Author: Darren Smith

PC Matthew Blades has been pictured following the devastating A66 collision that claimed the lives of two Cleveland Police officers and five young men travelling in a car that had been driven the wrong way along the road. PC Blades, 38, and his colleague PC Tom Clough, 37, died after a Volkswagen Passat travelling in the wrong direction on the A66 collided head-on with their marked police vehicle during the early hours of Saturday morning. The five occupants of the Passat were also pronounced dead at the scene. As tributes continue across Teesside, PC Blades has been remembered as a…

The five young men who died in the A66 crash near Middlesbrough have been named as Makai Saddington, 18, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Cole Robert Worthy, 16, and Theo Rae, 17, with tributes now emerging from friends and family as the police watchdog continues its investigation into the collision that also killed two officers. The five young men killed in the crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough have been formally named by police. Makai Saddington, 18, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Cole Robert Worthy, 16, and Theo Rae, 17, were all travelling in the Volkswagen…

PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough have been named as the two Cleveland Police officers killed alongside five others in a crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough, as investigators examine CCTV footage and questions over the police pursuit that preceded the collision. Tributes have poured in for two “brave” police officers who died in a crash on the A66 that claimed the lives of seven people in total on Saturday morning. PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were killed when a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the dual carriageway near Middlesbrough collided head-on with…

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is to be depicted in a new drama recreating scenes from his fall from public life, The Mail on Sunday can reveal, with his lawyers offered the chance to give his side of the story before the script is finalised, an offer he has declined to take up. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is set to feature in a forthcoming film reconstructing episodes from his downfall, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The drama, titled The Janitor, stars Peaky Blinders actor Harry Kirton as a publicist who cleans up scandals for the elite, and includes a scene dubbed “The Table of…

Behind political headlines about “chemical castration” for sex offenders lies a much more clinically complex NHS-funded treatment pathway, more than a decade in the making, that doctors insist is designed to treat diagnosed medical conditions rather than simply control reoffending risk. A pioneering medical treatment pathway for male sex offenders in England and Wales could be expanded across all prisons and probation services by December 2028. Known formally as the Medication to Manage Problematic Sexual Arousal (MMPSA) pathway, the programme sits at the intersection of criminal justice and NHS healthcare. While recent political debate has focused on using the drugs…

FIFA president Gianni Infantino ignored a request from his own vice president to stay away from an Under-14 tournament in the Caribbean, making a rare public appearance in the Dominican Republic just weeks after abandoning a controversial plan to sell a stake in FIFA’s commercial operations to private investors, amid mounting internal opposition to his leadership. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has defied a request from one of his own vice presidents to stay away from a youth football tournament in the Caribbean, making a rare public appearance amid the ongoing fallout from his abandoned plan to sell future World Cup…

President Donald Trump has publicly turned on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, branding him a “loser” with a “very low IQ” on Truth Social, after Carlson met with prominent former MAGA allies Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie in what has been described as a gathering of an emerging anti-Trump, anti-war faction within the movement. President Donald Trump has turned publicly against former ally Tucker Carlson, accusing the journalist of conspiring with politicians to undermine him. Trump, 80, launched the attack late on Friday night, describing the former Fox News personality as a “loser” with a “very low IQ”…

IndyCar drivers will race through the heart of Washington, D.C. this weekend for the first time in the sport’s history, as the Freedom 250 Grand Prix turns the National Mall into a temporary racetrack as part of celebrations marking 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Race car drivers are set to compete in the IndyCar Freedom 250 Grand Prix in Washington, D.C. this weekend, in what organisers are billing as the first-ever motor race held on the National Mall and the streets of the capital. The event forms part of the wider celebrations marking the 250th…

A teenager and his parents died after falling from a cliff in India following a three-hour standoff, sparked by a family argument over an unpaid instalment on an iPhone the teenager had bought, with police still working to establish the exact sequence of events that led to all three deaths. A teenager and both his parents have died after plunging from a cliff in India, in a tragedy that began with a family argument over an iPhone purchase. Kunal Chandude, reported to be either 18 or 19 depending on the source, made his way to Khavda Hill in Tisgaon on…

The family of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee stabbed to death on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and its security contractor, alleging chronic understaffing and missed fare checks contributed to her killing, as a new state audit reveals nearly half of transit passengers ride without paying. The family of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee killed on Charlotte’s light rail system last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Charlotte and its private security contractor, Professional Security Services. Zarutska was killed on 22 August 2025…