Southport survivor, 7, was stabbed 33 times trying to shield friends, says mum

Parents have revealed how their seven-year-old daughter, who survived more than 33 stab wounds, crouched over to shield her friends as children were caught in a “stampede” trying to escape the Southport knife attack.

The brave girl has told her mother, “I’m glad I could help them” as she relived details of the traumatic day last July, a public inquiry into the tragedy heard.

She and other survivors have been left struggling with panic attacks and flashbacks as they try to rebuild their lives after Axel Rudakubana, then 17, launched a rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday dance class.

The attack claimed the lives of Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and left eight more girls and two adults wounded.

The killer, who will simply be referred to as “the perpetrator” or “AR” in hearings out of respect to victims and their families, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 52 years.

The mother of the survivor, who cannot be named and is known only as C1, told the second day of the public inquiry into the atrocity how her daughter desperately tried to help her friends.

She shielded them at the top of the stairs before helping them to escape the Hart Space studio, only to be pulled back inside by the knifeman, who rained down yet more blows which felt like punches.

In a powerful statement read to the hearing at Liverpool Town Hall, she said her daughter recalls the class rushing out of a narrow doorway and downstairs, following their wounded teacher, Leanne Lucas.

“She describes it as a stampede,” she said. “In the chaos, she was knocked over and found herself trapped and huddled with two other children at the top of the stairs.

“She talks quietly of how she put her arms around the girls as he began to attack them. She tells me with such clarity that a moment came were one of the girls was able to get up, she put the girl’s hand on the handrail and told her to go – to get down the stairs – and she did.

“The attack continued, she was still holding another girl, ‘I crouched over the top of her,’ she says. ‘I told her it would be okay,’ She recalls this with such purpose and determination, like it was her responsibility.

“‘It happened so fast, but I helped them, I’m glad I could help them, Mum,’ she tells me.”

Harrowing CCTV, seen by the parents during the attacker’s court hearing, showed how she managed to make it to the exit – only to be pulled back inside by the knifeman.

“Somehow, she emerges from the building – and we see her, for a brief moment on CCTV,” she continued. “Escaping. Finding help. Showing so much strength. But her arm is badly injured, and it’s trailing behind, and he grabs it.

“In a flash of struggle, she’s gone again. For 11 seconds, she is out of sight. And then there she is again. She has stood up after enduring another attack of more than 20 stab wounds to her back and shoulders.

“She stumbles outside to the windows, reaching for help. She eventually falls and, soon after, is carried to safety.”

The girl lost her entire blood volume and had to learn to sit, stand and walk again as she recovered from a total of 33 stab wounds, the mother said.

The mother told the hearing that her daughter “may be a survivor of this attack, but she is still trying to survive this, every single day”.

She struggles with panic attacks, which make her daily life “difficult and exhausting” and “needs an enormous amount of support and scaffolding to do normal things”.

“In the shops we have to avoid the news section for fear of his face, or other images being on the front pages again,” she said, adding that they had removed knives from their home and replaced them with blunt-tipped ones.

She called for the inquiry to answer her daughter’s questions over how anyone could carry out such an attack and why he was not stopped.

“She deserves an apology … our girls deserve an apology,” she added. “Backed up by the promise that changes will be made, and this will not be allowed to happen again.”

She told the inquiry her daughter “fought like hell, to get herself out of that building, twice”.

She said: “I would like to say that I don’t for a moment doubt that the actions of the teachers there that day saved lives. They escaped to call the police and flag down help, they shielded other children. I am grateful for what they did for those girls.

“But the uncomfortable and often unspoken truth of our own reality is that, when the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself.”

Another parent, whose daughter survived three stab wounds, said it was “patently clear that lessons need to be learned from what happened, and processes need to be changed”.

Sitting beside the girl’s mother in the witness box, he said: “Our nine-year-old daughter was stabbed three times in the back by a coward she didn’t even see.

“Although she didn’t know what was happening – she knew she had to run.”

He said they had since seen CCTV footage of her running from the building looking “scared, confused and pained” and hiding behind a parked car, before jumping to “relative safety” through an open car door.

He added: “We remain eternally grateful that we were lucky that day, and that the skill of the paramedics, surgeons and medical staff meant we got our little girl back.”

Describing his daughter as his “hero”, the father said she remained “the positive, caring, funny, enthusiastic, courageous girl she always was”.

He added: “She wears her scars with a dignity and defiance that is remarkable.”

The mother of another girl who was at the event, referred to as Child Q, said arriving to collect her daughter to find screaming children fleeing from the building was “the most horrific experience of my life”.

In a statement read by the family’s legal representative, she said her daughter was “an anxious little girl” who had taken a “significant step” by attending the dance class, as she often struggled socially outside school.

The girl’s mother said: “Although physically unharmed, she has struggled with the psychological impact of the trauma and to this day has been unable to talk to us about what happened and what she witnessed.

“Our daughter became very withdrawn, emotional and had so many worries. In her words, due to what she witnessed, ‘How will I ever be normal again?’

“She is even more anxious about not being with us or being dropped off at another event without us. She is scared when she hears a siren or sees an emergency vehicle. Q is still unable to sleep alone and struggles with falling asleep.

“She always asks for doors to be closed when we enter or leave a room; this helps her to feel safe.”

Opening the inquiry on Tuesday, chair Sir Adrian Fulford described the 29 July attack as “one of the most egregious crimes” in UK history.

Another day, another US presidential fallout: Trump hits out at Putin

Another Trump friendship appears to have fallen apart. After the spectacularly public showdown between Donald Trump and his “First Buddy” Elon Musk, this week Trump took aim at former frenemy Vladimir Putin.

“We get a lot of bulls*** thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said of the Russian president during a lively cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

“He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Trump’s last (known) call with Putin was on Thursday. But angered by the (somewhat late) realisation that the Russian leader is uninterested in immediately ending his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump has since vowed to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv. That reversed a Pentagon decision made just days earlier to stall critical munitions supplies.

Trump also said he was considering supporting a Senate bill that would impose stiff sanctions on Russia, including eye-watering 500 per cent tariffs on nations that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium, and other exports. He hinted at further action, adding mysteriously: “We want to have a little surprise.”

It is a stunning reversal of his previous positions. Trump, who returned to power this year promising a swift end to the war in Ukraine, had shifted the US stance from staunch support for Kyiv toward a more conciliatory approach with Moscow. He had even gone so far as to accept some of Moscow’s justifications for its full-scale invasion launched in 2022.

A now-infamous February press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington descended into a shouting match between the two leaders. Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, appeared angry that Zelensky wasn’t sufficiently thankful for US support.

But that seems to have changed. And Russia was quick to respond to Trump’s renewed support for Ukraine. Overnight, Moscow launched a record 700 drones towards Kyiv, with a special focus on – and perhaps a pointed message to – the western region near Nato-member Poland.

Trump, who campaigned on being a peacemaker, is also preoccupied with negotiations over another major international conflict: Israel and Gaza. He has hosted multiple closed-door meetings this week with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently nominated his closest ally and chief weapons supplier for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump has had bust-ups with the Israeli premier, most recently dropping the f-word in anger over Israel and Iran violating a US-brokered ceasefire. He is now piling pressure on Netanyahu to deliver another truce for Gaza.

Israeli and Hamas negotiators are currently in Doha for “proximity talks”, where they sit in separate rooms while mediators shuttle between them.

Officials linked to all sides have spoken to me about “cautious optimism” and “flexibility”.

One official, briefed on the Israeli position, told me that Israeli officials believe “90 percent” of the deal is complete and that they are “on the right track”.

But the key sticking point right now is: “Where are Israeli troops evacuating from, and how?”

Before Netanyahu flew to Washington, his defence minister, Israel Katz, released details to the Israeli media of a deeply controversial plan to corral most – if not all – of Gaza’s 2.3 million population into a so-called “humanitarian city” in the south of the besieged and blasted territory, and to encourage Palestinian emigration out of the war-blasted enclave.

Human rights experts have told me this would amount to forcible displacement on a massive scale. According to Human Rights Watch, it would be “an abhorrent escalation in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing” (something Israel denies).

It would also amount to a troops-on-the-ground, permanent occupation of Gaza – a move that is controversial even within Israel.

Surprisingly, one of the biggest detractors, sources have told me, is the Israeli military itself. The army, which has been fighting a multifront regional war for nearly two years, would be tasked with managing the occupation. But it is struggling with reservists protesting long active duty call-ups and the surging death toll: five soldiers were killed in a single day this week.

There’s also concern that such a move would be rejected by Hamas, potentially scuppering a peace deal that many – including the embattled population of Gaza facing mass slaughter, the vast majority of hostage families, and Trump – desperately want.

In Washington, it seems Netanyahu and Trump are trying to hammer that out.

The world waits and watches to see if Trump will get fed up with yet another one of his buddies.

Reaction as PSG demolish Real Madrid to seal Club World Cup final spot

Paris Saint-Germain face Real Madrid in the semi-finals of the Club World Cup tonight, with both sides vying for a place in the inaugural final of the new competition.

Champions League winners PSG are looking to add a world title to the treble that they won in 2024/25, while Real Madrid are hoping to bounce back from a disappointing end to the season by becoming the first club to win the new Club World Cup, as they did with the European Cup in 1956.

The tie pits Xabi Alonso’s new-look Real Madrid side against Luis Enrique’s all-conquering treble winners in what looks to be a fascinating match, and with the winners facing Chelsea in the final, both sides know that this match could yet be biggest hurdle to their bids for Club World Cup glory.

Follow all the latest team news and build-up from the MetLife Stadium below:

Inside the power struggle at the heart of Horner’s Red Bull exit

For a team very much accustomed to shock announcements, this was the bombshell to end all bombshells from Red Bull. After giving an emotional farewell to stunned staff at the team’s HQ at around 10am, Christian Horner drove away from the Milton Keynes campus – the site he built from the bottom-up – for the last time on Wednesday morning.

Horner’s exit after two decades as Red Bull Racing’s team principal, and later F1 CEO, would not have been earth-shattering at the start of last season. Division in the sport’s top outfit, in the wake of allegations of “inappropriate behaviour” levelled at Horner from a female colleague, was well documented.

Yet the embattled team boss was cleared twice by two independent investigations, and he was at the forefront as his star driver Max Verstappen won a fourth consecutive world championship. On the face of it, it seemed Horner had weaved his way through the storm and come out the other side, perhaps stronger than ever.

But for this news to come now, halfway through the 2025 season, has come as a shock to the whole paddock. The sport’s longest-serving team boss, who never missed a race in two decades, will not be present in the paddock in Belgium later this month for the first time since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix, at least in an official capacity.

The reality is that this decision has been brewing in Red Bull circles – not least the base of parent company Red Bull GmbH in Salzburg, Austria, where today’s decision emanated from – for some time. It is not the sole reason, but a power struggle within the team’s ecosystem has been at play for 18 months. Finally, the rope has snapped.

The death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz in October 2022, a man who backed Horner in F1 operations, marked the start of a turbulent period at the energy drinks outfit. Slightly ironic given the team were in a period of unprecedented dominance on-track. Indeed, in 2023, they won every grand prix bar one.

But the scandal that ensued prior to the 2024 campaign had ripple effects throughout all sections of the team. Horner, the 51-year-old who is married to Spice Girl pop star Geri Halliwell, always vehemently denied accusations of “inappropriate behaviour” from a female colleague. A few days prior to the season-opener in Bahrain, he was cleared by an independent lawyer. Horner insisted he was “pleased” the process had been concluded.

Except this was just the start. Twenty-four hours later, all 10 F1 team bosses and sections of the media received a Google Drive purporting to contain WhatsApp messages between Horner and the female complainant, some of a sexually suggestive nature. Its contents have never been verified as genuine, but it plunged the whole saga, and the sport, into mainstream news.

Halliwell stood by her husband, amid a dramatic raceday entrance side-by-side into the Bahrain paddock. Yet despite Verstappen’s victory on track, his outspoken father, Jos, was far from satisfied. He made his position clear: Horner had to leave, or Red Bull would “explode”.

And so, the lines in the sand were drawn. On one side, the Verstappen clan: Max, Jos, Red Bull’s long-term driver academy boss Dr Helmut Marko and parent company chief Oliver Mintzlaff. Fortunately for Horner, on the other side, he had the ear of Thai majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya.

But while undercurrents of this disunity remained throughout the season – and an appeal from Horner’s accuser was dismissed – the simple notion was that things would remain in situ while the team reigned supreme on track. Halfway through last season, McLaren clearly overtook Red Bull as the quickest team but, largely as a result of his genius behind the wheel, Verstappen won the drivers’ title anyway.

Still, Horner could not stop a raft of key personnel from departing. The most high-profile was star designer Adrian Newey, now at Aston Martin. It is inescapable that Red Bull’s on-track decline started immediately after Newey announced his exit last May.

Sporting director Jonathan Wheatley, a mainstay of the team, also left for Sauber, soon-to-be Audi. Engineer Rob Marshall had also already left for McLaren, while head of strategy Will Courtenay will also don papaya colours by the middle of next year.

The house of cards was, slowly but surely, falling down.

Yet the final nail in Horner’s coffin was perhaps an obvious one: underperforming on track. At the halfway stage of the 2025 season, Red Bull are fourth in the constructors’ championship, a whopping 288 points behind top-of-the-table McLaren.

Verstappen is third in the drivers’ standings, following two spectacular wins in Japan and Imola, but it’s not an exaggeration to state Verstappen has been squeezing the very maximum from this year’s car. That being said, he still trails leader Oscar Piastri by 69 points.

And as for Red Bull’s second driver? A calamitous situation, with Liam Lawson dropped after just two races this year and his replacement, Yuki Tsunoda, struggling mightily. In fact, he finished dead-last in the last two rounds in Austria and Silverstone. Red Bull’s second driver conundrum has been longstanding; an issue Horner has been unable to fix.

But the insinuation has always been that Horner would remain in charge while table-topping results were maintained. However, the decline on-track has now been year-long. Red Bull’s happy-go-lucky popularity has also diminished, seen most blatantly at the 2025 season launch in London in February, when Horner himself was jeered by the crowd.

And ahead of an engine partnership with Ford next year, with Horner seemingly no longer able to rely on full support from Yoovidhya, Red Bull have decided now is the time to part ways.

What next? Well, ex-Ferrari engineer Laurent Mekies takes over as CEO of the racing team and is a safe pair of hands, at least in the interim. Whether he can get a handle on a temperamental 2025 car remains to be seen.

However, most significantly, the decision is likely to appease the Verstappens, particularly his father Jos. Max, this generation’s standout driver, has been heavily linked with a move to Mercedes in recent weeks for 2026. A Newey-spearheaded Aston Martin are lurking, too.

But with a £50m-a-year contract in place until 2028, and Verstappen’s reported exit clause (which requires him to be positioned below fourth in the standings by the summer break) unlikely to be met, it seems probable the Dutchman will stay where he is. Ultimately, though, the numbers on the timesheet will dictate his future. Winning is what drives him; nothing else.

Yet beyond Verstappen, what is perhaps most intriguing now is to see what Horner’s next foray is. He joined F1, taking over the defunct Jaguar outfit, as the youngest ever team boss at 31, and leaves with 124 wins, 287 podiums and 405 races to his name. Despite his recent tag as the sport’s pantomime villain, his success speaks for itself.

Could he move to Ferrari? Horner has been linked with the sport’s most fabled team numerous times over the years, most recently last month. Horner working with Lewis Hamilton in red? That would certainly be box office. Alpine, based close to his home in rural Oxfordshire, could also come calling.

But frankly, given the abundance of interest in his career and personal life over the last 18 months, it would be a surprise if Horner did not take some time away to reflect, on what has been a monumental, topsy-turvy and at times controversial ride in the modern-day sporting circus that is the Formula One paddock.

PM opens door for stealth tax extension as he tries to balance books

Sir Keir Starmer has failed to rule out extending so-called “stealth taxes” – as well as the introduction of a wealth tax – as his government struggles to balance the books following his recent U-turns.

The prime minister reiterated that Labour would stick to its manifesto pledge and ruled out increases to income tax, VAT and national insurance, but he did not confirm whether the government was planning to lift the freeze on income tax thresholds in 2028.

Sir Keir and chancellor Rachel Reeves are seeking billions of pounds in savings after the government’s recent U-turns on welfare and winter fuel payments left a black hole in the nation’s finances, while a report out this week from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) gave a damning verdict of the state of Britain’s “vulnerable” public finances.

Asked by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch whether he could guarantee he would keep the manifesto pledge of not increasing income tax, VAT or employee national insurance contributions, Sir Keir gave a one word answer: “Yes!”

But when she asked if it is still the government’s policy to unfreeze income tax thresholds, Sir Keir said: “No prime minister is going to write the Budget in advance, but we are absolutely fixed on our fiscal rules”.

At the last Budget, Ms Reeves promised to end the freeze on income tax thresholds after 2028.

But if it were extended to the end of the parliament it could raise £9bn-10bn a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) think tank, as workers are dragged into higher tax bands as earnings rise.

The think tank says extending the freeze would mean an additional 400,000 people would be eligible to pay income tax, while another 600,000 would be pulled into higher and additional rates by 2029-30.

Pressed on the issue after PMQs, the prime minister’s spokesperson repeatedly refused to say whether the government plans to go back on the chancellor’s promise to unfreeze tax thresholds.

“As you know, tax decisions are taken at the Budget”, he said. “I’m not going to comment on tax speculation ahead of a fiscal event.”

When the previous Conservative government introduced the freeze on tax thresholds, Labour – in opposition – dubbed the move a “stealth tax”.

Meanwhile, the prime minister also failed to comprehensively rule out the introduction of a wealth tax amid growing pressure from trade unions and party grandees, most notably Neil Kinnock. The Labour peer said over the weekend that the government should consider such a measure to balance the books.

Pressing on the issue in the Commons, Ms Badenoch asked: “What is more worrying is that now he’s flirting with Neil Kinnock demand for a wealth tax. Let’s be honest about what that means. This is a tax on all of our constituents, savings, on their houses, on their pensions. It would be a tax on aspiration. Will the prime minister rule this out?”

Instead of the earlier direct response he gave on income tax, VAT and national insurance rises earlier, the prime minister appeared to duck the question.

He said: “We will not be asking for [Tory] advice. What we did in the Budget was stabilise the economy through the measures taken by the chancellor. What does that link to? For interest rate cuts for mortgage holders. That’s hugely important, because what happened on the Liz Truss mini-Budget.”

“So no, we don’t need lessons from them”, the PM added.

Starmer admitted “we can’t just tax our way to growth” when pressed on the wealth tax issue later in PMQs by Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay – but still did not rule out the move.

The failure to answer had echoes of the mini-crisis the prime minister created last week when he avoided an answer on the chancellor’s future as she sat in tears behind him in PMQs.

The incident saw panic on the markets at the prospect of Ms Reeves getting the sack until the prime minister scrambled to provide assurances she is safe.

Last week, an embarrassing climbdown on welfare saw the government’s benefits reforms gutted almost entirely. Savings from the bill were slashed from £5bn to nothing, leaving a gaping hole in the public finances which ministers are now scrambling to fill.

A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “The prime minister emphatically ruled out any rises in income tax, NI or VAT. But he wouldn’t repeat the promise his chancellor made in the autumn to lift the freeze on income tax thresholds.

“He also refused to rule out a retirement tax and wealth taxes. The only reasonable conclusion is that a toxic cocktail of Labour tax rises are coming in the autumn Budget.”

Experts warned the prime minister that bringing in a wealth tax would be counterproductive.

Dhana Sabanathan, a partner in the tax, trusts and succession team at national law firm Michelmores, said: “A wealth tax has long been debated in the UK; the broad concept being that the wealthy may be able to control the amount of income and gains that accrue to them personally, and so a tax on their assets may be a fairer way of ensuring a level playing field.

“However, in practice, implementing such a tax faces many practical issues. Due to rising house and land prices in some parts of the UK, there are many asset-rich individuals (such as elderly homeowners and farm owners) who simply would not have the liquidity to pay the tax, without selling their main asset or home.”

How Macmillan Cancer Support built a movement that reaches everyone

Trump ‘blindsided’ by Pentagon’s decision to halt weapons to Ukraine as he pledges more arms

Donald Trump was caught off-guard by the Pentagon’s decision to announce a pause in some weapons deliveries last week to Ukraine.

An official close to Trump, who is said to have privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials, claimed the President had been caught “flat footed” by the announcement.

The news came before Russia launched its largest air attack on Ukraine overnight, launching 728 drones and 13 missiles at targets around the country, Kyiv’s air defence said on Wednesday.

The Trump administration is in the eye of a storm after the Pentagon announced last week that it would hold back some air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons pledged to Ukraine because of concerns that American stockpiles were running short on supply.

Reports emerged that US defence secretary Pete Hegseth did not tell the White House before pausing those weapons shipments, but the Pentagon denied that Hegseth acted without consulting the president.

Trump made a U-turn on Monday and said the US will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, effectively reversing the move, as he showed signs of growing frustration with the Russian leader.

Verstappen responds to Horner’s sacking by Red Bull F1: Latest

Christian Horner has been relieved of his duties as Red Bull’s Formula One team principal on Wednesday morning.

The Red Bull chief had led the team since its inception in 2005, guiding them to six constructors’ titles and eight drivers’ championships. However, just one year after a personal scandal involving alleged “inappropriate behaviour” with a female colleague – an accusation Horner was cleared of twice – the 51-year-old lost his job on Wednesday morning.

Horner, who is married to Spice Girl pop star Geri Halliwell, has been replaced by Laurent Mekies as CEO of Red Bull Racing. Mekies was previously the team principal at sister team Racing Bulls. Red Bull CEO of Corporate Projects and Investments, Oliver Mintzlaff, said in a statement: “We would like to thank Christian Horner for his exceptional work over the last 20 years. With his tireless commitment, experience, expertise and innovative thinking, he has been instrumental in establishing Red Bull Racing as one of the most successful and attractive teams in Formula 1. Thank you for everything, Christian, and you will forever remain an important part of our team history.”

Red Bull endured a race to forget at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, and the team are now a distant fourth in the constructors’ standings, but this announcement still comes as a shock to the team at Milton Keynes and the whole F1 paddock. Horner was the longest-serving team boss in F1 and guided Red Bull to 124 grand prix victories during his time in charge.

Max Verstappen, who won all four of his world titles under Horner at Red Bull, posted on Instagram: “From my first race win, to four world championships, we have shared incredible successes. Winning memorable races and breaking countless records. Thank you for everything, Christian!”

Follow all the latest updates on this breaking news story below: