Author: Darren Smith

Millions of people in England are going to have to wait longer than expected before they can claim a free bus pass, following a change that took effect this year as the state pension age begins its gradual rise from 66 to 67. The free bus pass in England is directly tied to the state pension age, meaning that as the pension age increases, so does the age at which people become entitled to free travel. Under the previous system, anyone reaching 66 was eligible to apply. That has now changed. Anyone who turned 66 before April 2026 can still…

A 17-year-old British boy is on life support in an Athens hospital after falling from a hotel balcony in the early hours of Friday morning, with a local shopkeeper arrested for allegedly selling him alcohol before the incident. The teenager plunged from the first floor of a hotel in Chalandri, a northern suburb of Athens known as a party district, and was rushed to the Red Cross Hospital where he was intubated and placed in intensive care. A source told the Sun his condition was “touch and go,” describing multiple injuries including internal wounds. “He has multiple wounds, some internal,…

Manchester City’s record-breaking £116 million capture of England midfielder Elliot Anderson has thrown fresh attention on one of football’s most extraordinary ongoing sagas — the still-unresolved outcome of the Premier League’s 115 charges against the club, with no verdict in sight more than 19 months after the hearing concluded. Anderson joins from Nottingham Forest in a deal that makes him one of the most expensive midfielders in Premier League history. That City are willing to spend at this level in the first transfer window since Pep Guardiola’s departure is itself significant — it signals that the club’s ambitions and their…

Christian Horner is expected to make his return to the Formula One paddock at this weekend’s British Grand Prix — a year on from the controversy that ended his two-decade reign at Red Bull — as he weighs up a number of options that could see him back in the pit lane in a senior role. The 52-year-old was relieved of his duties at Red Bull just 48 hours after last year’s Silverstone race following a power struggle within the organisation. He received an £80 million severance package and has been free to pursue other employment since March. According to…

Wimbledon has permitted a Turkish tennis player to display a watermelon symbol on her racket — widely recognised as a symbol of Palestinian solidarity — while simultaneously telling her she was not allowed to wear a Palestine pin, in a distinction that has prompted sharp questions about the tournament’s approach to political expression on court. Tournament director Jamie Baker confirmed that the watermelon-shaped vibration dampener used by world number 51 Zeynep Sönmez, 24, did not breach the All England Club’s rules on political messaging. “We don’t allow any kind of political messaging from players on court, certainly that caused any…

Nearly 3,000 people have been evacuated from campsites and homes in southern France as out-of-control wildfires swept through the country, while violent scenes erupted in supermarkets across the nation as desperate shoppers fought each other — in some cases pulling each other’s hair and tackling rivals to the ground — to secure fans and air conditioning units ahead of a fresh wave of extreme heat. The fire broke out at a campsite in Sainte-Marie-la-Mer, near the Spanish border, destroying dozens of mobile homes before spreading to the neighbouring town of Canet-en-Roussillon. Perpignan airport was closed as approximately 2,000 firefighters battled…

A man is fighting for his life in a New York hospital after setting himself on fire outside the United Nations headquarters in an apparent act of protest over Tibet, in one of the most dramatic demonstrations seen outside the landmark building in recent years. The incident unfolded at around 7pm on Thursday on East 43rd Street and First Avenue in Manhattan, directly in front of the UN complex. According to sources cited by the New York Post, UN surveillance cameras captured the man planting a Tibetan flag on the pavement before the self-immolation took place. Emergency services rushed to…

UK coastal waters are on the verge of reaching an “extreme” marine heatwave classification rarely recorded in British seas, with forecasters warning that the English Channel and North Sea are experiencing the kind of conditions not normally expected until August. The Met Office has confirmed that surface waters across north-west European seas are currently ranging from moderate to severe, with widespread conditions classified as “strong” and some areas reaching “severe.” Sea temperatures are already running on average 2C above normal, with some offshore areas along the English and Welsh coasts more than 4-5C warmer than usual. If warm and calm…

A volunteer sorting through naval correspondence at a London archive made one of the most remarkable documentary discoveries in years last May — a surviving early copy of the United States Declaration of Independence, concealed within British state records for more than two centuries. Michael Scurr was working through a collection of 18th-century Royal Navy papers at the National Archives in Kew on what he described as “just a boring old Thursday morning” when he unfolded a document and immediately recognised its opening words. “In Congress, July 4, 1776. A declaration by the representatives of the United States of America…”…

Hope of finding the tens of thousands of people still unaccounted for after Venezuela’s devastating earthquakes is all but gone, a senior charity official has warned, as the country transitions from rescue operations to the grim work of body recovery more than a week after the disaster. Edward de Burgh, a senior global security officer for the nonprofit Project HOPE, which has been distributing supplies and providing emergency treatment in the affected region, told the Daily Mail that survival for those still under the rubble was now biologically implausible. “Just on our ability to survive as a human being without…