After contending for the playoffs multiple times over the past few seasons, 2025 doesn’t seem to be the Atlanta Braves’ year. They are currently 13 games behind the New York Mets in the NL East, good enough for fourth place. They are nine games out of the last NL Wild Card spot. Injuries, inconsistency and […]
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AS Andrew Drury made his way through a Syrian camp looking for notorious ISIS bride Shamima Begum, his mind began to race.
Although the intrepid filmmaker had been in far more perilous situations – his nerves started to get the better of him.
But when he was introduced to Begum – who left the UK aged 15 to join ISIS a decade ago in 2015 – he was taken aback.
“She was very shaky, very nervous, very shut, emotional, tearful,” Andrew told The Sun.
Father-of-four Andrew met Begum, who grew up in East London, for the first of six times at the Al-Roj camp in Syria in June 2021 while filming for a documentary, Danger Zone.
He initially felt sorry for Begum, then 21, and became a close confidant of the Jihadi bride – even securing a Bafta-nominated live interview with her for Good Morning Britain.
In less than two years his view of Begum – accused of serving in the feared IS “morality police” and helping make suicide vests – completely changed, however.
He saw a colder side when she talked about how the death of her three children no longer upset her and even expressed support of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi.
Extreme adventurer Andrew, who has made treacherous journeys to North Korea and Iraq, said at first Begum was a “thin, ill-looking, sad character” who was “very apologetic”.
“We took a long walk around the camp, She started to relax, and she said she used to take this regular walk right around the perimeter of the camp to clear her head,” he said.
“After the interview finished, we walked back to the room. Normally she’d go off to a tent, but she wanted to come back to the room to get a cold drink.
“Then I didn’t want to insult her at that point, I wanted to say goodbye – I thought I’d never see her again.
“I said, ‘Can I shake your hand?’ and she asked for a hug.
“So she gave me a hug and started to cry.”
Andrew, from Surrey, said he felt they had formed a connection and believed she regretted turning her back on Western society to join the murderous death cult.
“At that point I kind of believed that she was sincere,” he said.
I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it
Andrew Drury
“I kind of felt sorry for her. I thought at that point she’d been radicalised online, sent out as a prescribed bridge to somebody.
“She said she’d made a real bad mistake and really regretted what she’d done.
“She owned up to being this person that everybody hates in the UK.
“And I felt sorry for her, I’ve got young daughters, not a lot of difference in age, so I thought people do make mistakes, and I should give her a chance.”
Andrew – whose book Trip Hazard details his experience in dangerous areas – returned to the camp months later after GMB asked for his help to get an interview with Begum.
The author, who has exchanged hundreds of messages with Begum, said he noticed a “subtle change” in the former Brit.
Begum, who was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019, appeared to have undergone a more “Western” makeover – ditching her hijab and abaya.
“She had changed as a character,” Andrew said.
“She was more short. She wasn’t this nervous-cry sort of character.
“She looked assured, and she didn’t seem such a waif character, and she seemed to be in control of herself and her emotions.”
Andrew told how Begum spent the night before the live interview “rehearsing” with three of her friends In the camp, which is controlled by armed guards.
He added: “Her friends said they’d had their music playing and they were tutoring Shamima what to say.
“They seemed pretty together about what she should say, and they were schooling her.”
Begum married an IS fighter soon after arriving in Syria and went on to have three children, none of whom survived.
Andrew – who said he had formed a “bond” with Begum – told how after the interview, Shamima opened her purse and showed him photos of her children.
The tragic loss of his own brother Robert as a child made him sympathise with Shamima’s plight.
“One of them was a scene where the child must have been eight, nine months old, had chocolate around his face,” he recalled.
“I said, ‘What’s that?’ and she said, ‘Oh we used to like baking cakes’.
“And it actually makes me quite sad. It was really quite sad knowing the child had died.
“She made it sound like an honour that she had shared these pictures with me, which I guess it probably was, because she hadn’t shared them before she said.”
But it was Begum’s attitude after Andrew returned to the UK that shocked him – and began to shatter their relationship.
“I said to her, ‘Those pictures you showed me really upset me, I hope you’re okay’,” he said.
“She messaged back and said, ‘Oh, they don’t bother me anymore. That doesn’t make me sad’.
“I thought, was that because she’s been traumatised so badly?
“But I think she is that hard. I think she’s calculated.
“I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it.”
After meeting Andrew a couple of times, Begum started asking him to bring stuff into the camp for her – including clothes.
The dad said he felt “at a crossroads” about whether to take what she wanted.
“I felt bad and guilty that I’d be taking somebody that carried out what could have been some atrocities, clothes,” he said.
“But then, probably on the soft side of me, and the fact is, she was a young girl, so I was playing with these emotions, but I took her the clothes from Primark.
“We had a bundle of stuff, we took some toys for the children because it’s not their fault.”
But then Begum’s requests started turning into demands, Andrew said.
“The messages continued,” he added.
Exclusive by Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor and Alan Duncan
A CHILD no older than eight draws his hand across his neck in a chilling throat-slitting gesture – the message is clear, “You are not welcome here”.
Other kids hurl stones, shout and scream – while one exasperated camp official shows us CCTV of two youngsters hurling a firebomb.
Welcome to camps al-Hol and al-Roj in northern Syria – the fates of which remain uncertain after the fall of tyrant Bashar al-Assad.
It is warned these stark detention centres are now the breeding ground for the next generation of the bloodthirsty cult.
And much of this new wave of radicalisation is feared to be coming from the mothers inside the camps.
Senior camp official Rashid Omer said: “The reality is – they are not changing. This is not a normal camp – this a bomb.”
He went on: “They are saying it was ISIS who ‘liberated’ Damascus – and soon they will be coming here.”
“And then they want to spread to Europe, to Africa, and then to everywhere.”
The two sprawling sites hold a total of nearly 60,000 including ISIS fighters, families and children.
At least 6,000 Westerners are still held among them – including infamous jihadi bride Shamima Begum, the 25-year-old from London.
“This time they became slightly more angry, slightly more direct.”
Before he planned to return to Syria again, Begum told him she wanted two books – Guantanamo Bay Diaries and Sea Prayer – which is inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis.
Andrew said she was also being schooled by her lawyer about her media presence.
He added: “What she declared by then is that she was hostage in a prison camp – where they were legally held.
“That’s how she started to see herself. All apologies had gone.
“She’d done a documentary with the BBC and was on the front of The Times magazine.
“She’d become a celebrity and was loving all the attention. She’d read all the newspaper articles.”
Andrew – who returned to the camp with a friend and no crew – took some clothes for Begum with him.
I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive
Andrew Drury
But it was his decision not to take the books she had demanded that revealed her true colours.
“I did go back again, but my feelings were already changing towards her,” Andrew said.
“It was a little boy’s birthday, and I felt so sorry for him.
“He wanted a Superman outfit, so I would have gone just for that, because I spend a lot of time in refugee camps. It’s not fair for these kids.
“I didn’t take the books Shamima wanted because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want her to have that opportunity to what I saw as studying how to be a victim.
“She opened the clothes, said she didn’t like them. I mean, this is a girl in a prison camp.
“She said, ‘I didn’t really care about the clothes, it was the books I wanted’. So she became quite aggressive in her nature.”
ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, was stripped of her British citizenship on February 20, 2019.
Begum had fled the UK in February 2015 with two other Bethnal Green schoolgirls to join the fledgling caliphate in Iraq and Syria which had emerged out of the chaos of war in those two countries.
In February 2019, after the ISIS empire fell, she declared that she wanted to come home with her son.
But she appeared to show no remorse and called the 2017 Manchester Arena massacre of 22 people attending a concert “justified”.
Her principled position has sparked intense debate about the UK’s responsibilities to jihadis who despise the country and everything it stands for, but want to return from Syria.
The case took a dramatic turn on February 20 2019 when it emerged the Home Office had opted to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship.
Begum claims she is “willing to change” her ways while pleading for “mercy” from Britain.
Her appeals against the decision have all been denied.
Begum’s attitude then worsened when Andrew became interested in another girl’s story.
It was one of the final nails in the coffin in the bond Andrew believed they had initially formed.
“Shamima had a tantrum that the attention had been taken away from her,” he said.
“She was like a child that was pretending they were ill.
“So during this period of time I was beginning to feel like the connection was gone.
“It was broken, and I was beginning not to like her.
“I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive.
“I had found out from other girls what she was accused of, and they told me the same thing that I had heard before, like sewing suicide vests
“Things were ringing in my head like she said early on that the Manchester bombing was legitimate because of what happened in Iraq and Syria.
“So I didn’t trust her.”
Andrew’s last contact with Begum was around two years ago in a fiery text exchange.
She accused Andrew of “selling her out”, to which he shot back: “You’ve sold your country out.”
Begum last year lost her final appeal challenging the removal of her British citizenship.
She can now no longer fight to overturn the revocation of her citizenship within the UK legal system.
Andrew said: “I think she’s a danger for what she stood for, and I don’t think she could ever come back.
“I think she needs to go on trial in Syria for the crimes she committed against the Syrian people.”
REIGNING champion Carlos Alcaraz has his sights firmly set on back-to-back titles – but he is currently TWO sets down against World No 1 Jannik Sinner.
Spanish sensation Alcaraz’s spot in this afternoon’s showpiece was handed to him when his semi-final opponent Lorenzo Musetti was forced to retire with leg issues.
While World No.1 Sinner may have ended Novak Djokovic’s Roland Garros career after beating the super Serbian by straight sets in a dominant final four match to get here.
The winner of this mouthwatering clash will not only get to lift the Roland Garros title, but they’ll be taking home a huge pot of prize money.
BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK
Follow ALL the action from the French Open final with our live blog below…
WITH its sun-kissed beaches and chic capital city just a short flight away from the UK, Majorca is one of the most idyllic Mediterranean holiday hotspots.
A favourite of A-list stars and royalty alike, celebs including Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, tennis star Rafael Nadal and King Juan Carlos of Spain all boast homes on the island.
While Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright have even named their baby daughter Palma in a touching nod to their love of its trendy capital.
No wonder TV bosses chose the picturesque island as the perfect romantic back-drop for the Love Island villa.
But as the new series of the dating show starts on Monday, we can reveal a darker underbelly to the island far removed from its reputation as the more laid-back luxury sister to the Balearic party capital Ibiza.
Tourists have been victims of rape, daylight robbery and assault, while under pressure cops have already arrested 50 suspected pickpockets before the summer season has barely started.
Last week a reality TV star was rushed to hospital after reporting being drugged and robbed at a party in a horrifying ordeal.
Austrian model Vanessa Mariposa, 32, was left vomiting and unable to walk after she was allegedly spiked on a night out in Majorca.
She said: “I was robbed – my Cartier bracelet was taken off my wrist and my SIM card was removed from my phone.
“I’m convinced the people who did this had far worse intentions… otherwise they wouldn’t have drugged us or taken steps to stop us from calling for help.”
The worrying attack comes as the local police union claimed the island is becoming a ‘paradise for criminals’ flaunting their shortage of personnel ahead of the holiday season, when Majorca is flooded with tourists.
Cops claim their numbers have dropped in recent years and have called for back-up to help them take on the crooks targeting tourists.
Luis Bernardo Fernandez, the provincial secretary for the Unified Association of Civil Guards (AUGC) in the Balearic Islands told The Sun a police shortage had direct implications for holidaymaker safety.
He also said the rising number of illegal migrants reaching the islands meant already-stretched officers were being diverted away from other duties.
And he described the increase in sex crimes, up more than five per cent last year, as “extremely worrying”.
Official figures show more than 80,300 crimes in 2024 in the Balearic islands, 2.4 per cent more, while the national average fell by 0.3 per cent.
Meanwhile a travel expert in Majorca is warning Brits to be on their guard as pickpocketing gangs are targeting visitors as they land at the airport and in supermarket car parks.
Alex Smith has lived on the island for 20 years and runs popular blog Mallorca Under the Sun.
She has warned of a crimewave sweeping the island as it gears up for summer.
Alex says the thieves aren’t just active in the popular party resorts of Magaluf and Palma Nova, but are also hitting quieter spots favoured by families and pensioners.
On her YouTube channel Alex warned: “We are only one week into the summer holiday season, pickpockets are running rife around the holiday resorts right now.
Pickpockets are running rife around the holiday resorts right now
Alex Smith, local blogger
“We had pickpockets in Puerto Pollensa last year but they have been getting out and about.
“We’re talking Alcudia, Calabona, Playa de Palma, Peguera, Antratx, and Formentor, and we’re even talking supermarket car parks as well, or within supermarkets.”
In recent years so-called ‘Rolex gangs’ have been operating on the island, daringly using knives to slice the expensive time-pieces off victims’ arms before making their getaway.
Last year a Brit holidaymaker had his phone and a £100,000 diamond Rolex watch snatched off him while on a night out.
And just last month the National Police Robbery Squad launched an investigation into the theft of a Richard Millie watch valued at £245,000 from a young man while he was walking in the centre of Palma.
The brazen criminal approached the victim from behind, assaulted him and managed to steal his watch.
In January two Chilean men were jailed for nine years and six years respectively for a series of robberies at luxury homes on the island.
The two stole cash and valuables worth an estimated half a million Euros.
But it isn’t just the super-rich falling victim to the criminal gangs – Brits have reported having phones, cash and valuables stolen from their beach sunbeds as they sunbathe or take a dip in the sea.
As well as thefts and burglaries there are even more serious crimes impacting tourists on the island.
A British woman was robbed and raped in a horror attack on a beach last year.
The 30-year-old told detectives she agreed to go there in the early hours of the morning with a man she met and ended up agreeing to have sex with him, before a second man appeared on the scene and forced himself on her.
They then fled the beach near Palma with her belongings, according to the holidaymaker.
Also last summer a British teenager was allegedly raped after being plied with alcohol in a bar on the island.
And a 21-year-old British tourist claimed she was raped by a man who intercepted her as she returned to her holiday apartment in Port D’Antratx after a boozy night out with friends.
Police later arrested a 40-year-old Senegalese man.
The previous summer an 18-year-old British girl was allegedly gang-raped by eight men at a Magaluf hotel. Seven French men and one Swiss are still in prison awaiting trial.
Last week police arrested a Senegalese man accused of stabbing a young Dutch man in the back in Playa de Palma after being kicked out of a bar.
I was robbed – my Cartier bracelet was taken off my wrist and my SIM card was removed from my phone. I’m convinced the people who did this had far worse intentions
Vanessa Mariposa
The victim had to be hospitalised in Son Espases with a punctured lung. The suspect was charged with attempted murder.
Police have already had their work cut out this year, despite the summer season only just getting underway.
Nearly 50 pickpockets and petty thieves targeting tourist victims have been arrested in the past month by police in Majorca who have drafted in early reinforcements to tackle an expected summer crimewave.
National Police on the holiday island announced last month that they had brought forward ‘Operation Summer’ by bringing in extra officers from the mainland specialising in ‘prevent and rapid response’ crimefighting to work along town hall-employed local police.
A spokesman for the force in Majorca said: “They will serve on the island for a month as a prelude to the incorporation of other units who will work in the municipality of Palma ahead of the arrival of reinforcements in Manacor in Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca.”
A National Police spokesman said that the arrests included pickpockets and someone wanted for drug trafficking.
They also seized cash, ID documents and high-end stolen items including designer sunglasses.
But with the island proving to be a lucrative hunting ground for criminals, it is unlikely that they will go quietly.
Last year a group of locals turned vigilante to tackle a group of Algerians who were alleged to be bringing violent crime to the island.
Police were called to the Palma neighbourhood of Son Gotleu after a street fight involving around 50 people broke out.
The clashes were described by one local newspaper as an “open war between racial groups”.
A band of locals – an unlikely union made up of Spanish gypsies, Morrocans and Africans – took it into their own hands to confront a squad of Algerians, who are said to have installed a reign of terror and have turned the neighbourhood into a breeding ground for violent crimes.
Videos emerged depicting the violence of the clashes between the two troops, as well as efforts by the police to restore order.
Many of the Algerian immigrants appear to have arrived on the island in small boats, prompting the Balearics President Marga Prohens to blame the lack of troops from the State Security Forces and Corps (FFCCSE) for the growing problem.
She said: “The lack of FFCCSE troops is linked to difficulties in controlling the worrying crime data in the Balearic Islands.
“As a government, we can only share the concern that this brings to citizens, especially when migrants arriving on the shores of the Islands face them with defiant and obscene gestures.”
Around 2,000 migrants have arrived already so far this year. We have had so much immigration and there really aren’t enough staff to deal with it
Luis Bernardo Fernandez
Mr Fernandez told The Sun: “On the subject of immigration we have been overwhelmed.
“Around 2,000 migrants have arrived already so far this year. We have had so much immigration and there really aren’t enough staff to deal with it.
“Police are moved from Majorca to the other islands of Ibiza and Formentera to help out.
“In the summer reinforcements are usually brought in to boost police numbers but what is happening is that not everyone can come because of the high rental prices.
“In Ibiza there’s nowhere to live. In Majorca it’s impossible.
“There is all this talk of summer operations and reinforcements but there’s always going to be a problem when there’s no extra incentives for Civil Guard officers to come here, which is something we’ve been fighting for for years.
“As things stand today, the Balearic Islands are a place of punishment for officers who get transferred here.
“Nobody wants to come to places like Majorca because of the high cost of living and the fact officers don’t get any extra wages or housing allowance of any kind.
“There is an increase in the number of officers but the ideal number of Civil Guard officers for the Balearic Islands should be around 1,730 and at present we currently have only around 1,200 to 1,300.
“We would need around 500 more and 500 are not going to come in the summer.
“The lack of police officers is definitely a factor that goes towards explaining these very concerning crime figure increases.”
