Author: Darren Smith

An American YouTuber who illegally landed on North Sentinel Island and left a can of Diet Coke for one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes has defended his actions after releasing footage of the stunt — having escaped a potential five-year prison sentence with a fine of just £127. Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, who runs the YouTube channel Neo-Orientalist, sailed to North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal on 29 March 2025 in a rubber dinghy, blew a whistle for an hour in an attempt to draw the attention of the Sentinelese tribe, and left a can of Diet Coke…

Terrified passengers screamed, sobbed, prayed aloud and vomited into sick bags as their Avianca flight aborted two attempts to land at one of South America’s most notoriously difficult airports — with videos of the harrowing scenes going viral across social media after the aircraft was forced to turn back to Bogotá. Avianca flight AV9401 was covering the route between Bogotá’s El Dorado International Airport and the Antonio Nariño Airport in Pasto on 26 May when the aircraft encountered serious difficulties as it approached the runway due to severe adverse weather conditions. Footage captured by passengers and shared widely on TikTok,…

Israel has killed Hamas’s key financier just 24 hours after eliminating the terror group’s newly appointed military wing commander — delivering a double blow to the organisation’s leadership and operational capacity as its campaign to dismantle those responsible for the October 7 massacre accelerates. The Israel Defence Forces killed Ihab Khrizim, leader of a central Hamas funds transfer network, in a strike on Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Khrizim was responsible for overseeing the transfer of millions of dollars to Hamas’ military wing and had continued operating in violation of the ceasefire, according to the IDF. “His actions enabled the…

A man with previous convictions for rape has been jailed for life with a minimum of 33 years for the sexual murder of a 21-year-old woman whose death he confessed to while being arrested for robbing an Asda supermarket — having taken graphic photographs of her body before going on a violent rampage across Dewsbury. Michael Moore, 38, also known as Michael Doherty, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after admitting the murder of Courtney Angus, whose body was discovered at his address in Batley, West Yorkshire, in July last year. Moore also pleaded guilty to theft and three counts…

A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a village pub owner who died after being punched outside a cocktail bar in Lichfield over the Bank Holiday weekend. Billy Allison, 36, of Solihull, appeared before Judge Avik Mukherjee at Lichfield Crown Court on Thursday morning for an eight-minute hearing, speaking only to confirm his name. He is charged with murder and grievous bodily harm with intent following an incident outside the Ricco and Loren bar in the Staffordshire cathedral city at 11.25pm on Sunday. Police were called after reports that two men had been punched outside the…

A Thai masseuse has ignited a bitter planning dispute at an upmarket waterside development in Dorset after setting up a massage therapy room in a garden log cabin — with neighbours claiming it breaches residential contracts, poses a fire risk and raises security concerns about clients coming and going “day and night.” Preeyaphon Wansanit began advertising her Thai massage therapy business to residents at Carters Quay, a sought-after development in Poole, triggering a flood of complaints and forcing her to apply for retrospective planning permission after building the cabin without prior approval. The structure is almost 9ft wide and more…

A 32-year-old Colombian woman was kidnapped, held captive for more than 72 hours and repeatedly gang-raped in a derelict squat on the outskirts of Rome, Italian police have confirmed — with five irregular migrants arrested following her escape and eleven others expelled from the country. The victim, who had been in Italy for only ten days, was approached outside a restaurant on the evening of 19 May by a man offering a hashish deal. She was forced into a van, stripped of her phone and documents and taken to a squatted building on Via Cesare Tallone in the Tor Cervara…

Three people have been stabbed at a busy Swiss train station by a man reportedly shouting “Allahu Akbar” in front of terrified bystanders including young schoolchildren, in an attack that prompted a major police response in the country’s eighth-largest city. The assault took place at Winterthur train station, northwest of Zurich, shortly after 8.30am on Wednesday morning. According to eyewitness accounts, a man began attacking people with a knife while repeatedly shouting the Arabic phrase. A teacher is reported to have stepped in front of a group of kindergarten pupils in an attempt to shield them from the attacker as…

Hundreds of swimmers returned to a protected wildlife pond on Hampstead Heath for a third consecutive day during the Bank Holiday heatwave — scaring nesting birds, kicking ducks off inflatables and swimming through waters where cygnets were only thirteen days old, as furious residents accused authorities of standing by and doing nothing. The scenes at the Model Boating Pond, a no-swimming zone that sits at the heart of a wildlife sanctuary created with £50,000 in public donations, have provoked some of the sharpest public anger seen on the Heath in years. Footage posted to Instagram account @swansofhampsteadheath showed boisterous swimmers…

The Taliban has introduced sweeping new family legislation that contains no minimum age for marriage, effectively legalising child marriage in Afghanistan and prompting urgent condemnation from the United Nations, human rights organisations and women’s rights groups around the world. The 31-article regulation, titled the Code on Judicial Separation of Spouses and approved by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, was published by the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice on 14 May. It dismantles legal protections that existed before the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, when Afghanistan’s civil code set the minimum marriage age at 16 for girls — and the 2009…