Author: Darren Smith

England’s automatic World Cup qualification hopes have been left hanging by a thread after Spain inflicted the heaviest defeat of the Sarina Wiegman era on the Lionesses in Mallorca, with a rampant 4-0 victory that served as emphatic revenge for back-to-back defeats at the hands of the European champions. Alexia Putellas scored twice, Patri Guijarro opened the scoring and substitute Claudia Pina added a fourth as Spain dismantled England with a ferocity that left captain Keira Walsh struggling for words at full time. “We weren’t good enough tonight and they were very, very sharp, so the two things combined made…

Lamine Yamal has been valued at a staggering £309.4 million — more than double the price tag of Kylian Mbappe — as Football Observatory’s latest statistical model reveals the world’s most expensive footballers ahead of what promises to be a busy summer transfer window. The 18-year-old Barcelona and Spain winger, already a World Cup winner and Ballon d’Or contender, tops the global rankings by a considerable distance, with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland second at £196.4 million. Mbappe, despite leading Real Madrid and preparing to spearhead France’s World Cup bid, is valued at just £143.2 million — a figure that reflects…

A Chinese travel influencer whose Border Collie had 1.58 million social media followers has been told to “stop making a fuss” after his beloved dog was allegedly stolen from his family’s farm, sold to a dog meat dealer for the equivalent of just $25 and slaughtered — with the alleged thief reportedly claiming he had broken no law. Chutou, a Border Collie who had accompanied his owner Guo across China and amassed a huge following on the Chinese platform Douyin, was taken from the family’s yard in Henan province on 11 May while Guo was away on a solo road…

Ukraine has struck five cargo vessels it says were illegally transporting stolen grain, military supplies and fuel in the Sea of Azov and coastal waters of Russian-occupied territory — as Kyiv simultaneously confirmed one of its own naval drones went off course and exploded at a Romanian port, causing significant damage but no casualties. The strikes on the five vessels, announced by Ukraine’s drone forces commander Robert Brovdi, targeted ships in the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk as well as in coastal waters of what Ukraine describes as temporarily occupied territories. Brovdi said the ships had their names painted over…

A Christian activist has been removed from a student bar at University College London after staff told him on camera he was being ejected because of his “transphobic and homophobic beliefs” — with police called solely due to disagreement with his views, prompting questions about discrimination law and free speech on university campuses. Young Bob, chief executive of Project Albion and a self-described Christian pro-life and remigration activist who posts on X under the handle @YoungBobRB, had attended a vigil for murdered teenager Henry Nowak in London before entering the UCL bar. Video footage posted to X shows a manager…

A Christian police community support officer has won a legal settlement from North Yorkshire Police after being suspended, dismissed for gross misconduct and placed on a national barred list — all for asking questions about Islam during a compulsory diversity training session that had explicitly invited open discussion. Luke Salmons, supported by the Christian Legal Centre, brought claims against the Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police alleging unlawful religious discrimination, harassment and violations of his rights to freedom of religion and expression under Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The matter has now settled on…

A humanoid robot dressed in a clown wig has been caught on camera kicking a young child in the stomach during a public performance in China, leaving the youngster doubled over in pain on the ground as stunned bystanders watched on. The footage, filmed in Xinjiang in northwestern China according to local media, shows the robot — a Unitree G1 model wearing a blue clown wig — performing a routine in front of a crowd of children. The incident occurred when the droid executed a 360-degree spin that ended in a kicking motion, connecting squarely with the young boy’s stomach.…

Britain faces a blustery and wet weekend as winds of up to 50mph and heavy, persistent rain sweep across the country — a sharp contrast to the record-breaking May heatwave that sent temperatures soaring to 35.1C just weeks ago. The Met Office has warned of an increasingly unsettled picture from tonight, with gusts picking up through the evening and into Saturday morning. The southwest will bear the brunt of the initial system, with strengthening winds, heavy showers and the possibility of thunder in places before conditions move northeastwards across the UK. Coastal areas in western England — including Cornwall, Devon…

A former paddleboard company owner who led four people to their deaths on a flooded Welsh river — with no safety briefing, no wetsuits and no qualifications to be leading the tour — has failed in a bid to have her ten-and-a-half-year sentence reduced, with three Appeal Court judges ruling the term was entirely proportionate. Nerys Bethan Lloyd, 39, a former South Wales Police firearms officer from Port Talbot, pleaded guilty to four counts of gross negligence manslaughter in March 2025 following the deaths of Paul O’Dwyer, Andrea Powell, Morgan Rogers and Nicola Wheatley on the Western Cleddau river in…

An 18-year-old Swedish winger who has attracted scouts from 32 clubs to a single league game now faces a career-defining choice after both Chelsea and Newcastle had bids of £21.6 million accepted for his signature by AIK — with Brighton also in the hunt and Real Madrid, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund all monitoring the situation. Zadok Yohanna, a left-footed winger who plays on the right, only joined AIK from the Ikon Allah academy in Nigeria last summer and has made just seven league appearances in Sweden, scoring twice and contributing two assists. Despite that limited senior exposure, his performances…