Author: Darren Smith

Thursday marks the day each year when England pauses — if only briefly, and not everywhere — to acknowledge its patron saint. St George’s Day falls on 23 April, the presumed anniversary of the death of a fourth-century Roman soldier who almost certainly never set foot in the country that now claims him. The date has been observed for more than six centuries, yet its meaning, its status in the national calendar and even the historical reality of the figure at its centre remain matters of lively dispute. Who St George really was — and why almost nothing about him…

Prince Harry has made an unannounced visit to Ukraine, arriving in Kyiv by train in the early hours of Thursday morning to attend the Kyiv Security Conference and deliver a message of solidarity to a country he said the world must not forget. The Duke of Sussex, 41, travelled to the Ukrainian capital after flying to Poland and making the overnight rail journey to Kyiv — the same route used by most Western visitors to the country given the security restrictions on air travel. His arrival comes just one week after Russia launched what has been described as its deadliest…

The family of a baby girl who was fatally mauled by a dog at just 13 weeks old have paid a deeply moving tribute to their daughter, describing her as the heart of the family whose loss has left a void that can never be filled. Maggie-May Ann Moody died on 9 April at a property in Dormanstown, near Redcar, in an attack involving what has been described as a pocket bully-type dog. She was one day away from reaching her three-month milestone. An inquest into her death opened at Teesside Coroner’s Court on Tuesday. In a funeral notice, her…

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi was targeted outside a press briefing in Berlin on Thursday after an individual threw what police believe was tomato juice over him as he left Germany’s federal press conference building. Pahlavi, the son of the ousted Shah of Iran, had just concluded a media briefing in which he spoke critically about the ceasefire between the United States and Iran when the incident took place. As he emerged from the building, the red liquid was thrown over him from behind, saturating the back of his blazer and his neck. Despite the startling nature of the…

China appears to have used a carefully constructed propaganda video to signal the imminent arrival of its first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, embedding the revelation in symbolism designed to generate maximum speculation while stopping short of a formal announcement. The video, released on the eve of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s 77th anniversary, follows four generations of naval personnel and features a new recruit named “He Jian” — a name that in Mandarin is a homophone for “nuclear vessel.” The three characters representing China’s existing commissioned carriers — the Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian — are each echoed in the names of…

The jury in the trial of a teacher accused of sexually abusing and murdering a 13-month-old baby boy he was in the process of adopting has been formally discharged, with a fresh panel expected to be sworn in on Monday to hear the case from the beginning. The discharge of the six men and six women came on the fourth day of proceedings at Preston Crown Court, when Mr Justice Mark Turner told the jury that “circumstances have arisen which make it impossible for this trial to continue.” The reason for the discharge cannot be reported for legal reasons. The…

The medical data of approximately half a million volunteers who contributed to the UK’s Biobank health database has been stolen and advertised for sale online, the government has confirmed. Technology minister Ian Murray told the Commons on Thursday that the charity had informed the government the data had been “advertised for sale by several sellers on Alibaba’s ecommerce platforms in China.” The listings have since been taken down, and the government said it had spoken directly to the vendor, who indicated they did not believe any purchases had been made from the three listings before their removal. Murray sought to…

A bomb disposal unit has been deployed to a street in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, after a suspicious item was discovered at a premises on Victoria Street, prompting the evacuation of a health centre, two nearby schools and dozens of surrounding homes. Emergency services were called to the scene at around 9.30am on Thursday 23 April 2026, following the discovery of the item within the grounds of a building on the street. Police Scotland established a cordon around the area and evacuated the affected buildings as a precautionary measure while specialist officers assessed the find. A Police Scotland spokesman said: “The…

A Jewish building inspector has been left too frightened to wear his kippah in public after being punched and subjected to a torrent of antisemitic abuse by a stranger who approached him on a bicycle while he was carrying out work at a property in Slough. The attack, which took place on a Monday afternoon on Elliman Avenue in Berkshire, was captured on video and has since circulated widely on social media. The footage, lasting approximately one minute, shows a man in a white baseball cap, striped jacket, black jeans and white trainers riding up to the victim — an…

Residents and councillors in the Surrey village of Laleham have reacted with fury after asylum seekers were quietly placed in a £500,000 property situated just 200 yards from a local primary school, with local authorities claiming they received no prior warning before the migrants arrived. The row has been dramatically intensified by the subsequent arrest of an Afghan asylum seeker, believed to be in his early 20s, who was detained outside the house on suspicion of harassment after allegedly returning to the school grounds despite being told by police to stay away. The man had reportedly been seen loitering near…