ideally, this would mean getting outside for a short walk or similar. “Outdoor light is often 100 times brighter than indoor [artificial] light,” she explains. But even opening your blinds or brushing your teeth next to a window in the morning can help.

“Getting bright sunlight first thing in the morning tells your circadian rhythm that it’s time to wake up, and so you start turning off sleep processes and turning on active, daytime processes,” she adds.

Read more: Scientists reveal the small lifestyle changes that can reduce your risk of heart disease and add 10 years to your life

In most cases, the body works best when it knows what is coming and has time to prepare for it. Routine helps with this, and establishing regular habits before going to bed sends your internal systems a strong message that it’s time to wind down.

“In the hour before bed, you really don’t want to be eating,” Capodilupo says. “Eating creates a pressure on your body to deal with the food, and that is counterproductive to sleep for so many reasons.

“The activating processes around digestion are counterproductive to sleep directly, and if there’s food in your stomach when you lie down, that can cause acid reflux. Spiking your blood sugar is counterproductive to sleep, too.”

Dimming the lights in the hour before bed can also send your body a signal that it’s nighttime. Bright phone screens, on the other hand, can throw a spanner in the works.

“The last thing so many people do before they go to bed is scroll on social media, and that’s one of the worst things you can do for your mental health and for your sleep,” Capodilupo says.

Establishing pre-bed cues that tell your body it’s time to ready itself for sleep has the opposite effect.

“It doesn’t need to be an hour-long ritual, and it doesn’t need to be 100 per cent of the time,” says Capodilupo.

Read more: Experts say including more of this in your diet can help you live a longer, healthier life – and it’s not protein or fibre

Establishing consistent behaviours and timings around further essential daily functions can help in other areas too.

“Our bodies are really good at learning our patterns if we ritualise them,” says Capodilupo. “If your body never knows what’s coming, it can’t prepare. It’s like having an assistant but never telling it what you’re doing, making them fairly useless.”

We tend to be brilliant at creating patterns with infants, establishing a regular routine around meals and bedtime, she says. But this goes out the window in adulthood.

“Develop reliable cues,” Capodilupo advises. This could be as simple as swapping your clothes for pyjamas at a set time before bed.

Read more: The science-backed exercise method that can help fight the effects of ageing

“One of the most underrated behaviours, especially for women, is strength training,” Capodilupo says. “The best thing you can do to prevent diabetes is put on lean muscle mass.

“There’s a growing understanding of how metabolically important muscle tissue is in so many ways.”

The presence of muscle tissue is one of the greatest predictors of your ability to live independently into old age. ”After about age 30, you lose one per cent of your muscle mass per year if you don’t actively intervene to prevent that.”

“When you think about the fact that our lifespan over the last 50 years has increased fairly dramatically, you need to be building more muscle in your twenties and thirties, and then actively sustaining it so that you can live independently in your eighties and nineties.”

Muscle mass can also protect against the development of type 2 diabetes by absorbing blood sugar.

“For every pound of lean muscle mass you put on, you can buffer more sugar,” explains Capodilupo. “When you eat a chocolate bar, you have a ton of sugar hit your system all at once, and your body has two pathways to get it out. Option one is insulin, which pulls it into your cells. Option two is to absorb it in your muscle cells.

“If you don’t have a lot of muscle mass, you’re forced to only use insulin. That’s where you can get this over-reliance on that part of the system, and that fatigues over time, leading to glucose or insulin insensitivity, and eventually metabolic dysfunction and type 2 diabetes.

“That’s why the best thing you can do, both to reverse pre-diabetes and diabetes, as well as to prevent ever getting them, is to put on lean muscle mass.”

Muscle mass also acts as effective padding against falls, reducing your risk of bone injuries.

Read more: From exercising for fat loss to building muscle in a calorie deficit – doctor of sport science corrects three fitness myths

Lots of us have desk jobs where we sit for eight to 12 hours per day, then do all of our daily movement in a tight exercise window; an approach that has its drawbacks.

“The data really supports the idea that low-intensity exercise throughout the day is incredibly important,” explains Capodilupo. “A lot of that is believed to be mediated by your lymphatic pathway – a second circulatory system.”

This system moves lymph fluid – a liquid that carries nutrients to, and clears harmful substances from, your cells and tissues – around the body. However, unlike blood, it isn’t actively pumped, instead relying on the contractions of nearby muscles to move it along.

“It’s like the sewer system of your body,” Capodilupo explains. “If you don’t contract all of your muscles by moving, you don’t circulate this stuff and it stagnates. You quite literally get stagnating wastewater in the body.”

Adjustable-height desks and walking treadmills are two possible ways to achieve more regular daily movement. You could also perform a few stretches or bodyweight exercises at your desk each hour, especially if you work from home, or take occasional walking breaks from your work.

Regular movement will also increase your daily energy expenditure, boost metabolic health and, particularly if you do it after eating, regulate blood sugar levels.

Read more: I tried ‘the best kettlebell workout’, and it was surprisingly simple yet effective in just 10 minutes

Read more: Swap the gym for this trainer’s six-move kettlebell workout to build full-body strength at home

Trump unleashes latest insult at female reporter who asked about MRI

President Donald Trump has insulted another female reporter after he was asked about releasing the results of an MRI test that he announced he had taken earlier this month.

The president took questions from reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday night, as he returned to Washington D.C. from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida where he had celebrated Thanksgiving.

Trump was asked about recent calls by Minnesota Governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz to release his MRI results after the president used a mental health slur in a long, rambling Truth Social post on Thanksgiving Day, calling the lawmaker “seriously r******.”

The president claimed, as he has done multiple times, that he had “aced” a cognitive test but told the reporter that she would be “incapable” of doing the same.

It came after a male reporter asked Trump that “Governor Walz called for the release of your MRI results.”

“They were perfect, like my phone call where I got impeached. Absolutely perfect,” the president replied. “If you want to have it released, I’ll release it.”

The female reporter, who was not identified, then asked: “Can you tell us what they were looking at?” prompting Trump to respond: “For what? Releasing?”

“No, what part of the body was the MRI looking at? “ the reporter replied.

“I have no idea. It was just an MRI,” Trump said. “It wasn’t the brain because I took a cognitive test and aced it. I got a perfect mark, which you would be incapable of doing.”

Walz renewed his calls for more transparency on Trump’s health earlier Sunday on NBC News, where he suggested the president was “fading physically,” and his “mental capacity” should be a serious cause for concern.

“Here we got a guy on Thanksgiving where we spent time with our families, we ate, we played Yahtzee, we cheered for football or whatever,” Walz said. “This guy is apparently in a room ranting about everything else. This is not normal behavior. It’s not healthy.”

Earlier in November, the president revealed he had undergone an MRI exam as part of his recent physical, but said that it was “very standard”.

“The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor,” Trump boasted to reporters at the time.

Trump’s personal and vitriolic attacks have targeted not just Walz in recent weeks but also a number of female reporters.

On Thursday, the president lashed out at CBS News’ Nancy Cordes in the wake of the D.C. National Guard shootings after she challenged his suggestion that the Biden administration had failed to properly vet Afghan refugees.

“Are you a stupid person?” Trump said. “Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”

The day before, Trump took aim at veteran New York Times reporter Katie Rogers, accusing her of being “assigned to only write bad things” about him, and calling her “a third-rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”

Earlier this month, he told Bloomberg’s White House correspondent, Catherine Lucey, to be “quiet, piggy” on Air Force One.

Lucey had been trying to ask Trump about the Epstein Files, but only managed to finish half of her follow-up question before the president cut her off.

Responding to criticism of Trump’s remarks, the White House claimed the reporter had “behaved in an inappropriate and unprofessional way.”

“If you’re going to give it, you have to be able to take,” read the official White House response.

The Independent has contacted the White House for comment on the president’s remarks Sunday night and when his MRI results would be released.

Black Friday cruise deals – enjoy luxe all-inclusive trips for less

Already dreaming about your next unforgettable escape? Picture this: gazing at a postcard-perfect horizon, margarita in hand, before tucking into delicious, made-to-order dining amid superyacht inspired luxury…

Well, it’s time to make waves, Sailor: Virgin Voyages’ Black Friday offers are here, running from 21 November – 4th December, with epic savings to be made across 2025, 2026, and their newly-launched 2027 sailings. What’s more, you can get 80 per cent off a second ‘Sailor’ and up to $500 in free drinks – find out more at Virgin Voyages.

And these aren’t just any cruises; these are award-winning, exclusively adult cruises, providing a playground at sea for discerning grownups, with no buffets, and certainly no beige (they favour red, instead). There’s over $1,000/£750 in value built right in, from WiFi and group fitness classes to essential drinks and award-winning dining – all with no hidden extras. Prices are all-in, and stay that way, leaving you to focus on pure, effortless indulgence.

Exemplifying the modern luxury and romance of sailing, there are no  lacklustre, elbows-at-the-ready meals to be queued for here: instead you’ll enjoy freshly prepared food from over 20 unique eateries, guaranteeing culinary flair with distinct, delicious flavours. And prepare to have dinner with a view – every single restaurant on board has panoramas out to the ocean.

When you’re not eating (or sipping), explore the ship’s sleek, design-led spaces. Think nautically cool cabins with roomy rain showers and heavenly hammocks made for lazy afternoons. Hit The Manor, Virgin’s sexy, disco-glam nightclub reached through a mirrored corridor straight out of a K-pop video. Or lose yourself in The Red Room, where cutting-edge shows and dance parties keep the energy high till sunrise. Then there’s The Groupie – your private karaoke den for those ‘we’re definitely forming a band’ moments (crafted cocktails highly encouraged).

Need inspo for which cruise to choose? How about this one: 2026 sees the introduction of one of Virgin Voyages’ most highly anticipated routes – the debut of its sailing to Alaska, running from May to September aboard Brilliant Lady.

The ship will take 16 memorable journeys roundtrip from Seattle (with some from Vancouver), lasting from between seven to 12 nights. You’ll experience the region’s wild beauty and authentic ports which most cruise lines skip, from the dramatic fjords of Tracy Arm to hidden gems like Haines (the Bald Eagle capital of the world) Icy Strait Point, an indigenous-owned destination perfect for whale watching and adventure, and Sitka – where you’ll find a blend of Russian and Native heritage – taking you deeper into America’s Last Frontier.

You can also immerse yourself on-land via Virgin Voyages ‘Shore Thing’ experiences, with over 250 excursions crafted for adults, including bear spotting, dog sledding, glacier hikes, and indigenous-led cultural immersions, designed for adults – not busloads. And with longer port times, you’ll be able to explore exciting destinations like Alaska’s capital, Juneau, without feeling rushed; there are no early departures here, so you can spend a generous eight unhurried hours marvelling at the epic panoramas from the Mount Roberts Tramway, watching whales in Auke Bay, or visiting epic natural wonders like the Mendenhall Glacier.

And it’s never too late to think even further ahead; Virgin Voyages has also just launched its new 2027 itineraries, expanding to a range of fresh destinations. Feeling hot, hot, hot? A few of them depart from Miami and take in the Caribbean, such as the St Thomas, US Virgin Islands cruise – a brand new port which also stops at Tortola, Antigua and St Kitts and Nevis – and the shorter Cayman Isles and Bimini Beach cruise, where you can swim with stingrays, bask in the sun, and savour authentic Caribbean cuisine.

If you’re feeling more adventurous, there’s the Greenland & Transatlantic cruise, where you’ll sail from  Iceland’s hip capital, Reykjavik to Greenland’s colourful villages, Qaqortoq and Nuuk, before making your way towards New York City. And the best part? If you take advantage of Virgin Voyages’ Black Friday offers, from 21 November – 4th December 2025, you’ll make significant savings plus get up to $500 in free drinks. Which leaves all the more money to spend on Christmas presents….

Anchors away! To set sail in style, book now at virginvoyages.com

‘I fought with UK in Afghanistan. Now I live in a damp flat in London’

The walls have been newly painted a bright white, and the floors are clean. But despite it being a grey cold winter’s day outside, all the windows in this two-bedroom flat in west London are wide open.

There is no visible mould, but Abdul’s family, including his pregnant wife Aisha, have been struggling with their breathing because of damp in the property ever since they moved in in October. They have opened the windows in a desperate bid to get some fresh air into the flat.

Their 11-year-old son’s asthma, which is usually controlled, has become much worse, says Abdul. When he struggled to breathe in one particular exacerbation a few weeks ago, Abdul rushed him to the emergency department at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, scared that his son’s medication wasn’t enough to keep him well in their new living conditions.

A former Afghan special forces soldier who fought alongside the British, Abdul had dreamt of the day he would be able to bring his family to the UK, and was overjoyed when it finally came in August this year.

He had served with an elite Afghan unit known as Afghan Territorial Force 444 – one of two units set up and paid by the British to work alongside the best of the UK armed forces. In the chaos of the West’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, many of those who worked most closely with the UK were left behind, with dozens of allies killed, kidnapped or tortured by the Taliban.

While the Ministry of Defence (MoD) set up resettlement routes for those who had worked alongside the British, mistakes led to hundreds of applications for sanctuary from Afghans with credible links to special forces units being wrongly rejected.

The government has been undertaking a review of thousands of these applications after The Independent, along with Lighthouse Reports and Sky News, exposed how the applicants were being denied help. High Court judges found that defective decision-making had led to these Afghan commandos being abandoned.

Abdul had managed to escape Afghanistan in 2015, but his application to come to the UK was initially rejected in 2023 – despite his having risked his life to work alongside British troops.

He lived in Europe in fear of deportation, at times homeless, before he was finally granted sanctuary in the country he had served, in August this year, through the MoD’s resettlement scheme.

However, the move has meant coming face-to-face with the reality of trying to build a life in Britain with little support. Unlike some of his former colleagues, who are also here, Abdul can speak good English, but he is still struggling to navigate his new living situation.

There is little to do during the day, and he is unsure where he can turn to to find activities for his two boisterous sons, aged 11 and five. He is keen to work and to enrol his children in school, but he wants to do so only once they have a settled home. A friend of Abdul’s in the UK, Alex Isaac, a former paratrooper who fought alongside him, has being trying to help him build a new life in Britain, and calls him each night to provide companionship. He has offered him a job as a groundworks trainee in his construction company in Ipswich, but the family are unable to afford a deposit to start renting privately in the area.

Abdul said that his attempts to get help from the council and the Home Office with funding a deposit had been unsuccessful. After The Independent contacted the local council, they were able to start the process of helping Abdul and his family move to Ipswich. A Home Office source said that the council had also agreed to pay the deposit.

While Abdul said the family had received little support from their council support worker since they moved into the property in Fulham, a spokesperson for Hammersmith and Fulham Council said the family had been offered help with furniture and household goods, financial support, school places for the children, and GP and maternity services.

The council said that Abdul had twice refused to allow the private landlord’s contractors to carry out repairs, but Abdul said that they only wanted to make temporary fixes that would not have solved the problems.

A Hammersmith and Fulham Council spokesperson added: “We have a long and proud history of going above and beyond to support refugees, helping more than 120 Afghan refugees into new homes and securing school places this year along.

“Abdul has asked for a move to Ipswich, and we’re working with the Home Office and the family to assist.”

Local authorities are able to claim £24,110 per Afghan from the government over three years to provide “integration support”. Further money to support children into education can also be claimed by the council, with payments of up to £5,130 per child aged five to 18. Local healthcare providers are also able to claim government money to support Afghan refugees.

The flat the local council has found for the family is sparse, with just a bed for Abdul and his wife, bunk beds for their children, a table and a sofa, and they have few belongings to make the place feel like home. The government, through Abdul’s housing benefit, is paying the landlord £1,850 a month for the property, he explained.

The family are not using the washing machine because they say mould in the machine makes their clothes smell, so instead, Abdul’s wife Aisha is washing their clothes by hand. While they are able to use the fridge, the sealant around the door is mouldy and cracked.

The toilet sink is also leaking, and the bathroom often smells, Abdul explained. The sons have at times refused to sleep in their bunk beds because they spotted cockroaches in the room, and the carpet corners come up easily, creating a worrying trip hazard.

Because their breathing is exacerbated by being inside, the family often spend hours sitting in the nearby small park or wandering around the local shopping centre.

Aisha, who is pregnant, has been struggling with her breathing as well. A support letter from the local community midwife details her concerns about the family’s living conditions.

“The property has leaks, damp, concerning stains, and an insect infestation,” the letter said. “[Abdul] showed me some concerning photos during a midwifery appointment, including multiple insect bites on the two children, aged 11 and five years old.”

It continued: “I ask their case is urgently prioritised for the wellbeing of the whole family … It is imperative that the family be provided with alternative suitable housing that accommodates their needs and promotes a safe and healthy environment for the parents, young children, and a newborn baby.”

Abdul said: “We are not asking for luxury housing. I would rather be able to support myself. I already found an Ipswich property, where the rent is hundreds less. We would be saving the government money if we can move there. No one should pay this amount for this property, because it is not suitable.

“My son had asthma before, but not like this. [Since] we came into this property, he is always using the emergency inhaler. We are using both of the inhalers all the time.

“My wife is also now struggling with her breathing, and she is pregnant. The kids are scared to sleep in their room because there were cockroaches in their room. They are waking up in the night because they are scared, and they have no desk or space to do any homework. There is the smell in the flat, also.”

He continued: “I am so stressed, me and my wife. I don’t know what to do with this situation.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “This government is determined to fulfil our nation’s commitment to the brave Afghans who supported the United Kingdom’s mission in Afghanistan.

“Any concerns about accommodation should be reported to the local authority. We work closely with them to ensure every family receives the support they need.”

Where rain is set to hit as Met Office issues ‘danger to life’ warning

Heavy rainfall is forecast across much of the UK on Monday and Tuesday as parts of Wales are set to be battered by downpours and intense storms.

A Met Office amber warning is in place until midnight on Monday in south Wales, signalling a possible “danger to life”. Nearly a month’s worth of rain is forecast to fall in the region within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, yellow warnings are in force in parts of south-west and north-west England, as well as central and northern parts of Wales, until 3am on Tuesday. South-west Scotland has a similar warning in place until 9pm on Monday.

Around 120mm of rain could fall in south Wales’ higher areas, forecasters have predicted, while 20mm to 40mm is expected in other areas, possibly reaching 80mm in hilly parts.

Records show that the amount of rainfall expected in Wales has previously triggered landslides in the country, a spokesperson from British Geological Survey said.

They added: “Both natural and infrastructure slopes could be affected within the warning areas, with rainfall falling on slopes that are likely to already be saturated.”

“There is potential for disruption to roads and railways within the warning area, this is likely to be particularly impactful in areas where there are long diversion routes.”

Met Office chief forecaster Rebekah Hicks said: “Heavy rain will move over south Wales from late Sunday and through Monday. Whilst rainfall amounts will vary, the largest accumulations are expected over the highest ground in south Wales and could reach 100-120mm through the day. 60-80mm is most likely for many hills within the Amber warning area, while those to lower levels should see around 20-40mm through the day.

“Wider yellow warnings for rain have also been issued for the southwest and northwest of England, central and northern parts of Wales, as well as southwest Scotland, with disruption also possible in these areas through the day.”

Natural Resources Wales has listed 38 alerts in Wales, warning people to be prepared for possible flooding. The Environment Agency has posted five flood warnings that say flooding is expected and 44 alerts signalling it is possible.

Here is the Met Office’s forecast for the next five days:

Windy today with spells of rain. Rain will be heavy and persistent in the west, particularly in south Wales and northwest England where local flooding is possible. Cold in the northwest, but milder elsewhere.

Cloudy, wet and windy for most this evening. Gradually turning drier later in the night with easing winds. Clear spells will develop with scattered showers in the south and west.

Scattered blustery showers will continue in the south and west, with hail and thunder possible. Largely dry elsewhere with sunny spells. Temperatures around the seasonal average.

Largely dry on Wednesday with sunny spells and a few showers. Spells of rain move in on Thursday and Friday, although there will be some brighter interludes in between.