British police said on Friday that they had charged two men with carrying out preparatory actions to commit terrorist acts targeting the Jewish community in northern England on the eve of Yom Kippur, according to what Reuters reported.
The police and public prosecutor reported that Rahman Salehi (35 years old) and Salam Ahmadian (36 years old) were charged with preparing to commit a terrorist act or assisting another party to commit a terrorist act, no later than September 20, 2026.
Counter-terrorism investigators said there were allegations that the two men communicated with a third party outside the country - possibly located in Iran - in connection with the scheme.
Vicky Evans, senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said these accusations and allegations were “extremely serious”.
Last week, the police announced the arrest of two men on suspicion of their involvement in planning a terrorist attack, indicating that they had thwarted what they believed was a plan targeting the Jewish community in the Manchester area.
Russian President Vladimir Putin followed military exercises in which thousands of soldiers participated under the umbrella of the Collective Security Treaty Organization led by Russia.
The Russian President said, in statements broadcast on state television, on Friday, that more than 47,000 soldiers participated in strategic maneuvers conducted in 11 fields and the Caspian Sea. With the aim of enhancing leadership skills and confronting external aggression, according to Bloomberg News Agency.
The Russian President explained, from the Chelyabinsk region, that the participants used new military equipment and benefited from the experiences gained during the fighting in Ukraine.
The official Russian TASS news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that the maneuvers were planned in advance and were not a response to current cross-border threats.
The CSTO is a Russian-led coalition, which also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan as active members.
The maneuvers began on September 28, and are scheduled to end on Saturday, according to the Kremlin.
China was among the foreign countries that sent military forces to participate in the maneuvers, according to Interfax.
The British government is considering reducing allocations for its important program to modernize millions of homes with the aim of improving their energy efficiency, with the aim of saving about two billion pounds ($2.6 billion) from the Ministry of Energy’s allocations to finance the increase in military spending.
Bloomberg News Agency quoted an informed source who requested anonymity as saying that the “Warm Homes” program, whose allocations are estimated at about 15 billion pounds sterling, is among the programs whose expenses the government is considering reducing. It is also considering reducing allocations for the carbon emissions capture and storage program, while auditing spending allocations on hydrogen production projects as a source of clean energy.
The source said that the government has not taken any final decisions on these ideas yet, and they may be changed, while officials are studying the available options before announcing the government budget on October 28, according to the German News Agency.
The government did not announce a plan to improve energy efficiency for up to 5 million homes by 2030 until last January. However, all government departments must allocate 1 percent of their capital spending budgets to finance defense investments as a result of the repercussions of the US war against Iran.
At the same time, the government called on the British Ministry of Energy Security and Zero Neutrality to reduce its spending by an additional two billion pounds sterling by the end of the current decade. This ministry is considered to have one of the largest ministries in terms of budget, which reflects the huge sums allocated to the transformation of the energy sector in Britain. Because many of the department's spending plans span several years, this gives officials room to cut or postpone future spending rather than cancel projects.
