Sarah Helm, the wife of Andy Burnham’s national security adviser, has faced outrage and demands that she “face the full force of the law” after appearing to express support for proscribed group Palestine Action.

The 69-year-old author and journalist, who is married to Prime Minister’s senior aide Jonathan Powell, described herself as one of “us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action” in a response to a post about Sally Rooney.

Rooney, the author of Normal People, said earlier this week that she would stop selling her books in the UK because of her support for the banned organisation.

The 35-year-old writer had previously said she would donate income from her books and their BBC adaptations to Palestine Action. However, her publisher, Faber, said this would not be possible because of the group’s proscription.

Membership of, or support for, proscribed organisations such as Palestine Action can carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Ms Helm’s remarks could have serious consequences for Mr Powell, 69, one of Downing Street’s most influential officials. He has played a central role in advising the government on its policy towards Palestine Action.

Mr Powell has also been closely involved in high-stakes diplomatic efforts in the Middle East in recent weeks. Those efforts included a trip to Israel amid tensions surrounding the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem.

The Israeli government announced the closure of the historic consulate after the UK Government imposed sanctions and a trade ban on goods from West Bank settlements.

Ms Helm was responding to Times Radio pundit Adam Boulton, who had accused Rooney of antisemitism earlier this week over her stance on Palestine Action.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: “She, in common with a lot of people in Ireland, is taking a very strong pro-Palestine and, I have to say, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance.”

Ms Helm, who has been married to Mr Powell since 2007, later wrote on X: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action. Sounds like Adam [Boulton] would have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy”.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said the comment raised “serious questions”.

A spokesperson said: “This is gobsmacking. Clearly, the police need to investigate and Sarah Helm must face the full force of the law, just like others who appear to express support for any proscribed terrorist organisation.

“But this raises extremely serious questions for Jonathan Powell and the Government.

“Spouses are entitled to independent views, but plainly Mr Powell, who leads on our country’s national security and has been intricately involved in our Middle East diplomacy, must publicly denounce this rhetoric if he is to continue in post.”

A Government spokeswoman told the Daily Mail: “These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity.”

Since the proscription came into force on July 5, 2025, more than 3,700 people have been arrested for expressing support for the group. 

Recent arrests include a 94-year-old human rights barrister, who protested outside the Labour Party conference and held up a placard reading: ‘I support Palestine Action’. 

Retired priest, Reverend Sue Parfitt, 84, was also arrested in July for allegedly expressing support for Palestine Action at a protest outside the Metropolitan Police headquarters.

Then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper initiated the ban under the Terrorism Act 2000 after Palestine Action activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted two military aircraft. 

Palestine Action was also accused of several acts of serious criminal damage running into the millions, including at the Thales defence factory in Glasgow, in 2022, as well as at the Instro Precision factory in Kent and the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems UK in 2024.

The Daily Mail has contacted Met Police and Ms Helm for comment. 

Brooklyn Beckham has responded to online critics with a sharp quip while preparing a fried chicken sandwich in his latest cooking video, which quickly drew scrutiny.

The 27-year-old aspiring chef regularly faces criticism over the cooking tutorials he posts on Instagram.

But the stream of negative comments appeared to finally test his patience in Thursday’s video, prompting him to address the trolls directly.

“Bring it on comments” [laughing face emoji], he wrote sarcastically.

The video showed Brooklyn assembling the fried chicken sandwich, chopping vegetables for coleslaw and preparing fries to serve alongside it.

Victoria and David Beckham’s estranged son also received an unexpected wave of support, as fans praised the appearance of his latest dish and called it “delicious.”

Other viewers found his sarcastic response amusing and filled the comments with laughing emojis.

The latest exchange follows criticism earlier in the week, when fans accused Brooklyn of “messing about” with the ingredients while making a beef stew with beer and Guinness. Some viewers said he had overcomplicated what they considered a “basic” recipe.

In that video, Brooklyn chopped the meat and vegetables before adding them to a saucepan, while the potatoes cooked separately in another pot.

One viewer complained in the comments that the method involved too much “messing about” and argued the entire dish could have been prepared in a slow cooker.

They wrote: “No idea why I watch these. They’re so basic and boring a child could do a better job! @beanything25 looking forward to your hilarious take!”

“Why make it hard for yourself? All ingredients in the slow cooker… make mash potato and Job’s a goodun… all this faffing about with ingredients isn’t necessary…”

“Very basic cooking, not a chef. A cook.”

Brooklyn has previously pushed back against followers who mock his cooking, including after sharing a video of himself preparing a pasta dish last weekend.

Some followers were unimpressed by his version of the meal, describing it as “vile” and branding him a “spaghetti murderer.”

He answered with a meme from the sitcom Friends, showing Ross Geller making the “friendly middle finger” gesture, a more toned-down version of the offensive sign.

Brooklyn also addressed the criticism on his Story, writing: “For all the lovely comments about me always burning my food, this pasta is supposed to be burnt sooooooo.”

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Several fans defended him, noting that the recipe is meant to involve adding dry spaghetti straight to the pan to create a charred flavour.

But other angry commenters penned: ‘This looks… in a word – vile. It’s not even cooked properly,’ ‘Where is the REAL tomato sauce’, ‘Basically burnt pasta with jar sauce’.

‘This is not al dente, but al hammer,’ ‘That’s how Meghan Markle makes her pasta dishes – a lazy way of cooking,’ ‘A tube of paste, a jar of sauce, ready prepped garlic. That’s not real cooking oh and the spaghetti looks half cooked. No thanks.’

‘The Spaghetti Murderer is the right name.’

However, those defending him wrote: ‘Not gonna lie Brooklyn, that looks damn tasty.’

‘Interesting how many people criticise Brooklyn but still take the time out to watch his videos. Go Brooklyn.’

‘It looks delish. Heck w the haters/food snobs. loved watching you cook and I’ll give this one a try.’

Plenty of Brooklyn’s cooking videos are met with criticism, including one in August where he made a protein pizza using his own hot sauce brand, Cloud 23.

He also faced backlash earlier that month after he horrified fans by cooking a pasta dish using seawater during his stay on a luxury yacht.

The clip, which was originally shared last year, was reposted to TikTok. 

It caused immediate controversy as followers watched the eldest Beckham son dip his saucepan in the sea to collect salty water to boil the pasta.

It seems Brooklyn may have been trying to trump his estranged father David, who is also passionate about cooking and even completed a culinary course during his spell at AC Milan.

Sir David told The Times back in 2013: ‘Funnily enough, when I lived in Italy, I took a six-month culinary course at a professional chef’s school and learnt to make real ragu and fresh pasta.

‘I used to go there three times a week… I was obsessed with perfecting the risotto because it is difficult.’

However, Brooklyn hasn’t been seen with his parents – or his siblings Cruz, Romeo and Harper – ever since January, when he released a scathing statement about them and accused the pair of trying to ruin his wedding to Nicola Peltz and control him for the sake of ‘brand Beckham’.

Volodymyr Zelensky prompted laughter from the audience after delivering an unexpected response to a question about Donald Trump.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels after talks with European Union leaders, the Ukrainian president was asked whether Trump was using him as a scapegoat for problems in the United States.

“President Trump is facing difficult midterm elections, his personal popularity is very low, diesel prices in the US are very high, and the war that he started in the Middle East is not going the way he wants. Do you think you are being a scapegoat for his own problems?” a Sky News journalist asked.

Following a lengthy pause, Zelensky looked knowingly at the audience and smiled. “This is my answer,” he said, prompting laughter.

The exchange followed Trump’s claim that dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin was easier than working with Zelensky, as relations between Washington and Kyiv have deteriorated.

“Yesterday was a thousand drones in Ukraine, a thousand, but the American side said that it is difficult to speak with Zelensky, it’s less difficult to manage with Putin,” Zelensky said.

He also said Starlink services in Ukraine were continuing to come back online after partial restrictions affected the military’s ability to defend itself against Russian forces.

“Has the speed been fully restored to what it was before? No. Is the speed being restored now? Yes,” Zelensky said.

“My partners told me that the administration and the White House sent a message to SpaceX asking them to restore it,” he added.

Kyiv reported interruptions to the service, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, on Wednesday. The disruption came shortly after Trump criticised Ukraine and called on it to stop attacking Russian oil refineries.

Musk said that any interruption was the responsibility of the US government rather than SpaceX.

“This was a very unpleasant and dangerous surprise,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine relies on Starshield, the military-grade satellite service linked to Starlink, for battlefield communications, mid-range strikes against Russian-occupied territory and its interceptor drones.

The country also uses SpaceX’s separate civilian Starlink satellite network.

Zelensky said the reduction in Starlink’s performance had left Ukrainian forces “unable to shoot down a certain number” of drones.

“In other words, we couldn’t use a tool of defence… That is very painful,” he said.

Despite anger in Kyiv over Washington’s diesel deal with Russia, Zelensky said Ukrainian and US negotiators could meet in the near future.

Both Zelensky and the US senators called ​the deal a gift to Putin that would provide Russia with revenue to keep funding its invasion of Ukraine. 

The waiver allows Moscow to add 300,000 tons of diesel to global markets in an effort to ease fuel prices before the US midterm elections next month. 

‘I know our team is in constant contact with them. I think in the coming days they will agree on a meeting at one level or another,’ Zelensky told reporters.

He asked European Union leaders to provide Kyiv an extra 70 billion euros (£59 billion) in funding next year to help it keep fighting Russia.

‘The war will cost 155 billion euros next year. And we need at least 70 billion euros more from you – for defence, for weapons, and for our resilience. 

‘This is a realistic amount. And I ask you to find this support,’ Zelensky said in his speech at the EU summit.

Trump called Ukraine’s renewed strikes on Russian oil refineries a ‘disgrace’ in an interview published yesterday.

Speaking to broadcaster Newsmax, the president blamed Zelensky for the war, claiming he – not Putin – had ‘destroyed’ Ukraine.

It came after Zelensky resumed attacks on Russian oil refineries after hitting out at Trump’s ‘betrayal’ at a time of intense Russian attacks.

In an interview with the Financial Times, the Ukrainian leader said the cutting off of US intelligence sharing and the simultaneous weakening of the Starlink satellite internet service was ‘dangerous’ for civilians.

He added: ‘The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done.’

‘Well, I think that’s a disgrace,’ Trump said yesterday, adding that Kyiv’s recent strikes were driving up global energy prices.

Ukrainians wanted a deal with Russia but ‘they’re not going to do it with him’, he added. ‘He says he wants to settle but he doesn’t. No, I’m not a big fan of Zelensky.’

On Thursday, a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Ryazan region caused a fire to break out at a major oil refinery, marking the first Ukrainian strike on an energy facility since Trump announced a surprise ‘energy ceasefire’ on Sunday.

Separately, a fuel terminal spectacularly reignited after blazing for five days in Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia.

Zelensky had paused energy ​strikes for three days to comply with US ​wishes, but said he would now resume them because Putin was still attacking Ukraine’s essential ⁠infrastructure.

The Ukrainian attacks targeting Russian oil came after Zelensky’s fury at US President Trump for signing a ‘treacherous’ deal to buy Russian diesel last Friday.

Putin vowed revenge following the attack at the refinery, which accounts for almost 5 per cent of Russia’s total oil refining throughput.

Moscow responded by targeting a Ukrainian supermarket in a drone strike on Thursday.

The store in the Odesa region was partially destroyed and three people were injured in the jet-powered shahed drone attack, which Zelensky condemned as an act of ‘bloody terror’.

A Russian drone strike on Ukraine’s city of Kharkiv killed three people and injured at least five on Friday.

Emergency services were working at the scene and the injured were receiving medical assistance.

Trump has, in recent days, demanded Zelensky quit as leader and blamed him for spiralling energy prices.

Zelensky, meanwhile, lambasted Trump over his apparent admiration for Putin, accusing the US president of having an instinctive affinity for autocrats and the super-wealthy.

‘He [Trump] speaks about it openly and loudly that he loves such people and he respects such people. Because for him people who can be leaders 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, it means they can be very strong,’ Zelensky said.

Washington piled pressure on Kyiv to stop striking Putin’s refineries, claiming that a moratorium, alongside a US deal with Moscow to buy hundreds of thousands of tonnes of Russian diesel, is necessary to bring down American fuel prices.

Zelensky condemned the US deal with Russia, arguing it would help Russia prolong its brutal invasion of Ukraine. 

Trump responded to Zelensky’s criticism of the deal by saying it was ‘time for Ukraine to get a new president’, marking a rapid decline in relations between the two countries.

Trump then announced on Sunday that Russia and Ukraine had agreed a ceasefire on strikes on energy infrastructure ‘effective immediately’ – to which Zelensky responded that the ceasefire was ‘news to me’.

But the Ukrainian president agreed to halt strikes on Russian oil facilities if Moscow stopped its bombing campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Despite Ukraine’s honouring of the supposed ceasefire, Zelensky said his military had been left without US early-warning alerts for incoming ballistic missiles, while Musk’s Starlink satellite communications service had been slowed down across the nation, interfering with frontline operations and medium-range strikes against Russian military sites.

Russia, however, did not honour the ceasefire, instead continuing to pound Ukraine on Monday by targeting its gas infrastructure, a power plant and a substation.

The order to limit the satellite system used by Ukraine ​for battlefield communications and drone operations came from inside the White House, two US officials and a Western official briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The officials said ‌leaders at the Defence Department received a message that the SpaceX Starshield service for the Ukrainian military needed to be slowed.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not specify who in the White House made the decision or who was responsible for implementing the order. 

The Pentagon is the biggest customer of Starshield, which is the military-grade version of the Starlink service. 

Ukrainian officials said this week that military-grade Starlink receptors stopped working in Ukraine ​when mounted on fast-moving objects, interfering with the performance of Ukrainian drones that rely on them for onboard guidance systems over Ukrainian territory. 

A person in Ukraine’s Defence Ministry said on ​Thursday that the receptors were now working when in motion, but only at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 kph). 

The move to temporarily restrict the vital communications system came as Trump has pressured Kyiv to stop its attacks on Russian refineries, which he has blamed for the ​soaring energy prices that are denting his Republican Party’s prospects in the November midterm elections. 

But experts say that surge in energy costs is mainly the result of the US-Israeli war with Iran, which brought Iranian ​attacks on energy facilities and has largely shut the vital Strait of Hormuz.

Elon Musk – whose company SpaceX operates the Starlink satellites which have slowed down in recent days – took to X to condemn Ukraine’s resumption of attacks on Russia’s oil facilities.

‘And so the slaughter continues,’ the tech billionaire wrote. ‘Time for Zelensky to go.’

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He posted on X late on Wednesday that Starshield systems, the military-grade satellite network built on Starlink technology, were ‘owned and controlled by the US government’.

‘Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,’ he said, referring to Trump.

Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Zelensky agreed he felt ‘betrayed’ by Trump’s actions over the past few days, and warned the president: ‘This is not the right side of history.’ 

On Thursday, Trump said Zelensky was ‘more difficult to deal with than [Vladimir] Putin’.

‘He is not a good guy for us to deal with,’ the US president told Newsmax.

‘Well, I think if they are going to end up with a settlement of some kind, they are not going to do it with him.

‘He doesn’t want to settle. He says he wants to settle but he doesn’t. No, I’m not a big fan of Zelensky, they’ve destroyed that country.’

He added: ‘[The war] should end soon. I think they actually both would like to see it end. But I think I find Zelensky to be more difficult to deal with than Putin.

‘As you know, Putin hates Zelensky, and Zelensky hates Putin. And when you have that kind of hatred, it’s very hard to get something settled.’

Addressing Kyiv’s renewed strikes on Russian oil facilities, he said: ‘Now, if you tell me that Zelensky is again shooting at refineries, all he’s doing is making the world oil price higher.

‘Well, I think that’s a disgrace. There’s plenty of other targets… There are a lot of targets that you can hit.

‘But when you shoot at diesel refineries where you make, you know, diesel oil and we need that and the world needs that, then he’s not doing a good service for the world.’ 

Ukraine was said to have completely run out of its stocks of the American-made Patriot air defence on Thursday – which are among the only weapons capable of knocking down a ballistic missile.

Zelensky urged Trump to allow US factories to produce the missiles locally on licence, as a source told CNN: ‘Almost all the ballistic missiles from the last strike were not intercepted due to lack of the [interceptor] missiles’.

‘As of October 7, there were only 10 missiles left. These were used up during the attacks. Currently, there are only a couple remaining,’ a Ukrainian official told the Washington Post. 

On Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, Russian ballistic missiles hit three power plants in Kyiv – killing four and injuring 25.

Britain is sending Ukraine additional long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to help disrupt Russia’s military operations and counter attacks on civilian infrastructure, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Zelensky met Prime Minister Andy Burnham in London on Wednesday, when Britain reaffirmed its support for Kyiv and announced further military assistance following a recent deterioration in Ukraine’s ties with Washington.

Ukraine’s Defence Forces struck an airfield in the Voronezh region on Thursday, destroying four of Russia’s Su-34 aircraft.

Two more Su-34s were hit in the attack on the Borisoglebsk military airfield.

The assault represents a major blow to Putin’s strike aircraft used to bombard Ukrainian troops and cities with devastating glide bombs.

The breakdown in relations between Kyiv and Washington comes as American officials have proposed that European countries unfreeze some Russian sovereign assets immobilised after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The assets would be transferred to a vehicle overseen by Washington in an attempt to revive peace talks.

European ⁠delegates rebuffed the plan, which was pitched by US ​special envoy ​Steve ⁠Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared ​Kushner, ⁠the FT said.

The Trump administration is also considering easing sanctions on so-called shadow fleet vessels that have transported oil and petroleum products from countries including Russia, Iran and ‌Venezuela.

The move aims to reduce record-high global freight rates that have cut into demand for US crude.

Zelensky wrote on X on Thursday that it was ‘obvious that Russia deliberately escalated these strikes after receiving a relaxation of sanctions and seeing attempts to pressure Ukraine’. 

He continued: ‘Russia exploits every such moment and must be held accountable for what it does. Strong decisions are needed to end this war. Ukraine needs stable support, and first and foremost in air defence. 

‘Partners need honesty regarding the war: it is important that everyone in America stands not on the side of the aggressor, but on the side of protecting our lives and our efforts to end this war and ensure security.’ 

Russia on Thursday said Ukraine was going against Washington’s peace efforts by striking Russian oil refineries, even though Moscow itself never publicly agreed to Washington’s ‘energy ceasefire’.

Kyiv ‘continues to launch strikes against these facilities. In doing so, it is coming into serious conflict with the peace efforts of the United States and American negotiators, who are making vigorous efforts to initiate the peace process,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin is plotting strikes to crush Ukraine into submission after his rare admission that he blundered in the war.

The Kremlin dictator candidly acknowledged he failed to grasp Ukrainian tactics in hitting Russian Amazon-style online retail giants, data centres belonging to Google-like giant Yandex and the largest financial institution Sberbank.

Ukraine ‘keeps taking steps which, frankly speaking, we probably should have anticipated, but we thought they would never think of doing such things,’ confessed a blindsided Putin who prides himself on being a great war strategist.

‘They did think of them, and we are beginning to respond.’

He referred to online giants Wildberries and Ozon as well as Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries.

Vowing revenge, Putin said: ‘They made the first move. We began responding, and now they are already whining about energy facilities and other targets, including data centres and so on.

‘But they started it. They should not have started it.

‘Before taking that step, they should have thought carefully about the consequences.’

A Russian plan leaked to Ukraine and obtained by The New York Times shows Putin’s suspected apocalyptic revenge campaign, already unfolding.

The aim is to use 70 ballistic missiles, 720 long-range drones and 150 guided bombs to cut off the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa from water, power and heating.

Putin reportedly calculates that one month of intense strikes could wreak havoc as the weather turns cold, something he has failed to inflict in the war’s four previous winters.

He allegedly aims to cripple the capital, Kharkiv and Odesa to bring Ukrainians to their knees, despite Trump’s constant claim that Putin wants a deal to end the war.

Russia again targeted key energy installations overnight across Ukraine but especially in Kyiv which faced emergency blackouts.

The strikes were so intense that NATO twice scrambled military aircraft over neighbouring Poland.

‘These measures are precautionary and are aimed at securing and protecting Polish airspace, particularly in areas adjacent to the regions under threat,’ said a statement from Warsaw’s operational command.

‘He wants to freeze us into surrender, but it won’t work,’ said an emergency responder in Kharkiv.

Close Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev seized on Trump’s claim that Zelensky won’t make peace, crudely claiming that the Ukrainian president ‘ought to have taken some rat poison or downed a horse’s dose of…coke.’

Despite Putin’s bluster, he was locked in urgent late meetings with his prime minister and FSB security chief Alexander Bortnikov along with other top officials, claimed insider Telegram channel VChK-OGPU.

Putin also faced an eighth consecutive day and night of airport disruption in Moscow, which early today extended to St Petersburg.

As all four Moscow airports – Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky – were closed due to Ukrainian drones, seven government-linked planes took off from military Chkalovsky airfield during the attack – possibly to evacuate the aircraft.

Hundreds of planes were delayed and cancelled as Zelensky seeks to massively disrupt Russia’s civil aviation.

A Ukrainian drone strike in Vladimir region was suspected as a new attack on internet giant Yandex, already reeling from earlier attacks.

And for the second day in succession, Ukraine defied Trump by hitting the Ryazan Oil Refinery.

Russians and Ukrainians joined together in mocking Trump for his claim that Putin-occupied Crimea is ‘surrounded by an ocean on all four sides’.

In fact it is a peninsula attached to the mainland, sided by the Black and Azov seas – nowhere near any ocean.

Previously Trump called Crimea ‘the size of Texas or something — in the middle of the ocean. And it’s gorgeous.’

In fact, Texas is 26 times larger than Crimea and 15 per cent bigger than all Ukraine.

A former US Army sniper has alleged that a covert military operation took place near Area 51, where at least one American soldier was reportedly killed in a confrontation with reptilian-looking aliens.

Nick Betts, co-host of the Liberty Risk podcast, said an unnamed member of the military’s elite special missions community told him that soldiers had been issued directed-energy weapons to track three creatures that had entered a highly classified US facility.

The alleged operation took place in a deep underground tunnel near the Nevada installation. According to the account, one soldier was shot in the chest and killed instantly by a weapon similar to those carried by the team.

“They said that they f****** shot this creature that was bipedal, mildly reptilian-looking but had fingers and was using this weapon system,” Betts said.

Betts said the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) member described the incident during a night of drinking while the two were involved in a documentary about the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The veteran sniper, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, told his Navy SEAL co-hosts, Kevin Kent and Ryan Williams, that he came to believe the story after witnessing the stunned response of another soldier who was allegedly involved in the Area 51 mission.

Betts said both the source who first told him the story and the other JSOC member warned him not to discuss it. He also claimed that their participation in the documentary was abruptly cancelled after he asked about the alleged incident the next morning.

“I would have chalked it up to the wine if it wasn’t for being choke slammed up against a f****** wall in the morning at 6am,” Betts said.

The US military and the White House have consistently said there is no physical evidence proving the existence of UFOs or extraterrestrial beings.

Betts acknowledged that the JSOC soldier’s account was delivered while the man was intoxicated. However, he insisted that the source remained lucid and was not “sloppy” when describing the alleged encounter.

He added that the other special forces veteran was not in the same hotel room in Poland when he heard the story. That, Betts said, made the soldier’s angry reaction appear genuine rather than staged or influenced by the original conversation.

“I’m like, ‘Hey, so and so told me you know a thing or two about aliens.’ Dude, he f****** stops, turns me, grabs me by the f****** neck, and f****** slams me up against the wall,” Betts recalled during a podcast episode in December 2025.

“And he’s like, ‘Nick, I f****** swear to God. Never f****** talk about this again.’”

The soldier who allegedly disclosed the story told Betts that military officials at Fort Bragg in North Carolina had called the JSOC unit in for an emergency deployment to an underground facility several miles from Area 51.

Since the 1940s, the Nevada complex has been the subject of claims involving secret UFO research and the development of experimental aircraft.

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After departing Fort Bragg, the team was reportedly briefed at Area 51 and equipped with advanced weapons that fired energy blasts rather than conventional rounds. They were then flown by Black Hawk helicopter to the entrance of a long tunnel leading into the underground complex.

Betts said the emergency was triggered when the underground site stopped transmitting its routine radio checks. A quick-reaction force sent to investigate also allegedly failed to return.

The former sniper did not say whether his source knew if those soldiers had been killed or remained missing.

Once inside the facility, the source claimed a team of about six soldiers began sweeping through the tunnels and encountered the first reptilian invader using the same type of weapons they had been given.

‘As they’re coming around on this outside, the outside left guy gets f****** hosed with one of the guns that they’re using like straight to the chest and f****** dies,’ Betts recounted.

The group allegedly returned fire and killed the creature. Betts’ JSOC source added that the mission ended with all three reptilian aliens being found and killed.

However, the remains of the dead US soldier were allegedly cremated on site, which the rest of the team protested because of the serviceman’s Catholic beliefs.

The source also claimed that a cover story was created, saying the soldier died in a training accident that incinerated his body.

According to Betts, the mysterious base the reptilians had invaded was more advanced than even the most secure levels of the Pentagon.

‘It was, you know, almost looked like “Independence Day,” where they have the glass windows and things like that and access points with full handprints and biometrics and then also an iris reader,’ he described.

The survivors of the alleged battle in Nevada were taken to sign documents, possibly a non-disclosure agreement, and underwent biometric scanning of their hands and eyes.

Betts noted that after he was ordered to leave the documentary set in Poland, which took place at an unrevealed point after 2022, the two soldiers never spoke with him again.

Betts’s claims are not the first mention of a race of beings which allegedly appear to be reptilian.

Multiple government whistleblowers, including astrophysicist Dr Eric Davis and retired Air Force Major David Grusch, have alleged that at least four alien species exist, including a race known as the Reptilians.