Author: Darren Smith

Dame Sarah Mullally has been enthroned as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury at a historic ceremony in Canterbury Cathedral, becoming the first woman to lead the Church of England in its nearly five centuries of existence and the first female spiritual leader of Christianity in England in over 1,400 years. Around 2,000 people attended the service, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and representatives from other faiths, charities, healthcare and schools. The King, who congratulated Dame Sarah on her appointment last October, was not present, though as head of the…

A Moroccan asylum seeker already serving a life sentence for murder has been charged with the attempted murder of prison officers following two separate incidents at high-security jails, counter terrorism policing has confirmed. Ahmed Ali Alid, 47, faces charges of attempted murder, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possession of an offensive weapon in connection with incidents at HMP Full Sutton on 8 August last year and HMP Wakefield approximately two months later. Alid was convicted in October 2024 of murdering Terence Carney, a 70-year-old man from Hartlepool, in a street attack. He is currently serving a life sentence for…

A judge at Liverpool Crown Court called for a minute’s silence to honour the memory of a thirteen-week-old baby boy after his parents were sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder. Miguel Pirjani died having suffered injuries that medical examination revealed were not isolated to a single incident — fractures at various stages of healing across his body pointed to a sustained pattern of harm during his short life. The severe and irreversible brain injury that ultimately killed him came to light on 24 November 2024, when his father Klevi Pirjani called 999 saying the baby had “just stopped breathing.”…

A man who laughed in a police interview when shown footage of himself killing a 56-year-old woman in a random street attack has been convicted of murder, following a five-week trial at Leicester Crown Court. Chukwuemeka Ahanonu, 24, of Leicester, was found guilty on Monday of murdering Nila Patel, a mother described by her family as “a beautiful, vibrant soul” and “one of the most kind-hearted people you could ever meet.” Mrs Patel died in hospital two days after the attack in Leicester city centre in June last year, having sustained severe brain damage. The assault took place moments after…

Kent Police has declined to investigate an art exhibition featuring drawings of Israelis eating babies, ruling that the artwork does not constitute a hate crime or a non-crime hate incident — a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from Jewish community organisations and prompted calls for the force to reverse its position. The exhibition, titled “Drawings Against Genocide,” was held at a gallery in Margate and sparked immediate backlash from Jewish groups who described the content as “grotesque,” “sickening” and “dangerous.” Among the works displayed was a piece depicting two auctioneers at Sotheby’s — owned by French-Israeli businessman Patrick Drahi…

French authorities are intercepting a smaller proportion of migrants attempting to cross the English Channel than at any point this year, new figures show, as British officials prepare to travel to Paris to renegotiate the terms of a border security agreement worth close to half a billion pounds. In the week beginning 9 March, French patrols stopped just 68 migrants from making the crossing while 357 succeeded — a success rate of 19 per cent, the worst recorded in 2026 so far. The figures represent a continued decline from an already falling baseline. When Rishi Sunak signed the original £478…

Dangerous foreign national offenders are being freed from a Kent prison without adequate public protection measures in place because of persistent delays in Home Office deportation decisions, the chief inspector of prisons has found. Charlie Taylor’s report into HMP Maidstone — a category C facility housing 526 inmates, almost all of whom are foreign national offenders awaiting deportation or considered too dangerous for community release — found that late Home Office decisions were leaving prison staff with insufficient time to make proper discharge arrangements. Under existing rules, prisoners must receive at least 30 days’ notice ahead of release or a…

Donald Trump appeared to suggest his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was among the first to advocate for striking Iran, in remarks at a Tennessee conference on Monday that drew an awkward reaction from the defence secretary sitting beside him. Recounting the discussions that preceded the military campaign, Trump described gathering senior advisers to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions before turning to Hegseth directly. “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. And you said, ‘Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon,'” the President told the audience. Hegseth responded with a forced smile…

Liverpool City Council has published an online fact-checking page urging residents not to attribute violence against women and girls to asylum seekers, amid growing national debate over sex crimes committed by foreign nationals in the UK. The council posted on social media directing residents to a dedicated section of its website addressing what it describes as common misconceptions about asylum seekers. Among the claims it seeks to counter are that asylum seekers receive preferential treatment over the British homeless, that they are responsible for rising levels of violence against women and girls, and that people are falsely claiming asylum to…

Russian women who express no desire to have children during routine medical appointments could be referred to psychological counselling under new health ministry guidelines, as President Vladimir Putin’s government intensifies efforts to reverse a historically low national birth rate. The guidelines state that during medical examinations, women will be asked how many children they would like to have. Those who answer zero are to be referred to a medical psychologist “with the aim of developing a positive attitude towards the desire to have children,” according to the new rules. Men will not face the same line of questioning as part…