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ISRAEL has issued a warning to Greta Thunberg’s so-called Freedom Flotilla as the climate activist aims to sail into Gaza.

The Swede is pulling the dangerous stunt after leaving from Catania, Italy, on Sunday aboard the Madleen.

Reuters

Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen during the stunt[/caption]

AP

Thunberg and the Madleen are currently south of Greece[/caption]

The boat, carrying 11 pro-Palestine protesters, is currently south of Crete and is aiming directly for the terror hotbed with only a “symbolic” amount of aid.

The young campaigners say they are hoping to “break the siege” and raise “international awareness” of the humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip.

Thunberg, 22, has posted on social media with a Palestine flag and wearing a keffiyeh scarf while on the pointless journey.

Israel is prepared to raid the ship, IDF spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.

He said: “We have gained experience in recent years, and we will act accordingly.”

One activist on board has said they are being followed by a drone – a month after another boat under the same flag was allegedly attacked by one.

In a video on social media, one of Greta’s shipmates said: “We can clearly see a drone to our left. It’s gaining on us a little bit.”

Organisers of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition say their voyage is “a non-violent, direct action to challenge Israel’s illegal siege”.

Ahead of the journey, Thunberg said through tears: “we are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying.

“Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity.

“And no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the live-streamed genocide.”

Israel rejects any accusation it is conducting a genocide and says the accusations are an anti-Semitic “blood libel”.

Israel is, instead, aiming to wipe out the terror group Hamas which conducted the bloody October 7, 2023, massacre killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage.

Hamas is accused of using innocent Palestinian civilians as shields and holding aid meant for them to ransom.

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Gaza has been hammered by the IDF as it aims to wipe out Hamas[/caption]

Shutterstock Editorial

Displaced people are seen near temporary shelters in Gaza[/caption]

Reuters

The crew aboard the Madleen[/caption]

US Senator Lindsey Graham has slammed the flotilla saying: “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”

Negotiations are ongoing to find peace in the strip, with Israel last week signing up to a US proposal.

Israel has paused aid delivery after soldiers opened fire on people heading toward an aid site.

Gaza health officials, the Red Cross and the U.N. rights office said 27 people were killed on Tuesday, and witnesses blamed Israeli forces.

Israels military said it fired near people it described as suspects who it said approached its forces and ignored warning shots.

It says it is looking into reports of casualties.

The UN has warned that Gaza had become “the hungriest place on Earth”.

It said the territory’s entire population was at risk of famine.

It comes after Israel eliminated defacto Hamas Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar, also known as “The Shadow”.

It comes after reports that the chief, who was also one of the October 7 masterminds, had likely been killed in an Israeli airstrike on May 13.

Israel appears to have successfully eliminated Sinwar Jr by bombing what it said was Hamas’ command centre under the European Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.

THOUSANDS of taxpayers have had their online accounts locked and login details deleted after “organised crime fishing” scams targeted HMRC in a £47million fraud sting.

Up to 100,000 personal tax accounts were shut down after it detected unauthorised access by criminal gangs in an elaborate bid to extract repayments from the tax authority – not from individuals.

Getty - Contributor

Thousands of HMRC online personal tax accounts have been locked down[/caption]

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Security systems detected unauthorised access to some accounts[/caption]

Officials told MPs that the threat, which has not been classified as a cyber attack, was carried out over an extended period last year by multiple crime syndicates running phishing campaigns.

Angela McDonald, deputy chief executive of HMRC, told the Treasury Committee: “At the moment, they’ve managed to extract repayments to the tune of £47 million. Now that is a lot of money and it’s very unacceptable.”

The tax office said the breach was identified nearly a year ago but it has only now begun informing affected customers by letter.

Letters are being sent from today until June 25.

Anyone hit will need to re-register for online services with new Government Gateway credentials.

In a statement, HMRC said: “We have written to affected customers and taken action to protect these accounts.”

“This was an attempt to claim money from HMRC, not an attempt to take any money from you,” the statement added.

The agency said it has locked down affected accounts, deleted login details to prevent future unauthorised access, removed incorrect information from tax records, and checked to ensure no other details were changed.

John-Paul Marks, the newly appointed HMRC chief executive, told MPs: “It’s about 0.2% of the PAYE population, around 100,000 people, who we have written to, are writing to, to notify them that we detected activity on their PAYE account.”

Asked to confirm this affected individuals not companies, Marks replied: “That’s right, individuals. To be clear, no financial loss to those individuals.

“This was organised crime fishing for identity data outwith of HMRC systems.”

He also revealed that the criminal probe into the breach has included “jurisdictions outside the UK” and led to “some arrests last year.”

HMRC’s phone lines were also plunged into chaos today as a major system outage knocked out all call centres — just as worried taxpayers may be trying to call.

Anyone dialling HMRC is currently met with a recorded message stating: “This phone line is temporarily unavailable due to technical difficulties but normal service will resume as soon as possible.”

Marks said: “Something has disrupted those telephony lines and expecting them to be back up and available in the morning.”

McDonald added: “The system will be up and running by tomorrow morning.”

Anyone concerned about their account is urged to wait for the letter or email the Fraud Prevention Centre at FraudPreventionCentre@hmrc.gov.uk.

It comes as Brits are being urged to check their tax codes immediately as thousands could be due a £700 refund from HMRC.

HMRC will also issue urgent letters to 1.5 million parents to avoid having a £1,354 payment stopped ahead of the new school year.

Back in March 2022, HMRC had warned of a rising wave of phishing attacks seeking Government Gateway logins to file bogus tax refund claims.

Despite the breach, HMRC stressed: “This was not a cyber security breach… HMRC is always facing these kinds of attempts on the organisation, it is a constant battle.”

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Lisandro Martinez has no intention of leaving Manchester United despite becoming the subject of interest from Serie A champions Napoli, according to reports.

Martinez is still working his way back from a cruciate ligament injury he suffered in February and may not feature again until 2026.

Despite that, reports in Italy suggested that the Argentine international was attracting interest from Napoli as they look to bolster their defensive options.

The Italian giants enjoyed great success buying from United last summer, recruiting Scott McTominay for a cut-price fee of £25million.

McTominay then went on to play a guiding role for Antonio Conte’s side, scoring 12 times as Napoli saw off Inter Milan to win the title.

However, Napoli are unlikely to be able to repeat the trick this time around, with the Daily Mail reporting Martinez is more than happy at Old Trafford and has no desire to move.

Prior to his injury, the 27-year-old had established himself as a key part of Ruben Amorim’s defence and is seen as one of the experienced leaders within the United squad.

While Martinez may not join, however, Napoli could have more success trying to sign Alejandro Garnacho who has fallen out of favour with Amorim.

The Serie A side were interested in signing Garnacho in January but were unable to reach an agreement with United at the time.

The Red Devils have since lowered their asking price to £60m, but Garnacho appears to have his heart set on staying in the Premier League amid interest from Chelsea.

Garnachp is one of several players that could leave Old Trafford this summer as United look to raise funds for another costly rebuild.

Antony, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford are all set to leave the club when they return from their respective loans.

The club will also reportedly entertain offers for Kobbie Mainoo, while Rasmus Hojlund could be set for a move to Italy, after Inter were credited with an interest in the young striker.

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It’s no shock the ‘short-lived romance’ between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has come to a crashing end, according to an expert on US politics – it was all a question of ego.

The US President and the world’s richest man formally brought their working relationship to a close last month in an Oval Office press conference.

There did not appear to be any animosity between the pair at the time, with Trump thanking Musk for ‘tirelessly helping lead the most sweeping and consequential government reform programme in generations’.

But things have gone sour rather quickly.

Yesterday afternoon, the South African billionaire described Trump’s flagship Congressional spending bill as a ‘disgusting abomination’.

Angelia Wilson, Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester, said this moment was predictable from the moment Musk joined the Republican’s presidential campaign last year.

She said: ‘I hope most of the world could see that those two rather significant egos were not going to stay best buddies for long.’

Professor Wilson argues Musk stepped in to fill a role played by Steve Bannon, the founder of alt-right news website Breitbart, during Trump’s first campaign and administration.

Bannon served as the White House Chief Strategist following the inauguration but had a similarly truncated tenure, leaving just seven months in the job.

Both he and Musk played the part of a ‘best friend’, Professor Wilson said, offering ‘some direction of something new and different and interesting’.

She said: ‘Look at the cycle of American politics, and look at the cycle of the previous Trump administration.

‘We had Bannon, and they came in and did this, “we’re going to get rid of half the government”, “we’re going to shrink the size of the government”, and then realised that they’re not walking into a palace.

‘He’s not a king, and there is eventually going to be some pushback about that. And those type of men with large egos are going to struggle if they’re in it for their own ego and not in it for the country.’

After announcing his backing for Trump shortly after the then-candidate survived an assassination attempt, Musk became comfortably the biggest single political donor in last year’s election.

He gave a total of $288 million (around £210m) to support the Republican presidential nominee and other party figures down the ballot.

When Trump entered the White House to begin his second term, he appointed Musk to head up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) and handed him an enormous amount of power.

So far, Doge has not saved anywhere near the amount of money Musk said it would – but it has fired tens of thousands of government workers and effectively shut down major bodies such as aid agency USAID.

Professor Wilson, author of a book on Trump’s rise titled The Politics of Hate, argues that despite Musk’s description of himself as ‘first buddy’, the two men probably never really liked each other much.

‘I think when you’re talking about two significant figures like that, or any significant figures that have such large egos and are in politics, I wouldn’t throw around the word “like”,’ she said.

‘I don’t know what their basis of their friendship was, but I don’t think it was even to the extent of a Facebook friendship, that they weren’t, in that sense, emotionally close. It was, if anything, a partnership of convenience.’

But if it was a partnership of convenience, it seems to have been an extremely lucrative one.

While Trump got ‘a bro that would help him get elected with something new and shiny’, Professor Wilson said, Musk got to cut regulations and gained access to ‘the data that he needs or that he wanted’ from government files.

That may be a reason why – despite the Tesla boss’s fury over the spending bill – neither Trump nor his administration have fired back with vicious insults, as they have in the past when criticised.

Professor Wilson predicted: ‘I don’t think Musk is going to be an enemy of the White House.’

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