Author: Darren Smith

A United States Air Force aircraft has declared a mid-flight emergency off the coast of Wales, transmitting the international distress code before turning back toward Cardiff, flight tracking data shows. The C-130H Hercules transport aircraft activated a 7700 squawk code — the universal aviation signal indicating a general emergency on board — shortly after departing Cardiff. Flight tracking technology showed the aircraft initially heading west before altering course and turning back in the direction it had come from. The 7700 code is transmitted by pilots to alert air traffic controllers that an emergency situation is unfolding on board, prompting immediate…

Lionel Messi and the entire Argentina squad have had their passport details accidentally leaked in a major data breach before a pre-World Cup friendly, after the official team sheet was published with sensitive personal information left fully visible and subsequently reproduced by multiple media outlets. The embarrassing security failure occurred ahead of Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Iceland in Alabama on Wednesday morning, watched by 88,000 fans. When nations submit team sheets before kick-off, they sometimes include passport numbers alongside player details — but that private information is ordinarily blurred or removed before being distributed to the media. On this occasion…

The family of Stephen Ogilvie, the NHS radiographer who lost his left eye in Monday night’s knife attack in Belfast, have broken their silence to condemn the riots that followed and urge calm — as the Sudanese man charged with his attempted murder appeared in court and told a medic after the attack “I will kill you.” In their first public statement, provided to local politicians, the Ogilvie family said they were “completely devastated by the horrific attack” and made clear they did not want the violence done to their relative used to divide communities or fuel hostility. “We are…

Two men have been jailed for their roles in violent disorder during a Southampton protest following the murder of Henry Nowak — in scenes a judge described as a “hate crime borne out of a hatred for police and in some part racist views,” as a baying mob surrounded officers and pelted them with projectiles. Father-of-two Daniel Frost, 44, from Southampton, was sentenced to two years and four months in prison at Southampton Crown Court for violent disorder and possessing an offensive weapon. Frost had fashioned a dog lead with a metal carabiner into what the court described as a…

Three British women have been sexually assaulted in separate attacks at the same Spanish hostel after a Tunisian man allegedly posed as a member of staff to gain their trust before targeting them, Spanish police have confirmed following his arrest in Valencia. The 32-year-old suspect, believed to have been a guest at the budget hostel in the city’s Camins al Grau neighbourhood, is alleged to have carried out three distinct attacks over the course of two days — with the first coming to light only when two younger victims called police in the early hours of Tuesday morning. According to…

A notorious child killer was stabbed 25 times in a four-minute prison cell attack by three fellow inmates who then placed him in his bed “as if asleep” and left him to bleed to death — with his body not discovered until the following morning’s roll call, Leeds Crown Court has heard. Kyle Bevan, 33, died at maximum-security HMP Wakefield on 5 November last year. He had been serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years for the sadistic murder of two-year-old Lola James, his partner’s stepdaughter, in Pembrokeshire, Wales — a killing in 2023 that left…

A Belarusian NHS doctor who admitted she struggled with small talk and “could not understand the British fascination with the weather” has lost a £100,000 unfair dismissal case after an employment tribunal found she was legitimately sacked for failing to meet communication standards required of a consultant anaesthetist. Dr Maryna Anatolyeva, 47, was removed from a postgraduate anaesthetics training programme at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in October 2022 after repeated concerns about her communication, leadership and teamworking skills. Her claim that she had been treated unfairly was rejected by Employment Judge Callum Cowx, who found she…

Two summers ago, Elliot Anderson was watching the Euros with his mates somewhere — he cannot quite remember where. Now the 23-year-old Nottingham Forest midfielder is one of the first names on Thomas Tuchel’s England teamsheet at the World Cup and the subject of a bidding war between Manchester City and Manchester United, with Forest’s owner digging in against the assumption that his best player can simply be picked off at will. The journey, as the Daily Mail’s Ian Ladyman writes, is one that nobody saw coming — least of all Anderson himself. His move from Newcastle to Forest two…

Britain is working with Ukraine and European allies to develop an alternative anti-ballistic missile system that would reduce Kyiv’s dangerous dependence on American Patriot supplies — as the Trump administration’s diversion of resources to the Middle East leaves Ukraine exposed to relentless Russian bombardment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the development after meeting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Sunday, saying the three European powers would help Ukraine build anti-ballistic capabilities. “I hope that we will manage to develop a European anti-ballistic system together with the UK,” he said. “We are…

Conor McGregor has called for an immediate ban on immigration from the “third world” and the removal of “all illegal entrants” from Ireland and the UK, as Belfast descended into a second night of violent disorder following a stabbing attack linked to a Sudanese migrant — with riots spreading to London, Glasgow and Southampton and Elon Musk urging people to protest “repeatedly and loudly.” The UFC star posted on X the day after the attack, writing that “inviting and financing mentally deranged people from the 3rd world is a hard no” and calling on authorities to “close the borders” and…