A former Scotland leader of Nigel Farage’s previous party has been under scrutiny over pro-Russian statements since an explosive court case. The Ferret analysed what David Coburn said about Russia – and Ukraine – throughout his political career.
Mohammed was 17 years old when he was shot by an Israeli sniper in Bethlehem. Two years on, his family say there is no accountability for his death. Their story is one of dozens from across the West Bank, it is claimed, with human rights organisations calling for child rights to be upheld.
Reform UK's Malcolm Offord claimed one million people came to the UK in the 20th century, and seven million people have come to the UK since 2000. This is not accurate.
Humza Yousaf was the subject of a video on YouTube which claimed the former first minister had found out before the general public about the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023.
The 16-minute video, which was posted to YouTube on 29 September, was produced by podcast host Craig Houston who regularly posts videos discussing and analysing Scottish politics.
Houston regularly posts “10-minute rant” videos which he says are often focused on the SNP government.
It has more than 150,000 views on YouTube, as well as 1,000 shares on X.
It was titled “Explosive Emails Humza Yousaf knew of Hamas 7th Oct incident before rest of world. How did he know?”.
Ferret Fact Service looked at this claim and found it Unsupported.
The video states that Humza Yousaf and his advisors in the Scottish Government knew that the attack had taken place before it was known by the wider public.
As evidence of this theory, Houston shows an email, which became publicly available through a freedom of information request.
The first email is dated 7 October at 8.25am UK time. It came from Chris Mackie, Humza Yousaf’s principal private secretary as first minister. The email thanks the recipient for taking an earlier phone call, and states that Yousaf has informed him that his wife’s parents were in Gaza and “concerned for their safety given the proceedings overnight”.
Houston reads the email while providing his own context.
He says: “The first email I want to show you is dated, and this is very important this first part, the 7 October 2023, which is the day of the attacks in Israel by Hamas. The time of this email is 8.25 in the morning. That’s 8.25am UK time. If we look at the timeline of what was happening in Israel that day, the Supernova music festival was attacked at 7am Israeli time, which is 5am our time.”
Houston goes on to say that he searched online “to find out the first time this [the music festival attack] was covered anywhere, and was about lunchtime”.
He then says the music festival attack was “seen as the start” of the attacks .
Footage of the attack on the Nova music festival actually emerged before 10am, but after the email sent by the Scottish Government.
However, reports of a major attack on Israel by Hamas surfaced before it was clear that it was the Nova music festival that had been targeted.
Early reports of the attack in Israel by Hamas appeared online in the early hours of the morning. The incident was acknowledged on social media by the Israeli foreign ministry at 5.44am UK time on 7 October. The IDF posted a similar message at 5.46am. At 6.19am, the Israeli foreign ministry posted again on X, saying: “About an hour ago, the Hamas terrorist organisation carried out a combined attack, including the firing of rockets and terrorist infiltrations into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip”.
Videos began to spread across social media reportedly showing Hamas fighters who had entered Israel, as well as fighting on the streets of Israeli towns.
The attack by Hamas was being widely reported by media organisations by about 7am UK time. News agencies such as Reuters and AFP, as well as the BBC News reported that militants had crossed into Israel. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) released a statement which was published by The Times of Israel newspaper at 8am, confirming there had been a “terrorist infiltration into the territory of the State of Israel” and that Hamas would “pay a very heavy price”.
Houston then goes on to question whether Yousaf had knowledge of the attacks before the general public, saying: “What happened overnight that Humza Yousaf knew about but the rest of the world didn’t, because the rest of the world found out about lunchtime on the Saturday”.
This is not accurate. While the reporting of the specific attack on Nova music festival was only widely reported later in the day, the attacks on Israel had featured in mainstream media since at least 7am UK time, having begun in the early hours of Saturday morning.
This YouTube video does not provide evidence that Humza Yousaf had knowledge of the attacks in Israel by Hamas before the general public. The attacks were widely reported in the media before the email was sent by Yousaf’s chief of staff at 8.25am, with earliest reports of Hamas militants entering Israel appearing online before 6am UK time.
, our free newsletter.
Sign upfor free stories every week, an invite to our exclusive Facebook group, and a monthly behind-the-scenes newsletter.
Header image: Members of Scotland’s Jewish community met First Minister Humza Yousaf to discuss antisemitism and concerns about rising tensions in their communities and other faith groups to strengthen community cohesion. Credit: Scottish Government
Mohammed was 17 years old when he was shot by an Israeli sniper in Bethlehem. Two years on, his family say there is no accountability for his death. Their story is one of dozens from across the West Bank, it is claimed, with human rights organisations calling for child rights to be upheld.
Reform UK's Malcolm Offord claimed one million people came to the UK in the 20th century, and seven million people have come to the UK since 2000. This is not accurate.
The residents of Umm al-Khair in the West Bank were already reeling from the loss of community leader and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen. Now they are fighting a mass demolition order on their homes. Human rights organisations say it’s become a symbol of the struggles of life under occupation.
Ferret Fact Service looked at SNP claims about the UK Government budget on energy bills, taxes and unemployment.
.jpg?ref=theferret.scot){kind=link}