Author: Darren Smith

Gene Shalit, TODAY Show Film Critic, Dies Aged 100 Gene Shalit, the film critic whose walrus moustache, colourful bowties and love of wordplay made him a fixture of NBC’s TODAY show for four decades, has died at the age of 100, his family confirmed on Friday. “He passed away peacefully today after 100 years of an amazing life,” his family said in a statement to NBC News, adding: “The TODAY show was an extraordinary era for him.” Shalit joined TODAY as a part-time contributor in 1970 before moving into a full-time role three years later, going on to become the…

A 17-year-old girl is in hospital after being stabbed in the neck in a broad daylight attack on a residential street in Brierfield, near Nelson, with armed police swooping on the scene and a 30-year-old man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Lancashire Police said officers were called to Wood Street at 3.06pm on reports of a stabbing. A force spokesperson said: “We were called at 3.06pm today to Wood Street, Brierfield, to a report of stabbing. It was reported that a 17-year-old girl had been assaulted and suffered a stab injury to her neck.” The girl’s injuries are not…

Former USA international Alexi Lalas left World Cup viewers stunned after using a crude British slang term to describe Fox colleague James Corden during live coverage on just the second day of the tournament. Lalas, who earned 96 caps for the United States and serves as one of Fox’s main analysts for the World Cup, made the comment during build-up coverage ahead of the opening match between Canada and Bosnia. Host Rebecca Lowe steered the panel — which also included football legends Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic — towards a promotional segment for Corden’s new late-night World Cup show, “After…

A 17-year-old girl has died after the car she was driving veered off the road and crashed into a tree in Kent, leaving two teenage passengers injured, with police now appealing for dashcam footage to help establish what happened. The collision occurred last night when a blue Seat Ibiza Xcellence left the road at a junction between Headcorn and Staplehurst and struck a tree. Emergency services, including paramedics and Kent Fire and Rescue Service, were scrambled to the scene, but the teenage driver was pronounced dead on arrival. Her next of kin have been informed. Police said the two passengers…

A 43-year-old man has been arrested after a violent brawl involving men armed with bats erupted outside a Smyths toy shop in Bermondsey, south London, on Friday morning, with reports suggesting the group had been queuing for Pokémon cards. Footage shared on X shows a group of hooded men swinging weapons at each other in the car park as horrified bystanders scream and shout. One man is seen falling to the ground amid the chaos, while another appears to land repeated blows on a victim before chasing him across the car park. The man attempting to flee is grabbed by…

The owner of Britain’s only pink Ferrari has been left without an insurance payout nearly three years after the £120,000 supercar was sent flying into bushes in a crash, after her insurer found the car had failed its MOT just days before the collision and was not legally roadworthy at the time. Lisa-Marie Brown, 45, who appeared on Channel 5’s Rich House Poor House, says she was badly injured and forced to stop working following the crash in Cardiff in August 2023. Footage of the collision shows her Ferrari travelling at between 30mph and 40mph when a second car approached…

Nearly 80 ragdoll cats and kittens have been rescued from a Pennsylvania home where investigators say the animals had been living among piles of trash, faeces and urine, in conditions described by officials as among the worst they have ever encountered. The Pennsylvania SPCA confirmed it removed 78 ragdoll cats and kittens from a residence in Lancaster Township on Tuesday after executing a search warrant. According to NBC Philadelphia, the investigation began earlier in the week when Lancaster Township Police responded to the property for an unrelated call and discovered faeces and urine throughout the home, debris stacked from floor…

The Trump administration has deported a group of migrants, including an Iranian woman who had sought asylum in the United States, to the Central African Republic — a country the State Department itself advises Americans not to travel to due to civil war, crime and Russian paramilitary activity, lawyers say. A deportation flight left Louisiana late on Thursday bound for Bangui, the CAR’s capital, carrying people from Iran, Jordan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Afghanistan, according to Ali Rahnama, head of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund, who has been in contact with several of those on board. The exact number…

A ship carrying nearly 100 tons of food, medicine and other essential goods has docked in Havana from Colombia, the latest in a series of humanitarian shipments to reach Cuba in recent months as the island continues to grapple with the effects of a US energy embargo. The vessel departed from Cartagena in early June and crossed into Havana Bay early on Friday morning flying the Colombian flag, escorted by a small Cuban auxiliary vessel, the Associated Press confirmed. According to Colombia’s Presidential Agency for International Cooperation, the shipment was sent on the orders of President Gustavo Petro and included…

A Palestine Action activist who fractured a police officer’s spine with a sledgehammer during a raid on an Israeli defence firm’s UK factory has been sentenced to seven years and eight months in prison, as a judge ruled the group’s actions had a “terrorist connection” and were designed to intimidate the public. Samuel Corner, 23, was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court alongside three co-defendants — Charlotte Head, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani — who received sentences of five years, five years, and four years and eight months respectively. All four had been convicted of criminal damage last month over the…