[Music]
It's 10:00. This is Sky News at 10. Our
top story. Voicing their reservations.
Councils across England consider legal
action over migrant hotels after the
high court's effing ruling.
Clumsy attempts. Russia's top diplomat
accuses the EU of trying to change
Donald Trump's stance on the war in
Ukraine.
Also tonight, a police officer describes
the moment he was shot with a crossbow
as his attacker is jailed.
>> I can feel blood running down the back
of my leg. Um, but I don't know how
serious the injury is, so I'm just
running and running, clearing people,
you know, giving people instructions.
Why a larger thanex expected rise in
inflation is hampering hopes of the
economy bearing fruit.
Plus, a special report from the
mountains of northern Somalia where
Islamic State has found a new foothold.
>> They thought IS was dead. Definitely not
dead, is it? And the evidence here shows
is not dead at all. It's alive and
kicking and expanding and exploding
everywhere.
And we'll take a first look at
tomorrow's front pages in our press
preview from 10:30 right through until
midnight.
Good evening. More councils say they are
considering launching legal challenges
over the government's use of migrant
hotels after the high court temporarily
blocked asylum seekers from being housed
in a hotel in Essex. Reform UK says the
12 councils it controls will do
everything in their power to follow
Eping District Council's lead. And
tonight, the Conservative leader Kem
Baitnog has urged Tory councils to do
the same. We'll have more on that in a
moment, but first this report from Sky
Rachel Venibals.
>> At asylum hotels across the country,
protesters had a simple message.
You're not welcome here. And with
Tuesday's interim high court ruling, one
council's victory to remove migrants
from the Bell Hotel in Eping could
become a blueprint for others across the
country to follow suit.
Starting a few miles away at this hotel
in Harfordshire. As soon as we heard
that they they managed to get their
temporary injunction, we decided that we
would start seeking the same legal
advice and the pathway that Eping have
gone down. There are families in there,
there are children in there, those
children need to go to school. That is
impacting the schools massively and
impacting GP services. You know, those
sort of vital services.
There are more than 200 people, families
and single men living in this hotel in
Broxbourne. But if the council gets its
way, the government will have to find
new accommodation for all of them and
fast with pressure mounting from other
local authorities following suit and
trying now to do the same thing.
>> Reform UK also says its 12 councils will
try to do the same as Eping.
>> Reform is going to use every instrument
available to it in terms of uh councils
that we control that do have planning
power. We're looking at this wheels are
in motion. You can expect cases to be
brought by reform council.
>> But in Canock, where there have been
protests near this hotel, more mixed
reaction from the public.
>> They've got to go somewhere. They're in
the country and they've got to be out
somewhere, haven't they?
>> We need to look after our own people. We
know we need to save our own services.
If we was in a position where we could
help them, maybe we could.
>> I know they came over on boats, but they
didn't ask to be put in the hotel. the
council have put me in jail or the
government or somebody else and it's not
right.
>> I myself is a Afghan asylum who came in
the country as a refugee.
So I would say yeah it's a good thing
but has to be controlled.
>> The government had already pledged to
end the use of hotels to house migrants
by 2029.
Now that timeline could be speeding up.
>> We're looking at contingency options to
accommodate those people who will now
have to move out of that hotel. But the
bigger problem is ensuring that we
process asylum claims more quickly and
more effectively than has been the case
previously.
>> Just before Labour came into office last
June, there were more than 29,000 asylum
seekers being housed in hotels,
according to the latest available data.
That rose to more than 32,000 at the end
of this March. That's onethird of the
more than 103,000 asylum seekers
receiving accommodation support in the
UK at the time. This is all a problem of
policy years in the making. Tuesday's
decision could still be challenged in
the courts, but with the numbers of
migrants arriving and community tensions
both rising, the pressure over
immigration in this country is
approaching boiling point. Rachel
Venibals, Sky News in Broxbourne.
A row has broken out between the Tories
and Reform about previous comments on
migrant hotels. So, who said what and
when? At the center of the argument is
an interview Robert Generick did with us
here at Sky News back in November 2022,
a week after he was appointed
immigration minister in Rishi Sunnak's
government. You're talking about
procuring extra hotels and that is
fantastic. But the fact that you having
just been in the job for a handful of
days are having to do this suggests that
when Suela Braman was asked in the House
of Commons yesterday whether she herself
had stopped the procurement of extra
hotels and she denied that. Well, that
suggests that perhaps she wasn't tell
being entirely truthful. No, that's not
correct. More hotels have been coming
online almost every month throughout the
whole of this year. So, Suela Bravo and
her predecessor Pretty Patel were
procuring more hotels. What I have done
in my short tenure is ramp that up and
procure even more because November
historically has been one of the highest
months of the year for migrants
illegally crossing the channels.
>> Our chief political correspondent John
Craig is here with me in the studio.
John, we're showing that clip in its
entirety because that's what reform has
been sharing uh to try and attack Robert
Genrich.
>> Yes, significantly they're attacking Mr.
generic rather than the Tory leader for
now Kem Bayen. Uh but of course there
are both labor and reform quite like to
try and embarrass or catch out Mr.
Genrich over what he said then back then
when he was a minister for immigration
in Arishi Sunnak's government and what
he says now because they are rather
different. Not the interesting bit in
that little clip we just saw was where
he said I've what I've done in my short
tenure is ramp that up. In other words,
get the numbers in hotels up. Now, of
course, the Tories are saying get them
down. Now, in response to what Zia Ysef
has been saying today, uh Mr. Gener has
tweeted this. He says, uh the
interviewer that Zia selectively clipped
was about the Manston Holding Center,
that's in Kent, where illegal migrants
are processed when they first arrived.
He said, "I was eight days into the job
of migration minister. Manston's
capacity was 1,600, but it had 4,000
people. There had just been a
firebombing of the post processing
center, which had thrown the system into
chaos. Order was collapsing. So, yes,
he's defending his record as a minister,
but he is saying rather different
things. Now, you mentioned Chem Bay
there. And whilst there is disagreement
between reform and the conservatives
over what Robert Generick may have once
said, this seems like the conservatives
are following reform's lead in urging
Tory councils to bring about their own
legal challenges.
>> Chem Bono has written to Tory council
leaders urging them to fight uh legally
uh asylum hotels. uh she sent a letter
to all conservative control councils
pledging her support to them fighting
asylum uh hotels in their area. And in
terms of what she wants them to do, she
she's written this. I'm encouraging
conservative council leaders to take the
same steps if your legal advice supports
it, the same steps as Eping Forest
Council. Then she goes on, "You may also
wish to take formal advice from planning
officers on the other planning on the
other planning enforcement options
available to your council in relation to
unauthorized development or change of
use." It was a planning ruling that Mr.
S. Sir Steven gave in the high court uh
because of change of use that the count
the uh owners of the hotel had not
fulfilled the right obligations there.
So we've got um the Tory party and
reform both saying take them on. Um so
Mr. Farage has said that all their
councils will he wants them all to take
on that bring legal actions. It's not
certain that that many of the dozen or
so reform control councils have planning
jurisdiction so that may not happen. Mr.
Generick's been talking also about
lawyers pro bono coming to the aid of
these Tory councils. Uh he's also said
um if you're at tonight he said if
you're a lawyer and wants to help secure
our borders contact me. Meanwhile as a
little postcript let me just tell you
this. Sir Steven, the judge who uh made
that controversial ruling um turns out
he was a Conservative Party candidate
four times. 87 Birmingham Hodgej Hill,
92 Strangford in Northern Ireland, 2001
Starbridge, 2004 the Hodgegill
bi-election when Liam Burn was elected.
So uh four times quite a lot, isn't it?
He's not just a one oneoff accidental
candidate. So, um I wonder whether I
don't know whether some of the other
parties may have attack him over his
Tory leanings, but of course it's not
it's not the done thing to attack
judges, is it? But we know by the use of
that clip, they certainly watch Sky
News. John, thank you very much indeed.
>> The UK and Russia have slapped new
sanctions on each other in another sign
of fraught relations. Even as the US
pivots towards the Kremlin in its push
for peace in Ukraine, the government
says it's going after financial and
crypto networks allegedly being used by
Russia to evade existing Western
sanctions. The Foreign Office said this
in a statement. Financial networks
utilized by Russia to soften the blow of
Western sanctions are today being
targeted by the UK. The action comes as
the UK and international allies
redoubled efforts to secure a just and
lasting peace in Ukraine. In response,
Moscow announced its own sanctions on 21
people it accuses of promoting
anti-Russian narratives. Among them, the
former foreign minister and Labour MP
Dennis McShane, a Times columnist and
author Matthew Sed, John Sweeney, senior
foreign affairs journalist formerly of
the BBC, and Dominic Murphy, head of
counterterrorism command for the
Metropolitan Police. Russia's top
diplomats said that Moscow is aware of
what he thinks are clumsy attempts from
the European Union to change Donald
Trump's position on Ukraine. Sergey
Lavrov also said that Russia was in
favor of reliable security guarantees
for Ukraine, but hope the US understands
that discussing security issues without
Russia is in his words a road to
nowhere.
>> We cannot agree with the fact that it is
now proposed to resolve collective
security issues without Russia.
This will not work. We have already
explained more than once that Russia
does not exaggerate its interests, but
we will ensure our legitimate interests
firmly and harshly. And I am sure that
the West and above all the United States
understands perfectly well that
seriously discussing security issues
without the Russian Federation is a
utopia. This is a road to nowhere.
>> Let's speak to our US correspondent Mark
Stone who's in Washington DC. Evening to
you, Mark. A lot of this seeming to
hinge on what kind of security
guarantees the US would provide.
Yes. And whether or not Russia is in any
way involved in that. I mean I mean what
Sergey Lavrov said today is a repetition
of what the Kremlin was saying on Monday
on the day uh that there was so much
excitement around what was going on uh
in in Washington. I mean the the the two
things happened essentially. I think I
think the the first thing to say is that
that what was clearly positive is that
the European leaders managed finally to
get America on side in saying that it
would be part of of providing security
guarantees uh to Ukraine going forward.
and and the the the issue seems to be
that the Americans are claiming that
following the meeting last week between
Trump and Putin. Uh Russia was somehow
on side with this idea of a security
guarantee that they were willing to
allow and and in fact um Steve Wickoff,
Donald Trump's envoy said as much on the
weekend shows at the weekend. He said,
"Look, the Russians are willing to to
allow us to have some sort of an article
5 NATO type security guarantee." Well,
it was it that was baffling when when
they said it. It was baffling on Monday.
Uh the Kremlin was was was saying we're
not interested in that. And now we've
heard uh from Sergey Lavrov himself
saying, "Look, we've got to be part of
any sort of discussion uh if we're to
have uh if we're bring to bring this war
to an end." So, it's really very very
hard to see how the two sides come
together. Yes, it is a big win for
Europe uh that they appear now unlike in
February to have got America on side.
There's no suggestion that at the moment
at least that Donald Trump is going to
abandon Europe uh in terms of security
on its eastern flank. But you know,
everyone knows Donald Trump can change
his mind very very quickly. So although
Monday was positive, there are so many
unanswered questions and I find it very
hard to see how the two sides Ukraine
and Russia are going to bridge uh the
gap, let alone have a meeting between
the two leaders.
>> Mark, thank you very much indeed.
to the Middle East now and the Israeli
military says Israel has ended the first
stages of its planned attack on Gaza
City and is calling up tens of thousands
of reserveists for the renewed
offensive. It comes as negotiators work
to bring about a ceasefire between the
Israeli government and Hamas and
warnings of famine that are threatening
Gaza's displaced Palestinians.
A member of the Scottish Parliament has
been arrested and charged over the
alleged possession of indecent images.
Scottish Labour have suspended Colin
Smith who represents South Scotland at
Hollywood. In a statement, Mr. Smith
said, "These events have come as a shock
and this is a deeply stressful time. I'm
obviously cooperating fully with any
inquiries and hope the matter can be
resolved quickly."
A member of the Irish rap trio Nicap has
been released on conditional bail after
appearing in court charged with
supporting a proscribed terror
organization. Liam Mohani who performs
under the name Moara is accused of
displaying a flag in support of
Hezbollah at a gig in London last
November. He has yet to enter a plea.
The case has been adjourned until later
next month.
A man who stabbed his neighbor and then
shot a policeman with a crossbow has
been sentenced to 9 years in prison. The
court heard that Jason King felt he had
a score to settle with the authorities
when he carried out the attack in High
Wickham in Buckinghamshire last May. A
warning, this report from Sardia Chowry
contains images you may find
distressing.
>> That's my jar again.
My dog's going to kill you in a minute.
>> He just stabbed his neighbor and Jason
King was at his victim's door.
>> Now he's at he's at the front door.
>> Their 999 call reveals fears of another
attack.
>> He's at the front door. He's got the
knife and he say he's coming through me.
>> King was in a dispute with them over a
broken window.
>> 55year-old Jason King has been sentenced
to 9 years in prison.
>> He'd started his attack on an evening in
May last year. Having tried to shoot the
responding police from a window, he
chased them down a residential street.
He was grinning, the police said, while
firing a crossbow at them.
>> He's out with a throw.
I think he shot me.
>> One officer is shot, but has to keep
running.
>> Guys, get back in your house. He's got a
crossbow.
>> The attack continued in an area where
children were playing.
>> Kid, I need you to move now. Move.
>> Move. Move. Move.
>> Right. Get into our house. Get into that
house now, sir. I can hear the um
mechanism of the crossbow going off
again behind me. Still trying to take
shots at me. Um and we're clearing
people out the way. I can feel blood
running down the back of my leg. Um but
I don't know how serious the injury is.
So I'm just running and running,
clearing people, you know, giving people
instructions.
>> With an officer hit, the canine unit is
called in
>> until the dog becomes a target, too.
>> No guns. 59. Yeah, he tried to shoot the
dog.
>> It took an armed officer to intervene.
>> Oh, please. Stay still. Stay still.
>> He took one accurate non-lethal shot.
>> And King was hit in the arm. His attack
finally over.
>> The biggest thing for me as I recall is
the screams from the police officers.
You don't hear that very often. You
don't hear them screaming for other
police officers. That's that's normally
a member of the public screaming for the
police now haunt me.
>> 10 officers who attended were later
given bravery awards and in court the
judge commended their service to the
public. Jason King had claimed he'd
bought the crossbow for recreational
use. But the judge said it was actually
an attempt by King to arm himself in the
event of need.
>> Ma down one shot fired by police. That
need, the judge ruled, was to settle a
score. And King's long history of mental
health illness had only limited impact,
if any, on his culpability. Sardia
Chowry, Sky News.
Next, inflation is the highest it's been
since January of last year, pushed up
mainly by higher airfares and by food
prices. The 3.8% figure for July is well
above the Bank of England's target of
2%. Our business correspondent Paul
Kelso has more now.
>> In Kent, the summer fruit came early and
keeps on coming. Almost 2,000 pickers
are employed across this company's farms
in the county. Without them, there is no
harvest. But the cost of paying them is
booming, too. Increases in the minimum
wage and employment taxes have pushed
the payroll here up by4 million.
>> Is it getting more expensive to grow a
strawberry?
>> Absolutely more expensive. about 60% of
our cost is labor. Our biggest impact on
our industry is is wages and wages are
not going to come down. Um so I can't
see in any way prices falling on food,
fresh food production. They're just
going to keep going up. Our worry is
will they go up to a point where the
consumer won't want to pay them when we
can import cheaper from abroad.
>> Consumer price inflation rose to 3.8% in
July, up 0.2 two percentage points and
close to double the Bank of England's
target and food inflation was a major
factor having briefly dipped below the
level of general inflation. It increased
to 4.9%
and the gap is widening. Supermarkets
face higher staff costs too and say
competition is keeping prices in check,
but some staples are still rising
sharply. Even a basic bag of shopping
tells us a lot about how far some prices
are rising. Beef 24% more expensive than
it was. Coffee is up 18%.
Chocolate and butter are both 17%
pricier than they were. And even a pint
of milk up 11% in a year. If it feels
like your shopping is getting more
expensive, well, it really is. And that
is a challenge for a government that
promised to put more money in people's
pockets.
>> Well, price rises are disappointing for
everybody. We've seen energy prices come
down in July, but they're still too
high. That's why it's so important that
we keep easing the cost of living. Keep
acting on that.
>> The higher inflation figures today,
which have almost doubled since the
election, is a damning indictment on the
failings of this Labor government.
They're putting all of us under cost of
living pressures.
>> Rising airfares also pushed up
inflation, and July's figures could set
the price for rail increases in the new
year. More immediately, the chances of
another interest rate cut in September
may have receded. Labour's second budget
will need to bear fruit and fast if the
economy is to change direction when
summer turns to autumn. Paul Kelso, Sky
News.
An investigation has been launched into
the death of an internet streamer in
France who is known for taking part in
extreme online challenges. Raphael
Grain, who went by the name Jean
Pormanov online, was found dead on
Sunday after viewers of the Frenchman's
last live stream had reportedly become
concerned about him lying unresponsive
on a mattress. Oliver Whitfield Mia has
more now.
>> Entertainment or ritual online
humiliation.
French content creator Rafael Graan was
known for his video stunts like taking
on these attack dogs.
But other clips showed the 46-year-old
being dowsed in water, shot with
paintballs, and apparently even being
strangled. The streamer, better known
Jean Palmanov, was taking part in a
marathon multi-day live broadcast near
Nice, when he had a heart attack,
according to a friend whose brother was
there.
They couldn't leave the live stream
until they finished the game. That means
they were filmed morning, noon, and
night.
In the middle of the night, he started
breathing heavily. We were light years
away from thinking that there was a
problem. We thought he changed position
and started snoring and then it lasted a
few minutes and then he stopped snoring
completely and didn't move anymore.
Everyone is asleep, but there are still
4,000 people watching the live stream at
that moment. Writing on X, French
digital technology minister Claraara
Chapp said Jean Pmanov was humiliated
and abused for months live on the Kick
platform. A judicial investigation is
underway.
Kick has since removed all of Graan's
videos from its platform. The site was
set up as a rival to Amazon's Twitch
service and is less restrictive about
the content it hosts. In a statement,
Kick said, "Its community guidelines are
designed to protect creators, and we
remain committed to upholding these
standards across our platform."
However, some experts fear the way
algorithms promote certain videos makes
influencers push the limits.
It's very sad to say that any content
that can be shocking in any way usually
creates a buzz.
So, it's a bit of a snowball effect with
more and more people getting involved
and it can sometimes be the most
shocking, the most extreme. It's about
standing out.
French ministers say websites are
responsible for monitoring material and
must ensure children are not exposed to
violence. Once again, internet safety is
being discussed in the context of
someone losing their life. Oliver
Whitfield Mia, Sky News.
Now, it was around 10 years ago, 2015,
when ISIS territory across Syria and
Iraq reached its peak. But within a few
years, Islamic State self-declared
caliphate was decimated, its fighters
killed, captured, or on the run. Now, at
setup base in northern Somalia, soldiers
there say they found evidence of a
terror group that's adapting and able to
operate from remote mountain caves with
devastating effect. There are likely new
headquarters in the Horn of Africa,
according to Somali and US commandos, is
the semi-autonomous region of Puntland.
Our special correspondent, Alex
Crawford, headed there to join the
troops battling an ISIS resurgence.
>> ISIS is alive and hidden in the Somali
mountains, and we're with the forces
hunting the extremists.
[Applause]
The terrain is tough.
The soldiers vehicles are constantly
breaking down
and there are multiple dangers. The
militants often ambush this route.
Progress has to be slow.
Checking for roadside booby trap bombs
laid by the extremists is crucial if the
soldiers are to survive.
This is the same route filmed in an ISIS
propaganda video a few days after we
passed.
To be honest with you, ISIS greatest
headquarter in the global is here in
this mountains al- Miscat. I think the
most of the world they don't know that
we are fighting international terrorist
organization.
>> Somalia's Pontland forces have been
fighting ISIS for months now on ground
which is ideal for the secretive
extremist group to operate.
They've had some help with the US leader
ordering air strikes against ISIS
targets in the mountains as his first
military action in his second
presidential term. He tweeted at the
time about the killers hiding in caves
saying, "We will find you and we will
kill you."
But the fighting on the grounds all been
done by the Puntland forces and the
fighting has been harsh.
The challenges in this remote area have
been substantial for the soldiers, but
they've gradually taken back territory
which the extremists moved into and
uncovered a network of bunkers and
hideouts and caves.
This was a huge bomb factory with an
entire ISIS community living around it.
We picked up this drone from
>> They made bombs to be attached to easy
to buy drones,
>> stashed hundreds of weapons here and
made rockets and suicide vests.
>> They thought is was dead. Definitely not
that an is not dead at all. It's alive
and kicking and expanding and exploding
everywhere and very very capable of
building huge hideouts as well as
weaponry.
The soldiers recovered a huge stash of
unused rockets and homemade bombs and
uncovered clues that they're working
with other extremist groups like the
Houthis in Yemen.
It's become evident that the enemy has
extensive knowledge in terms of crafting
weapons
and it's clear that this is not
knowledge that was picked up locally. Do
you think they're working very closely
with the Houthis?
>> I am confident that there is to an
extent a cooperation between the two. We
have found letters that indicate there
is correspondence between ISIS and the
Houthis.
The hall of goods recovered from ISIS
caves includes sophisticated medical
equipment unheard of in these poor
communities.
The troops raided villages where ISIS
had set up base, declaring it their
caliphate, flying the ISIS flag and
imposing a strict set of rules.
Thousands of people have fled their
homes. And even where the army has
driven ISIS out, they're still too
scared to return.
This man tells us how scared the whole
community is. Even if you're a civilian,
he says ISIS will slaughter you.
Documents we've had access to show ISIS
financiers in Somalia have digitally
moved huge amounts of money around the
world and that's funded global terror
attacks.
The bombing of Carbell airport as
international troops pulled out of
Afghanistan was financed by ISIS
Somalia.
It killed more than 200 Afghan civilians
and 14 members of the US military.
Puntland's army chief warned that the
world and he mentioned Britain in
particular needs to wake up because this
is not just a Somali problem.
But it's not Somalia or Putland for lack
of better words caught asleep. The world
was caught asleep. We would like to see
UK forces or UK assets helping us in
this campaign.
>> The head of ISIS Somalia is a former
British citizen called Abdul Kadir Muan
who preached at mosques in Leicester and
London. He was accused of heading a
recruitment drive persuading British men
to go to Somalia and become extremist
fighters.
He's still at large despite repeated
attempts by the Puntland forces to hunt
him down. and he continues to be behind
a network luring fighters and families
to Somalia from where they're still
exporting terror. Alex Crawford, Sky
News in Puntland, Somalia.
That was Sky News at 10. Coming up,
we'll take a first look at tomorrow's
papers in the press preview. Tonight,
I'm joined by political commentator Adam
Bolton and comment editor at the
Telegraph, Annabelle Denim. And uh among
the stories, we'll be talking about the
story on the front of the eye. Its
headline, labor councils threaten new
legal action over asylum seek hotels.
We'll be right back.