Federal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon says the CEO of OpenAI has agreed to take several actions to bolster safety, including providing a report outlining the new systems the firm is developing to identify high-risk offenders and policy violators.

A statement from Solomon following his meeting Wednesday with Sam Altman says the minister will also ask the Canadian AI Safety Institute to examine the company’s model and provide expert technical advice to his office.

The meeting follows the revelation that OpenAI banned the mass shooter in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., from using its ChatGPT chatbot last June due to worrisome interactions but did not alert law enforcement before the killings last month.

3:53
South Peace MLA calls for full Tumbler Ridge inquiry

OpenAI has said new protocols would have resulted in Jesse Van Rootselaar’s interactions being flagged to police, but Solomon says the tragedy “demands answers and stronger safeguards when powerful AI technologies are involved.”

Solomon says the actions Altman has agreed to take include establishing a direct point of contact with RCMP and implementing safety protocols that direct people “experiencing distress” to appropriate local services.

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The minister says Altman also confirmed the company would apply its new safety standards retroactively and review previously flagged cases.

1:55
AI minister ‘disappointed’ with OpenAI meeting on Tumbler Ridge shooter

“This will determine whether additional incidents that would have been referred to law enforcement under OpenAI’s new safety standards were missed, and ensure they are promptly reported to the RCMP,” Solomon’s statement says.

It says the company has also committed to assessing how they would include Canadian privacy, mental health and law enforcement experts into the process to identify and review high-risk cases involving Canadian users of OpenAI technology.

Van Rootselaar fatally shot eight people in Tumbler Ridge on Feb. 10, including six children, before killing herself.

B.C. Attorney General Niki Sharma said Eby would meet Altman to find out whether the company could have prevented the shootings.

2:10
Inquest to be held into Tumbler Ridge school shooting

Sharma said there is a larger question for Ottawa when it comes to regulating and overseeing platforms like OpenAI.

The Altman meetings come after B.C.’s chief coroner, Dr. Jatinder Baidwan, on Tuesday announced an inquest into the shootings that will consider the role of artificial intelligence.

Sharma said she hopes OpenAI will participate in the inquest and share whatever it knows.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

This is the moment police arrested a prolific Romanian shoplifter at home after his gang stole nearly £200,000 worth of goods, before he told them: ‘No speak English.’

Bodycam footage shows detectives putting Nicolae Boia in handcuffs in Hounslow, West London, after establishing he was part a gang behind 120 crimes across the UK.

One Surrey Police officer tells Boia, 30, that he is being arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to steal; while another detains Oviliv Firan, 38, for the same offence.

The third gang member, Laura Miron, 27, had already been arrested while trying to flee the UK for Ireland during the earlier stages of the ‘Operation Even’ probe.

Boia was later sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison; while Firan was jailed for three and half years in prison; and Miron received three years and three months.

Video of Boia and Firan being arrested features in the latest episode of Channel 5 documentary series ‘Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs’.

The show follows the police investigation into the three members of the Romanian organised crime group responsible for 120 offences and almost £200,000 of loss.

Surrey Police Constable Zoe Dodd tells producers: ‘I had never taken on a job this big before. The problem with the case files was the vast amount of evidence we had.

Police arrive at the property in Hounslow, West London, to arrest two Romanian shoplifters

One officer quickly finds Nicolae Boia dressed only in shorts in a downstairs room at the house

Boia is placed in handcuffs at the property in Hounslow seconds into the police raid

Boia tells a police officer during the raid: ‘No speak English.’ She replies: ‘No, OK?’

Another officer then also arrests Oviliv Firan, 38, in another room at the Hounslow property

Boia is put in a police van before detectives begin searching the property for stolen goods

‘We had so many jobs up and down the UK with so many bits of CCTV. It was just trying to watch it all and trying to figure out which part each member played on that particular date.’

She then reveals that Miron tried to flee Britain midway through the investigation.

PC Dodd says: ‘Miron was arrested at the border trying to go to Ireland, we believe, before we were ready to go with the case. We sent two officers down that night to go and pick her up because we were worried about losing her.

‘Miron was brought to Guildford custody. We had Firan and Boia still outstanding and we were quite concerned that they were also going to flee, so that sort of forced our hands quicker into getting intel to go to the court and get a warrant.’

The programme then shows bodycam footage from the arrest in Hounslow, with a police van pulling up before officers get out – with at least five outside the property.

One shouts: ‘Police, can you open the door?’, before an officer uses a crowbar to force entry and quickly finds Boia dressed only in shorts in a downstairs room.

Boia then tells an officer: ‘No speak English.’ She replies: ‘No, OK?’ and then tells him that she is ‘arresting you for conspiracy to theft.’

Another officer then also arrests Finan in another room, and they are both put in a police van before detectives begin searching the property for stolen goods.

They find hundreds of goods from beauty products to electrical items such as Sony headphones, Google Home devices, memory sticks, cigarettes, toothbrushes, cables, make-up, wine, spirits and champagne.

Nicolae Boia, 30, of Hounslow, was sentenced to two years and 11 months in prison

Oviliv Firan, 38, of Hounslow, was sentenced to three and half years in prison

Laura Miron, 27, of Feltham was sentenced to three years and three months in prison

Chief Superintendent Juliet Parker says: ‘Often many lines of crime that they follow, retail crime being one of them, and the funds from that are often ploughed into other areas of criminality.’

PC Dodd then interviews the suspects at Staines police station with a Romanian interpreter, as Miron and Firan both give ‘no comment’ responses.

The team then speak to Boia, who does answer some questions through the interpreter.

Asked whether he knows Firan, Boia says: ‘I know him, as I said we have met just having a barbecue.

He is then questioned over whether it was strange that he was unaware Firan was in a shop at the same time as him, but replies: ‘I haven’t seen him, perhaps had I seen him.’

Boia is then asked whether he often carries a backpack, and says: ‘I have been using the backpack. Not very often, but I have.’

He then denies that the backpack is foil lined, and denies ever having worked as a team in order to steal items.

All three suspects were charged with conspiracy to steal and remanded in prison for trial. They pleaded not guilty, but changed their pleas before the trial to guilty at Guildford Crown Court on October 28, 2024.

They were sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on November 8 that year.

The thieves were responsible for crimes targeting large supermarkets including Tesco and focusing on stealing razors, alcohol, fragrances and beauty and electric goods.

CCTV footage shows the trio’s orchestrated theft, as they shield each other’s criminal acts

The crooks targeted high-value items including champagne, razors, alcohol and fragrances

Video of one theft shows them wheeling a trolley in front of another to block the view of staff

Miron is seen swapping baskets with Boia with all three acting like they don’t know each other

Boia scoops items from the shelves into a rucksack before he putting it on and walking away

Surrey Police Constable Zoe Dodd tells the documentary about the ‘vast amount of evidence’

In their highest value theft, they also stole champagne bringing the value of just one spree to more than £4,500. While the total amount of stolen goods was proven at just under £200,000, police estimated its true total to be much higher.

One of the gang would act as a lookout whilst others concealed items. They would then either make no attempt to pay before leaving the store or make a small token purchase at a self-checkout.

The group were even known to change clothes before returning to the same store to commit more offences.

Crimes connected to the group were linked from across the country as far as Poole and Portsmouth in the south, Bristol in the west, Gillingham in the east and Chorley and Wigan in the north.

There were 11 offences committed in Surrey, where the force’s officers worked with Tesco and were able to prove the greater crime of organised conspiracy and convict all three suspects of 120 offences.

The three defendants were key figures in a much larger organised crime gang responsible for around 800 offences across the UK, and police said at the time of their sentencing that they believe the entire gang had stopped operating since the arrests.

The Mail on Sunday reported in November 2024 that a national police unit set up to tackle the scourge of shoplifting across Britain had identified more than 20 gangs and 200 criminals fuelling the epidemic.

The gangs, many believed to be East European, were responsible for millions of pounds of thefts each year, and were also suspected of human trafficking and exploiting vulnerable individuals.

Operation Opal was an intelligence-gathering unit set up in May 2024 to uncover the organised criminal groups behind shop thefts.

‘Police Interceptors: Taking Down the Shoplifting Gangs’ continues on Channel 5 on Monday, March 9 at 9pm. Watch and stream on 5

Asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will soon be thrown out of Government-funded accommodation and lose support payments.

A new rule change means only those with legitimate asylum claims who follow the rules will get taxpayer-funded support, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced.

The measures, coming into force in June, will remove support payments and accommodation to asylum seekers who illegally work, have the ability to support themselves, have the right to work or have broken the law, the Home Office said.

The statutory legal duty under EU law to provide asylum seekers with support and accommodation will be replaced with a conditional approach.

The Government is determined to make the UK a less attractive destination for illegal migrants.

Mahmood said: ‘Britain will always provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution. But taxpayers cannot be expected to fund the lives of those who exploit the system or break our laws.

She added: ‘Asylum support and accommodation will now become conditional – reserved only to those who play by our rules.’

Last year, a total of £4 billion was spent on asylum support in the UK, and as of December, there were 107,003 people in receipt of asylum support, with 30,657 in around 200 asylum hotels, the Home Office said.

The issue of people being housed in hotels rose to prominence last year with protests outside some sites.

Labour has pledged to no longer use asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament, which would be 2029, if not earlier.

In October, the Government announced that barracks in Scotland and southern England would be used to house around 900 men temporarily, as part of the Government’s efforts to stop using hotels to temporarily house asylum seekers.

A charity boss said the Home Secretary was looking for ‘a bump in the polls’ with the move.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: ‘The Home Secretary already has the power to deny support and accommodation to people seeking asylum who are not destitute or who have broken the rules.

‘This is the latest in a long line of announcements from successive governments that bully refugees for a bump in the polls rather than try to solve the real problems faced by people and communities – poverty, homelessness, and the rise of the far right.’

Hilton added: ‘Ministers must end this dangerous race to the bottom and make the case for a UK that welcomes people fleeing war and torture and supports them to rebuild their lives here.’

Amnesty International UK’s Naomi McAuliffe said: ‘This proposal is scapegoating and cruelty masquerading as strength. It is the latest punitive blow being dealt to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

‘People seeking asylum are often fleeing conflict, persecution and grave human rights abuses. Removing access to basic support and accommodation risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.’

Responding to the announcement, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour should put foreign criminals on a plane home, not onto British streets.

‘If Labour had a backbone and deported all illegal immigrants, there would not be the need for asylum accommodation. Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be deported anyway.

‘Labour have deported only 6% of illegal arrivals since coming to office, so rolling out another gimmick will not change a thing.’

Mahmood will lay out further measures to toughen up the UK asylum system in a speech on Thursday.

Under the widely trailed plans, asylum seekers in the UK will have their refugee status reviewed every 30 months in an effort to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants.

Refugees whose countries are deemed safe will be expected to return home.

The Home Secretary believes the Government must cut migration or risk opening the door to the right who would divide communities with the kind of anti-immigration raids seen in the US.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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The first government-chartered flight to evacuate UK citizens from Oman is believed to have taken off this evening as the war in Iran continues to escalate.

Around 7pm UK time, the flight was scheduled to leave Muscat, in addition to eight commercial flights leaving the United Arab Emirates this evening.

Metro has contacted the Foreign Office to confirm that the flight is en route.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said two further Government-chartered flights will take off from the capital of Oman, Muscat, to London Heathrow on Friday and Saturday.

The first Government rescue flight and British Airways commercial flight from Muscat depart on Wednesday night.

More than 1,000 British nationals arrived back in the UK on commercial flights from the United Arab Emirates as of Tuesday.

Eight more UK flights are scheduled to depart the UAE today. Still, there is not expected to be a widespread evacuation of the 130,000 British nationals who have registered in the Middle East.

Some commercial flights are operating from Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, but most are cancelled because of airspace restrictions caused by the conflict between Iran and the US.

British Airways, which does not usually serve Muscat, said it remains unable to operate its scheduled flights from Abu Dhabi, Amman, Bahrain, Doha, Dubai and Tel Aviv.

Muscat has emerged as a key location for people to leave the Middle East, given the Foreign Office hasn’t advised against travel into the Oman airport – unlike the current advice for airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha.

Muscat can be reached by road from both Dubai and Abu Dhabi with journeys of about 300 miles.

The Foreign Office said: ‘There are a limited number of commercial options available, including by air from the UAE and from Oman.

‘If your presence in the UAE is not essential, you may wish to consider departing – if you judge you can access these options safely.’

Oman Air has continued to operate its two daily return flights between Muscat and Heathrow despite the war.

Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 said Muscat has ‘become a popular alternative for flying out of the region’ but warned that almost all scheduled flights from Muscat are fully booked.’

It added that private jets are being chartered to evacuate those who can afford it.

About half a million passengers per day usually use airports in Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi, which are vital hubs for travel between Europe and the continents of Asia and Australia.

Experts believe it could take weeks to clear the backlog of passengers.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt lost her cool with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins as she was grilled over US troops killed in Donald Trump’s war with Iran.

Collins pressed Leavitt at Wednesday’s White House briefing over comments by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who blasted media outlets for highlighting the deaths of six US service members killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.  

Collins asked whether the administration believes the press should avoid prominently covering the deaths of troops in Trump’s war in the Middle East.

Trump’s fiery press secretary replied, ‘That’s not what the secretary said, Kaitlan…and you know it.’ 

‘You and your network know that you take every single thing this administration says and try to use it to make the president look bad.’

Collins added, ‘I don’t think covering troop deaths is trying to make the president look bad.’

Leavitt shot back, ‘If you’re trying to argue right now that CNN’s overwhelming coverage is not negative of President Trump, I think the American people would tend to disagree, and your ratings would tend to disagree with that as well.’

Hegseth had earlier accused journalists of trying to ‘make the president look bad’ by drawing attention to the troop deaths, which occurred days after Trump launched ‘Operation Epic Fury.’ 

Collins asked whether the administration believes the press should avoid prominently covering the deaths of troops in Trump’s war in the Middle East

Karoline Leavitt lost her cool with CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins on Wednesday at a White House press briefing

Earlier in the day, Pete Hegseth blasted media outlets for highlighting the deaths of six US service members killed in an Iranian drone strike in Kuwait

Leavitt, 28, and Collins, 33, have a long history of battling in the press briefing room in front of the cameras.

Collins has covered Trump’s presidency and his three presidential campaigns for nearly a decade. 

Her pointed questioning has repeatedly blown up into on-camera confrontations over Trump’s foreign and domestic policy.  

She grilled Leavitt in November over Trump’s description of a video featuring six Democratic lawmakers telling members of the military and intelligence community: ‘You can refuse illegal orders.’ 

At the time, Leavitt told reporters several times that the lawmakers – all veterans – were urging the military to refuse ‘lawful orders.’

Collins quizzed Leavitt again in December over the President’s economic record, with Leavitt insisting the press corps was going harder on her than it had on her predecessors during Joe Biden’s tenure.  

The feuds play out against the backdrop of Warner Bros Discovery, CNN’s parent company, being sold to Paramount – with Trump having previously expressed his desire to see Collins’ employer offloaded as part of the deal. 

Despite their adversarial relationship, Leavitt has defended Collins from Saudi authorities during overseas presidential trips. 

Six American soldiers are dead because of Donald Trump’s war in the Middle East

Collins was nearly barred from a press event in Saudi Arabia after an awkward exchange with Trump in front of the country’s leader, only for Leavitt to intervene on her behalf. 

‘They famously do not like the media there,’ Collins said in an interview with the Absolutely Not Podcast in February.

After the officials left the room, Collins said the ‘Saudi Royal Guard kind of freaked out because I dared to ask a question.’ 

‘They’re not used to that there, because they don’t have a free press,’ she explained.

Moments later, she was informed she would not be allowed into the next event because of her actions.

White House staff noticed the confrontation and ran to Leavitt, who stepped in to save Collins.

‘To her credit, she said: ‘No, Kaitlan is coming in with the rest of the US press.”

‘I do think its important in that moment, especially when you’re kind of the US contingent abroad, and we don’t do things like they do in Saudi Arabia,’ Collins added.

Among the most vital pieces of weaponry in the US arsenal is the Thaad antimissile system, which are stationed across the globe to monitor and track pontial incoming missiles

Iran retaliated to the US and Israeli strikes with a barrage of missiles at neighboring nations – some of which broke through air defense systems (seen in Dubai) 

This US Navy handout photo released by US Central Command public affairs

Trump’s war with Iran has spiraled into a wider regional conflict after Tehran unleashed retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. 

Iranian missiles and drones have targeted US military bases, Israel, and several Gulf nations following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

The US and Israel were preparing to ramp up bombing missions over Iran on Wednesday as Hegseth vowed ‘we’re just getting started.’ 

‘Four days in we have only just begun,’ Hegseth said. ‘Now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS and laser-guided precision gravity bombs of which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile.’

Hegseth said the US had opened the campaign with ‘exquisite standoff munitions,’ sophisticated long-range weapons designed to strike from beyond the reach of enemy air defenses.

He said those munitions were no longer needed, pushing back at reports of stretched supplies with the assurance that ‘our stockpile of those remains extremely strong.’

A US submarine sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo off the coast of Sri Lanka overnight, the first time such an attack has been launched since WWII. Some 148 men are presumed to have drowned.

Hegseth also claimed that the leader of a unit that had attempted to Trump had been ‘hunted down and killed’.

Trump’s war in the Middle East has triggered a dramatic collapse in his approval ratings, the latest Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll shows. 

A headteacher who starred on TV changed the dates of school term times just to accommodate luxury cruise trips she went on, a misconduct panel has heard.

Joy Ballard, who shot to fame on Educating Cardiff, allegedly changed term dates on two occasions to accommodate cruise trips she was going on.

She also used a school car for a personal trip to France and bought a karaoke machine with school funds, it has been alleged.

Ballard is said to have created a ‘toxic culture of fear’, leaving senior staff too scared to make any complaints about her conduct.

Ballard appeared on the hit Channel 4 show in 2015 at Willows High School in the Welsh capital.

Shortly after the show aired, she left to become principal of Ryde Academy, later renamed Lift Ryde, on the Isle of Wight.

In 2024, she ‘stepped back’ from her role – with her picture suddenly removed from school newsletters sent out to parents.

In July 2024, the Academy Enterprise Trust, now Lift Schools, said the departure was for ‘personal reasons’.

She now faces a tribunal with the official regulator, the Teaching Regulation Agency.

Ballard has chosen not to attend her misconduct hearing, instead nominating a union representative to appear for her.

Jim Olphert, for the TRA, said Ballard has admitted all the facts against her.

The tribunal heard that Ballard started working as the principal at Ryde Academy in September 2015, and concerns about her behaviour were first raised in March 2024.

The panel heard Ballard changed the school term dates to accommodate her personal holiday arrangements.

She changed the dates at the end of Autumn 2023 to accommodate a cruise trip she went on, and she also changed the dates of the start of the Spring term 2024 for a cruise trip, it was alleged.

The misconduct hearing was also told that Ballard did not go to school on an inset day because she was still travelling as part of a cruise trip.

It also heard that Ballard used a Peugeot 5008, purchased for £30,000 with school funds to be used as a vehicle for school purposes, for personal trips between July 2022 and June 2024.

This included using the car for a personal family trip to France in or around Easter 2024.

She allegedly bought camping equipment, a karaoke machine and at least one TV with school funds between April 2021 and October 2022 – all items which were of limited use to the school.

The tribunal heard that Ballard did not follow the correct procedures for the banking of cash between September 2022 and June 2024. She allegedly carried cash in her handbag to take it home and then bank it.

Giving evidence, Will Doyle, current principal of the school and Ballard’s successor, said she created a ‘toxic culture of fear’ which left staff too scared to raise concerns.

Doyle said her behaviour reached a ‘tipping point’ at a four-hour-long meeting of the school’s senior leadership team on March 28, 2024.

Doyle, who was initially ‘excited’ to work with Mrs Ballard, said during a meeting about redundancies that she swore.

‘To have someone use that language, to then be told I might be made redundant was devastating for me,’ he said.

Doyle also recalled the ‘significant impact’ changing school term dates at the end of 2023 to 2024, to accommodate Ballard’s cruise, had on attendance figures.

Parents and staff had already booked holidays for Christmas and families ‘voted with their feet’, he said. Asked why he did not raise concerns sooner, Doyle said he was ‘scared for the repercussions’.

In September 2024, a letter was sent to parents, signed by regional education director Karl Sampson, confirming Ballard had ‘retired’ after 30 years in education.

During this time, vice principal Will Doyle oversaw the academy under the guise of ‘head of school’, before being appointed principal in October last year.

The tribunal continues.

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BrewDog co-founder James Watt says he is ‘heartbroken’ after his firm was sold off for just £33million this week – with the loss of almost 500 jobs.

The Scottish brewery, which was speculatively valued at £2billion just a few years ago, was sold to US cannabis and drinks firm Tilray for a fraction of that earlier this week.

A total of 38 UK bars were closed on Monday, when CEO James Taylor told 484 staff in an all-hands conference call that they were no longer employed.

Shares owned by the 220,000 ‘equity punks’ who invested some £75million in the company over seven funding rounds are now practically worthless.

In a post shared across several social media channels, self-espousing ‘punk’ and multimillionaire Mr Watt expressed contrition over the company’s downfall. However, it failed to impress some observers. 

Describing the last week as ‘incredibly hard’, he wrote: ‘I am heartbroken for all of the hard working and passionate team members who have lost their jobs. 

‘I am heartbroken for all of our brilliant equity punks who did not get the return on their investment they wanted. 

‘And heartbroken to have dedicated the best 20 years of my life to something that ultimately did not have the ending we all wished for.’

Martin Dickie and James Watt (pictured) founded BrewDog in 2007. The firm has now been sold for a fraction of its market value, with hundreds of people out of work

James Watt got engaged to Georgia Toffolo in 2024, shortly after he stepped away from BrewDog amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour

A BrewDog pub in Cambridge Circus, Soho – among the 38 bars that have been closed with immediate effect

Mr Watt – who stepped back from the role of CEO in 2024 amid allegations of a toxic culture within BrewDog – said he would have ‘loved to save every single job and every single equity punk investment’ but ‘couldn’t’, adding: ‘That will stay with me.’

He added that, ‘with the benefit of hindsight’ the firm had expanded too quickly and diversified too widely, and that he had not responded to PR crises in a way that was ‘authentic and true to who I am’.

‘I am sorry that I was not able to repay the faith you bestowed in me with the outcome you all deserved,’ he signed off the post.

Observers on social media responded with a mix of well-wishing and cynicism – noting that Watt and co-founder Martin Dickie shared in a reported £100million payday when they sold 22 per cent of the firm to US investment firm TSG Partners.

The 2017 deal gave TSG ‘preferential’ shares that entitled them to a return on their investment in the event the company was sold – over and above other investors, including the so-called ‘equity punks’ that are now unlikely to get any money back.

‘Are you “heartbroken” you gave the institutional investor preference over the equity punks James? An arrangement that ensured we received no return on our investments,’ wrote one commenter under Mr Watt’s LinkedIn post.

‘I’m sure you have plenty of sympathy for those left with no jobs and bills to pay whilst you sit in your penthouse overlooking Blackfriars,’ wrote one follower on Instagram, where Mr Watt has limited who can comment.

Others were more positive.

‘Haters will always hate but there is no doubt that Brewdog was at the heart of, what is now, a resurgent craft beer culture in the UK,’ said one fan on Instagram.

‘As an equity punk myself I’m happy to say that I was part of that revolution and am delighted with the non-financial return on that investment.’

An email sent to investors this week, seen by the Daily Mail, thanked amateur investors for their contributions – and said they would continue to receive benefits such as discounts – including an additional discount for those with BrewDog tattoos.

‘We know you will have questions, and we ask for your patience while we focus on supporting our people and stabilising the business,’ the email added. 

New owner Tilray Brands, described euphemistically in the email as a ‘leading global lifestyle and consumer packaged goods company’, owns several brands of medical and consumer cannabis in the United States, as well as other alcohol businesses.

Administrators AlixPartners said it had not received any offers that would have ‘preserved BrewDog in its entirety.’

Watt, who is married to Made In Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, had sought to invest £10million of his own cash in the firm as part of a rescue deal that ultimately failed.

Some 733 staff have been retained in the sale, including operational staff and those working at 11 franchised pubs. 

But those who were sacked were told, per the BBC, to claim for lost wages via the Insolvency Service after the firm was put into administration – putting the onus on the public purse to pick up the tab.

They were given little notice of the conference call that saw them sacked – which has been compared to the mass sacking conducted by P&O Ferries in 2022.

Bryan Simpson, lead organiser of Unite’s hospitality branch, described the conduct of BrewDog management as ‘nothing short of a national disgrace’.

‘This has all the hallmarks of the scandal at P&O Ferries… it is a disgrace that lessons have clearly not been learned across corporate Britain,’ he told the Mail.

‘A company does not lose 97 per cent of its value in nine years without catastrophic mismanagement.’

He added that the union is demanding answers over unpaid wages with appointed administrator AlixPartners.

James Brown, the former CEO of BrewDog’s bars division, said the Government should shoulder some blame for BrewDog’s woes after hiking National Insurance.

‘For years now, government policy on rates and employment taxes has steadily eroded confidence in hospitality,’ he wrote on LinkedIn.

‘The leadership over the nearly 20 years of BrewDog could never have envisaged the world post Brexit, Post Covid and the tax, costs and admin burden facing businesses today.’

BrewDog grew from a small beer brewing business founded by Watt and Dickie in 2007 to the world’s leading craft beer brand at its peak in the late 2010s.

However, it was plagued by a series of public relations misfires and allegations of a toxic working culture and inappropriate behaviour by Mr Watt, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing over the years.

In 2022, a BBC documentary aired claims that he had kissed a drunk customer and that female staff were given advice on how to avoid unwelcome attention from him on visits to bars.

Mr Watt later apologised for making anyone feel ‘uncomfortable’ – but hired private detectives to investigate those who had raised concerns and went to regulator Ofcom challenging the programme’s claims. It upheld none of his complaints. 

BrewDog has weathered PR storms over the years, facing claims that it has shed its original DIY ‘punk’ ethos and become one of the corporate juggernauts that it resented so deeply.

The BBC reported in 2022 that Mr Watt had once purchased £500,000 of shares in Dutch brewery Heineken during takeover talks; he also sunk £2million into an offshore hedge fund.

BrewDog itself ditched the ‘real’ living wage in 2024. It has also been criticised for recent rounds of closures and redundancies, and has been repeatedly challenged on its environmental claims.

The ‘Lost Forest’, a 10,000 acre woodland estate in the Scottish Highlands, was sold off after trees that BrewDog planted to offset its carbon emissions either died or failed to take root. 

BrewDog’s international future is unclear. It has four breweries: its main headquarters in Ellon, Aberdeenshire; Columbus, Ohio in the US; Brisbane, Australia; and Berlin in Germany.

It told investors this week that its international businesses were ‘being reviewed’. However, the Berliner Morgenpost has reported that the German arm of the business is likely to be liquidated. It closed one Berlin bar last month.

Martin Dickie, co-founder of BrewDog, stepped away in 2025 citing personal reasons.

Mr Watt has since co-founded his new business Social Tip, which promises influencer-style payouts for people who promote brands on social media. 

It has paid £500,000 to its 100,000 users since its launch last year – equivalent to £5 per user.  

A Labour MP said she has never been to China or asked about China in the House of Commons after her husband was arrested on suspicion of spying for the country.

David Taylor, the partner of East Kilbride and Strathaven MP Joani Reid, is one of three men arrested by the Metropolitan Police under the National Security Act.

The 39-year-old man, 68-year-old and 43-year-old all remain in police custody.

Reacting to the news, Reid said: ‘I have never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law.

‘I am not part of my husband’s business activities and neither I nor my children are part of this investigation, and we should not be treated by media organisations as though we are.’

She added: ‘I have never been to China. I have never spoken on China or China related matters in the Commons. I have never asked a question on China-related matters.

‘As far as I am aware I have never met any Chinese businesses whilst I have been an MP, any Chinese diplomats or government employees, nor raised any concern with ministers or anyone else on behalf of, even coincidentally, Chinese interests.

‘I am a social democrat who believes in freedom of expression, free trade unions and free elections. I am not any sort of admirer or apologist for the Chinese Communist party’s dictatorship.’

Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: ‘Today’s arrests are part of a proactive investigation and while these are serious matters, we do not believe there to be any imminent or direct threat to the public relating to this.

‘Our investigation continues, and we thank the public for their ongoing support.’

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Конкурсна комісія із добору кандидата для висунення від України на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду, утворена Указом Президента України від 26 лютого 2026 року № 206/2026, оголошує про проведення конкурсу із добору кандидата для висунення від України на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду.

Умови та процедуру проведення конкурсу із добору кандидата для висунення від України на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду, а також вимоги до кандидата на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду визначено Положенням про проведення конкурсу із добору кандидата для висунення від України на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду (далі — Положення), затвердженим Указом Президента України від 26 лютого 2026 року № 206/2026.

Кандидатом на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду може бути громадянин України, не молодший тридцяти років, який:

1) має високі моральні якості;

2) є неупередженим та доброчесним;

3) має вищу юридичну освіту не нижче ступеня магістра (або прирівняну до неї вищу освіту за освітньо-кваліфікаційним рівнем спеціаліста), здобуту в Україні, чи вищу юридичну освіту відповідного ступеня, здобуту в іноземній державі та визнану в Україні в установленому порядку;

4) має стаж роботи / професійної діяльності у сфері права щонайменше десять років;

5) має визнану і підтверджену компетенцію в галузях кримінального права, кримінального процесуального права та досвід: роботи на посаді судді або прокурора під час здійснення кримінального провадження; або наукової чи науково-педагогічної діяльності у галузях кримінального права, кримінального процесуального права, а також науковий ступінь в одній із цих галузей; або професійної діяльності адвоката щодо здійснення представництва в суді та захисту від кримінального обвинувачення; або

6) має визнану та підтверджену компетенцію у галузях міжнародного права, таких як права людини, міжнародне гуманітарне право, а також досвід професійної правової діяльності, що стосується предмета судової діяльності Міжнародного кримінального суду;

7) має ґрунтовні знання положень Римського статуту та поправок до нього, а також практики Міжнародного кримінального суду;

8) вільно володіє однією з робочих мов Міжнародного кримінального суду (англійською або французькою).

Не може бути кандидатом на обрання суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду особа:

яка визнана судом недієздатною або дієздатність якої обмежено судом;

яка має хронічні психічні чи інші захворювання, що перешкоджають виконанню обов’язків судді;

яка має судимість за вчинення будь-якого умисного кримінального правопорушення, незалежно від зняття чи погашення такої судимості (крім реабілітованої особи);

відомості про яку внесені до Єдиного державного реєстру осіб, які вчинили корупційні або пов’язані з корупцією правопорушення.

Для участі в конкурсі особа, яка має намір взяти у ньому участь, подає до конкурсної комісії такі документи:

1) написану власноруч письмову заяву про участь у конкурсі;

2) автобіографію українською мовою, а також заповнену форму модельної автобіографії (model curriculum vitae) англійською або французькою мовою (https://asp.icc-cpi.int/elections/judges/2026);

3) мотиваційний лист, у якому викладаються мотиви бути суддею Міжнародного кримінального суду;

4) копію паспорта громадянина України;

5) копію диплома про вищу юридичну освіту (з додатком), здобуту в Україні, та/або копії документів про вищу юридичну освіту, здобуту в іноземній державі, разом із копіями документів, що підтверджують її визнання в Україні;

6) копії документів про науковий ступінь, вчене звання (за наявності), а у разі присудження / присвоєння вченого звання в іноземній державі разом із копіями документів, що підтверджують їх визнання в Україні;

7) копії документів, що підтверджують стаж роботи / професійної діяльності відповідно до вимог, передбачених пунктом 3 статті 36 Римського статуту, абзацами п’ятим — десятим пункту 8 Положення;

8) написану власноруч письмову заяву про відсутність обставин, зазначених в абзацах тринадцятому — сімнадцятому пункту 8 Положення;

9) копію чинного (на момент подання) документа міжнародного зразка, що засвідчує володіння відповідною мовою на рівні не нижче C1 за шкалою рекомендацій Ради Європи з мовної освіти (CEFR) (за наявності);

10) рекомендаційні листи щодо фахової компетенції кандидата (не менше двох), наданих фахівцями з відповідних галузей права;

11) письмову згоду на обробку персональних даних.

Особа, яка має намір взяти участь у конкурсі, також може подати до конкурсної комісії додаткову інформацію стосовно своєї освіти, досвіду роботи, професійного рівня, репутації (копії документів про підвищення кваліфікації, наукові публікації тощо).

Приймання документів для участі у конкурсі здійснюватиметься впродовж 14 календарних днів, з 3 березня по 16 березня 2026 року (включно).

Документи подаються до конкурсної комісії в електронній формі на електронну адресу konkurs_icc@apu.gov.ua. Скановані копії усіх документів у форматі pdf (кожен документ окремим файлом) повинні бути підписані електронним цифровим підписом.

Прийом документів завершується 16 березня 2026 року о 24 годині. Документи, що подані після закінчення зазначеного строку, не розглядаються.