Author: Darren Smith

More than 200,000 migrants have now reached Britain by small boat since the Channel crisis began, after around 70 more were brought into Dover aboard a Border Force vessel on Friday — a figure equivalent to the entire population of Norwich. The running total stood at 199,943 before Friday’s arrivals, meaning the grim milestone is expected to be officially confirmed when the Home Office publishes its figures on Saturday. The first small boat crossing was recorded on 31 January 2018, with the situation declared a “national emergency” by then Home Secretary Sajid Javid by the end of that year —…

Major financial institutions are defying last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling on biological sex by continuing to allow transgender staff to use women’s toilets based on self-identification, a new investigation has found. The findings, published by gender-critical charity Sex Matters, reveal that prominent firms including NatWest, the Co-operative Bank, Coventry Building Society and Admiral Insurance are among those still operating toilet policies based on self-identified gender rather than biological sex — more than a year after the Supreme Court determined that “man” and “woman” refer to biological sex under the Equality Act 2010. The ruling, handed down on 16 April…

Iran has seized a US-sanctioned oil tanker in the Sea of Oman and traded fire with American warships in the Strait of Hormuz, in a dramatic escalation that has cast serious doubt over the fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran — even as both sides claim the truce technically remains in force. Iran’s navy announced it had intercepted and redirected the vessel Ocean Koi to Iranian shores, saying the tanker had attempted to “damage and disrupt Iran’s oil exports.” The ship had been carrying Iranian oil and was subject to US sanctions. Tehran offered no further elaboration on the precise…

A chilling “Doomsday video” secretly commissioned by CNN founder Ted Turner — created to air only at the literal end of the world — has resurfaced following his death, offering an eerie final glimpse into the extraordinary vision of the man who revolutionised television news. The footage, long treated as something of an urban myth within CNN itself, shows members of the United States military solemnly performing the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” outside the network’s Atlanta headquarters. A soldier slowly raises the American flag beside the military band before the musicians complete the farewell melody and the screen…

A bank cashier who stole thousands of pounds from vulnerable elderly customers — including an 85-year-old stroke victim — to fund luxury holidays to Africa, Dubai, Paris and the Caribbean was exposed after colleagues grew suspicious of her lavish lifestyle on Facebook and has been jailed for 16 months. Kershaw, 54, had worked as a trusted cashier at Nationwide’s Caernarfon branch for 18 years before committing the offences during 2023 and 2024. She targeted a number of vulnerable customers, including an 85-year-old stroke victim and a 49-year-old man with learning difficulties who kept his bank card at the branch having…

A British tourist is fighting for his life in intensive care after falling from a hotel balcony in the Ibizan party resort of San Antonio, suffering multiple traumatic injuries in the late-night incident. The 24-year-old was rushed to Can Misses hospital around midnight following the plunge. Health sources told The Sun the man’s condition is serious but stable. “He is in intensive care. He’s stable but serious. He has multiple traumatic injuries,” a well-placed source said. The hotel where the fall occurred has not been named. Local police are investigating the exact circumstances of the incident, with a source cautioning…

The crisis engulfing Real Madrid has reached a new and farcical low, with parents of first-team players now lobbying club president Florentino Perez directly over their sons’ lack of playing time — as the Spanish giants reel from a string of violent training ground clashes that have left one player hospitalised and the dressing room in open revolt. According to Mundo Deportivo, citing Cadena Cope, Perez has received repeated complaints from the parents of two unnamed international players demanding their sons receive more opportunities under beleaguered manager Alvaro Arbeloa. While the development may appear relatively minor in isolation, it speaks…

Kyle Rittenhouse, the American conservative influencer acquitted of homicide in 2021 after fatally shooting two people during a Black Lives Matter protest, has been hospitalised following a venomous spider bite — and responded to the ordeal with characteristic defiance. The 23-year-old posted a photograph of himself in hospital, hooked up to heart monitors and intravenous drips, with visible red marks on his thigh consistent with a brown recluse spider bite. “The communists couldn’t take me out and I’ll be damned if I let a brown recluse take me out,” he wrote on social media. A brown recluse is a rarely…

Jewish passengers were left terrified after a man claiming to be armed with a knife subjected them to a torrent of antisemitic abuse on a London bus, threatening to kill Jewish children and telling them “shame Hitler didn’t kill you” — the latest in a rapidly escalating wave of attacks targeting the capital’s Jewish community. The incident took place on a number 254 bus travelling along Upper Clapton Road in Hackney on Thursday afternoon, with some passengers travelling to and from Stamford Hill, home to one of the largest ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Britain. Witnesses said the man shouted that…

Explosions have struck Qeshm Island and the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas in southern Iran overnight, with Iranian state television confirming an active “exchange of fire” as American officials scrambled to insist the attacks did not signal an end to the fragile ceasefire — even as both sides edge closer to a sweeping peace deal. Iranian state TV reported in Farsi that “the explosions at the Bahman pier on Qeshm Island occurred during an exchange of fire between Iranian armed forces and the enemy.” Fox News, citing US officials, reported that airstrikes were also hitting Bandar Abbas, though those…