A Chinese businessman who had forged close links with Prince Andrew and was authorized to act on his behalf to seek investors in China has been banned from Britain on national security grounds.

The 50-year-old man, who has been granted anonymity and is named only as H6, was taken off a flight from Beijing to London in February 2023 and told that Britain intended to ban him from the country. This happened the following month.

H6 appealed against the ban at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), which rejected his case in a written ruling on Thursday – the first time the reported relationship has come to light.

Buckingham Palace no longer comments on matters relating to Andrew, who was removed from royal duties by the palace in 2022, and Reuters was unable to reach him or a representative for comment.

The ban on the Chinese businessman came after the contents of his phone were downloaded when he was stopped under counter-terrorism laws at a UK border in 2021, the ruling said.

It said this revealed Prince Andrew had authorized him to set up an international financial initiative to engage with potential partners and investors in China. The ruling did not say what the fund was intended for.

Documents on his phone suggested H6 had “deliberately obscured his links” with the Chinese Communist Party and the United Front Work Department and been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials which Beijing could leverage, the ruling stated.

The United Front Work Department is a network of groups that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has described as a “magic weapon” to bolster Beijing’s reach abroad.

In a statement, the Chinese embassy in London said some people in Britain were keen on making up “all kinds of ‘spy’ stories against China.”

“Their purpose is to smear China and sabotage normal people-to-people exchanges between China and the UK. We strongly condemn this,” the statement said.

Birthday party

SIAC’s decision revealed a letter from a senior advisor to Andrew to H6 from March 2020, which noted H6 had been invited to Andrew’s birthday party that month and stated: “I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family.

“You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship … outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

It added that following a meeting between Andrew, H6 and the adviser they had “wisely navigated our way around former Private Secretaries and we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust.”

“Under your guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor,” the letter said. The ruling did not say who the people were or give the reason for potential distrust.

The prince, 64, the eighth in line to the throne, was a roving UK trade ambassador from 2001-2011.

He was forced to step aside from public duties in 2019 over his friendship with the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew has always denied any accusations of wrongdoing. In 2022, the royal family removed his military links and royal patronages.

The SIAC ruling referred to a 2021 document recovered from H6’s device which listed talking points for a call between him and Andrew which said the prince “is in a desperate situation and will grab onto anything.”

Judge Charles Bourne said in the ruling that H6 had “won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the royal family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him.”

The judge added: “That occurred in a context where, as the contemporaneous documents record, the Duke was under considerable pressure and could be expected to value (H6’s) loyal support.

“It is obvious that the pressures on the Duke could make him vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence.”

Bourne said Britain’s Home Office was entitled to conclude that H6 had significant links to the Chinese Communist Party and the United Front Work Department and that there was potential for him “leveraging” his relationship with Andrew.

The sentence was made on the grounds that the crime was a “major sexual infringement,” Judge Tetsuro Sato of Naha District Court said on Friday, according to public broadcaster NHK.

“The girl’s testimony that she told her age by gestures and other means is sufficiently credible from the security camera footage,” the judge said.

“The defendant was aware that the girl was under 16 years old. The defendant was aware that the girl may have said ‘stop’ and may not have consented. Given the relationship and age difference between the two, who had never met each other, it is a crime of great sexual violation that stands out for its maliciousness.”

The US Air Force member, Brennon R. E. Washington, was indicted on March 27 on charges of “non-consensual sexual intercourse” and “indecent kidnapping” after he was discovered to have taken a 16-year-old Japanese girl to his residence last December and sexually assaulting her, Japanese prosecutors said.

“We are heartbroken and deeply regret the damage done to the victims and their families,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Nicholas Evans, commander of Kadena Air Base, told local media on Friday. “Sexual assault is a serious crime and in no way reflects the values of US military personnel.”

The incident is the latest in a history of criminal cases involving US personnel in Okinawa, home to several US military installations. It could exacerbate tensions with residents who have long opposed the presence of American troops and weaponry on the island.

It also comes nearly 30 years after three US servicemen raped a 12-year-old Okinawa schoolgirl in 1995, sparking a backlash against the US military on the island.

In 2016, the rape and murder of a 20-year-old woman by a former US base worker in Okinawa triggered mass protests in the island’s capital, with tens of thousands of residents demanding the US move its bases outside of Okinawa. The fallout resulted in curfews for US personnel on the island.

In another crime involving US personnel in Japan, a US Navy officer killed two Japanese nationals while driving down Mount Fuji in 2021.

Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki told reporters in June this year that the allegations of rape and kidnap against Washington were “extremely regrettable,” adding it was necessary “to strongly protest against the US military and other related organizations.”

The governor also said his office will “take a tough stance in dealing with the situation.”

“All US service members are expected to uphold the highest standards, and the US military is committed to holding accountable those who are convicted of criminal acts,” Nelson said.

The Israeli military battered Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza with heavy ground and aerial bombardment overnight Thursday into Friday, according to the director of the facility, who described as a “catastrophic” barrage.

“Tonight was one of the most difficult nights,” Abu Safiya said on a voice message, which was punctuated by the sound of bombardment. The area around the hospital has been targeted with intense strikes this week.

The scale and ferocity of the attacks blew off doors and windows on one side of the hospital, said Abu Safiya, adding water tanks “were blown away from the intensity of the explosion.”

“As of now, heavy bombing persists throughout the night, accompanied by ongoing destruction of buildings,” he added.

“It is a catastrophic scene, with airstrikes and artillery shelling occurring with unprecedented intensity and frequency.”

On Friday, COGAT, Israel’s aid agency said that “intense fighting has been taking place in certain areas of the northern Gaza Strip between IDF forces and terrorist organizations operating in the area.”

COGAT said the Israeli military had “allowed and facilitated the evacuation of patients, escorts, and staff” from Kamal Adwan Hospital, to other health centers in the northern and southern parts of the strip.

COGAT added that “efforts had been made to facilitate and coordinate the delivery of supplies to the hospital, including food, water, medical equipment, and fuel.”

But humanitarian agencies have warned that barely a trickle of aid has entered neighborhoods and hospitals in northern Gaza. Israel’s sustained aid restrictions have cut off between 65,000 to 75,000 trapped residents from access to food, water, electricity or reliable healthcare, the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) reported on December 12.

On Thursday, the head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said Israeli authorities had repeatedly denied humanitarian access to Kamal Adwan Hospital, where at least 96 patients, and health staff, “urgently need support.”

“The World Health Organization was denied three times in the last four days to access the hospital to deliver medical supplies and fuel; transfer critical patients to Al-Shifa Hospital; and deploy an international emergency medical team,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

Buckingham Palace is investigating after a member of staff was arrested at the end of a rowdy Christmas party.

Police were called to a bar in Victoria in central London – a short walk from the palace – on Tuesday evening when a festive celebration turned violent.

The woman, who subsequently spent Tuesday night and much of the following day in a police cell, is believed to be a maid at the palace and was on a night out with around 50 members of palace staff at the time, according to The Sun newspaper.

She reportedly smashed some glasses and turned on a member of the bar staff.

Management at the royal residence say the matter is now being investigated and that disciplinary action could follow.

A palace spokesperson told the BBC: “We are aware of an incident outside the workplace involving a number of Household staff who had previously attended an early evening reception at the Palace.

“While this was an informal social gathering, not an official Palace Christmas party, the facts will be fully investigated, with a robust disciplinary process followed in relation to individual staff and appropriate action taken.”

The spokesperson told the BBC that the post-reception drinks, which staff went on to at the bar, were informal and had not been arranged by the palace.

“Officers attended and arrested a 24-year-old woman on suspicion of common assault, criminal damage and being drunk and disorderly.

“She was taken into custody and released the following evening having been given a penalty notice for disorder.”

When Syria’s rebel-appointed prime minister sat down with officials from the ousted Assad regime for the first time on Tuesday, the backdrop included the flag of the Syrian revolution alongside another bearing the Islamic declaration of faith that is often displayed by jihadists.

The choice of optics for the rebels’ first publicized cabinet meeting to discuss the transition of power since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime sparked controversy, with sceptics taking to social media to criticize the move.

The rebels may have taken note. In a later televised interview with Al Jazeera, caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Al Bashir, who until this week ruled the small, conservative province of Idlib on the rebels’ behalf, appeared only with the new Syrian flag.

How the rebels governed Idlib, in northwest Syria, offers insight into how they might rule the country. Experts and residents of Idlib describe their governance as pragmatic and influenced by both internal and external pressure, with efforts to distance themselves from a jihadist past and gain international acceptance. However, their rule was far from democratic or liberal. Governing a large, diverse nation like Syria, they warn, will be an entirely different challenge.

Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that led the rebel offensive to topple the Assad regime, has opted to rule from the shadows, and picked a technocrat – Bashir – to lead Syria in the interim. He has said that his officials gained valuable experience while governing Idlib but acknowledged that that may not be enough.

“They (rebels) started from nothing, Idlib is small and without resources but thank God we were able to do really good things in the past… their experience is not zero and there are (areas) they were successful in,” Jolani told Mohammed Jalali, Assad’s prime minister, in a meeting on Monday to discuss the transfer of power. “However, we cannot do without the old (guard) and we have to benefit from them.”

In just 13 days, Jolani’s ministers went from ruling the small province of Idlib to aspiring to govern Syria following its first regime change in six decades. Experts and residents who lived under the rebel-led Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) say the inexperienced cabinet will need to significantly adapt if they are to lead the transitional period effectively.

Dr. Walid Tamer, a resident of Idlib who witnessed the province’s transformation under rebel rule and said he personally interacted with Jolani, commended the SSG’s governance in Idlib, saying freedom of expression was protected. But he cautioned that the rebels aren’t prepared to rule the rest of the country.

“You went from governing Idlib to governing an entire nation… I don’t think the capabilities of the government we saw are enough for the task of governing the whole of Syria,” said Tamer, the head of northern Syria’s Free Doctors Union who describes himself as a liberal.

Idlib was “very safe” under the SSG, he said, adding that the rebels placed no restrictions on travel and movement inside the HTS-controlled province.

“Syria as a whole was a difficult place to live in, but the (SSG) never interfered in your personal life. Products were available and no limitations were imposed on your clothing or how you lived your life,” he said.

“There wasn’t enough work, and a lot of people just stayed at home,” he said.

Taking control

When Jolani, who now goes by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, expanded his influence in Idlib in 2017, he eliminated rival Islamist groups and backed a new project to install a civilian government made up of local technocrats and academics, breaking from other jihadist methods that saw religious coercion under the rule of the sword in territories they captured.

Upon its establishment in 2017, the SSG issued a communique outlining four principles, one of which was that Islamic Sharia law is the “sole source of legislation,” emphasizing the need to “maintain the people’s Syrian and Islamic identity,” Al Jazeera reported.

The SSG operated as a functional government, holding publicized cabinet meetings with suited officials, issuing press statements and overseeing eleven ministries, including justice, sports, and education. It collected taxes, managed Idlib’s limited resources to govern 4 million people, and coordinated with international humanitarian groups to deliver aid to the 3 million displaced people in the region.

But the government wasn’t democratically elected, with ministers appointed through the approval of the shura, or consultative council, made up of prominent local figures, some of whom were selected by Jolani’s HTS. No women served in SSG leadership positions during its seven years of rule.

“It’s an Islamic governance in a technocratic way. What they wanted to do is control how religion is understood and how it’s implemented,” said Drevon.

A United Nations report from 2022 painted a grim picture of what life under HTS’ leadership was like.

“People were detained following comments made in private conversations pertaining to the cost of living or religious matters,” the UN Human Rights Council report on Syria said. “These comments were qualified as slander and blasphemy, with the latter leading to a sentence of one year of imprisonment.” Authorities “continued to arrest women for being ‘inappropriately’ dressed, and for non-compliance with entertainment-related bans.”

Tamer, who said he negotiated with HTS and SSG officials over medical matters, said that over the years, Jolani took a back seat in the daily affairs of the government and gave it more agency, only intervening on larger issues that endangered his group’s influence.

Rule by decree

Lacking a constitution or an elected legislature, the rebels ruled Idlib by decree, setting up a hybrid civil-Islamic court structure that included defense lawyers, a prosecutor and an appeals process.

Jolani was pragmatic in adapting to the requirements of the society he ruled over, Drevon said. Responding to the public’s displeasure, he slowly phased out the strict application of Islamic law, turned a blind eye to gender mixing and smoking and allowed protests against him. A Sharia law-based morality unit was disbanded but women were encouraged to cover their hair.

“It was a successful project in practice because there was also some buy in from the population. It was stable, the economy was working better (than the rest of Syria) and even the type of authoritarianism was nothing compared to Assad’s family,” Drevon said.

But there were exceptions. Last year, the SSG issued a “morality decree” instructing children to adhere to an Islamic dress code and limiting music in educational facilities. Jolani intervened to freeze the decree, fearing that an international uproar could affect aid donations, Drevon said.

Drevon said that Syria’s transition to democracy is going to be a lengthy and complicated process after six decades of dictatorship.

“It was a very new form of governance (in Idlib),” he said. “You can’t expect an armed group in war controlling a region that’s very tiny to create a social democratic system… They had to be realistic on what’s possible at war. Syria hasn’t had democracy in five, six decades. You will not become democratic in one week.”