Author: Darren Smith

Fan theories of a ‘Red Cartel’ have grown as the club awaits its appeal against 114 financial rule breaches, but no evidence has emerged that the meeting was about City Manchester City’s leadership has reportedly rejected the explanation given for a 2017 dinner in New York attended by senior figures from Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. The meeting has become a talking point for some City supporters who believe the three clubs, all of whom play in red, worked together against them. City were found guilty last month of 114 breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, a verdict they…

A decade after Remita Sinaga’s punishment in Indonesia’s only sharia province, public canings continue, and the province has revised its Islamic criminal code Remita Sinaga, a 60-year-old Christian from the town of Takengon, was publicly caned 28 times in April 2016. She is reported to have been the first non-Muslim punished under Aceh’s Islamic law. A court in Central Aceh had found her guilty after police reportedly discovered 50 bottles of alcohol at her stall. It sentenced her to 30 lashes of a rattan cane, reduced to 28 for the time she had spent in detention. Aceh remains the only…

Every top-two-division match in Spain will pause for a minute’s silence this weekend, as investigators recover the trains’ data recorders and the country continues three days of national mourning Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have paid tribute to the victims of Wednesday’s train collision south of Madrid, which killed at least 69 people. Spain’s football authorities have now widened the response, with LaLiga and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) confirming a minute’s silence at every Primera División and Segunda División match this weekend. The federation has also told all its national competitions to follow suit and encouraged players to…

The Russian president says Moscow does not want a conflict but will answer any challenge, as European governments argue over the Nordic peace overture and Russian strikes kill at least 19 in Ukraine Vladimir Putin has said Russia is prepared for a possible war with Europe, while insisting Moscow does not want one. He spoke after a joint phone call with Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, a contact that has divided European leaders. At a Moscow press conference on Thursday he added that the Baltic Sea must not become another Strait of Hormuz and…

The family of 12-day-old Lucas says warnings about the tree went unheeded for more than a year. Prosecutors are treating his death as negligent homicide, and the local council’s position is disputed. A 12-day-old boy has died after an avocado fell from a tree and struck him on the head as his mother dropped his older brother at a nursery in Quilmes, on the edge of Buenos Aires. Argentine reports name the baby as Lucas Sebastián Gómez. His family says he suffered multiple skull fractures and died days after surgery. His mother, Giuliana Gómez, blames the local council for not…

Models point to a major disruption high above the Arctic within days. Any effect on weather near the ground would take weeks, and its location and severity remain uncertain. A “polar vortex collapse” could plunge parts of the United States into bitter cold, forecasts suggest, with a potentially record-breaking disruption above the Arctic expected within days. If the winds reverse as forecast, it would be the earliest major breakdown in records dating back to 1959, beating the previous earliest date of 28 November. For Americans, any effects could emerge in late November or early December, with areas east of the…

Two high-speed trains collided near Urda in Toledo on the Madrid to Andalusia line. The transport minister blames an “inexplicable” order from the central command centre after a safety system failed. At least 68 people have died after a high-speed train ran into a stationary train near Urda, in the province of Toledo, on the line between Madrid and Andalusia. Carriages derailed and rolled down an embankment. Survivors have described scenes of chaos and devastation, and one told of seeing a man walking with a severed arm. Casualty figures are still changing. The authorities have announced three days of national…

Aviation website AirLive says the crew alerted ground teams before landing. No virus has been confirmed, and the reported landing time conflicts with flight-tracking records. At least eight passengers on an easyJet flight to Glasgow were reportedly struck by severe vomiting in mid-air, in what is suspected to be an outbreak of norovirus. AirLive reports that the Airbus A320neo, flight U23116, left Sharm el-Sheikh late on Wednesday evening on an overnight route to Scotland. Pilots reportedly told operational command that at least eight people were suffering acute nausea and sickness at the same time. The cause has not been confirmed.…

The Department for Transport says the monochrome illustration shows a balding man with a suspicious package in his jacket. Some social media users read it as a woman in a hijab, and TfL’s initial statement has reportedly been deleted. Transport for London (TfL) has admitted that a genuine government poster was mistaken for illegal flyposting. The Department for Transport (DfT) poster, which shows a figure looking over their shoulder, was widely shared online by people who thought it depicted a woman wearing a hijab. The DfT says the monochrome designs were not meant to suggest or refer to any ethnicity,…

Friends and family describe him as “full of energy and talent” and “a mentor to many”. A padel tournament planned for his 30th birthday is going ahead in his memory. James Abiwon, 29, has been named as the man killed when a tree fell on his car in Mill Hill, north London, during Storm Boelo on Sunday. He was pronounced dead at the scene on Dollis Road. The Metropolitan Police said it was called at about 12.40pm after reports that a tree had fallen onto a moving car, and confirmed that a man in his 20s died. Paramedics, firefighters and…