Category: News

A father who was filmed attacking his daughter in what police say was an attempted honor killing was more concerned about his car being impounded than he was his family when police came to arrest him. 

DailyMail.com translated the words Ihsan Ali yelled to his wife and daughter as he was hauled away in handcuffs after the shocking incident on October 18. 

He is accused of attacking the girl, 17, in a frenzy outside Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, after she refused an arranged marriage with an older man in her family’s native Iraq. 

The girl ran from her house to the school, where a group of shocked onlookers watched her father pounce on her.

Video of the horrifying attack was widely shared. Now, Ali’s shocking words – spoken in Arabic minutes later after his arrest – can also be revealed.

‘Zahraa, Zahraa, come here,’ he shouted towards his wife, who has also been charged. 

‘Haneen, Zahraa, take the car from them and drive it away so they don’t steal it. They took the car! They’re going to steal it!

‘The car… they’ll steal it!’ he screamed.

Ali, 44, and his wife Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, were charged with attempted murder, attempted kidnapping, and assault after the attack on October 18.

Police bodycam footage obtained by DailyMail.com under freedom of information showed the aftermath of the attack minutes later when officers arrived at the school at 2.18pm.

By then, the girl’s brave 16-year-old boyfriend and his classmates had fought off Ihsan, saving her life, and adult passerby Josh Wagner restrained him on the ground. 

Ihsan was frog marched to a police car by the first cop on the scene, Officer Sophal Heang, who handcuffed him with Wagner’s help.

Ihsan appeared to claim police would ‘steal’ his vehicle – by seizing it as evidence – unless his family took it away.

He was transferred to another officer’s police car, and again demanded to speak with his wife and yelled to her in Arabic.

‘Zahraa, Zahraa, move the car somewhere safe because these are thieves; they will steal it!’ he yelled.

‘Move the car, or they will steal it! Take the car from them!

Ihsan, in contrast to his wife, refused to speak to the police, telling them, ‘I have nothing to say’.

Instead, he continued yelling to her: ‘Zahraa, come here for a moment. Zahraa, come. Come, Zahraa, take this, come!’

He refused to get in car while he yelled to Zahraa, and was only convinced to sit inside after officers promised to bring her to him.

Ihsan, at another point, demanded to speak to the daughter he allegedly tried to murder moments earlier, but never asked about her welfare. 

Both the girl and her boyfriend, who was punched in the face while defending her, suffered numerous injuries. 

The vast majority of the released footage is from the perspective of one of the police officers who arrived at the scene. 

‘He was trying to kill her,’ one of several students a few feet away interjected, in reference to Ihsan’s alleged attack on his daughter.

‘My sister ran away, my mom tried to get her to talk with her… but there was this guy who held her, really aggressive,’ Haneen claimed, likely about her sister’s boyfriend.

‘They’re in there (gestures to the school building), they ran away inside.’

Ihsan was hauled to his feet and marched to a police car past his wife Zahraa, who was hysterically wailing and crying.

Police were unaware at this point that she had allegedly also tried to strangle her daughter too. 

The students say she also tried to fend them away when they tried to intervene.

Ihsan several times demanded to speak to the daughter he allegedly tried to murder.

‘You will not speak to your daughter,’ Officer Sophal Heang replied. ‘We’re investigating a criminal investigation right now.’

Ihsan replied: ‘Just let me tell her to come home – not like that. If I tell her to go home, she will go home.’

Heang ignored him and closed the trunk. He later identified Ihsan as the ‘primary aggressor’ during a call to his supervisors.

‘According to the school staff she ran inside to the admin building and she was just saying somebody was trying to hurt her… probably her dad,’ Heang explained in the call.

‘Dad confronted her and she wasn’t willing to go home with him and he ends up getting behind her and choking her, dragging her, trying to get her to come [with him],’ he said.

Heang then explained to fellow officers at the scene that he met with Ihsan and Zahraa that morning when they reported her as a runaway.

Police accompanied them to her boyfriend’s house, where his parents told them she wasn’t there and his son was in school, but they refused to believe him.

Heang said he told Ihsan not to go to the school and make a scene, but evidently he went anyway.

A few minutes later, the three officers discussed what to do with the girl, who was still holed up inside the school before being taken to hospital.

‘What are we going to do with the kid? Because they (Zahraa and Haneen) are all worked up, still,’ Heang said.

‘She’s 17, she doesn’t want to go home to the parents, but they’re the legal guardian.’

One of the other officers replied: ‘Is she gonna start choking her to get her home?’ which Heang conceded was a good point.

‘She doesn’t feel safe going home because her older sister hit her with a broom, allegedly, this summertime,’ the third policeman added.

They started discussing which women’s shelter would be the best place to send her to.

Heang walked over to Zahraa and Haneen, who were arguing with another officer about speaking to Ihsan and the girl.

Haneen insisted Ihsan did nothing wrong, and claimed someone kicked her in the face and ‘he pushed my mom, and my dad, he grabbed him with another person and put him to the ground’.

‘He (Ihsan) didn’t do… yes, a lot of students were already out. I’m recording right now, I’ll show you later, I want to talk to my dad right now,’ she said.

‘OK, well, that’s not happening the way you’re acting – you need to calm down,’ another policeman told her.

‘Take a deep breath, maybe in five minutes – I can’t have you screaming out here in the school parking lot, that’s unacceptable.’

Heang then tried talking to the pair, asking why if they saw that the girl was at the school they didn’t just tell the police instead of confronting her.

‘This is not fair, like which one is it? is it this one, is it that?’ Haneen screamed back while wildly gesticulating.

‘What are you asking?’ Heang asked.

‘Can I talk to my dad or can I talk to my sister? It has to be one of them.’

Heang told her that police gave them their word they would let her and Zahraa speak to Ihsan, but they needed to calm down first.

Zahraa was soon allowed to talk to Ihsan through the window of the police car, and officers warned Haneen she would be arrested if she didn’t wait her turn.

While Zahraa spoke to Ihsan, the details of which were not recorded on bodycam, Heang asked to see Haneen’s videos.

She played it for him, and it appeared to show Wagner restraining Ihsan.

‘He was choking him, this dude,’ she said, claiming he punched her and threw her phone to the ground.

‘Why are they choking him? This is not a crime either? They’re choking, that’s my father, they’re choking him down,’ she said.

Heang told her they were detaining him, and ‘he had a right to be detained’.

Haneen started to go into meltdown, screaming, ‘What do I do now? What do you want me to do? Who’s gonna help?’

Heang said she and her mother would be fine, but Haneen wailed, ‘No, it’s not fine, how is this fine? How can you say that?’

Zahraa soon returned and another of her three daughters called Haneen, and she was handed the phone. She walked away and talked on the phone for several minutes.

‘I’m in the street, they took him!’ she said in Arabic, in the part of the call that was audible on the bodycam footage.

‘I’m going home because he told me I have to leave. I just want him to see me… just to see me.’

After the call was over, Zahraa yelled hysterically about wanting to see her daughter and collapsed to the ground in tears.

As she wailed, Heang got Haneen to convince her mother to go home, as she was banned from school property after an earlier incident with the girl’s boyfriend.

After a short conversation in Arabic, they walked away to their car and the footage ended.

Police did not realize Zahraa also allegedly tried to kill her daughter until four days later, leaving her free to continue looking for her daughter, who was in hiding.

She was finally detained by customs officers on the night of October 22 while trying to cross into Canada.

Zahraa was taken into custody on a domestic assault warrant without incident and booked into the Whatcom County Jail until Lacey Police arrived to pick her up.

Victor Barnes, the father of the girl’s boyfriend, told DailyMail.com that Zahraa had fled to the border after prosecutors moved to charge her along with Ihsan.

He claimed Zahraa was in court with Haneen at Ihsan’s arraignment when prosecutors said they believed she was also a threat and were seeking an arrest warrant.

‘The second she hears that, she runs out the courtroom,’ said Barnes, adding that Haneen text her with updates as the hearing continued.

Barnes claimed Zahraa drove her youngest children, two boys aged five and three, into Canada and dropped them off with an uncle who lived there.

She then reportedly returned to Washington before trying to cross into Canada a second time.

During this time, police compiled statements from the girl, her boyfriend, and other witnesses and issued an arrest warrant flagging her passport.

Barnes said the two older sisters were also with their uncle in Canada, but he wasn’t sure when or how they got there.

He explained that his son started dating the girl in February 2024, and her family kept it a secret from her father, who was often out of town running his business.

‘He’s an abusive man. So they just didn’t tell him because… they may think he’ll fly off the handle and do something crazy like he did,’ he said.

He said his wife, JeTe Drake, tried to arrange a meeting with Zahraa months earlier to discuss their children’s relationship, but phone conversations degenerated into ‘a lot of yelling’ as Haneen tried to translate.  

They heard nothing until September 16 when Zahraa appeared outside the school, and Barnes claimed ‘tried to kidnap his son’.

He said CCTV showed Zahraa grabbing the teen and trying to drag him away with her, but he was stronger than her. After a couple of steps, he pulled his arm away and told her not to touch him.

Barnes claimed Zahraa called his son a ‘thug and a thief’ but the rest of her yelling was unintelligible.

Timberline High sent her a letter the next day advising that as she was seen ‘grabbing and yelling at’ a student, she would be charged with trespassing if she came to the school again.

Barnes eventually called Ihsan to tell him about his daughter’s secret relationship, and that he was considering pressing charges against Zahraa.  

Ihsan responded to the situation by pulling the girl out of school, smashing her phone so they couldn’t communicate, and buying plane tickets to Iraq.

‘So they wanted to seclude her and during this period of time, that’s when he was threatening to kill her and was starving her and crazy, crazy stuff,’ Barnes claimed.

The girl outlined shocking alleged abuse at the hands of her father in an interview with police days after the attack, and claimed one of her brothers, who is autistic, was treated even worse.

Barnes said his son didn’t see or hear from the girl until she showed up at the school on October 18, asking for help. 

After speaking with Ihsan, Barnes got a protective order against Zahraa on his son’s behalf, and then got one against Ihsan after the girl was attacked.

‘At the end of the school day, the school made my child responsible for this girl’s safety by asking him to help this girl get on the bus,’ he wrote in the application.

‘They continued to put this girl’s family situation in the lap of my child as if he’s an adult and understands the gravity of everything.’

Barnes said his son was still not doing well mentally after he was allegedly punched in the face by Ihsan, then had to watch his girlfriend almost be murdered in front of him as he desperately tried to save her.

‘He’s just trying to keep it together… trying to not feel so tensed up all the time,’ he said, noting he had a breakdown in late November.

On the morning of October 18, he said the girl’s parents showed up at his house with police demanding to know where she was.

Barnes told them she was wasn’t there and would presumably be at the school, then texted his son to warn him.

‘She runs away from home because they wanted to fly her out of the country that day – she’s afraid,’ he said.

‘She shows up at the school and my son’s class and the teacher helps her because she looks very malnourished.’

Barnes said school officials took her to a room and eventually found a safe place for her to go, but did not offer to help her get there.

‘They know she’s in danger, they know her circumstances and situation, but they insist for her to take public transportation to get to her safe destination – without any type of chaperone,’ he said.

The girl and her boyfriend walked to the bus stop at the front of the school and she spotted her father’s pickup truck outside.

Suddenly, Ishan emerged from the truck and confronted them, yelling at his daughter in Arabic.

Barnes said another student, who spoke Arabic, yelled back, ‘She doesn’t want to go back with you. Leave her alone.’

‘He didn’t like what the kid said, he loses his mind and punches my son in the face,’ Barnes alleged.

Court documents explained that another student told police the boyfriend stood in front of her and was sent ‘flying onto the concrete’ when he was punched.

Ishan allegedly put his daughter in a headlock and tried to choke her to death, saying, ‘It’s not right… you are not supposed to do this’, she told police.

Barnes said his son ‘starts to see her eyes roll back, and her arms start flailing’ before she went limp and unconscious as he tried to save her.

Other students described similar horrifying scenes to police, and her boyfriend told them he thought she was going to die. 

Her boyfriend managed to subdue him, along with other students, by repeatedly punching Ishan in the head until he was dazed and let go, prosecutors said.

Zahraa then allegedly entered the fray and also tried to choke her daughter to death, but was separated by the growing group of kids.

‘Her other daughter (Haneen), which is the girl’s older sister, is trying to fight the other kids away,’ Barnes said, which the girl also told police.

‘But it’s too many other kids and mom isn’t as strong as that, so they eventually grab the girl away from mom.’

The girl told police she fled inside with her boyfriend yelling, ‘My dad was trying to kill me’ as Zahraa allegedly pursued her to the school doors, but wasn’t let in.

The boyfriend suffered a boxer’s fracture as he tried to get Ishan off his girlfriend, which is now in a cast. The girl was taken to Providence St Peter Hospital in Olympia for treatment and a strangulation exam.

Police said they saw scratches on her neck and she complained of neck, throat, and jaw pain, and had difficulty swallowing.

‘She believes she lost consciousness three to four times during the incident,’ court documents alleged, adding that at one point she woke up with dirt pressed into her face.

‘[The girl] stated that she thought she was going to die.’

Ihsan was not initially charged with attempted murder, and released from jail on October 24 on just a $150,000 bond after a hearing in Thurston County Superior Court before Judge John Skinder.

Zahraa faced a different judge – Christopher Lanese – on the same day, but she was charged with attempted murder and held on $500,000 bail.

Almost two weeks after his release, on November 5, second-degree attempted murder was finally added to Ihsan’s charges.

Ihsan was re-arrested and his bail raised to $1 million, which was too much for him to pay. He remains in jail, while Zahraa’s bond was unchanged.

A Milwaukee mother-of-five was deported to a country she has never visited after her attorney made a shocking mistake.

Ma Yang, 37, was deported last month to Laos – despite not speaking the Lao language and having no friends or family in the country, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  

The military is now holding onto her papers, and Yang has been left without insulin for her diabetes and a dwindling supply of high blood pressure medication, she said. 

‘The United States sent me back to die,’ she claimed. ‘I don’t even know where to go. I don’t even know what to do.’ 

Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, the daughter of Hmong refugees after the Vietnam War, TMJ 4 reports. They then brought her to the United States when she was just eight months old. 

She has since become a legal permanent resident of the US, but when she pleaded guilty to her role in a marijuana trafficking operation in 2020,  her permanent resident status was put at risk.

Still, she believed she would be allowed to stay in the country as Laos has typically refused to accept US deportees, with records showing that zero people were deported to the country in the last fiscal year.

But to her surprise, Yang was sent on a series of commercial flights from Chicago to Atlanta to South Korea and ultimately to Laos last year.

When she then arrived at the Laotian capital of Vientiane on March 6, Yang said she was questioned by military authorities – then was sent to a rooming house, where guards did not allow her to leave or contact anyone for five days.

She spent her days pacing around in circles as the guards refused to let her leave or contact anyone for five days. 

Then, just recently, Yang was let out to withdraw cash and buy a cellphone – allowing her to finally reach out to her partner of 16 years, Michael Bub, a US citizen.

At that point, she was told she could leave if she wanted –  but still, she says, she does not know where she would go.

‘How do I rent, or buy, or anything with no papers?’ she asked. ‘I’m a nobody right now.’ 

Yang now struggles to get answers from the Laos military officials about her living situation and what she is supposed to do now.

Meanwhile, Bub – who has had two brain surgeries and is partially paralyzed – has been struggling to care for their children as a single father. 

He hasn’t been sleeping, noting that the last time he saw Yang was when he was rushing essentials and money to her before her flight.

‘I think I screamed in the car for like half an hour,’ he said.

Their eldest daughter, Azia, at the age of 22, has also been forced to step in to care for her siblings – the youngest of whom is six.

The problems began shortly after the family moved into a house that prosecutors say was part of a marijuana trafficking operation.

Prosecutors have claimed that Yang helped count and package cash that was mailed to marijuana suppliers in California, saying they found bags of cash taped between pages of magazines.

Yang ultimately took a plea deal and served two-and-a-half years in prison, claiming her attorney incorrectly told her the plea deal would not affect her immigration status as a green card holder.

But her legal permanent residency was revoked.

Following her sentence, Yang was transferred to an ICE detention center in Minnesota, where at the advice of an attorney, she signed a document agreeing that a deportation order would be issued against her in exchange for being released from detention.

At that point, Yang said she expected her second attorney to reopen her criminal case, and get the conviction thrown out on the grounds she had poor legal representation the first time.

If it were thrown out, she reasoned, the deportation order would become irrelevant.

But the attorney never fought the charges.

‘I just keep getting screwed in this system,’ she said.

By mid-February, Yang said she got a call from ICE asking her to go to their downtown Milwaukee office for a check-in.

That is when she was detained and sent to Indiana, Yang said.

Still, someone told her she would likely just sit in jail for a few months, then get released, since Laos would likely not take her back.

But after just two weeks, she was sent to a holding facility in Chicago and then to the airport, where an officer forced her to put her fingerprints on a document stating she would not return to the US.

Now, Yang says she feels betrayed by the US – noting that Hmong soldiers recruited by the CIA helped the American military in the Vietnam War, then faced persecution and violence for their role. 

‘How did you send us back when we fought for you guys?’ she asked, rhetorically. ‘How is that OK?’ 

Anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder and serious mental health condition, has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. 

Although anorexia overwhelmingly affects adult women, in recent years there has been a rise in children and adolescents being diagnosed with this and other eating disorders. 

When veteran tech entrepreneur Onn Manelson’s 13-year-old daughter developed an eating disorder two years ago, he decided to create a solution for anyone in this situation. 

Last year, Manelson officially founded Thrive Together, a digital app that combines AI with evidence-based practices to help parents navigate their child’s treatment. 

The platform provides a personalized assessment of the condition, management tools, parent communities, and insights to prevent deterioration and improve family wellbeing. 

Role of parents in eating disorders

“Parents are key when it comes to supporting a child with an eating disorder. But the health system doesn’t provide sufficient support for the caregivers due to a lack of resources; that’s where Thrive comes in,” Manelson tells ISRAEL21c. 

“All research has proven that the more parents are available to support their children, the more it increases the success of the treatment. And eating disorders are a chronic illness, so we’re talking about treatment cycles of several years,” he says.

Manelson explains that his daughter’s illness was difficult to spot since it’s characterized by behavioral rather than physical symptoms in the first stages.

“You don’t see it on your child until it gets to a point where they become very, very thin,” he notes. 

“The majority of the time, the child is with a parent at home, unless their condition is really, really bad, so we’re not replacing treatment, but acting as a guide for the parent,” he adds.

How it works

Manelson says that what sets Thrive apart from competitors is that it focuses on the parent, rather than the patient. 

Once a day, the Thrive app reminds the parent to complete a daily report on the progress of a child battling an eating disorder. 

“The app asks questions such as: Did the child eat? What was their mood? What clinical symptoms related to the eating disorder did they see? Did they meet with the therapist during that day? Did they take their medication?” explains Manelson.

Based on daily data provided by the parent, the app’s algorithm then creates weekly reports, which the parent can share with the treatment team to better understand behavioral patterns of children with eating disorders. 

Data provided by children themselves is not always reliable since they can’t always self-monitor and self-report accurately, says Manelson. Additionally, children sometimes lie to satisfy adult expectations.

‘Kind of like a pandemic’

Manelson says that research shows children are being diagnosed with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia at earlier ages – even as young as 10 — while the number of diagnoses continues to increase.

“Eating disorders are becoming kind of like a pandemic. In Israel alone, right now there are nearly 100,000 children diagnosed with eating disorders. Not all of them are anorexic, but those are still huge numbers that are rapidly growing.”

Manelson adds that recent studies point to a strong correlation between eating disorders and the use of mobile phones and social media.

“For example, the percentages of eating disorders in Japan, Singapore and South Korea are among the highest in the world, and so is their usage of mobile phones and social media.

“The next on the list are Western countries: the United States, Britain, Australia and others.”

Data from clinics

Thrive, which is self-funded, currently employs six workers and will soon launch its first funding round to speed the app’s journey to the market, which Manelson hopes will happen later this year. 

The staff trains the AI algorithm by sourcing data from eating disorder clinics. Recently they began cooperating with Leumit Health Services, one of Israel’s four national health maintenance organization, and with Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center. 

Last month, Thrive was among nine Israeli health startups selected by the Dangoor Health-Tech Academy to help its partners in the UK tackle challenges related to healthcare.

Manelson says the company’s goal is “to change the landscape and approach” of how eating disorders are treated in Israel and other countries.

“Today, only between a third to a half of eating disorders are getting diagnosed and treated,” he notes. “Although in Israel we’re seeing more awareness of mental health after October 7,” he says, referring to the 2023 Hamas attacks. 

“I think it’s a good sign.”

For more information, click here. 

Ah, sleep. In the first years of your little one’s life it can be an elusive beast. Just when you think you’ve grasped your child’s nocturnal habits, they mix it up again.

“We tend to think sleep is a luxury,” says Tara Mitchell, a Perth-based infant and toddler sleep specialist. “But it’s the foundation of wellbeing.”

The former paediatric nurse, a mother of three, has spent 10 years working with families to improve their sleeping patterns and knows quality rest is essential not only for tired parents, but growing kids too.

“During our little ones’ sleep, consolidation of memory happens around things they’ve learnt during the day,” she says. “Their cells repair, they rest and digest. Sleep determines mood, focus, attention and sets them up for their day ahead.”

Mitchell believes healthy sleep habits are the most important skills parents can teach children.

We asked the sleep specialist and two Australian parents to share their tips for a smooth bedtime routine.

1. Optimise wake windows

Mitchell acknowledges that children thrive on consistency. However, with three children of her own, she also believes parents need to give themselves permission to be flexible.

“If you miss a nap or you’re out and about, try not to get caught up on it,” she says. “It’s about having flexibility within that structure and finding a routine that’s not going to add too much pressure or anxiety.”

Parents should be aware of the amount of sleep needed for their child’s age, she says, and it’s important they make sure their kids get tired enough to sleep.

“We often see sleep refusal or difficulty settling because they’ve had that rest while feeding or during screen time. So, in that awake time make sure you’re expending energy, allowing them to build up that pressure for sleep.”

2. Control the temperature

Managing a baby’s temperature is one of the biggest stresses for parents, says Mitchell, who has partnered with the Melbourne-based sleepwear brand ergoPouch and believes the business’s layering guide provides the reassurance parents need.

“It is a great foundation that means parents have a universal language to be able to talk to each other about what their little ones are wearing.”

Catherine McKay, Australian mother of two, agrees. “The layers guide saved me a lot of worrying and wondering [how to dress the children] during the baby years.”

The guide includes a simple diagram showing how many items your child should wear, depending on the temperature. It takes the guesswork out of sleep-time dressing, and when you’re sleep-deprived and have decision fatigue, that means there’s one less thing to spend energy on.

“I always recommend it for new mums,” McKay says.

3. Dress for success

As well as being good for sensitive baby skin, breathable materials such as organic cotton can help regulate a baby’s temperature. Opt for sleepwear with a thermal overall grade (TOG) rating so you can be sure they’re wearing the right layers for the time of year and environment, from a lightweight 0.2 TOG in warmer months to 3.5 TOG when it’s cool.

A room thermometer can help you monitor the bedroom temperature. Conveniently, ergoPouch’s babywear comes with one.

The cost of baby clothes can quickly add up, and it can pay to invest in enduring items that will grow with the child and can be handed down.

Phoebe Cousins-Palmer, a mother of two from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, says: “Now that my 11-month-old is able to stand and wants to get up and look for me as soon as she’s awake, I’ve zipped what was a sleep sack into individual legs to enable her to move more freely.”

McKay says: “We were given [ergoPouch sleepwear] as a gift for our first baby and I used them until he was about three.

“Now his brother uses all the same ones. They’ve been washed and dried a hundred times over and are still going strong.”

4. Embrace light and shade

Blackout blinds can help reduce the amount of light creeping into the sleep environment, which can interrupt melatonin production.

“When my son was tiny, we swore by blackout blinds to help him get solid naps and slightly longer stretches during the night,” McKay says. “A dark and cosy space mimics being in the womb.”

However, choosing to not completely darken the space may mean your little one gets used to falling asleep in all environments – handy when you need them to nap outside of the home.

“Now that he’s older I don’t mind a little bit of light,” McKay says. “Knowing we have the option of him being able to sleep somewhere not completely dark, too, has been so good.”

5. Accept that it won’t always work

When it comes to sleep it’s important to be have realistic expectations.

McKay says: “As long as I know my son has eaten, had a calm book read and been cuddled, and is wrapped up in his sleeping bag, then I know I’ve done what I can to hope for a good night’s sleep. We try to accept that it’s up and down.”

Cousins-Palmer agrees. “At the moment it’s only 50-50 that my youngest goes down on the first go,” she says. “But it’s all giving her practice for independent sleep, so we don’t stress if it doesn’t take the first time.”

And if sleep still evades you, don’t be afraid to ask for support.

“We’ve used a sleep coach a handful of times now and it’s been life-changing,” Cousins-Palmer says. “It’s given us the confidence to know what’s right for us.

“What works for your family will almost always look different to other people’s. You know your babe the best.”

Ultimately, Mitchell says, at the toughest times, it is important to remember that they are only little for a short time.

Discover ergoPouch’s ergonomically designed sleepwear – for newborns to six-year-olds

The gift set includes the brand’s best-selling serum and night cream that fight fine lines

Medik8 has launched some fantastic skincare gift sets that are perfect for spoiling the mother figure in your life this Mother’s Day. One of the most cost-effective bundles is the Fine Line Fighters Set, which includes two of the brand’s top-selling ‘hero’ anti-ageing products.

The set contains a full-size Advanced Night Restore cream and a full-size Liquid Peptides serum collectively worth £114, however this ‘age-defying duo’ is priced at £79 in the gift set, offering a substantial saving of £35. This makes the Medik8 bundle more affordable than comparable anti-ageing sets on the market, such as Facetheory’s The Firm Bundle, which retails at £96.

As reported by the Mirror, Medik8’s Liquid Peptides costs £55 when purchased individually and is designed to combat the initial signs of ageing by slowing and preventing the formation of fine lines. This ‘supercharged’ serum supports the skin’s natural age-defying functions and uses drone-targeted technology to deliver a powerful blend of peptides where they’re needed most.

READ MORE: Perfumes our beauty team are wearing on repeat in spring including Marc Jacobs and Jo Malone

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The Advanced Night Restore costs £59 and boasts a ceramide-rich formula that deeply nourishes and firms your complexion overnight. It has been shown to reduce stubborn wrinkles and visibly lift the skin ‘in just seven days’.

The popular Liquid Peptides serum from Medik8 comes with an outstanding 4.9 rating on their official website. One satisfied customer said: “I genuinely love this product. It’s a great step in my skincare routine. I have been using it for almost four months now and I truly think it has made my skin look brighter. Definitely recommend.”

However, experiences haven’t been universally positive, as highlighted by another user: “I was impressed with the hype surrounding these products and was eager to try this and other Medik8 products. I have been using this Peptide Serum for a few weeks now, but I can’t see any difference in my skin. I will keep on using it but at present, I am disappointed. Won’t buy again.”

On the other hand, someone else praised the benefits, as they explained: “I have quite dehydrated skin that shows signs of aging from the dryness. This product is a life saver and after a few weeks of using it, my skin feels more plump and hydrated with less visible signs of aging.”

Medik8’s Advanced Night Restore cream also has a fabulous 4.9 out of five rating. One happy customer wrote: “The perfect night time moisturiser, with a little bit going a long way. As someone with very dry skin, this product has left me consistently waking up with hydrated and fresh looking skin and has even helped to calm breakouts overnight.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t work for everyone, with one customer commenting: “Quite disappointing. It didn’t deliver the quality/amount of moisturising I had hoped for. Will stick with my ‘old’ product.”

However, other shoppers did like the thick consistency of the moisturiser: “This gorgeous thick cream feels amazing on my skin and works beautifully with the daily use of retinal or on its own. Waking up each morning with soft, supple and wonderfully hydrated skin. I absolutely love this product.”

Keen to spoil your mum or yourself with the Fine Line Fighters Set? You can snap it up from Medik8 for £79 here. Browse all of Medik8’s Mother’s Day bundles here.

Medik8 isn’t the only place serving up tempting offers for Mother’s Day. The Perfume Shop has unveiled a juicy 20% discount when you spend £60, while LookFantastic is tempting shoppers with an exclusive Jo Malone Mother’s Day gift set valued at £73 that can be yours for £62.

Other gift set options include Facetheory’s The Firm Bundle (£96) which promises to enhance and firm the skin and comes complete with an eye cream, a moisturiser, and two serums. Meanwhile, Boots is selling an Estée Lauder Wake Up Radiant Gift Set at a discounted price of £58.65. It features the renowned Advanced Night Repair Serum in full size plus two luxe travel-sized products.

I was reaching into a bag of Hill’s Science Diet dog food to scoop out Frankie’s breakfast when I noticed a brown foreign object the size of my palm inside.

It looked like a large piece of bark made of dough nestled inside the kibble. The discovery startled me. In all the years of feeding Frankie, I’d never found an unidentified object inside a bag of commercial dog food.

Frankie had been gassier than usual and didn’t want to eat anything that morning. I wondered if something in his food was making him sick.

I took a picture of it, then called the company to report it. They took all the information from the bag of food and asked me to email them the photo. I also filed a pet food safety report online with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

I wanted to alert the federal agency that is responsible for assuring the safety of our nation’s food supply, drugs, pet food, medical devices and cosmetics — just in case this was part of a larger problem that could affect other pets.

Just two days before this incident, the Trump administration announced that it is seeking to close the FDA office in St. Louis as part of the slashing of jobs and government agencies by the Department of Government Efficiency task force run by billionaire Elon Musk. Since then, the decision was abruptly reversed.

No word yet on how many FDA workers might be fired. Musk and his DOGE accomplices have cut more than 100,000 probationary employees nationwide from the federal workforce — mostly new or recently promoted employees. Trump and Musk will begin firing permanent employees later this month. The cuts have hit agencies across the country: the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Park Service, the Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Institutes of Health and others.

As Sen. Elissa Slotkin pointed out in her response to Trump’s televised address to Congress, Musk and Trump have fired workers who protect our nuclear weapons (many had to be quickly hired back), people in critical safety positions that keep our planes from crashing and researchers trying to find cures and treatments for cancer.

In addition to the concerns about what so many job losses and the Trump trade wars will do to an economy that has already started to weaken under this administration, I’m worried about what these haphazard mass firings mean for our public safety. Think about all the ways we rely on the government to function: for instance, the elderly who depend on Social Security payments and anyone who uses the U.S. Postal Service to deliver payments and bills.

On Joe Rogan’s podcast earlier this month, Musk declared: “Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” That’s a slap in the face to workers who have spent their careers paying into it. Musk and his team have also started meddling with key payment and contracting systems for Medicare and Medicaid, which insure the elderly and lower-income people. He has said “big money fraud is happening” with these programs. We have no idea what kinds of cuts he’s planning.

I’ve thought about the small ways I’ve interacted with government agencies just in the past week. After an inexplicable experience with American Airlines in January, I filed a complaint, with documentation, to the Department of Transportation. The airline had already reimbursed us for unfounded extra charges, but this week, after receiving the DOT complaint, American sent a letter of apology and a flight credit, admitting our experience had been due to agent error. Prior to this, during weeks of calls and emails, I had been unable to get a single customer service agent to explain what had happened.

Also this week, a Russian cybercrime group, Qilin, claimed responsibility for a ransomware cyberattack on my employer’s parent company, Lee Enterprises. The appropriate federal agencies have been notified. However, the Trump administration also announced that it was rolling back efforts, at the FBI and other agencies, related to countering Russian-based digital and cyber threats. I have no idea how this will affect the ongoing investigation at our parent company. But when your company is threatened by foreign-based criminals, you realize the importance of government agencies that investigate these crimes.

Closer to home, I received a quick reply from the makers of Hill’s Science Diet after I sent the photo. The manufacturer said the object was a clump of crumbs, which may have been coated with fat during the production process. They said these kinds of clumps are typically removed by screening the kibble before packaging.

I hope it’s as harmless as a mass of congealed crumbs, and that the FDA will inform me, and other consumers, if it finds otherwise. But what if we had no independent agency to look into these kinds of problems?

What if we were out of luck and on our own?

We might soon find out.

Mason Disick has made his return to social media, stepping back into the spotlight just days after his mother, Kourtney Kardashian, publicly shut down wild rumors that the teenager had secretly become a father. 

The 15-year-old shared a casual yet stylish snapshot on his Instagram Story, capturing a night out with friends and effortlessly reminding fans that, despite the speculation, he is still very much a typical teenager.

The post showed Mason standing on an outdoor patio at night, covering his mouth as he posed next to a friend who had his back turned to the camera. 

The scene was set with a glowing candle flickering on the table and an espresso martini placed nearby, exuding an air of laid-back cool. In true Gen Z fashion, Mason soundtracked the moment with the song Out West by artist ian, a track that reflects on growing up too fast—a subtle but pointed choice given the recent chatter surrounding his name.

Mason’s look for the evening was effortlessly trendy, as he and his friend were both decked out in Chrome Hearts, the high-end streetwear brand beloved by Hollywood’s elite. 

He sported a pink hoodie adorned with signature designs down the sleeves, adding a pop of color to his otherwise muted outfit. 

His wide-leg black jeans were held up by a statement silver belt chain, cementing his place among the new wave of fashion-forward celebrity teens. It was his first post since summer 2024, and while he kept it simple, the message was clear—he is focused on his life, his friends, and his own style, not the baseless rumors swirling online.

The social media post comes hot on the heels of Kourtney’s rare and firm statement addressing the speculation that her eldest son had fathered a child with a classmate. 

Earlier this month, unfounded claims began spreading across social media, with some accounts even sharing photos of a baby girl, falsely alleging that Mason had secretly welcomed a daughter named Piper last year. The rumors quickly gained traction, forcing Kourtney to step in and set the record straight.

Taking to her Instagram Story on March 2, the Kardashians star made it clear that there was absolutely no truth to the gossip.

“I rarely address rumors or conspiracies regarding myself or my family, but this is about my child and it feels wrong to let anyone think for a second that these lies are remotely true. They are not,” she wrote.

“Mason does not have a child. These accounts that pretend to be him are definitely not. They are FAKE. My son really values his privacy, and I am asking all media to please be respectful: He is a kid with feelings and a beautiful life ahead of him.”

She didn’t stop there, calling out the people perpetuating the false claims and asking for the speculation to end.

“Please stop spreading false narratives and spinning lies,” she continued. “And to all the other people making videos about my kids (who, by the way, are minors), please stop and leave them alone.”

Kourtney’s statement was met with an outpouring of support from fans and fellow celebrities, many of whom commended her for protecting Mason from the invasive speculation that often comes with growing up in the public eye. 

Despite being part of one of the world’s most famous families, Mason has largely remained private in recent years, staying off his family’s reality show and keeping his social media presence to a minimum.

This isn’t the first time Kourtney has had to shut down false claims involving her son. In the past, multiple fake accounts have popped up, pretending to be Mason and spreading misinformation. 

While the teenager did briefly have a social media presence when he was younger, Kourtney and his father, Scott Disick, made it clear they were not comfortable with him being online until he was older.

Mason, the eldest child of Kourtney and Scott, has grown up in the spotlight alongside his younger siblings Penelope, 11, Reign, 9, and baby brother Rocky, who was born last year. Unlike some of his cousins who frequently appear on the family’s reality show and social media pages, Mason has chosen to keep a lower profile, making rare appearances in family photos.

• JUI-S body appoints Maulana Abdul Haq as emir with consensus.
• Central Council meeting concerned over law, order situation in KP.
• Urges government, institutions to protection of religious scholars.

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NOWSHERA: Maulana Abdul Haq Sani, son of late Hamid-ul-Haq Haqqani, has been chosen as the central emir of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Sami (JUI-S) during the party’s Central Council meeting at Jamia Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak, The News reported on Monday.

Maulana Abdul Haq’s appointment as the party chief came via a mutual consensus during the meeting attended by representatives from all four provinces.

The leadership position became vacant following the martyrdom of his father Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq Haqqani in a suicide bombing that killed seven others at the mosque inside the Jamia Darul Uloom Haqqania on February 28.

The sprawling campus is home to roughly 4,000 students who are fed, clothed and educated for free.

It is pertinent to know that before Maulana Samiul Haq — father and grandfather of Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq and Maulana Abdul Haq, respectively — was stabbed to death while he was resting in his room at his residence in Rawalpindi in November 2018.

Meanwhile, the JUI-S meeting on Sunday also appointed Sheikhul Hadith Mufti Habibur Rahman Darkhwasti as patron-in-chief and Maulana Khuzaima Sami as the central information secretary.

During the meeting, fateha was also offered for Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq with a call for the immediate arrest of his assassins. The participants further questioned the silence of both the central and provincial governments, as well as institutions over the incident.

The meeting also expressed concerns over the deteriorating law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, particularly the killing of religious scholars. The recent bombing targeting Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Waziristan’s head Maulana Abdullah Nadeem in Wana, and the martyrdom of renowned religious scholar Mufti Muhammad Munir Shakir in Peshawar were declared tragic incidents.

The government and institutions were urged not to consider scholars as adversaries but to ensure their protection.

Speaking on the occasion, Central Secretary General Maulana Syed Muhammad Yousaf Shah and Emir Maulana Abdul Haq assured the meeting that they would continue the mission of their martyred leaders, Maulana Samiul Haq and Maulana Hamid-ul-Haq and that their sacred sacrifices would not go in vain.

The meeting was attended by several prominent scholars, including Maulana Abdul Quddus Naqshbandi, Maulana Abdul Wahid Khateeb, Maulana Muhammad Ayub Khan Daskavi, Maulana Qari Hazrat Wali Hazarvi from Karachi, Maulana Qari Azam Hussain, Maulana Abdul Jabbar Shakir, Maulana Luqmanul Haq Haqqani, Maulana Osama Sami, Maulana Khuzaima Sami and others.

“It’s all for these fans. They deserve everything.”

Newcastle captain Bruno Guimaraes couldn’t have put it any better in his tearful message to the Toon Army both at Wembley Stadium and back in the North East as they celebrated their historic Carabao Cup final win.

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A 2-1 win over Liverpool sees Newcastle finally end their wait for a domestic trophy – a barren run that lasted 70 years with their previous triumph the FA Cup in 1955.

In the black and white half of Wembley there wasn’t a dry eye with players as well as fans lucky enough to obtain tickets for their generational triumph overcome with emotion.

“When I first came here I said I wanted to put my name in history,” Guimaraes continued.

“We can now say we are the champions again. This is one of the best days of my life.

“I don’t have any words. It’s the best day of my life. For them [the fans] it’s like the World Cup.

“People have grown up and not seen us as champions. My first year as captain of this club and it’s one of the best days. This is unbelievable.

“This is my second home. We are making history. Some day when I leave this club I want the fans to sing my name the way they do to (Alan) Shearer. He text me before the game. I’m so emotional today.”

Meanwhile Eddie Howe, now a Newcastle legend and surely an adopted Geordie, was left feeling similarly emotional.

Howe said: “Naturally you end up thinking of the players, the staff, but also the people who aren’t with you – like for me, my mum, family members.

“You go to them and just think of all the sacrifices, hard work that they gave you as a child to give you the opportunity to have a good life, really.

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“You think you’re getting help from above and you get support. I’ve just always had the thought I want to try to make my family proud, and now of course I have three boys and I want to try to make them proud too.”

Emotions ran high in the talkSPORT studio too when the full-time whistle was blown.

Our very own Geordie colleague at talkSPORT.com, Jack Cunningham, was starring on the Goals Show for the showpiece match.

He was a few miles from Wembley, but Jack kicked every ball and fought back the tears when the team he’s supported his whole life managed to get over the line.

“I sadly lost my grandad in August 2021, he was the one who got me into football, got me supporting Newcastle,” Jack said.

“And he never got to see the takeover, Eddie Howe… and I just know wherever he is… this would mean so much to him. He would’ve loved it. It’s just amazing.”

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And what do you do when you’ve waited decades for a trophy? Go out and get radged… as those from the Toon say.

And the early signs show there will be a lot of sore heads on Monday morning with Newcastle fans already drinking it all in – in more ways than one.

Thousands of fans who didn’t make the trip down south made their way to home ground St James’ Park to bask in their glorious victory.

Celebrations also continued in London town with the travelling Toon Army regathering at Covent Garden, as they did on Saturday night, to dance the night away.

And now the monkey on the club’s back been lifted, don’t be surprised if we see more nights on the toon after more Newcastle success.

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