In a grand and elegant ceremony, Isabel von Habsburg-Lothringen, the Archduchess of Austria, exchanged vows with a Spanish aristocrat, with members of the Belgian royal family in attendance to celebrate the occasion on Saturday.

This delightful event, which brought together two esteemed royal lineages, saw the great-granddaughter of Emperor Karl and Empress Zita of Austria, Isabel, marry Carols de Palacio Gaytan de Ayala. The ceremony took place in the historic setting of Vienna’s Jesuit Church.

Among the distinguished guests on July 25 were Belgian royalty, including King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, who attended the nuptials with their two eldest children, Princess Elisabeth and Prince Gabriel, lending their support to the newlyweds.

At 26, Isabel is not only the daughter of Archduke Simeon of Austria and Princess Maria of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, but she also maintains significant ancestral connections to the Belgian royal family.

These connections are further highlighted by King Philippe’s sister, Princess Astrid, who is married to Prince Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este—a cadet branch of the Habsburg Lorraine lineage.

Meanwhile, Carlos is the son of Carlos Maria de Palacio y de Oriol and Teresa Gaytan de Ayala y Dominguez and descends from Spanish nobility.

Stepping out for her wedding day in a striking A-line silk dress with a floral lace bodice, Isabel donned the Bourbon-Two Sicilies diamond button tiara, which she borrowed from her uncle, the Duke of Calabria.

The elegant tiara was also worn by Isabel’s mother on her wedding day and was first gifted to Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma for her wedding to Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, in 1936.

Alongside the historic tiara, the bride also accessorised with her mother’s pearl earrings, which she wore on her own wedding day to the Archduke in 1996.

Despite their family heritage and their regal wedding guest list, both Isabel and Carlos are based in London and work in finance. 

Isabel, who has a Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree from the University of Navarra, works as an analyst for Fremman Capital, while Carlos holds a Senior Associate position in Mubadala Capital’s Private Equity team. 

Arriving in style at the royal wedding, Princess Elisabeth, 24, opted for a glamorous emerald green pleated Maje dress, alongside Maison Fabienne Delvigne clutch bag and coordinated fascinator to tie the look together.

Taking fashion inspiration from the Princess of Wales, Elisabeth, who is heir to the Belgian throne, wore a pair of Givanvito Rossi’s Gianvito 105 Suede Pumps in Praline. 

Her mother, Queen Mathilde, 53, looked effortlessly elegant in a red lace dress, which she paired with matching heels and a headpiece. 

Notably absent from the wedding day were the family’s two youngest members, Prince Emmanuel, 20, and Princess Eleanore, 18.

Other high-profile guests who were in attendance for the all-important nuptials were Countess Anna Schaffgotsch and Infante Dinis de Braganca, alongside Pierre D’Arenberg and Princess Lydia Athenais D’Arenberg

Showcasing the close bond between royals from different nations, Elisabeth, 24, gave insight into arguably the world’s most exclusive group chat, with Crown Princesses Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands, 22, and Ingrid Alexander of Norway, 22, in a recent interview.

The royal, who recently graduated her two-year master’s degree at Harvard University, told HNL via People in her first major interview: ‘We’ve known each other for a long time and see each other occasionally at events.

‘In my generation, there are several women. You see a similar shift in other monarchies,’ she said, before adding, ‘we are all in the same situation. It’s a hurdle we will face together.’

In June last year, Catharina-Amalia also told journalist Wim Dehandschutter via Australia Women’s Weekly: ‘We stay in contact with each other because we are all living a very specific life and we don’t need much explanation to understand each other.’

She added: ‘It’s a good thing that I can chat with Elisabeth and Ingrid Alexandra about very simple things in our life which are difficult, different for us, friendships, privacy, social media. We discuss how we handle it.’

It’s thought Spain’s 20-year-old Leonor, Princess of Asturias, who graduated from UWC Atlantic in South Wales and is now training in the Spanish military, may also be included in the closely-guarded WhatsApp group.

However, Wim admitted he couldn’t be sure because her mother Queen Letizia of Spain is ‘very strict’ with her two daughters, meaning the heir to the Spanish throne is apparently less connected than the other three princesses.

Further explaining the royal support network built by the future queens, the journalist revealed how Catharina-Amalia mentioned privacy as a topic of discussion for the princesses.

Wim questioned: ‘How do you handle privacy when you’re a public figure? How do you react when people want to become friends? Do they want to become friends because you are the future queen or do they really like you?’

The Princess of Orange is the eldest child of Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands, and has recently begun to take on solo engagements and more responsibility within the royal household.

Catharina-Amalia, who is first in line to the throne ahead of her siblings Princess Alexia, 20, and Princess Ariane, 19, is said to speak fluent Spanish thanks to her mother, who is Argentine by birth.

She is currently studying for a degree in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics at Amsterdam University.

For almost six harrowing years, American conservationist Morad Tahbaz endured what he describes as a nightmare within Iran’s notorious prison system. In a stark recounting, Tahbaz details how he spent the most grueling four months in solitary confinement, confined to a cramped cell with an unyielding bright light that remained on around the clock.

During his imprisonment, Tahbaz was in Ward 2A of Iran’s infamous Evin Prison, a high-security facility overseen by the intelligence branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This remorseless environment became his reality, shaping an ordeal few can imagine.

Details shared with News Media paint a haunting picture: Tahbaz was permitted outside the confines of his cell twice daily for only brief 10-minute intervals. Each time, he was compelled to wear a blindfold—an unsettling requirement during these short outings. His connection with the outside world was limited to monitored weekly calls with his wife, which were confined to a mere few minutes. Any attempt to speak in English during these calls was swiftly interrupted by prison officials.

“This represents perhaps the harshest and most severe form of imprisonment that any inmate could endure,” Tahbaz told News Media, reflecting on his time at the intelligence detention facility of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps within Evin Prison. His release in September 2023 marks the end of this relentless saga.

Tahbaz was living and working in Iran as a conservationist when authorities arrested him alongside several colleagues in January 2018. He had co-founded the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, which worked to protect endangered species including the Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopard.

One of the accusations leveled against him, Tahbaz said, was that he had trained lizards to spy on Iranian military installations for Israel.

“You can’t make this stuff up,” Tahbaz said in the Zoom interview with News Media. “It just gives you an idea of the kind of narrative that this regime comes up with. They’ll come up with anything.”

What began with interrogations in January 2018 turned into nearly six years of imprisonment for the Iranian American conservationist.

Now free and back in his home in the U.S., Tahbaz fears the war between the United States and Iran could make the Americans still held by Iran both more vulnerable and more valuable as negotiating assets.

“I do think the strikes in Iran will have an impact on the hostages’ situation and their circumstances,” he said.

Tahbaz said he spent his first two years inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence facility at Evin.

After his conviction, Tahbaz was transferred into the general prison population. He said his cellmates ranged from suspected ISIS members to former Iranian government ministers.

The isolation and physical conditions were accompanied by constant uncertainty.

“The uncertainty when you are a hostage is not like you think at the end of your sentence they’ll necessarily let you go,” Tahbaz said. “They’ll just come up with another charge to keep you there for as long as you’re of value to them.”

Tahbaz was released Sept. 18, 2023, with four other Americans in a Qatar-mediated agreement between Washington and Iran. The exchange also involved five Iranians held by the United States and the transfer of $6 billion in previously frozen Iranian funds into a restricted account for humanitarian transactions.

The negotiation brought Tahbaz home, but he believes Western governments have failed to establish consequences strong enough to stop Iran from detaining more foreign and dual nationals.

“This business of hostage-taking has been going on essentially since the beginning of the revolution,” he said.

“It will continue, in my opinion, as long as there is no deterrence,” Tahbaz added. “None of the Western governments, in reality, have done anything significant about stopping this practice.”

The issue returned to the forefront in July with the release of Dena Karari, a 53-year-old Iranian American from California.

Karari had been unable to leave Iran since December 2024 after authorities confiscated her passports. Her attorney said she faced allegations of espionage and collaboration with a hostile state. President Donald Trump announced in July that she had been allowed to leave and called the decision a “gesture of goodwill.”

Karari was not continuously imprisoned, according to reporting about her case, but she remained under an exit ban and was repeatedly interrogated.

Her release offered relief during a widening conflict, but Tahbaz said dual nationals remain particularly vulnerable because Iran does not recognize their foreign citizenship.

“Iran doesn’t recognize any other nationality other than the Iranian,” he said.

Authorities can develop a national-security case, secure a sentence and then preserve the prisoner for use in future negotiations, Tahbaz said.

“You’re condemned and they pass sentence and you’re in the system, and now you are a bargaining chip,” he said.

The precise number of Americans currently imprisoned or prevented from leaving Iran remains unclear.

Reuters reported in March that at least six U.S. citizens or permanent residents were detained in Iran, including journalist Reza Valizadeh, businessman Kamran Hekmati and U.S. permanent resident Shahab Dalili.

Valizadeh, a former Radio Farda journalist, was sentenced to 10 years for allegedly collaborating with a hostile government. Hekmati was sentenced to two years for having visited Israel more than a decade earlier, according to his family. Dalili, who was arrested after traveling to Iran for his father’s funeral, was sentenced to 10 years for allegedly cooperating with a hostile government.

Advocates warned that escalating strikes could increase the risk that detainees would be harmed or used as leverage.

The State Department formally designated Hekmati, who has bladder cancer, as wrongfully detained in March.

Tahbaz said he believes three Americans remain in custody, although that number could not be independently confirmed. Some cases are deliberately kept private because families fear publicity could increase the danger to detainees.

His concerns about the current war are rooted in how Iranian interrogators responded to tensions with Washington during his own imprisonment.

“When I was taken in in January of 2018, and it was right at the beginning of the first Trump administration, the amount of frustration and anger at the rollback of the JCPOA at that time, I mean, it was thrown into my face just about every day of my interrogation in some way, shape or form,” Tahbaz said, referring to a 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 

The United States formally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018, several months after Tahbaz’s arrest.

Tahbaz believes the current conflict could similarly be transferred onto prisoners who have no control over decisions made in Washington.

“It definitely will worsen the case of prisoners in custody and those who may be just under surveillance or potential hostages,” he said.

He described prisoners as one more source of leverage in Iran’s broader confrontation with the United States.

“You’re seeing that playing out even with the war, this tit for tat, you do this, we’ll do that,” he said.

“The hostages are, you know, just a commodity from Iran’s perspective, to be used at the right time.”

Tahbaz’s experience with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also shapes his analysis of the struggle unfolding inside Iran.

He stressed that he is not a political analyst and described his conclusions as personal assessments based on his experience and conversations with contacts familiar with the country.

Tahbaz said he believes competing interests within the Revolutionary Guard are fighting to preserve their political and economic power.

He pointed specifically to Khatam al-Anbiya, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ engineering and construction conglomerate. Tahbaz argued that sanctions have benefited powerful IRGC-linked entities by forcing oil sales, imports and money transfers into opaque black and gray markets.

“They have created a huge franchise for themselves because of these sanctions,” he said.

“They don’t want to see the sanctions go away, because they will lose their franchise, if you will. They will lose their power, their control over the money and everything that goes along with it.”

He said ordinary Iranians have suffered most from the resulting economic isolation and wartime conditions.

“The people who are hurt most by all of this are the people of Iran,” Tahbaz said. “They’re unfortunately taking the brunt of all of these in their daily lives.”

Tahbaz predicted Iranians would eventually return to the streets, but said many had lost confidence that Western governments would intervene to help remove the regime.

“I’m sure they’ll be back on the streets,” he said. “But I think this notion that the Western states are going to step in and help them overthrow this regime, that went out the window.”

Tahbaz said many Iranians had previously been strongly sympathetic toward the United States and initially hoped the conflict might end the Islamic Republic. That characterization reflects his assessment and conversations and could not be independently quantified.

He believes any future political movement will have to develop primarily inside Iran rather than being directed by opposition groups abroad.

“There’s a lot of hatred and anger just boiling there,” Tahbaz said. “So it will boil up and over again without a doubt. The question is when, how, but it will happen again.”

Tahbaz is recounting his imprisonment in his new book, “Green Parrots: A Memoir of Survival in Iran’s Evin Prison,” scheduled for publication Sept. 29. The publisher says the book describes how he relied on skills developed while tracking endangered wildlife to survive nearly six years in Evin, including solitary confinement.

His release illustrates the contradiction confronting governments trying to recover their citizens: negotiations can bring individual prisoners home, but Tahbaz believes the broader practice will continue unless Iran faces meaningful deterrence for taking them.

He survived because governments ultimately negotiated for his freedom.

His warning is that as the war intensifies, the Americans still held in Iran could become more valuable to Tehran at precisely the moment their circumstances become more dangerous.

In a surprising revelation, the father of a victim of convicted killer Bryan Kohberger has expressed a desire for a retrial, framing it as a “second shot at the accused murderer.”

Bryan Kohberger, 31, recently ignited a legal firestorm by petitioning to challenge his conviction, merely a year after admitting to the harrowing November 2022 murders in Idaho. Steve Goncalves, father of victim Kaylee Goncalves, shared with NewsNation on Monday his eagerness to see the convicted killer brought to justice once again.

“While some might see it as asking for another chance, I would relish a second opportunity to hold the accused murderer accountable,” he asserted.

“I am eager for the chance to align everything and demand accountability for the full scope of his actions,” he added passionately.

Kohberger narrowly escaped the death penalty by agreeing to a plea deal in July 2025, which resulted in a life sentence without the possibility of parole, a move that dodged the ultimate punishment yet keeps him behind bars indefinitely.

But he’s since claimed he was tricked into accepting the plea because of “false promises and blatant disinformation,” according to the New York Times.

“My actual innocence is my truth, and the plea, hinged on by false promises and blatant disinformation, MUST be withdrawn,” he said.

Kohberger claimed lawyers told him horror stories of an “actual 8×8 death row” cell as they suggested his life would be better if he took the plea deal.

He also claimed there was an “exculpatory discovery” in his case before making the admission.

Goncalves said Kohberger’s claim was “to be expected” and while welcoming the idea of a re-trial, he alluded to the impact on Idaho itself.

“This guy wasn’t even a member of our society. He wasn’t even a member of our state, and we’ve really just been totally put through the wringer having to defend this loser,” he said.

“So I want to protect my community, and I feel like I can’t keep asking for more.”

Earlier Monday, Goncalves’ family branded Kohberger “the mosquito you can’t seem to swat” and said they would be “100% ready” for a trial.

“We are confident he will get the death penalty that he escaped by pleading guilty the first time around,” they said.

Shredding Kohberger, they claimed he “never cried wolf or claimed he was uninformed, pressured, or that there were issues with the discovery that he and his counsel had for 2 years that he thought should have been challenged.”

But Goncalves’ family said that a second trial would be an “absolute waste of time and taxpayers money.”

“It’s a disgrace,” they scoffed.

Kaylee’s mom Kristi, 48, accused Kohberger of playing “judicial games.”

“America has seen our family go through pain for many, many years now,” she told Newsweek Monday.

“We don’t think there’s any merit to it at all.”

By copping to the killings, Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student, avoided a trial and he didn’t have to explain why he carried out the murders.

All four of his victims were killed by multiple sharp-force injuries, according to reports of the autopsy carried out by Dr Veena Singh, Spokane’s chief medical examiner.

Kaylee Goncalves, 21, also suffered blunt-force injuries to her face and showed signs of aspyhxia.

Kohberger admitted to killing Goncalves’ best pal, Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle, and 20-year-old Ethan Chapin. 

In a dramatic turn of events, a Louisiana resident who endured more than a quarter-century on death row has had his murder conviction overturned. This decision was catalyzed by a shocking video that casts significant doubt on the credibility of the evidence presented against him.

Fifty-seven-year-old Jimmie ‘Chris’ Duncan has staunchly maintained his innocence regarding the charges that he sexually assaulted and murdered his girlfriend’s young daughter, Haley Oliveaux. Despite spending 27 harrowing years on death row, he never gave up the fight for justice.

Relief finally arrived for Duncan last month when Louisiana’s Supreme Court unanimously decided to nullify his murder conviction. This came after it was exposed that the bite mark evidence used in his trial was falsified, according to NBC News.

The evidential issues began shortly after the 1993 incident when Oliveaux drowned in a bathtub under Duncan’s care. Her body was examined by a forensic pathologist and odontologist, who recorded the procedure on video.

In newfound footage, the odontologist is seen forcing a mold of Duncan’s teeth against the girl’s body repeatedly. Experts now argue that these actions fabricated the bite marks that the prosecution relied upon to argue Duncan’s guilt in the young girl’s tragic death.

Alvin Sharp, a retired district court judge whose reversal of Duncan’s conviction last year set the stage for the state Supreme Court decision, said he now remains troubled by what Hayne and West did – and the fact that prosecutors permitted it.

‘It could happen to you or me,’ said Sharp, who is now running for district attorney in Ouachita Parish. ‘That’s what disturbs me the most about the case.’ 

Duncan is now one of at least 10 people – including four death row prisoners – found to have been wrongly convicted based on the discredited work of Hayne or West, business partners who teamed up on thousands of autopsies across Louisiana and Mississippi and built a reputation of arriving at conclusions that police and prosecutors wanted.

The now-freed man had been dating Oliveaux’s mother, Allison Layton, in the spring of 1993.

Layton recounted that he was good with her young daughter and sometimes babysat or took her to and from daycare.

But soon, Oliveaux began having seizures, and in late 1993 she suffered a head injury after she climbed a chest of drawers to reach her piggy bank and the furniture fell.

Oliveaux was then hospitalized with a skull fracture and Duncan, who had been watching the young girl at the time, said he felt horrible. 

Then, on December 18 of that year, just two weeks after Haley came home from the hospital, Layton went to work and Duncan agreed once again to babysit the toddler.

He said Oliveaux loved playing in the bath with her toys, so he put her in the tub in a couple of inches of water and began cleaning up around the house.

Shortly afterward, Duncan said he heard a bump and found Oliveaux lying face down in the tub.

At that point, Duncan said he panicked and tried to revive the young girl, but she wasn’t breathing. 

He then wrapped her in a towel and rushed her to a neighbors’ house, shouting for Oliveaux to wake up and performing CPR as the neighbors called 911.

By the time Layton arrived at the hospital, she said she found Duncan crying and screaming, ‘I’m sorry,’ and ‘I didn’t mean to leave her alone.’

When the medical staff and a lead detective then examined Oliveaux’s body, they did not note any bite marks on the young girl.

The lead detective just reported that he noticed some bruising on her forehead and behind an ear.

The doctor also said he saw some wounds to Oliveaux’s anus, but when authorities searched for any other potential evidence of a sexual assault, they found none.

Duncan was then charged with negligent homicide.

However, the charges against him increased in severity after investigators drove Haley’s body to Mississippi where Hayne conducted a postmortem exam. 

The doctor, who passed away in 2020, would later claim he thought he saw bite marks on the girl’s body, which is why he asked West to take a look. 

West’s examination then began on the night of December 18, but he ended it early as it was already late, NBC News reports.

Meanwhile, police had obtained a mold of Duncan’s teeth and delivered it to the forensic dentist.

The following morning, West was filmed pressing the mold into Haley’s cheek, where a mark appeared that was not seen the night before, according to the footage obtained by NBC News.

At first, West was pressing the mold lightly, but then he became more forceful and even sometimes jabbed and scraped the mold against Oliveaux’s skin. 

He then did the same thing to her arm and elbow while turning a blue light on and off and seeming to remark about what he believed were bite marks.

In his report, West then wrote that the bite marks on Oliveaux’s cheeks were a ‘positive match’ to Duncan’s teeth’ and additional bite marks on her left elbow and wrist and right arm had a ‘high degree of correlation’ to Duncan.

Hayne then also concluded Oliveaux had been sexually abused, bitten and forcibly drowned – and Duncan’s charge was upgraded to first-degree murder punishable by death. 

The case went to trial in the spring of 1998, when District Attorney Jerry Jones claimed that Duncan ‘rode that baby like a bull.’

But during the trial, prosecutors chose not to call West to the stand as his credibility was already beginning to falter.

The dentist had been suspended for a year from the American Board of Forensic Odontology for overstating his credentials and misidentifying bite marks, and a separate Louisiana murder conviction had already been overturned over questions about his reliability. 

Prosecutors instead brought in another forensic dentist to draw conclusions based solely on photographs of marks on Oliveaux’s body. 

That dentist never saw West’s video.

Duncan’s defense team had requested a copy of the footage ahead of the trial, but the judge in the case viewed it and ruled ‘there is no exculpatory evidence favorable to the defendant contained in the tape.’

‘There wasn’t nothing else I could do,’ Duncan bemoaned.

The jury then never knew about the video, and deliberated for less than three hours before convicting Duncan of first-degree murder and sentencing him to death, citing rape as an aggravating factor. 

Meanwhile, in separate cases in Mississippi, two men convicted of murder were exonerated after testimony from Hayne and West was discredited.

The Mississippi public safety commissioner then ended Hayne’s contract to conduct autopsies.

At around the same time, the practice of using bite marks as forensic tools was coming under question, with the National Academy of Sciences releasing a report in 2009 saying it found no evidence that bite marks could be connected to a specific suspect.

That same year, investigative journalist Radley Balko first obtained the video from West’s examination and posted a 30-second clip along with an article in Reason Magazine.

Then, in 2012, West himself disavowed the practice of using bite marks in a forensic analysis.

‘I no longer believe in bite mark analysis,’ he said in a deposition unrelated to Duncan’s case, while he remained behind bars.

‘I don’t think it should be used in court. I think you should use DNA, throw bite marks out.’

Relief for Duncan finally came in 2022, when the Innocence Project joined his legal team and decided to focus on the video in a new appeal leveraging a state law that allowed the defendant to argue for ‘factual innocence’ by submitting evidence that should have been presented at his original trial.

The lawyers said the video showed West ‘tampering with and altering the physical evidence.’

The motion ultimately reached Sharp, the district court judge, who held a six-day hearing in September 2024 in which the video was played in open court.

He said the footage left him ‘aghast.’

‘He’s absolutely creating marks on that baby’s body,’ Sharp said of West.

Duncan also said the video floored him as he watched it for the first time that day.

‘All these people knew that video existed and they still let this happen to me,’ he said.

Still, state prosecutors accused Duncan’s defense team of ‘throwing another handful of spaghetti on the wall to see if anything can stick,’ arguing that the video would not have changed anything at his original trial.

‘There is no new physical evidence, no new facts, no discovery of exculpatory evidence. Nothing,’ state prosecutors argued in a legal filing. 

Sharp, though, disagreed and in April 2025 he granted Duncan’s factual innocence claim and vacated his conviction citing Hayne’s and West’s ‘improper scientific evidence.’ 

Prosecutors then appealed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, asking it to reverse Sharp’s decision and send Duncan back to death row, but Duncan was released on bail last November as the Supreme Court heard the case.

It finally ruled last month that Duncan proved ‘by clear and convincing evidence that no rational juror would have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of first-degree murder had the new evidence been presented at trial,’ according to the Times-Picayune. 

Chief Justice John L Weimer also likened the use of bite mark analysis to ‘trial by water,’ the process of throwing accused witches into lakes to see whether they had demonic powers that would allow them to float.

‘We now look back at those practices as asinine and absurd,’ he wrote.

Werner then went on to say Duncan’s case ‘demonstrates we cannot be too careful in determining whether the death penalty should be implemented in cases such as this case because of the finality of the sentence and the impossibility of rectification.

‘Such irreversible and tragic consequences are inimical and deleterious to our system of justice if carried out based on evidence that is devoid of legitimacy,’ he ruled, noting: ‘The laws of post-conviction relief have served the purpose of preventing the inappropriate application of the ultimate punishment.’

Yet Steve Tew, the district attorney currently representing Ouachita Parish who served as an assistant prosecutor at Duncan’s trial, said he still believes Duncan is guilty and plans to prosecute him again.

Jones, the district attorney who originally prosecuted Duncan, also said he remained confident Oliveaux was raped and killed and that Duncan was responsible.

But he said he regretted using bite mark testimony.

‘That bite mark evidence was bad and I shouldn’t have introduced it, but I didn’t know that at the time,’ he admitted. 

In Paris, a chaotic scene unfolded on Monday when a man, after allegedly stabbing three women, reportedly claimed to his captors, “it is Allah who commanded me.” This statement was made as the crowd restrained him following the attack, which is being treated as an apparent act of terror.

These unsettling events follow another violent stabbing in England and the vehicular assault on a Pride parade in Berlin, indicating a disturbing trend of attacks across Europe.

In the Paris attack, a 31-year-old man, whose identity has not yet been disclosed, was witnessed on the ground after the alleged stabbing of three women, one of whom is reportedly pregnant. Officials are continuing to investigate the specifics of the case.

French outlet “Le Figaro” reported his utterances translated to “it is Allah who commanded me” as police sources told the outlet the suspect has an “unbalanced” profile.

While many observers, including on X, immediately pointed to Islamic terrorism, French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said he wanted to be “very careful about the motive for this violent act,” pointing to the suspect’s “incoherent remarks.”

Another translation of the exchange quotes one man as responding, “there is no Allah, bro,” after the suspect allegedly attributed the stabbing to Allah, while another person says the crowd must “stampede this son of a b—-.”

“No, seriously, he’s crazy,” a third person is quoted as saying in French.

“He stabbed my girl here,” a woman says in French.

The suspect reportedly attacked women at the Two Domes brewery in the Porte de Clichy section of the French capital.

Two victims were listed in “absolute emergency” condition, while the third was listed in “relative emergency” condition, according to local press.

Reuters reported it had verified imagery of the suspect stabbing one woman while holding a knife in each hand.

The Paris-area attack comes two days after six men were arrested for “suspicion of murder” in connection with the stabbing of a 22-year-old man in Clapham, southwest London, United Kingdom, last week.

Metropolitan Police told the BBC the victim died after being stabbed at around 4:30 a.m. local time Saturday near Clapham High Street.

In Berlin, one person was pronounced dead and 29 were wounded after a suspect — later killed by German police — allegedly drove a vehicle into the public gathering.

The suspect in that case, Abdul Ballout, had German citizenship but “Lebanese roots,” according to the Associated Press.

The outlet reported German officials are considering whether it was an act of Islamic extremism.

The cascade of violent incidents comes months after the White House released a National Security Strategy warning of “civilizational erasure” in Europe due to mass migration and demographic shifts, while highlighting a spate of terror attacks carried out by migrants.

The White House pointed to a range of European data to support the administration’s concerns, citing studies showing asylum migration costing the Netherlands €475,000 per migrant, illegal immigration costing France €1.8 billion in 2023 and non-Western migrants committing disproportionate shares of violent crime in Denmark and Germany.

The immigration status of the suspects in the three most recent attacks was not immediately confirmed.

In a significant development on Tuesday, Iran executed two men accused of killing four police officers amid the chaotic protests that erupted in January, as reported by state media.

According to Mizanonline.ir, a judiciary-affiliated outlet, the executed individuals were identified as Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amir Hossein Safari Hosseinabadi. The report detailed their alleged involvement in setting a police station ablaze and inflicting damage on public property in Isfahan, a city located approximately 250 miles south of Tehran, Iran’s capital.

These executions are part of a broader crackdown in which tens of thousands were detained as the Iranian government sought to suppress the widespread protests that began at the start of the year.

Human rights organizations are raising alarm, suggesting that more individuals could potentially face the death penalty in connection with the unrest.

The protests, which erupted in late December and extended into January, encountered a stringent response from Iran’s security forces, aiming to quell the rising dissent.

Earlier in July Iran hanged two other men in the same case.

Iran put the death toll of the protests at more than 3,000.

Right groups activists put the number at more than 7,000.

Surrounded by the skeletal remains of burned-out vehicles and the smoking ruins of formerly vibrant family homes, the ghostly remnants of a lush pine forest characterize the D106 as a veritable road to devastation.

Linking the picturesque Cap Ferret peninsula to the bustling city of Bordeaux in south-western France, this 41-mile stretch has become ground zero for a historic wildfire. The blaze has consumed an area four times larger than Paris, compelling over 260,000 residents to flee their homes for safety.

This inferno marks one of France’s most catastrophic events since World War II, obliterating more than 240 homes. Many of these properties are believed to have been vacation retreats of affluent Parisians.

With exclusive access granted, the Daily Mail witnessed the overwhelming havoc firsthand at the fire’s volatile forefront, capturing the scene of colossal destruction with poignant immediacy.

Igniting on July 12 within the forests of Cap Ferret, the blaze has relentlessly advanced toward Bordeaux. Powered by potent winds, the flames continue their inexorable westward march, leaving devastation in their wake.

And the return of searing temperatures this week threatens to complicate firefighting efforts. Emmanuel Macron said on a visit to the wine-making capital: ‘The coming weeks will be tough and we have to hold out.’

On both carriageways of the D106, between the towns of Saint-Jean-D’Illac and Lége-Cap-Ferret, house after house is now nothing more than blackened rubble.

One villa near the town of Blagon had collapsed in on itself from the sheer heat of the inferno.

Masonry and burnt metal and wood littered the garden flanked by the remains of a charred Toyota pick-up on the driveway.

The flames had torn through the surrounding woodland on Saturday evening before quickly spreading to the one-floor property itself.

In the inferno’s aftermath, it is eerily calm but the evidence of the scale of what unfolded on Saturday night is all around.

The water in the uncovered swimming pool is filthy, its surface thick with floating soot, while smashed roof tiles lie scattered on the ground to either side of the remains of the house. A downed power cable, meanwhile, continued to spark menacingly by the front gate.

Inside, in what was once a kitchen, a free-standing oven, the skeletal remains of three chairs and two radiators are the only items now identifiable in the debris that covers the room.

A little further along the D106, towards the Atlantic coast, past another burned-out bungalow, was what remained of the Good Dogs canine training centre.

The remains of plastic dog agility tunnels, ramps, and a smoke-scarred boat lay abandoned outside.

Nearby, in a small woodland, was the carcass of a roe deer. The animal had apparently become caught up in a wire fence as it tried to flee and was burned alive as the flames took hold.

Across from the dog training centre and on the other side of a roundabout, a gated family home and compound was now a smouldering ruin filled with wrecked cars and farming machinery.

Photographs from Google Streetview, taken just four months ago, show the property to have then been an attractive white villa with terracotta roof tiles. Now only the exterior walls of the house and two brick chimney stacks remain standing.

The D106 is a dual-lane carriageway in both directions, east and west, with speed limit of 68mph.

On a small side road just off the D106 a blackened telegraph pole had crashed to the ground and lay partially blocking traffic.

Just beyond this a farmer was using a tractor to dig a fire trench to hold back the flames.

More substantial agricultural machinery was being used further along the highway to rip out tree trunks to further impede the spread of the fire.

Along this stretch at least 12 houses – as well as thousands of acres of forest land – have been destroyed. Much of the damaged area is behind police cordons.

The exclusive area has been likened to the Hamptons outside New York as it attracts wealthy French families to buy second homes to spend weekends and holidays in. 

Three miles outside the town of Lége-Cap-Ferret, in a small clearing just off the D106, we saw a large soot-blackened family home that appeared to be on the verge of collapse.

The ferocity of the flames had completely burnt away a high hedge that once screened the house from the road. It is now just a shell cluttered with fallen timber beams and masonry.

A child’s Wendy house and plastic slide just feet away in the garden somehow avoided the blaze that destroyed the actual house next door.

On the route to Bordeaux, some 20 miles to the east, three houses located just off the carriageway stood vacant and in a similarly dilapidated state. Outside one of the homes a sheet metal building had collapsed on to a car while children’s bikes, a swing and a slide were among the detritus outside the others.

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says firefighters are facing an ‘unprecedented’ situation in Gironde, the wider region around Bordeaux, battling a fire that ‘has a life of its own’ and which has already burned through 40,000 hectares of land.

Speaking after a government crisis meeting, Mr Nuñez said weather conditions and the composition of the forests are causing the wildfire to behave ‘in a completely erratic manner’.

He went on: ‘It is autonomous, self-sustaining, and spreads in all directions. So it is a fire that’s difficult to control.’

Fire crews were this afternoon busy battling the frontline of the fire as it reached forested land on the outskirts of the town of Marcheprime, just ten miles from the outer suburbs of Bordeaux.

A giant A400M military cargo aircraft –converted for firefighting – was spotted several times swooping low over the arid, fire-threatened woodlands, dropping a long plume of flame retardant.

Meanwhile, farmers, wine growers and other local tradesmen have joined in the battle to try to stop the fire from spreading any further. 

The European Union on Monday announced more water-bombing planes were being sent to France, in addition to those already deployed to Spain.

But EU commissioner Hadja Lahbib said that its fleet was increasingly stretched due to fears they may soon be needed elsewhere.

‘Extreme conditions are looming for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, in addition to France, the Iberian Peninsula… where the situation is expected to worsen, including in Portugal,’ Lahbib said.

Florent Debroucker, 52, usually runs a landscaping business in the town of Eysines, but for the last 48 hours he has been heading a crew of five volunteers helping to extinguish small fires.

He and his colleagues were dousing smouldering scrubland just off the D106 with hoses supplied by tanks of water hitched on top of pick-up trucks.

Mr Debroucker told the Daily Mail: ‘We’re just doing our part to help the firefighters who are busy tackling the bigger, more serious fires.

‘The one we are tackling at the moment is the remains of a more serious fire last night. The forest behind us caught alight and some of the burning embers have set fire to the dry grassland this morning.

‘We were driving around earlier and noticed smoke coming from the field. We’ve alerted the fire crews and are trying to stop any bigger fire from reaching the forest on the other side of the field that has so far remained untouched.

‘I can’t do any landscaping work at the moment because the town where my office is based has been evacuated. This is hard work and long hours – we can be out until as late as 3am – but if it means we can stop the fire from spreading then it’s worth it.’

The Prince and Princess of Wales said on Monday night: ‘Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the devastating wildfires across France, Spain and the UK. We are deeply grateful to the firefighters, emergency services and volunteers working tirelessly in extraordinarily difficult conditions. 

‘These events are a stark reminder of the challenges posed by an increasingly extreme climate and the importance of protecting both people and nature.’