Jury shown footage of ‘brothers in airport brawl with police officers’

A jury has been shown new CCTV and bodycam footage of two brother’s allegedly assaulting police officers in a fight at Manchester Airport last year.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, have been accused of attacking officers who were responding to an incident at a Starbucks in the airport’s Terminal 2 arrivals on July 23 2023.

CCTV footage shows Pc Zachary Marsden and Pc Ellie Cook – who were both armed – and unarmed Pc Lydia Ward approaching the brothers in the airport’s car park after the incident.

The prosecution say Amaaz resisted as police tried to move him away from a payment machine in the car park to arrest him, and then his brother, Amaad, intervened.

They told the court on Monday that Amaaz threw 10 punches, including one to the face of Pc Ward that knocked her to the floor, and that Amaad aimed six punches at firearms officer Pc Marsden.

Amaaz is also said to have kicked Pc Marsden and twice struck firearms officer Pc Cook with his elbow and punched Pc Marsden from behind and then had hold of him before Pc Cook discharged her Taser device.

Amaaz is alleged to have assaulted the officers causing them actual bodily harm and is also accused of the earlier assault of a member of the public, Abdulkareem Ismaeil, at Starbucks.

Amaad, 26, is alleged to have assaulted Pc Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

Both men, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, deny the allegations.

Giving evidence in court, Pc Marsden said he approached the accused with the intention of escorting the suspect from the crowd and to arrest him outside where he would have radio signal.

He said he placed his hands on Amaaz’s left arm, but said he was “met with immediate resistance” and that he felt the suspect “clench his fists”.

Pc Marsden said he realised a change in plan was needed so decided to attempt to handcuff Amaaz, the man wearing the light blue tracksuit.

The officer said he then felt an “immense weight of pressure” to his right side and felt his Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol move across his leg and around his body, and feared someone was “trying to get his gun”.

He then described receiving “blows from all directions” from the second man, causing his glasses to be knocked off his face.

Pc Marsden said he managed to break free from Amaad and deploy his Taser against him before he felt a blow to the head from behind and someone on his back.

When he felt an arm “wrap round my throat” he said he believed there could be a third attacker, he told the court.

He said, at the time, he had not realised his colleague Pc Cook had discharged her Taser at Amaaz as he held on to him. He recalled freeing himself before going down to arrest the man on the floor.

Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC asked the officer about suggestions made that he stamped on Amaaz’s head. Pc Marsden denied this.

Pc Marsden told the court: “He (Amaaz) ignored my commands to put his arms around his back. His chest lifted off the floor and his head towards me.

“He was attempting to get off the floor. I needed to deliver one strike to the facial region to stun the subject.

“Using the soft-laced part of my boot I delivered a kick to the facial region which would buy me valuable seconds in order to take control and hopefully dissuade the subject from trying to get up again.”

The trial continues on Tuesday when Pc Marsden will be cross-examined by the defence.

The Salt Path author accused of embezzling money before losing house

The Salt Path author has been accused of embezzling money from a former employer and inventing the reason she and her husband lost their home, which inspired their best-selling memoir.

In the 2018 book, which has since been adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, it is claimed that Raynor and Moth Winn undertook the 630-mile walk along the South West Coast Path after they lost their home following a failed business venture with a friend. The book also details Moth’s illness, when he was diagnosed with a fatal neurological condition, called corticobasal degeneration, also known as CBD.

It has now been claimed in an investigation by The Observer that Raynor and Moth Winn’s real names are Sally and Tim Walker respectively. Martin Hemmings, Sally Walker’s boss, and his wife Ros suspected Sally of stealing a large amount of money.

According to the report, Martin Hemmings, who owned an estate agency, noticed in 2008 that Raynor Winn had failed to deposit a significant sum in the bank. Ros Hemmings told The Observer: “So we brought all the books home and started working backwards through them. There was around £9,000 missing over the previous few months.”

It is claimed that after being confronted about the issue, Winn pleaded with Hemmings to repay the missing funds. Ros Hemmings told The Observer that her family had accepted Winn’s offer to repay the missing funds but that the false narrative depicted in the book had upset her.

Hemmings explained: “Her claims [in the book] that it was all just a business deal that went wrong really upset me. When really she had embezzled the money from my husband. It made me feel sick. In the end, I think it was around £64,000 that Raynor Winn had nicked over the previous few years.”

Once the allegations had been established, Winn was reportedly taken in for questioning and was sent home the same night. She was told to return the next day for a further interview but according to Michael Strain, the Hemmings’ solicitor, “she had vanished”.

To repay the money she allegedly owed, Winn reportedly borrowed £100,000 from a relative on the basis that her former boss would not pursue criminal charges. Hemmings says her husband agreed to the proposal and the police did not pursue any charges against Winn over the alleged theft.

Ultimately, the couple lost their home in a 2012 court case, after the couple failed to repay the loan from the relative. Winn claims in the book that the couple have been homeless since 2013 butThe Observer alleges that they have owned a house in France since 2007, although it is now uninhabitable.

The investigation by The Observer also raised doubts about Moth Winn’s condition, as life expectancy for someone diagnosed with the illness is six to eight years, according to neurologists.

Experts that The Observer spoke to told the publication that anyone living with the illness for more than 12 years would need around-the-clock care. According to The Salt Path, Moth has now been living with the condition for 18 years – but has no apparent visible symptoms.

In a statement given to The Independent, a spokesperson for Raynor Winn said: “Yesterday’s Observer article is highly misleading. We are taking legal advice and won’t be making any further comments at this time. The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives. This is the true story of our journey.”

The Salt Path, which was written by Raynor Winn, has sold more than two million copies since its release in 2018 and documents the couple’s 630-mile walk from Somerset to Dorset. It is described as a “life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world”.

Why Starmer could face a fresh rebellion over Send support

Sir Keir Starmer is yet to recover from the bruising U-turn on his botched benefit cuts, but he is already facing a fresh rebellion.

A similar coalition of MPs and campaign groups, including many of the same charities that opposed reforms to welfare, are warning the prime minister not to cut education plans for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

The PM was badly weakened by the chaos around his planned welfare bill, and backbenchers now appear to know they can force their leader’s hand if they apply enough pressure.

But Sir Keir, and his chancellor Rachel Reeves, will be acutely aware of the pressure on the public finances and can scarcely afford another multi-billion pound policy change.

The Independent looks at why the government is under pressure over Send, and what it is likely to do about it.

An education, health and care plan (EHCP) outlines the tailored support needed by those aged 25 and under to meet their social care needs.

It is designed to help those with disabilities get what they need to access learning and achieve their potential.

The documents are legally binding, based on assessments by professionals and set out the support young people individually need.

The campaign group Save Our Children’s Rights has warned that the government is planning to weaken or remove the right to an ECHP, as well as other rights including the right to attend a suitable school and receive support such as speech and language therapy.

It said the government plans are to save money, with support for children with learning difficulties or disabilities currently costing £12bn a year.

The Department for Education has said there are “no plans to remove funding or support from children, families and schools”.

“It would be totally inaccurate to suggest that children, families or schools might experience any loss of funding or support,” a spokesman said.

The government previously turned to support for the disabled when it sought to slash £5bn from the welfare bill through cuts to the personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit.

The argument was that the bill was rising unsustainably, and the National Audit Office (NAO) has raised a similar warning about ECHPs.

The number of EHCPs soared by 150 per cent to 576,000 between 2015 and 2024, with the NAO estimating it could top 1 million by 2033.

A letter to The Guardian on Monday signed by dozens of special needs groups said “every sign from the government suggests the right to an ECHP is to be removed from children attending mainstream schools”.

“Whatever the Send system’s problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people,” the letter said.

It said removing ECHPs would not make young people’s needs magically vanish, but would increase applications for already overcrowded special schools or force children out of school altogether.

One Labour MP preparing to rebel told The Independent that backbenchers are gearing up for a similar fight over ECHPs to the battle they fought over cuts to Pip.

“They have built strong relationships with Send campaigners, if they are now being told this is a betrayal, they will push back against any cuts,” the MP warned.

Another was quoted in The Times as saying: “If they thought taking money away from disabled adults was bad, watch what happens when they try the same with disabled kids.”

The government is expected to publish a white paper detailing its reforms to Send education in the autumn.

It means that ministers have a chance to ensure they get any reforms right, and get backbenchers onside, in order to stave off any potential rebellion over the changes.

But the long delay also means disability campaigners will have all summer to get in the ears of MPs, and that rebellious Labour parliamentarians will have plenty of time to plan a revolt.

Ultimately, the reforms will represent a test of how well Sir Keir has listened and learned from previous handling of politically sensitive changes that make Labour MPs uneasy.

Any changes will stand or fall on whether he has done the necessary outreach to MPs from across the party and the relevant campaign groups lobbying them.

If not, he faces returning from the summer holiday to exactly the same problems he left behind.

The bottom line? Britain can’t afford to impose a wealth tax

Sir Keir, what have you done? Having climbed down over welfare reform, the prime minister now faces a left wing with the bit between their teeth. They are in the ascendant all right, and don’t they know it.

The latest to step up to the plate is Lord Kinnock. The former Labour leader says there are “pathways” to raising taxes that, I think, people are willing to explore and actually would commend themselves to the great majority of the general public.

“They include, for instance, asset taxes in a period in which for the last 20-odd years in the United Kingdom, like quite a lot of other Western economies, earned incomes have stagnated in real terms while asset values have zoomed. They’ve just gone through the roof and they’ve been barely touched.

“Now, you wouldn’t have to touch assets of under £6 million or £7 million, so people’s houses would be secure, obviously. But even by going for an imposition of 2 per cent on asset values above £10 million, say, which is a very big fortune, the Government would be in a position to collect £10 billion or £11 billion a year.”

Kinnock once told the party conference: “I am telling you, no matter how entertaining, how fulfilling to short-term egos: you can’t play politics with people’s jobs and with people’s services or with their homes.” Presumably he did not mean rich people who create those jobs.

Because, make no mistake, he is playing politics with them, with their assets, with their success – and with the people who rely on the wealthy for their incomes, with an Exchequer that also depends on their taxes and their continued faith in Britain.

Unfortunately, due to his status, Kinnock has a following. At least five trade unions have come forward to declare they will lean on Sir Keir Starmer to do what he suggests. Among them is Unison, once the employer of Angela Rayner, who was its most senior elected official in northwest England prior to becoming an MP. Christina McAnea, the Unison general secretary, said: “A wealth tax would be a much fairer way of raising revenue to invest in public services and grow the economy.”

Listening to and reading their outpourings you do have to wonder what planet they live on, which bit of a globally connected world in which countries (including those Western countries Kinnock refers to, which have seen asset values soar and incomes stagnate) fall over themselves to attract foreign investors – which bit of that they do they not understand. Those nations know their money generates prosperity and jobs. Which is another way of saying economic growth.

The evidence of rich folks voting with their feet and departing these shores is mounting by the day. Mostly they are non-doms, already a Labour target, but by no means all. One London restaurateur is nursing a 30 per cent drop in takings since Rachel Reeves delivered her first Budget. He says that is not the result of smaller plates and weight-conscious diners eating less thanks to Ozempic, but them having gone, leaving empty tables in their wake.

Reeves’s was the Budget that scrapped non-doms’ favourable tax breaks, VAT on private schools, air transport duty on private jets, inheritance tax for the most valuable farms and, of course, an increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions.

There is a pattern here, to which Kinnock and his acolytes would now like to add a charge on assets over £10m. It might collect £10bn or so as he claims, but for how long? And what signal does it send to those who have earned their money and paid their dues – only for them to be taxed again?

Kinnock fails to make the connection between the rich and philanthropy, those charities that help the poor and disadvantaged, organisations that research cures for cancer and other conditions, and the arts and sport – all would suffer drops in their donations.

It’s also a London tax, which also adds to its appeal. Nothing beats clobbering the swanky capital inhabitants in their £10m-plus mansions – conveniently ignoring the fact that, without many of them, the UK economy would be under water, that London is the country’s investment hub.

Fortunately, there are those in Labour who see sense. Liz Lloyd, a senior No 10 policy adviser, has reportedly questioned whether existing wealth taxes were harming her boss’s mission of growing the economy. Hopefully, Starmer and Reeves will agree with her and not Kinnock and his ilk. For if they wish to give the lie of going “faster and further” in kick-starting the economy, Kinnock’s wealth tax would the best way of achieving it.

The battle lines are being drawn. Starmer must resist. Britain’s economic future depends on it.

Trump reignites feud with Musk saying tech billionaire has gone ‘off the rails’

President Donald Trump is delaying the deadline on tariff negotiations to August 1 as the U.S. attempts to cement trade deals with dozens of other nations.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump would sign an executive order Monday to push the July 9 deadline back.

The 90-day negotiating period on trade was set to expire on July 9, causing tariffs to increase from the baseline 10 percent rate to the higher levels set by Trump on April 2.

The administration previously claimed it would land “90 deals in 90 days.”

Japan and South Korea received letters Monday from the president informing them of a 25 percent import tax on all goods from their countries starting August 1. Leavitt said approximately 12 other countries will receive letters imminently.

Meanwhile, Trump earlier reignited the feud with Elon Musk, his former friend, ally and patron, over his threat to set up a third political party in the United States.

In a lengthy Truth Social tirade on Sunday, Trump said Musk has gone “off the rails” in recent weeks and become a “trainwreck.”

Elsewhere, Trump will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for dinner at the White House on Monday evening.

When my friends were facing cancer, a community of people stepped up

When I was younger, I used to worry incessantly about my parents getting cancer. I’d lay awake at night, ruminating on what would happen to my brother and I if they did. Who would support us? Thankfully, both are still cancer-free, well into their seventies.

However, now that I’m a parent myself, I worry about my children. Many people believe that cancer only really happens to people in old age, but that’s just not true. One beloved friend’s daughter died of leukaemia in 2020, aged just five; an unthinkable horror that changed the lives of everyone who knew her and her family.

And with Macmillan Cancer Support reporting that almost 3.5 million people in the UK are living with cancer, I also worry about my friends – parents themselves, their lives touched by cancer. One friend sat me down in our favourite local café, our toddlers playing at our feet, to break the news that she was about to undergo a double mastectomy. We cried together.

Another friend, Sarah, a single parent to two teenage girls, was diagnosed with breast cancer the day before we heard that King Charles had cancer, and a month before the Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, announced her own diagnosis in March last year. It seemed like cancer was everywhere.

As a result, Sarah put 2024 on hold – she missed her daughter’s last sports day and last concert at primary school and had to find a whole new way of co-ordinating family life.

“I’m lucky in some ways that my children are teenagers, so they are able to look after themselves to some degree – but I’m also a single parent, so there are some things that they can’t do, or struggle with, due to their age,” she tells me.

“I have even set up multiple alarms on our Alexa reminding them to put their packed lunches in their bags or leave for school, just in case I can’t get up.”

Sarah says she thought she knew quite a lot about cancer prior to her diagnosis, but now admits she “really didn’t”. She explains: “There are so many terms and procedures to understand – stages and grades, not to mention over 100 different chemotherapy drugs.”

Sarah tells me about the exhausting cumulative effect of chemotherapy, which she endured every three weeks during her cancer treatment: “After the very first lot, I slept for a few hours and felt much better pretty quickly. For my last rounds, I slept for 48 hours solid and even days later, I needed to have a nap in the middle of the day and was in bed by 8pm.”

Sarah’s now finished chemotherapy and, a year on from her diagnosis, is turning 50. She’s throwing a huge party to celebrate not only the birthday milestone, but getting over this “annus horriblis” – a year she couldn’t have gotten through without the people around her.

“People can do so much for us when we are unwell – and I am forever grateful,” she says. “I’ve been really overwhelmed by the support that my friends have given me; from ferrying around my children to and from after-school events and sleepovers when things get bad, to my 75-year-old neighbour mowing the lawn. One friend popped round with a huge pot of pasta sauce and I even had a gift box from a recruiter at work.”

What talking to my strong, resilient friends about their cancer journeys has made me realise most, is the power of community: for when we receive the worst news imaginable, what we need is people around us to see us through. A community of other women: friends, school mums, neighbours.

They had people willing to make them food, pick up their children, go shopping for them or to just sit with them and listen. They had support when they decided to raise money for cancer support charities, when they did fundraisers such as hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning.

It takes a village to raise a child – and that village will be with you every step of the way when you need them most.

Find out how you can help raise vital funds by hosting a Macmillan Coffee Morning. Sign up now on the Macmillan website

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). Also operating in Northern Ireland.

Labour donor ‘nervous’ about Starmer after winter fuel ‘fiasco’

The most high-profile billionaire Labour party donor has revealed he is “increasingly nervous” about the direction Keir Starmer’s government is taking.

John Caudwell – who switched allegiance from the Tories – also hit out at Labour’s winter fuel payments cut “fiasco” as well as the welfare rebellion, declaring that the party has done a bad job at telling the right story to the electorate.

The Phones 4u founder – who has a fortune of £1.58bn but has promised to give away more than 70 per cent of it – warned a wealth tax would be “very destructive” to growth, as he called on ministers to do more to bring investment into the UK.

The 72-year-old’s comments come as Sir Keir is reportedly facing another rebellion from his backbenchers over reforms to support for children with special needs in England, just days after he was forced into the humiliating climbdown on benefit cuts.

Mr Caudwell was previously a Tory backer for many years, donating £500,000 to the Conservatives ahead of the 2019 general election, making him one of the party’s biggest donors. But for last year’s election, he pledged to vote Labour for the time ever.

However, Mr Caudwell has now said he is in “despair of politicians”, The Guardian reported.

And despite being a prominent Brexit supporter, he said the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis is the reason he could never support Reform UK.

He also called on Labour to do more on net zero, describing schemes such as Great British Energy as “lacking in ambition”, although he welcomed green energy plans that the party has implemented.

He added that, despite his background in mobile phones, he fears social media and AI are a “disaster” for anxiety and said he is worried for a future in which AI fakes become the norm.

Speaking of Sir Keir’s party, the businessman said: “They’re just going to be tossed from pillar to post, that’s how it feels. I am becoming increasingly nervous about what Labour are doing and especially when they get into this mess over the welfare bill because it feels as though there’s anarchy within the party.”

However, he did say he welcomed some key changes from Labour, citing pension funds reform and planning changes.

Speaking during the launch of a report from his charity Caudwell Youth, he continued: “There seems to be a lack of that commercial intellect that we desperately need in government to make long-term right decisions…

“I despair of politicians in general. You’ve got to attract inward investment to create high-paid jobs and in technology, sciences and especially in the environment, since that’s going to be the absolute future of mankind.

“There’s so much we need to do and there’s so little we do, and that was the Conservative party before and now it’s the Labour party.”

However, he insisted he did not regret switching allegiance.

Mr Caudwell called on Sir Keir to be bolder in his second year leading the country. “I’d be a bit like a [version of] Trump who’s smart and who’s humanitarian,” he said. “And I’d force things through. You wouldn’t do any of the same things [as Trump], but it is what we need.”

However, he raised concerns that Nigel Farage would be “too much of a Trumpite” if he ever became prime minister. Mr Caudwell said: “That would not be healthy for Britain at all. But a lot of what he says makes a lot of sense to me. He’s able to talk very directly to people’s concerns.”

‘Scandalous’ Spain show why their biggest flaw may not matter

An indication of fallibility, before an exhibition of overwhelming strength. Belgium illustrated that you can actually do something against Spain, only for the world champions to show that there’s almost nothing you can do when they get going.

And they really got going here. The last 40 minutes of this 6-2 win over Belgium formed by far the best spell of football in Euro 2025 so far. The exquisite and intricate interchanges around the box were even crowned by a sublime long-range strike from Claudia Pina, as if to remind just how many ways Spain can hurt you.

It also made it 10 goals in two games, before Alexia Putellas made it 11, with so many more evidently to come.

“They have become so much more efficient,” Belgium manager Elisabet Gunnarsdottir said, ominously for the rest of the tournament. Even more ominously, manager Montse Tome said they “have to get better”, in relation to the two conceded.

Spain’s shift in gears coincided with the Belgians making it 2-2, illustrating Gunnarsdottir’s team had made them angry. You evidently don’t want to make them angry… or step out, or sit back too deep, or allow Aitana Bonmati on the ball, or allow Pina a long shot. And that’s before you even get to the resurgent Putellas, the ingenuity of Mariona Caldentey, the finishing of Esther Gonzalez, the guile of Vicky Lopez…

“This is the good thing Spain have,” Tome added. “So many players of this quality.”

Putellas described her teammates’ quality as “scandalous”.

The belief among other squads in this tournament is that Spain can be in a league of their own if they want to be. Gunnarsdottir indicated that, stating that “Spain have every cleverness and skill you would want in a football team”.

Certainly, as they showed in the final 40 minutes here, they are virtually unstoppable when they get “the carousel” going. Once they are circulating that ball at speed, playmakers like Aitana and Alexia just constantly keeping it moving at pace, there isn’t currently a team in the women’s game that can stop them.

“They understand the game to a different level than most other players,” Gunnarsdottir said. “We chose ‘corridor defending’, where you never chase the Spanish players from one corner to another. Because, if you do that, you end up in a bit of a s***show.”

That’s one way of putting it.

If you were to attempt to show any kind of flaws – and give some idea of hope to anyone else at this tournament – it is actually about what happens before they get started, or when they suddenly try to retreat.

Belgium actually looked like one of the teams that might have something close to Spain’s number, which is saying something when that still adds up to a 6-2 defeat. It says even more that they can be rightly proud of a creditable display that still ended in a four-goal defeat. Belgium have now put four past Spain in two games. February’s friendly in Valencia had seen them lead 2-0 up to the 77th minute, only for the world champions to score, then hit another two in injury time for a 3-2 comeback.

The Belgians have nevertheless shown that Spain can be got at with quick transitions. They managed that four times, the last bringing their second equaliser through Hannah Eurlings. This is something opposition teams can focus on.

There is also a certain vulnerability at set pieces, as illustrated by Belgium’s first equaliser. Gunnarsdottir had promised her team would score in that way. Here, just a minute after Putellas had given Spain the lead with a supremely worked opening goal, Justine Vanhaevermaet immediately struck back with a close-range header from a corner.

The only problem there is that most sides don’t have a six-foot-one midfielder like that. Spain do have a comparable aerial presence, though. Their response was a towering Irene Paredes header from a corner, just another weapon in their armoury.

And, once Belgium got that surprising second equaliser, they were fully in the mood to use that arsenal. Spain never really looked back, other than to find another teammate.

Even Bonmati came on for a longer cameo than in the 5-0 win over Portugal, and you wouldn’t have thought she was in hospital with viral meningitis two weeks ago.

She was demanding the ball, getting things going.

“She’d want to play right now,” Tome said. “But we don’t want to take any risks with her.”

Esther showed Spain’s sense of mission with an immediate response, before Mariona converted another set piece.

“Pushing to get back into a game for a third time against Spain is really difficult, I can tell you,” Gunnarsdottir said. “You end up trying to keep the numbers down as goal difference can be important.”

Pina then got the pick of the goals, before Alexia turned in another set piece to produce the kind of margin that Spain’s performance properly deserved.

Belgium, by then, couldn’t get near them. Few teams in this tournament will be able to.

One other element of hope for everyone else is that, from Sunday, this does become a knockout tournament. Even the most lopsided of fixtures can bring a fall if they’re one-off games. It just takes one bad match, one spell where the ball doesn’t go in.

France, on the evidence of this, have the specific attackers to hurt Spain; to exploit some of these issues. Spain just look like they have so much more, and like they are only getting better.