IPHONE owners are excited about a little-known Apple Pay trick that could save your day in an emergency.

The smart feature can help you in two specific ways.

1

First, you don’t need to unlock your account iPhone when using Apple Pay on certain public transport networks.

Apple has built something called Express Mode into iOS, which means you can use Apple Pay without Touch ID or Face ID in some situations.

It means you don’t have to struggle with unlocking your iPhone when using the London Underground or New York Underground, for example.

An Apple fan on Reddit wrote, “I’ve loved using Express Transit in San Francisco and New York. I go about twice a month.”

You can ensure that Express Mode is set to the correct card by going to your Apple Wallet settings.

DEAD GOOD!

But that is not everything.

Not only do you not need to unlock your iPhone, the battery may not even need to be charged.

“I recently accidentally discovered that it’s possible to still use your Transit card even if your phone breaks,” said one Reddit user in a thread about the feature.

“I was blown away, I already knew I could use it by essentially swiping the reader, but not this.”

Apple is more specific about how this actually works.

“You may even be able to use your card, pass, or key if your device needs to be charged,” Apple explains.

It continued: “With a compatible iPhone modelsthat you might be able to use current reserve with some cards, passes and keys that have Express Mode enabled for up to five hours when your iPhone needs to be charged.

“To see which cards, passes, and keys are available for use with power reserve, press the side or home button when your iPhone needs to charge.”

But there are two important things to note about this feature.

First, pressing the Side button or Home button can significantly reduce the power reserve on your iPhone.

Doing this enough may prevent the feature from working.

Secondly, if you manually turn off your iPhone, this feature will not work.

It is only available when your iPhone is visibly dead and put in backup mode.

THE Cheltenham Festival is now less than four weeks away and despite the wet weather we learned a bit more this weekend.

The one to take out of Newbury with a Festival win in mind is clearly IBERICO LORD, who was very impressive taking the Betfair Hurdle.

Nicky Henderson's hopes are easy enough for a County Hurdle, but you'll have to be brave to back him.

That's because it needs soft ground to show its best.

I'm holding my horses until we see what the weather does in mid-March.

It was borderline unraceable when he won the Greatwood Hurdle in November, and mild is a generous description of Saturday's conditions.

He went all out at Ascot at Christmas and that is the concern.

So if it's soft or tough on the last day of the festival he's a great candidate for the County Hurdle, but not if it's faster. It's a sightseeing note.

SHISHKIN promoted his prospects by winning the Denman Chase, but we've already marked him for consideration for the Gold Cup.

EDWARDSTONE is another past festival winner who did his prospects no harm by winning the Game Spirit Chase.

Dropping back to two miles after a bad run over last time was enough, as was going from the front for the first time in his long career.

His jumping has always been excellent so it was no shock to see him pinging around Newbury and he is certainly in the picture for the Champion Chase.

But he didn't beat much here as Boothill did his best for the right-handed Ascot, Amarillo Sky was crippled and Funambule Sivola fell well behind in the Festival Championship class.

He will need to take a huge step up to get close to hotpot El Fabiolo, but this is better form than the likes of Jonbon have produced, so he could fill the predicted spot next month.

One race that may have gone under the radar was EAGLE FANG's win at Naas on Saturday.

This modest-looking competition has produced no fewer than four of the past five Fred Winter winners at the festival.

William Durkan's four-year-old traveled very well and stayed well clear of his rivals in the closing stages, suggesting the Cheltenham hill will be ideal.

It could use a cut in the ground, but it has been treated well to gently.

This puts him right in Fred Winter's reckoning with the 16-1 on offer at Betfair Sportsbook or the 12s everywhere else.

BET: EAGLE FANG both ways in the Fred Winter Hurdle at 16-1

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A planned mega-brothel in Amsterdam has been blown up by local prostitutes and labeled an 'erotic prison'.

The five-storey building will have a hundred prostitution windows, as well as entertainment and erotica areas that will provide safe working conditions for prostitutes.

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema even supported the plans and in December 2023 suggested the affluent Zuid district, an area in the south of the city, as a suitable location for the building, according to local media.

But sex workers described the planned brothel as an 'erotic prison' during a public discussion about the building application by the municipality of Amsterdam.

A speaker at the meeting said: 'Sex workers have been moved from doorways to windows… and now to a segregated center, pushed to the edge of the city, out of sight, out of mind. Keep your laws off our bodies and no erotic prisons.”

More than 40 people spoke out against the proposal, with some comparing the potential mega-brothel to a 16th century 'spinning mill', which would label those who work there as 'fallen women'.

Amsterdam's red light district is located in the city center in De Wallen, but sex workers were concerned that building a new erotic center further out of the city would mean they would be more stigmatized.

“A prostitution window on the street is very different from a prostitution window in a closed erotic center,” said former sex worker Mariska Majoor in the council meeting, according to a report. Dutch news report.

'The location is dark at night. There will be more stigma and more danger… I'm afraid people with nefarious plans will be waiting for them on the trails.”

She also raised concerns about the safety of the prostitutes who would work in the new building, saying the solution was to build “smaller” and “safer” workplaces.

Local residents in the South district fear that a mega brothel would bring more crime to the area, for example through drug dealers who are attracted to the 'party location'.

Other speakers called the plans 'megalomaniac', an 'ego trip' and a poor use of resources to move a hundred prostitution windows from the red light district elsewhere.

Only seven people spoke in favor of the proposal, including a male sex worker named Richard Jones, who said the mega-brothel would create more work space for minority sex workers.

He said these sex workers were currently working from their own homes or visiting clients, which is a major safety risk they have to take due to a lack of safer spaces.

Another resident who spoke positively about the plans said the mega brothel would 'refresh' the area which is now just a tourist den.

The city council is working on a new policy regarding prostitution after renewed noise complaints about misbehaving tourists visiting the red light district in the center of Amsterdam.

In two weeks, councilors will vote on the mega brothel plans.

The municipality of Amsterdam has been considering moving legal prostitution from the historic red light district for years and in February last year announced three possible locations for the five-storey Erotic Center.

The city plans to eventually close the century-old Red Light District, known for the neon-lit windows where sex workers stand as they try to lure customers.

Local residents have long complained about the quality of life in the area, which attracts large numbers of tourists.

Two are located near the new headquarters of the European Medicines Agency – which moved to Amsterdam in 2019 after leaving London after Brexit – close to major hotels and the city's financial district.

The agency said in a statement last March that it was “concerned” about plans for the center, which includes about 100 “workplaces” for sex workers, as well as bars and entertainment venues.

“The change in the location of the Red Light District is prompted by concerns about nuisance, drug dealing, drunkenness and disorderly behaviour,” the EMA said in a statement.

'Locating the Erotic Center in close proximity to the EMA building is likely to have the same negative impact on the adjacent area.'

“EMA is very concerned that this will lead to safety, security and disruption issues” for its staff and for visiting delegates, who often have to leave late in the evening, the regulator said in a statement.

“The change in the location of the red light district is prompted by concerns about public nuisance, drug dealing, drunkenness and disorderly behaviour,” the report said.

'Locating the Erotic Center in close proximity to the EMA building is likely to have the same negative impact on the adjacent area.'

The EMA said at the time that it would work with the European Commission in Brussels, the EU's executive arm, to take the matter to the “highest appropriate political and diplomatic level to ensure a safe working environment.”

The watchdog added that it had only heard about the proposals through local media reports and “expected to be consulted”.

Two of the three proposed sites for the huge new brothel are close to the EMA's high-tech headquarters in a business district on the southern edge of Amsterdam.

The once low-profile agency played a key role during the coronavirus pandemic, approving vaccines as the disease swept the world and then allaying concerns about possible side effects.

“The EMA's work is essential for protecting public health in the EU, and this should not be jeopardized by the fear of staff and EU experts coming to the EMA building,” the report said.

This is it. The lumbering, slobbering, glowing apex predator of the cruise industry, weighing 250,000 tons and measuring 1,150 feet in length – Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship in history.

It's been many years in the making – and now it's finally out at sea. And honestly, so am I.

The experience of boarding the inaugural sailing in Miami is overwhelming. In front of me is a work of art that resembles a giant golf ball and a swarm of Royal Caribbean employees, all in orange T-shirts, standing there. Nearby, a man holds a clipboard next to a life-size bronze statue of, for some reason, a dog defecating on a lamppost.

My short trip coincides with the launch of a partnership between Royal Caribbean and the Inter Miami football team, including Lionel Messi. They are an irresistible couple. The greatest footballer of all time, adopted by the greatest cruise ship of all time. Somewhat predictably, Royal Caribbean has called Messi “the icon of the icon.”

With the size, the hyperbole, and the sheer strangeness, it takes 24 hours to acclimatize. At first I hardly know which way I'm looking. And even if I am in the know, I don't turn a blind eye when I see a huge plastic flamingo, nor when I am attacked by two exuberant Mexicans with sportswear that resembles a donut and a fried egg.

'How did you sleep?' the Donut asks in a sing-song falsetto. Not bad, I say. 'Don't forget to wash your hands!' chimes in the fried egg.

This colorful madness is a world unto itself. Hardly influenced by the waves, it moves according to its own rhythms and rules.

Rule 1. You can get what you want. A breakfast cocktail? Help yourself. Basketball? No problem. A climbing wall? A shopping mall? We've got you covered, sir.

Rule 2. Participate. There are so many activities available that it would be a crime not to try them out. It's a chance to do things you love, and a few things you've never done before.

I explore the water slides, which stretch across the upper deck like bleeding organs. The pressure drop is not a problem, as it turns out. But the Frightening Bolt is full-on.

One morning I try the fastest growing game in America. Pickleball is played on a small court, with a small plastic bat and a plastic ball. It's easy to pick up and loads of fun.

That afternoon I take part in a napkin folding course. Because I think: if not now, then when? There is confusion and there is no teacher. Luckily, another gambler – Mike from Dallas – works in the hospitality industry and steps in to take the class. I soon became absurdly proud of my Diamond Fold. Returning to my room, I fold all the linens and towels into diamond shapes.

My 'stateroom' is nice, by the way. Not huge, but cleverly put together, with a balcony and sea views. All that for about €2,600 per week.

For larger expenses there is the Ultimate Family Townhouse. Spread over three floors, with eight sleeping places, a musical staircase and a slide. It can be yours for €70,000 per week.

After building the world's largest passenger ship, with the world's largest suspended infinity pool at sea and the world's largest floating water park (and so on), it's unconvincing for Royal Caribbean to claim it has no obsession with size. “The size issue happened by accident,” emphasizes Jay Schneider, the company's chief product innovation officer. 'It was never our intention to make the largest ship in the world. We just wanted it to be the most iconic.”

But every few years the company makes a ship that is a meter longer than the previous one. It's oops, we did it again.

More compelling is the company's claim that it has created the world's best vacation for kids. Forget Disneyland Paris. This theme park floats. It will be pure heaven for the little ones.

They might even play pickleball against some of the world's greatest soccer players. At the end of my trip, for the naming ceremony, the entire Inter Miami team – including Luis Suarez and Messi themselves, appear on the ship in their pink strips. As a reward, they receive vouchers that allow them and their family members to take a cruise at any time.

That must be some consolation for Messi – who, according to Forbes, has earned an estimated $1.15 billion (900 million euros) in his career to date.

A suitably crazy spectacle follows in the spectacular Aqua Dome. There's a bagpipe performance by a rock band called the Red Hot Chilli Pipers; blessings from a rabbi and a priest. Then the great Lionel Messi dutifully slams a barrel of Veuve Clicquot against the hull and says: 'I call this ship Icon of the Sea.'

And the job is done – until the next largest cruise ship in the world comes along.

Experts are warning parents not to hold children on their laps while flying after a panel blew off on an Alaska Airlines plane at 16,000 feet.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) say that if a child were sitting on their parent’s lap near the window, they would have been swept from the plane.

The agencies are urging parents to buy a separate seat for their children, despite guidelines allowing children under two to fly for free after last week’s ‘truly terrifying’ incident.

“The safest place for a child under two years of age is an approved child seat or device, not an adult’s lap,” the FAA told Dailymail.com.

Parents are currently not required to purchase separate seats for infants and may hold them on their laps, but the child’s protection would outweigh the financial toll of spending more money to fly, the FAA and NTSB said.

When asked how the FAA responds to parents who may argue that they cannot afford to purchase a child safety seat for their child, the FAA said only, “For each rule, the FAA is required by law to provide a cost assessment.” conduct a benefit analysis to demonstrate that the FAA believes the benefits of the proposal exceed the costs.’

Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was forced to land when a window panel blew out of the Boeing 737 Max 9 plane shortly after takeoff.

Debris from two cellphones, a chair back and a tray were sucked out of the gaping hole and later found on the ground in the Portland area.

After the incident, all Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft were grounded while the FAA and NTSB investigated what caused the panel to blow out.

Federal investigators said a preliminary inspection showed loose bolts may have been the cause, after United and Alaska Airlines said they found loose parts in the door panels during Boeing 737 Max 9 inspections.

The leading cause of airplane accidents among children is unexpected turbulence, but the Alaska Airlines incident brought renewed concerns about unsecured babies to the forefront of aviation safety.

There were three babies on board the Alaska Airlines flight, but none of them sat in the aisle where the window blew out.

“If there had been a passenger holding a child near where that panel went off, the explosive force was such that a child being held would have been ripped from the hands of his parents and they would have been sucked out of the plane ,” Kwasi Adjekum, assistant professor in the Department of Aeronautics at the University of North Dakota, shared The Washington Post.

“The practice of holding children on your lap, especially during take-off and other vulnerable phases of flight, is highly frowned upon and discouraged,” Adjekum added.

Dailymail.com also asked the FAA whether it should focus on aircraft safety first instead of resorting to parents paying for an extra seat.

The FAA said, “The FAA’s priority is to protect the public.”

The agency has a Emergency Airworthiness Directive to Boeing for its 737 Max 9 aircraft, grounding them until all “applicable corrective actions have been implemented.”

Anthony Brickhouse, a professor of aerospace safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, questioned why children have to be in a car seat if they are in a vehicle under a certain weight, while parents are allowed to hold them on their laps in a commercial. flight.

“To me, that’s just a hole in the system,” Brickhouse told The Post, adding, “And unfortunately, in terms of safety, changes often don’t happen until a tragedy occurs.”

Yet tragedies have occurred regularly as early as the 1970s, prompting the NTSB and FAA in 1990 to require airlines to allow airline-approved child seats on board.

The NTSB sent one letter to the FAA in 1990, asking the agency to approve airline car seats, citing numerous in-flight emergencies that resulted in infant injuries or fatalities.

“The difficulties experienced by these three parents graphically illustrate the impossibility of holding a child during an accident,” the NTSB said at the time.

The FAA proposed a regulation in 2003 that would require children under the age of two to sit in child seats on airplanes.

However, pediatricians argued that this would be counterproductive and ultimately cause more fatalities than it prevents.

Pediatricians claimed that more deaths result from car accidents than from airplanes, and that forcing parents to buy an extra ticket for their child would result in parents choosing to drive to their destination rather than fly.

In light of the recent Alaska Airlines fiasco, the NTSB and FAA appear to be reconsidering this idea, although no proposed regulations have been issued.

Adjekum said U.S. regulators expressed concern that strapping a child to a seat would delay the evacuation of planes in an emergency and could pose a “potential obstacle hazard” to other passengers.

Dailymail.com has contacted the NTSB and several airlines for comment.

QUESTION Was anyone arrested after Lord Darnley, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was blown up at Kirk o’ Field in Edinburgh?

Mary, Queen of Scots, was barely a week old when she came to the throne in 1542. The murder 25 years later of her second husband, Lord Darnley, the father of the child who would become King James I of England and James VI of England Scotland is one of history’s most infamous unsolved crimes.

On the night of February 9-10, 1567, Darnley was on the top floor of an Edinburgh house at Kirk o’ Field, where he was recovering after an attack of smallpox, although many think it was syphilis. Conspirators had been covering the cellars of the house with gunpowder for some time, and around 2 a.m. the building exploded, the blast being heard and felt throughout the city.

Darnley’s body and that of his servant William Taylor were found outside. Darnley was dressed only in his nightgown, indicating he had fled from his bedroom. Sources said one or both men had been strangled, suggesting the explosion was a cover-up.

Lord Darnley, whose full name was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, was handsome but of bad character. He was vain, arrogant, violent in nature and unreliable, qualities that threatened the well-being of the state.

After the explosion, suspicion fell on James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, and his supporters, the powerful Douglas family and on Mary herself. Bothwell had long been suspected of plotting for the throne, and it was rumored that he and Mary were lovers.

The events following Darnley’s murder were dramatic, brutal and bloody. Bothwell was kidnapped, raped (or so Mary claimed) and married to the queen, but was acquitted. Instead, the need to satisfy justice focused on his accomplices, some of whom may have been innocent.

Captain William Blackadder, an associate of Darnley, who claimed he had merely walked away from a nearby inn when he heard the explosion, was the first to be captured; he was hanged, drawn, and quartered, and his limbs were nailed to the gates of the principal cities of Scotland.

Shortly afterwards, William Powrie, who had been in charge of transporting gunpowder through the streets of Edinburgh, was captured, tortured and hanged. Two of Bothwell’s servants, John Hepburn of Bolton and John Hay of Tallo, were captured and executed before the New Year; in each case they made self-incriminating statements under torture.

It took another year before Bothwell’s servant Nicolas Hubert, known as Paris, was captured and extradited from Norway. By this time Mary was beginning her long captivity in England, and Scotland was ruled by a regent, the Earl of Moray. Paris did everything he could to save his life with a confession involving Bothwell and Mary and no one else.

When William Cecil, Elizabeth I’s chief advisor, sent a request from London to send the servant down for cross-examination, he was promptly hanged at St. Andrews.

Bothwell’s acolyte, the Black Laird of Ormiston, was also captured and hanged. The next to be executed was Bothwell’s tailor George Dalgleish, who was said to have disguised Bothwell during the plot.

Bothwell himself fled to Norway, where he was arrested, and spent the rest of his life as a prisoner in Denmark, where he died in 1578. Mary spent 18 and a half years in captivity in England. She was found guilty of a plot to murder Elizabeth I in 1586 and was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle the following year.

Heather McAllister, Stirling.

QUESTION Why is castor oil called that?

Castor oil is extracted from the seeds of the castor plant, scientifically known as Ricinus communis. Digestive enzymes break down castor oil in the body into ricinoleic acid. This has laxative, anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties. The seed also contains ricin, a very potent water-soluble toxin.

Castor is a strange name because it means ‘beaver’ in Latin. It is believed that the common name ‘castor oil’ comes from its use as a substitute for castoreum, a perfume base made from the dried perineal glands of the beaver. It has another common name, Palm of Christ or Palma Christi, which is derived from the medicinal properties of castor oil.

Taxonomist Carl Linnaeus gave it the scientific name Ricinus because it is a Latin word for tick; this is because the seed has markings and a bump on the end that resemble some types of ticks.

M. M. Smith, Crewe, Cheshire.

QUESTION What is the oldest unit of measurement still in use?

The oldest units date from ancient times, although their precise parameters may have changed over time. Dating back to about 3000 BC, the cubit was a unit of length used by the ancient Egyptians and other Near Eastern civilizations.

It was based on the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger – 45 cm. God gave Noah the dimensions of the ark in cubits: “This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark is 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits.” Traditional hedgerows use cubits to spread out the plants.

The body was in charge when it came to measuring. The length of a foot, the width of a finger, the length of a hand, and the distance of a step were all accepted measurements in 2500 BC, and they remain so today.

The foot was a common unit of length in many ancient cultures. Traditionally it is said that the current 12 feet is derived from the length of King Henry I’s foot and that the meter should be ‘the distance from the tip of the king’s nose to the end of his outstretched thumb’.

The crescent dates from about 2000 BC. This unit of weight and currency was used in the ancient Near East, including Mesopotamia and Israel. The Roman scales or ‘pound’ dates back to 500 BC. The scale was a unit of weight and formed the basis for the Roman system of measurement.

Edward Flower, Milton Keynes, Bucks.

• Is there a question you would like to know the answer to? Or do you know the answer to a question here?
• Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk
• A selection will be published, but individual correspondence is not possible.

By James Callery

Published: 04:03 EST, December 18, 2023 | Updated: 05:12 EST, December 18, 2023

Advertisement

A Ukrainian sniper claims to have smashed the record for the longest kill shot in history, with the country’s special forces saying their shooters are ‘rewriting the rules of global sniping’.

Silent assassins who keep out of sight from the frontline, snipers are guardian angels to their comrades on the battlefield – and a looming, invisible threat to enemy combatants. 

While not all shots cover as much ground as the incredible 2.36 miles Ukraine said its ‘Lord of the Horizon’ rifle achieved, sharpshooters’ high-precision kills have beaten the odds and saved countless lives during conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The fast-paced nature of firefights means even the highest-spec technology cannot always keep pace in challenging battlefield environments, making snipers’ reconnaissance and communication skills invaluable to their battalions.

US army sniper instructor Staff Sgt. Michael Turner explained: ‘We’ve got drones, we’ve got robots, we’ve got all kinds of stuff… but we still need that real-time battlefield information that keeps soldiers safe.’

The regular breaking of records is testament to how rapidly sniper technology has been advancing in recent years, with shooters using wind meters, laser rangefinders and advanced scopes to make their kills.

Surprisingly, stunning shots have also been made using dated weapons, with a machine gun first developed in WWII used by British special forces in Afghanistan.

While snipers and their spotters work closely to estimate ranges as accurately as possible, luck also plays a role – as shown by the various examples of single bullets killing multiple enemy fighters at once.

Snipers spend years learning their craft, honing their shooting skills into a deadly and precise science which takes into account everything from temperature to humidity and even the curvature and rotation of the earth. 

Low temperatures and high altitudes result in thinner air, which results in less drag on the bullet and therefore less bullet drop. Low humidity, too, can result in denser air, which tends to drag the bullet down faster. 

Ultimately, success comes down to the skill of the shooter, with tiny margins of less than a millimetre making the difference between their bullet hitting a wall, their own troops, or someone who is trying to kill them.

Here, MailOnline takes a look at the longest, most destructive and most dramatic sniper kill shots in modern warfare.

The Canadian sharpshooter who took out an ISIS fanatic from 2.19 miles away as fighter attacked Iraqi soldiers

Before Ukraine claimed that one of its soldiers had executed a staggering 12,467ft kill shot, a Canadian sniper held the record for the greatest distance.

Operating in Iraq in 2017, the unnamed killer from the elite Joint Task Force 2 is said to have taken out an ISIS fighter from 11,614ft away.

The bullet was fired from a McMillan TAC-50 rifle set on a high-rise tower and took 10 seconds to travel roughly 2.19 miles through the air before hitting the fighter, who was attacking Iraqi soldiers.

The shot is thought to have been caught on film by a Predator drone circling overhead at the time.

A report by news site SOFREP said the kill took place in Mosul, and that the shooter and his team had recently trained in long-range sniping.

They had been firing at increasing distances over the city for several days leading up to the record-breaking kill.

Moments after, a second shot by the same sniper at a slightly shorter distance missed its target, the site reported.

A military source told Canada’s Globe and Mail at the time that the successful precision shot negated the need to drop a bomb – which could have had catastrophic consequences, potentially killing civilians in the area.

‘It is a very precise application of force and because it was so far way, the bad guys didn’t have a clue what was happening,’ they said.

The shot was made over such a distance, they added, that the shooter must have had to account for the changeability in the ballistics of the round, which are affected by time and distance.

They would have also had to adjust for wind, which an expert suggested could have been high in this case.

‘You have to adjust for him firing from a higher location downward and as the round drops you have to account for that. And from that distance you actually have to account for the curvature of the Earth.’

Despite only having a small army, Canada is known for producing some of the world’s best snipers.

‘It is not just a sniper. They work in pairs. There is an observer,’ a military source told Globe and Mail. ‘This is a skill set that only a very few people have.’

The deadly efficiency of Canadian shooters goes back to the First and Second World Wars, according to Canadian military historian Mark Zuehlke.

‘The best snipers were usually country boys who knew how to hunt,’ Zuehlke told CBC. ‘They knew how to handle a gun and handle a gun well.’ 

The Cavalry corporal who carried out the longest kill shot by a British sniper in history in Afghanistan

Setting the world record at the time, Corporal of Horse (CoH) in the Blues and Royals, Sgt Craig Harrison, executed what remains the longest kill shot in British military history when he took out two Taliban assassins.

It was November 2009 when he fired the shot from a range of 8,120ft – around 3,000ft beyond his rifle’s effective range.

Sgt. Harrison told how he felt compelled to take the shot while fighting in Musa Qala, Helmand Province, when a patrol he was part of came under fire from Taliban fighters.

During a three-hour shooting match, he recalled seeing his friends get stuck in a gulley under heavy fire from a Taliban machine gun.

His target was far outside range of his gun, a L115A3 Long Range Rifle, but Sgt Harrison decided the good conditions gave him a chance.

With good visibility, wind and weather conditions, he carried out nine shots alongside his spotter to range the target, using the ‘bracketing method’ – estimating shortest and longest possible distance and then works out the average.

His successful hit helped save the eight men who were at risk of being wounded or killed if he did nothing.

Afghan National Police confirmed he had killed two Taliban fighters when they visited the site of the shooting shortly afterwards to retrieve the militants’ weapons, which had been taken by fleeing fighters.

The record distance of the shot was then confirmed by an Apache helicopter, which hovered over the firing position, using its laser range finder to measure the distance from it to the target.

The perfect snipe was not the only dramatic thing to happen during to Sgt Harrison during his deployment; on the same tour a bullet went through his helmet, almost killing him.

Just 10 days later, his Jackal vehicle was blown up by a mine, which he again survived. He was reportedly only told of his record-breaking feet on his return home.

The Canadian marksman who saved US soldiers’ lives when he took out al-Qaeda fighters in 2002

Another Canadian shooter secured a record back in 2002, which he held until 2009.

As a young soldier who had honed his craft while stationed in Bosnia, Corporal Rob Furlong brought his skills to the field in Afghanistan.

Operating alongside another shooter, Furlong used a Vector, a binocular-like device that uses a laser to pinpoint targets miles away.

It told him target – three men believed to have been al-Qaeda fighters – was exactly exactly 7,972ft away. 

The group was lugging weapons to al-Qaeda mortar nest high in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, Macleans reported in 2006.

Cpl Furlong and his comrade agreed to take out the biggest threat first – man in the middle carrying the RPK machine gun.

He missed twice, and said the reason he only hit the terrorist’s backpack the second time is because he squeezed the trigger a fraction of a millimetre to one side, so rectified it the third time. 

Third time lucky, his miraculous shot saved American soldiers’ lives and meant Cpt Furlong made a name for himself, tallying an unprecedented body count.

‘Thank God the Canadians were there,’ one American soldier said in the aftermath of the gunfight.

His shot beat a record set just a few days before by another Canadian, former master Corporal Aaron Perry, who shot an insurgent from a distance of around 7,500ft.

SAS sniper who wiped out five ISIS fighters with a single bullet during 2020 campaign in Syria

An SAS sniper is said to have used one of the Army’s most powerful rifles to kill five bomb-making ISIS fighters with a single shot while serving in Syria in 2020.

The SAS troops are understood to have been working with Kurdish fighters to track down an ISIS unit responsible for attacking Syrian villages, The Sun reports.

The team had spent several days carrying out reconnaissance at a suspected ISIS bomb factory before they saw their targets emerge.

The marksman engaged the target and hit the jihadist in the chest, inadvertently exploding his suicide vest. 

The bomb blast killed the target and four other IS fighters, including a top jihadist commander.

The soldier is said to have planned to take out suicide bomber, followed by the ISIS commander before he ‘got lucky’ and took them all out at once. 

‘He waited for the target to drop but instead the guy exploded,’ a source said at the time.

The sniper, a sergeant with 20 years’ experience, was given a baseball cap which read ‘Long Range Death’ as a reward for his shot.

The incredible shot had echoes of another record held by a British sniper who killed six Taliban fighters with a single bullet – again after it hit the trigger switch of a suicide vest he was wearing.

The 20-year-old Lance Corporal, of the Coldstream Guards, pulled off the stunning shot in Kakaran, southern Afghanistan, in December 2013.

The unnamed soldier’s shot travelled a relatively modest 2,800ft to reach its target.

The same shooter was no stranger to impressive shots, and had previously taken out a Taliban fighter at 4,400ft.

The Ukrainian sniper who caught his long-distance kill on camera in 2022

Ukraine’s latest record, if confirmed, would top a kill executed by one of its snipers  last year, which is currently third in the rankings.

An unnamed shooter felled a Russian soldier at a distance of 8,890ft– around 1.7miles – according to Ukraine’s military.

It published dramatic footage which it claimed showed the view down the sniper’s scope as the shot was taken with Ukrainian Snipex Alligator rifle.

The footage shows an image of a man moving among trees before the shooter centres their crosshair on his chest. 

The thermal sight was seen jumping upwards, indicating the rifle has been fired, before the figure dropped to the ground around three seconds later.

A second figure then came running over in an apparent attempt to help his wounded comrade, before the sniper fired a second time. Both figures then slumped to the ground.

Weapons fanatics refer to the Alligator as a ‘beast’ of the battleground – with the huge weapon reaching six feet, six inches in length when fully assembled.

It entered service with Ukrainian special operations forces in 2021, just in time for Russia’s bloody invasion.

According to Ukraine’s military, the weapon can penetrate a 10mm armor plate from a single shot around 4,500ft away. 

A US sniper’s longest kill that took out Iraqi insurgent in 2004

Weapon: Barrett .50

Distance: 7,546 feet (1.42 miles)

Time: Unknown

The longest kill from a US sniper was done by sergeant Bryan Kremer, who hit an Iraqi insurgent at 7,546 feat (1.42 miles) with his Barrett M82A1 rifle in 2004. 

The .50 calibre M82 is a semi-automatic  rifle which is used by numerous armies around the world. The M82A1, which was used in this case, is an improved version of the weapon which was introduced in 1986.

British soldier who used a machine gun  to carry out ‘the best long-range shot in SAS history’

A British sniper gunned down a jihadi from almost 1.5 miles away in what was reportedly the best long-range shot in the history of the SAS.

The sergeant killed the Islamic State commander, who was on a British and US kill list, with a .50 Calibre machine gun, shooting him in the chest. 

The feat is believed to be the first time the machine gun has been used for a sniper hit by the SAS.

The Islamist’s arm and shoulder were torn off due to the force of the bullet and he died instantly.

The sniper used an M2 Browning heavy machine gun, popularly known as ‘Ma Deuce’, a weapon which has been in service since WWII. 

A special sight was fitted on the gun and a spotter then estimated wind speed. 

The gunman also had to take into account the heat of the day and the light. 

‘The image of his target was quite ‘watery’ because of the heat being given off from the ground,’ a source told The Daily Star.

The IS fighter had been briefing his men when he was shot: ‘It took several seconds for the round to hit the commander who appeared to fly into several pieces. 

‘For a few seconds no-one moved. When they realised what had happened they got up and ran away.’

The gun was reportedly decommissioned and displayed in the unit’s Hereford headquarters as a memento.