Author: Darren Smith

The Open Society Foundations has announced a $30 million commitment over three years to fund organisations working to counter antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred, citing sharp rises in recorded bias incidents on both sides following the escalation of conflict in the Middle East. The pledge was announced personally by Alexander Soros, who now chairs the philanthropy founded by his father George Soros. In a video statement, Alexander Soros described the issue as “deeply personal” for his family, noting that he is the son of a Holocaust survivor and is himself married to a Muslim American. The funding will be directed towards…

An 11-year-old boy has died after an unsecured metal goalpost collapsed on him at a football ground in Brazil, crushing him in front of other children while his father was nearby packing away equipment. Bernardo Amorim Calixto Santos had gone to watch his father Maurício Calixto Gomes play for amateur club Colorado at a pitch in São José da Lapa on Saturday — a regular outing for the pair. After the match ended, while the adults were tidying away equipment, the children continued to play on the open pitch. It is believed Bernardo either leaned against or was hanging from…

A convicted child abductor who was mistakenly released from prison enjoyed a meal at a restaurant and visited a pub before fleeing the country — while prison staff waited three days to alert police to the blunder, a High Court has heard. Ifedayo Adeyeye, 57, was released from HMP Pentonville on 21 April despite having been sentenced to a further 12 months in jail just the day before. The Metropolitan Police were not informed of the error until the afternoon of 24 April, according to The Telegraph, by which point it is believed Adeyeye had already left Britain. Mr Justice…

Israel has launched a fierce denunciation of The New York Times after the paper published a column alleging widespread sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli security forces, with the government’s foreign ministry describing it as one of the worst “blood libels” to appear in the modern press. The piece, written by Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and published on Monday, was titled “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.” In it, Kristof interviewed 14 individuals who alleged they had been sexually abused while in Israeli detention. Several sources claimed to have been raped repeatedly with batons by prison guards;…

The World Health Organisation has warned that further cases of hantavirus are likely to emerge among passengers from the stricken Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, while stressing there is no sign of widespread community transmission and that the global risk remains low — as repatriation flights scatter passengers across more than 20 countries and health authorities begin the complex task of tracing everyone who may have been exposed. As of 11 May, the WHO had confirmed seven cases of Andes hantavirus linked to the outbreak, with two additional probable cases awaiting laboratory results. Three people have died — two confirmed…

Brandon Clarke, a forward who spent his entire NBA career with the Memphis Grizzlies, has died at the age of 29, the club and his representatives have confirmed. Clarke’s agency, Priority Sports, confirmed the news in a social media post on Tuesday. The cause of death was not disclosed. The Memphis Grizzlies issued a statement saying: “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke. Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organisation and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten. We express our deepest condolences to his family and loved…

Vladimir Putin has announced that Russia will deploy its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile — which he described as the world’s most powerful nuclear weapon — by the end of this year, in a move that combines a significant military statement with what analysts see as a carefully timed show of strength. Speaking in televised comments, Putin said the Sarmat had a nuclear yield more than four times that of any Western equivalent and a range exceeding 21,750 miles. “It has the ability to penetrate all existing and future anti-missile defence systems,” he declared. State television broadcast footage of missile force…

A young man has died after falling approximately 150 feet from a phone mast in rural Cambridgeshire, in an incident that has prompted fresh warnings about the dangers of climbing telecommunications structures. Cambridgeshire Constabulary were called to Black Dyke in Newton-in-the-Isle, a small village near Wisbech, at around 11pm on Sunday following reports of a sudden death. A force spokesperson said: “We were called at about 11pm yesterday with reports of a sudden death at Black Dyke, Newton-in-the-Isle. Emergency services attended. A man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene. The death is not being treated as suspicious.”…

A Catholic school run by nuns in southern Lebanon has sustained significant damage amid Israeli strikes on the surrounding area, sparking outrage among Lebanese Christians and drawing fresh attention to the human cost of the continuing conflict in the region. Footage circulating on social media shows extensive destruction around Antonine Sisters College in Nabatieh — a major town in a Hezbollah-heavy area near the Israeli border — with sections of perimeter walls collapsed, buildings pockmarked and rubble scattered across the compound. The school is run by the Antonine Sisters, a Catholic religious order, and serves a mixed student body that…

A Russian man has become an unlikely internet sensation after waking up covered head-to-toe in coal dust on a freight train bound for Siberia — with no memory of how he got there and his immediate priority being to call off work. Dmitry, a young man from Yekaterinburg, had blacked out during a heavy night at a local club before apparently climbing into an open coal freight car and passing out. He woke up bruised, filthy and roughly 330 kilometres from where he had started, on a train heading to Tyumen in western Siberia. Rather than panic, he picked up…