Dispatches

Every seven seconds a parcel is stolen in Britain. With Christmas just around the corner, Dispatches goes on a mission to catch the crooks behind the escalating crime wave. The eye-opening film reveals the stark reality of Britain's disappearing doorstep deliveries, showing how it's become big business for criminal gangs. Reporter Tir Dhondy meets victims frustrated that their parcels keep going missing, even though they have doorbell footage of the criminals at work.To investigate what happens with stolen deliveries, Tir hides tiny tracking devices in parcels and leaves them on doorsteps. When they're stolen, the thieves have no idea that Tir is secretly following on their tail, ready to challenge them. Tir finds out how one doorstep thief susses out which homes offer the prime pickings, and learns that parcel theft is no longer just a petty crime for opportunist thieves but a lucrative business model for criminal gangs, costing more than an estimated £650m a year. Tir also discovers the shocking reality of how violent organised gangs are hijacking delivery vans, sometimes with deadly consequences. And how stressed-out delivery drivers are frightened in their daily work. With exclusive access to a major police operation, Tir sees first-hand how the cops are tracking and tackling the organised gangs who are determined to pinch our festive purchases. 

The Government's decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation has been met with waves of controversy, and thousands have taken to the streets to protest. Over 2,000 people who expressed public support for the group have been arrested, threatening to overwhelm the police and the justice system. Reporter Matt Shea investigates the truth about Palestine Action and why the Government felt the need to proscribe them alongside ISIS and neo-Nazis.

Political journalist Lewis Goodall assesses the origins of the downfall in popularity of the Labour government, from party infighting to policy U-turns, courting Donald Trump, the Mandelson-Epstein scandal, high-profile ministerial resignations and a by-election battleground. Lewis speaks to MPs, advisors and pollsters, as well as celebrity critics and journalists, and follows the unfolding story as the police make arrests, opposition closes in, and the clamour for information intensifies over what Keir Starmer and his top team knew about Mandelson and Epstein.

With unique access in Ukraine, with the US army, and from within Israel, Dispatches charts the new technological arms race and asks whether these tools will make warfare more precise and reduce civilian casualties; or will they lead to more wars that are ever more brutal?