Ej Ward

Luxury watch theft is described as an organized international trade involving scouts, surveillance teams and coordinated robberies in London, Ibiza, the South of France and other affluent locations. A victim identified as Chris says a nearly £50,000 Rolex Daytona was stolen from his car shortly after he bought it, but he did not report the crime because he felt ashamed and believed recovery was unlikely. The Watch Register says only half of victims report thefts, while its database contains more than 125,000 stolen watches worth over £1.9 billion. Police and private security patrols have helped reduce reported thefts in parts of London, but specialists warn that summer travel, social-media posts and luxury hospitality venues remain attractive to organized criminals. Owners are urged to record serial numbers, photograph their watches, secure paperwork separately and report thefts so watches can be identified when they re-enter the market.

Cameras fitted to Royal Navy Kraken K3 Scout surveillance drones were found sending heartbeat communications to a system in China during a routine cyber assessment. The Ministry of Defence said the signals only indicated that the cameras were online and found no evidence that military data or systems had been accessed or transmitted. The cameras’ internet connectivity was removed, but the discovery has raised concerns about third-party components in British military equipment. The report places the incident in the context of broader warnings about Chinese espionage, persistent access to Western infrastructure and earlier security concerns involving Chinese-made electric vehicles used by defence personnel.

Brahim Keddad was sentenced to two years and four months in prison after admitting an attempted robbery on Jermyn Street in Mayfair. Plain-clothes Metropolitan Police officers spotted him watching passers-by, followed him and detained him with public assistance after he allegedly grabbed a victim’s wrist while trying to steal a £250,000 Richard Mille RM 11-02 GMT Carbon Shanghai Limited Edition. The watch is one of only 30 made. The Met said luxury-watch thefts in several London boroughs fell by more than 50% in the first half of 2026, while theft from the person and personal robbery also declined across the capital.

A Russian FPV drone pursued Ukrainian vegetable seller Yuriy through a market in Kherson before exploding beside his van, leaving him with shrapnel wounds, ear damage and bruising. Yuriy said he showed the drone operator garlic and other vegetables to demonstrate that he was a civilian, but the attack continued. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukrainian analysts described the incident as evidence of deliberate attacks and possible war crimes against civilians. Aid workers from Hope For Ukraine said such drone strikes have made humanitarian work increasingly dangerous. Kherson, liberated from Russian occupation in 2022, remains under frequent attack from Russian forces across the Dnipro River.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting declined to guarantee that the UK will spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2030, saying ministers will not make unfunded commitments. His comments came as the government announced an £8.4 billion package for the Dreadnought nuclear-submarine programme, including £5.9 billion for BAE Systems and £2.5 billion for the wider supply chain. The programme is expected to support around 47,000 jobs and 22,000 apprenticeships by 2035 while replacing the Royal Navy’s Vanguard fleet. The government’s Defence Investment Plan commits almost £300 billion over four years, but opposition parties questioned whether the submarine funding is genuinely new and criticised the lack of clarity over future defence spending and attack submarines.