Author: Darren Smith

A murder investigation has been launched after a 14-year-old girl was found dead in a park in South Wales, days after she was reported missing. The teenager, named by Gwent Police only as Lily, was discovered in the Duffryn Park area of Blaina at around 10.10pm on Monday. She had been reported missing after last being seen on High Street in Blaina at around 6.50pm on Saturday evening. At the time of her disappearance she was wearing a long black dress and black sandals. A large police presence has been deployed in the area as officers work to establish the…

Iran has warned that Israeli attacks on Lebanon represent a “red line” in ongoing peace negotiations, as Tehran simultaneously staked out its claim to charge ships for using the Strait of Hormuz after the current 60-day ceasefire window expires. The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva delivered the stark warning over Lebanon, as Israeli strikes on the country continued to strain the fragile memorandum of understanding agreed between Tehran and Washington. The ambassador described the attacks as incompatible with the terms of the deal. In a separate but related development that threatens to complicate the broader peace process,…

Motorists across the UK are being urged to check their vehicles for aerosol cans and remove them immediately, as soaring temperatures this week could cause the pressurised containers to become unstable and potentially explode inside parked cars. The warning comes as the Met Office issues heat-health alerts covering large parts of England and Wales, with forecasters predicting temperatures that could push vehicle interiors well beyond safe limits when parked in direct sunlight. Experts warn that the inside of a car can exceed 50C even when outside temperatures are significantly lower, creating conditions in which everyday items can become genuinely dangerous.…

Five men have been convicted after abducting a man from a house in broad daylight, bundling him into the boot of a car, driving him to a storage unit and torturing him while filming the attack — with the victim only escaping by locking himself in a stranger’s car left with the keys inside. The kidnapping took place at around 2.18pm on 29 December 2025, when four masked men stormed a property in Arleston, Telford, and forced the victim into the boot of a black Audi A4. Witnesses reported the boot remained open during parts of the journey, with the…

The Metropolitan Police is to introduce static live facial recognition cameras across the West End and Soho by the end of the year, building on a successful pilot in Croydon that led to more than 170 arrests and saw crime fall significantly, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has announced. The rollout will see cameras mounted to existing infrastructure such as lampposts rather than specialist vans, making deployments faster and more flexible, as well as freeing up mobile units for use elsewhere in the capital. The Met has already made more than 2,000 arrests with the support of live facial recognition cameras…

A man who repeatedly raped a teenage girl in the early 1990s has been jailed for eight and a half years after the victim came forward decades later and reported her ordeal to police. Craig Haines, now 53, carried out the attacks between December 1991 and April 1992 at his home address in Dale Road, Rochester, when he was 18 years old. On occasions he also threatened the victim with violence. Haines was placed on the sex offenders register for life following his sentencing at Southwark Crown Court on 11 June. When first interviewed by officers, Haines initially denied even…

A major incident was declared after a massive fire ripped through a recycling plant in Widnes, Cheshire, sending towering plumes of black smoke into the sky as 450 tonnes of cardboard went up in flames during the sweltering heatwave. Twenty-eight fire engines attended the blaze at Everite Road on Monday evening, with additional support called in from Lancashire and Greater Manchester as crews battled through the night to bring the inferno under control. Drone footage circulating online showed huge fireballs tearing through the single-storey building, which was at risk of structural collapse by 5.30pm as firefighters urged residents and businesses…

A rapidly spreading wildfire has burned through 10,000 acres in Beaver County, Utah in a matter of hours, forcing the mandatory evacuation of multiple communities as the state battles several major fires simultaneously across its central region. The Cottonwood Fire was first reported at 3.36pm on Monday after sparking near milepost 5 on State Route 153, before spreading to Beaver Mountain almost directly east of the town. It quickly grew to 10,000 acres by 10.45pm, according to Utah Fire Info. The fire started in the Fishlake National Forest on the Beaver Ranger District near Cottonwood Campground, off Highway 153. All…

France has shut down a nuclear reactor near Toulouse after cooling water drawn from a nearby river became too warm to use safely, as a catastrophic “heat dome” baking western Europe has killed dozens of people in swimming accidents, left two toddlers dead in a car, and pushed temperatures toward 46C in parts of the continent. The Golfech nuclear plant, cooled by the Garonne river, was taken offline after the water exceeded the safe temperature threshold of 28C. The shutdown adds an energy crisis dimension to a public health emergency that French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said has claimed 40…

Three men have been charged with the murder of an 18-year-old who was allegedly stabbed on a residential street before being bundled into a car and driven to a hospital where he was left outside to die, as tributes pour in describing him as a devoted son and brother. Kyeron Wheeler was found outside Poole Hospital in Dorset at 2.13am on Friday, having apparently been driven approximately a mile from where he was attacked. He died shortly after being found. Three men — Dluwadamilare Aremu, 22, a Nigerian national, Trevor Gonzo, 22, and Callum Roberts, 20 — have been charged…