Author: Darren Smith

A yoga teacher who was cut out of her husband’s estate weeks before his death has won a landmark High Court battle after a judge ruled that legal documents designed to strip her of her inheritance were a “sham” — ending a 14-year legal fight that began with her brother-in-law’s fears she would flee to Brazil with her children. Gabriela Teixeira, 51, had been locked in bitter litigation with her late husband’s brother, Amir Moaven, since the death of wealthy London property investor and restaurateur Abbas Moaven in 2012. Abbas died of cancer aged 45, leaving his estate in equal…

A father of four has spoken of the moment he sprinted towards three machete-wielding teenagers brawling in a south London park, saying he was driven to intervene because when he looked at the hooded youngsters, he saw his own 17-year-old son. Hammed Danmole was taking a break from a football match in Burgess Park, southeast London, on 17 May when he spotted two hooded youths walk past him. A third arrived on a scooter and the trio began arguing before drawing blades. As the brawl escalated, the three teenagers began swinging machetes at one another, with one of them pinned…

A man in white robes and a ceremonial mask performed what he described as a voodoo ritual outside Arnotts department store on Dublin’s Henry Street, cursing the shop and threatening death to those who enter it — as protests over the death of a Congolese man during a shoplifting detention escalate into increasingly confrontational scenes. The approximately 52-second clip, posted to X on 24 May and widely shared online, shows the man waving a wooden stick and a broom-like tool with yellow bristles, making chalk marks including crosses on the pavement near the store entrance. Speaking directly to bystanders, he…

EXCLUSIVE:A car fire broke out on Whitehorse Road in Croydon at around 5.30pm on Tuesday, sending a thick plume of smoke billowing above the street and drawing a London Fire Brigade response as the capital sweltered under some of the hottest temperatures recorded in May for over a decade.Photographs from the scene at 119 Whitehorse Road show at least one London Fire Brigade engine in attendance, with firefighters working to bring the blaze under control as yellow cordon tape was stretched across the road to keep back onlookers who had gathered to watch. Dense white smoke could be seen rising…

A Lebanese-American beauty queen has ignited a fierce national debate about identity, religion and patriotism after appearing at a Memorial Day parade in Michigan wearing a hijab while waving the American flag — with the images spreading rapidly across social media and drawing sharply divided reactions from across the country. Nour Khalil, 25, a Wayne State law graduate and daughter of Lebanese immigrants from Dearborn Heights, made her first major public appearance as Miss Wayne County at the 25 May parade in Dearborn, Michigan, which honoured 347 local fallen service members before thousands of spectators. Dressed in her pageant sash…

Ian McEwan has warned that our addiction to smartphones is eroding one of the most fundamentally human activities — thinking — as he described society as “unteaching itself the joys of treating the mind like a garden.” The novelist, widely considered one of Britain’s finest living writers, made the remarks during an appearance at the Hay Festival in Wales, which runs until 31 May. Speaking to an audience about the profound shift in daily life since he began his writing career in the 1970s, he pointed to the compulsive pull of the smartphone as the defining difference between that era…

A 19-year-old woman was tortured for months by her boyfriend before being stabbed to death and found bound to a bloodstained mattress in their shared apartment, police in North Carolina have revealed. Isabella Stroupe was discovered unresponsive inside a Charlotte apartment on 1 May after officers responded to an emergency call. First responders found her in a bedroom wearing minimal clothing and bound with a tow strap to a blood-soaked mattress. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her boyfriend, Thomaz Kenon Hamilton, initially told Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police that Stroupe had suffered a suspected heart attack while they were having sex.…

Britain has shattered the hottest May day record for the second consecutive day as the heatwave tightens its grip on England and Wales — but the soaring temperatures have brought tragedy, with a fourth teenager now confirmed dead after getting into difficulty in open water since the hot spell began. A temperature of 35C was provisionally recorded at both Heathrow and Kew Gardens on Tuesday, according to the Met Office — surpassing Monday’s record of 34.8C at Kew Bridge, which had already broken the previous May record of 32.8C set in 1922 and 1944. It is the first time in…

With Britain baking in its hottest May on record and temperatures expected to climb even higher this week, vets and animal welfare charities are issuing urgent warnings to dog owners — urging them to think carefully before reaching for the lead, as heatstroke in dogs can kill within minutes. Kew Gardens hit 34.8C on Bank Holiday Monday, smashing the previous May temperature record, and the Met Office has forecast possible highs of 36C in parts of southern England and Wales on Tuesday. At those temperatures, every breed of dog is firmly in the danger zone. The British Veterinary Association has…

A teenage boy has been stabbed to death in Hackney after a large-scale machete fight broke out following a house party on Bank Holiday Monday evening, with reports of possible gunshots also bringing police and air ambulance crews racing to the scene. Officers were called to Towpath Walk in Hackney at 7.17pm on Monday 25 May following reports of a large group of people armed with machetes and signs of serious disorder. The Met said the trouble began during a house party taking place on the same street. While officers were responding, further calls came in reporting a stabbing and…