Author: Darren Smith

Britain has been making the most of an unseasonably warm spring weekend, with temperatures climbing to 22C across parts of the country and crowds heading to the coast and to the parks — and the timing could scarcely be better for the roughly 59,000 runners due to set off from Blackheath on Sunday morning in the 2026 TCS London Marathon, before rain and possible thunderstorms sweep in on Monday. A weekend of sunshine before the rain returns Saturday saw the south coast at its busiest for weeks. Beaches at Bournemouth and Lyme Regis in Dorset filled with sunbathers; Devon’s coastline…

A television advertisement from Germany’s largest public health insurer promoting contraception counselling has gone viral for the second time, reigniting fierce debate about demographic messaging at a moment when the country is grappling with one of Europe’s lowest birth rates and ongoing tensions over migration and national identity. The advertisement, produced by AOK as part of its 2021 “#AllesOK” campaign, shows a young fair-skinned German couple in bed. While the woman briefly leaves the room, the man wakes to find a dark-haired, bearded man of Mediterranean appearance beside him. On-screen text reads “Mit ihm?” — “With him?” The woman returns,…

Councils across Britain are offering welfare claimants discounts on drinks at bars, beauty treatments, saunas, beach huts and white water rafting, a Telegraph investigation has found, in findings that critics say illustrate a “welfare culture” that has spiralled out of control while working families face the fastest tax rises in the world. The Telegraph’s investigation uncovered a striking range of perks available to Universal Credit and other benefit claimants through council-run or council-affiliated schemes. In Labour-run Leeds, claimants can obtain a LeedsCard Extra for £5 that provides up to 20 per cent off food and drinks at bars and restaurants,…

Klaudia Zakrzewska, the 32-year-old social media influencer known online as Klaudiaglam, has died from injuries sustained when a car struck her outside a Soho nightclub last Sunday, police have confirmed. Zakrzewska, from Essex, was hit by a vehicle on Argyll Street in Westminster in the early hours of Sunday 19 April and was taken to hospital in a critical condition. She was pronounced dead on Saturday 25 April, six days after the collision. She had amassed a significant following across TikTok and Instagram, where she was widely known for her BBL content. Gabrielle Precious Carrington, 29, has been charged with…

A former police sergeant who was found naked near a children’s play area and claimed he was merely cooling down after a run has been handed a five-year sexual risk order after a judge ruled he had masturbated in public on at least four separate occasions for sexual gratification. Simon Ince, 52, a father of two from Chatham, was sacked from Kent Police in 2024 following the incident at Horsted Valley nature reserve in Chatham, Kent, but escaped criminal conviction after prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence that anyone had directly witnessed his behaviour. This week, Medway Magistrates’ Court granted…

An Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in Britain after working for the Taliban has been jailed for kidnapping a seven-year-old girl and sexually assaulting her inside a taxpayer-funded hotel where he had been housed while his claim was processed. Afsar Safi, 30, lured the child away from her mother with an apple before dragging her down a corridor by the arm at the asylum hotel in Acton, west London, in September last year. The girl managed to escape by alerting security staff at the facility. She later told jurors: “I could not tell him to go away because I was…

A video of Arsenal supporters making an impassioned — and darkly comic — plea to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has spread rapidly across social media, capturing the raw tension of one of the tightest Premier League title races in recent memory. In the footage, which has circulated widely on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X, one Arsenal fan can be heard shouting directly at Guardiola: “Pep, let Arteta win the league! You’ve won enough already… Let him win something! I hate you, you’ve ruined my life!” The clip, filmed as Guardiola arrived in the presence of Arsenal supporters, drew a…

Labour is facing accusations of running a covert programme to house thousands of asylum seekers in disused military barracks across Britain, with critics warning that communities are being kept deliberately in the dark while the Government quietly scales up its use of former army sites. In a GB News investigation, Britain’s News Channel approached every council across Great Britain with military barracks set to be disposed of over the next 12 years, asking whether the Home Office had expressed interest in using the sites for asylum accommodation. The responses painted a picture of evasion, deflection and a Government unwilling to…

Britain was pressured by the United States into permitting the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Argentina, it has been reported, in a revelation that has deepened alarm over the security of the Falkland Islands as Donald Trump signals he may support Buenos Aires’s claim to the territory. Foreign Office officials were reportedly told “in no uncertain terms” not to oppose the deal, which was agreed by the Biden administration in 2024 before Labour came to power. One Argentine source said Washington had made a “strong” case for the sale in secret talks with Britain, while other sources described the…

Donald Trump has launched one of his most vicious attacks yet on former ally Candace Owens, branding her an “extremely low IQ individual” and sharing a mocked-up Time magazine cover labelling her “Vile Person of the Year” — the latest escalation in a feud between two figures who were once firmly on the same political side. The president posted the image on Truth Social on Friday, accompanied by a caption targeting Owens over her ongoing legal battle with French First Lady Brigitte Macron, whom the right-wing commentator has repeatedly and falsely claimed was born male. “Candace Owens’ stock, which was…