Author: Darren Smith

Earthquake Strikes Northern Venezuela As Tremors Felt Across Region A magnitude 6.2 earthquake has struck northern Venezuela this evening, with tremors felt across a wide area including the cities of Valencia, San Felipe and Puerto Cabello, according to preliminary seismological reports. The quake struck at around 22:04 UTC — 6:04pm local time — with its epicentre located approximately 104 kilometres east of Barquisimeto in Lara state, at a depth of around 35 kilometres. The relatively shallow depth contributed to the wide area over which shaking was reported, with residents across the Yaracuy and Carabobo regions describing strong movement in homes…

A 17-year-old boy, Louis has died after being ambushed and beaten to death by a group of five attackers in Narbonne, southern France, with his killers filming themselves repeatedly kicking him in the head while mocking him as he lay dying on the ground. Louis, who had been placed in foster care in nearby Carcassonne by child protection services, was found unconscious on a construction site on the evening of 19-20 June with catastrophic head injuries, severe facial trauma and bleeding from his nose and mouth. He was rushed to hospital and placed in an induced coma but could not…

Tonight’s World Cup clash between Brazil and Scotland at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens kicks off at 11pm UK time — and if one of Brazil’s most followed psychics is to be believed, it could end with thousands of fans and players being beamed aboard a UFO mothership. Vó Bahiana, whose real name is Elisângela de Souza, has gone viral across the globe after posting a warning on 2 June to her 23.4 million Instagram followers, urging people to stay away from the stadium tonight. “Do not go to the stadium in Miami on June 24, 2026. Stay away,”…

A former British Airways pilot has been jailed for nine years and four months after grooming a 12-year-old girl on Instagram and travelling across the country to rape her three times at an isolated location. Kwame Yeboah, 30, of Drake Way, Reading, first made contact with the child online in late 2025. She initially told him she was 17, but the Crown Prosecution Service said the nature of her messages, her references to school and images of herself in school uniform would have made her true age apparent long before the attack took place. When he met her in person,…

Frank Carone, who served as chief of staff to former New York City Mayor Eric Adams, has been arrested as part of a federal investigation into an alleged bribery scheme involving a city contract, according to a person familiar with the matter. Carone was taken into custody alongside his brother and two other individuals, said the source, who was not authorised to publicly discuss details of the case and spoke on condition of anonymity. Indictments were expected to be unsealed later on Wednesday. No further details about the nature of the alleged bribery scheme or the specific city contract involved…

The British Council has opened a new round of funding for international cultural heritage projects, offering grants of up to £500,000 to organisations in Pakistan and other countries — as the organisation simultaneously grapples with a £197 million Covid-era loan and significant cuts to its own operations. The Cultural Protection Fund, launched in 2016 by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in partnership with the British Council, has awarded more than £50 million to around 178 projects across 20 countries since its inception. Funded through UK Overseas Development Assistance, the programme aims to protect tangible and intangible cultural heritage…

Hundreds of mothers and babies died or suffered potentially avoidable harm because of “deeply embedded systemic failures” at a Nottingham hospital trust where leaders knew about serious problems in the maternity department but failed to act, the largest maternity inquiry in NHS history has concluded. Donna Ockenden’s major inquiry into Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust found that potentially avoidable outcomes were linked to 444 maternity cases examined up to May 2025, alongside 76 newborn cases. Babies died from oxygen starvation, mismanaged labour, hospital-acquired infections and poor postnatal care. The trust had already paid out millions in compensation and faced prosecution…

France has recorded its first case of Ebola from the current outbreak after a doctor who had been on a humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo tested positive for the virus, French health authorities have confirmed. The French health ministry said the doctor is being held in isolation and that contact tracing is under way to identify anyone who may have been exposed. Officials stressed that the risk to the wider European population remained low. The case comes amid an extraordinarily rapid outbreak in the DRC that the World Health Organisation has described as the largest number of…

The national grooming gangs inquiry has announced that Oldham, Bradford and Keighley, and London will be the first areas to face detailed local investigations, with further locations to be named in the coming months. Oldham had previously been identified as a focus for the inquiry, with work already under way there. The inquiry confirmed that concerns about Bradford and Keighley had been raised over many years, which it said “formed an important part of the case for investigation.” In London, investigators will examine how abuse by grooming gangs has been “identified and responded to” across the capital, though the inquiry…

The body of 14-year-old Lilly Jones was found hidden in undergrowth just 50 yards from where dozens of volunteers had gathered to search for her, and only 500 yards from her family home, in a discovery that has left the small South Wales town of Blaina in a state of profound shock. Lilly had been reported missing on Saturday after failing to return from a trip to the high street, with her phone switched off — something her family and friends described as deeply out of character. Around 60 residents joined the search on Monday evening, using the town’s bowls…