Author: Darren Smith

New footage from Arsenal’s Premier League title celebrations has emerged showing captain Martin Odegaard cradling and dancing with the trophy at a lavish Mayfair nightclub, as manager Mikel Arteta told his players they would be “champions of Europe” by Saturday. The Gunners celebrated long into Sunday night at Bacchanalia, an exclusive central London establishment that describes itself as a “world of Mediterranean delicacies, revelry and artistry” and where bottles of the venue’s most expensive wine carry a price tag of £56,000. Videos leaked to social media on Tuesday captured the full exuberance of a squad that had finally ended a…

The sentences of teenage boys who escaped jail after raping two girls in Hampshire have been referred to the Court of Appeal by the Attorney General following cross-party outrage and a personal intervention by the Prime Minister — who described the case as “appalling.” Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer referred the sentences under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme after widespread concern that the boys had avoided custody for a series of serious sexual offences. If the Court of Appeal agrees the sentences were unduly lenient, they can be increased. Southampton Crown Court sentenced two 15-year-olds and a 14-year-old to youth…

Hundreds of passengers travelling from Paris to Nice were left stranded on the side of the tracks for four hours in baking heat with no air conditioning, after their train broke down in the French countryside during an unprecedented May heatwave that pushed temperatures to record levels. The train departed Paris at 2.10pm but ground to a halt north of Lyon, near Civrieux-d’Azergues, due to a power supply failure. The cause has not been formally confirmed, though the incident occurred as France recorded its highest ever temperatures for a May day, with the mercury reaching 37C in some parts of…

A body has been recovered from the water at Rother Valley Country Park in South Yorkshire after a large-scale emergency search was launched on Bank Holiday Monday following reports that a teenage boy had entered a lake and not been seen getting out. Emergency services were called to the country park at 6.50pm on 25 May after the alarm was raised. South Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Yorkshire Ambulance Service and a search helicopter all attended the scene as a specialist search operation got underway. Multiple police cars, fire engines and ambulances were reported at the park…

A team of undercover Thai police officers caught a drug dealer by dressing in sequins, feathers and lipstick and posing as a glitzy dance troupe at a street festival — with a triumphant photograph of the operation going viral after being posted to Facebook. Five male officers and one female colleague slipped into tight-fitting glamour outfits for the covert operation at a street dance festival in Tha Luang, Thailand. Their target, Mekha Fa-wap-wap, never suspected the heavily made-up performers sashaying around him were preparing to strike. When they did, officers arrested him and found he was carrying more than 53…

Israel has accused Gaza flotilla activists of staging their injuries for the cameras, posting a series of mocking comparisons on social media showing protesters apparently recovered shortly after being photographed in neck braces and on stretchers — as multiple detainees made detailed allegations of beatings, sexual assault and sleep deprivation while in Israeli custody. The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s official X account shared a collage of photographs of German activist Nesrin Zeaiter, showing her first standing uninjured in Israel, then lying with a neck brace, and finally smiling while carrying flowers at Hannover Airport upon her return home. “The miracle of…

Oscar-winning actor Riz Ahmed has claimed British intelligence services attempted to recruit him on three separate occasions — including through a senior figure at the BBC — saying the approaches were triggered by his roles in politically charged films about terrorism and British Muslims. The 43-year-old British Pakistani actor made the revelations during an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan on his Zeteo platform, describing the alleged recruitment attempts as “inherently comedic” despite their unsettling nature. Ahmed said the first approach came immediately after filming The Road to Guantanamo, his 2006 debut in which he played one of the Tipton Three…

A deaf BBC presenter who summited Mount Everest was left stranded alone in the mountain’s lethal “death zone” for up to three hours after losing contact with his Sherpa guide during the descent — surviving the ordeal by thinking of his children before being reunited with his guide lower down the mountain. Michael Woods, 36, a British Sign Language presenter from Liverpool, reached the summit of the world’s highest peak on Thursday as part of a charity climb for the National Deaf Children’s Society. But during his descent near the Hillary Step, at nearly 29,000 feet above sea level, he…

A high school graduation ceremony in Tennessee descended into chaos when multiple fights broke out among attendees, resulting in eleven arrests and leaving officials to describe the scenes as “selfish and disgraceful” — while the school superintendent was keen to make clear the students themselves were not to blame. The brawl erupted at Ripley High School’s graduation ceremony in Lauderdale County on 14 May, with footage showing chairs scattered across the school gymnasium as the fighting spread. The person filming can be heard saying: “You can’t even have a f****** graduation.” Seven men, three juveniles and one woman have since…

An Afghan migrant has been arrested and remanded in custody after allegedly sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint in a bathroom at a special needs school in Germany, in an attack that has left parents in the area demanding answers about how two older men were able to access school grounds undetected. The girl, identified only as Samira to protect her identity, attends the Hans Zulliger School in Koblenz. On 28 April she briefly left her classroom to use the bathroom when she was allegedly attacked by a man and an accomplice. According to her family’s lawyer, Bilal Colak,…