COVID infections have more than doubled in a WEEK in the biggest daily surge since January – with deaths rising from yesterday. Another 27,989 new cases were recorded today and 22 fatalities have been recorded by the government.  ? Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest updates The latest figures compare to 26,068  new infections and 14 fatalities yesterday. It's […]

Last August, scientists aboard an icebreaker that had been drifting with the ice across the Arctic Ocean in a yearlong research expedition decided to take a detour to the North Pole. They needed to get there quickly, so they used satellite data to find a route where the concentration of sea ice was low enough for the icebreaker, the Polarstern, […]

Infamous ex-gangster and once Britain's most violent prisoner, Shane Taylor, has lost count of how many prisons he has been locked up in. But he does remember what first made him want to kill. Watching Goodfellas as a child, he used to hit rewind on the opening scene where a gangster is stabbed in the boot of a car again […]

Prince William’s trust with his brother Prince Harry is wearing thin and it is down to the Sussexes to offer an “olive branch”, a royal commentator has suggested. The two brothers will reunite today (July 1) for the unveiling of a statue of their late mum Princess Diana. It will be the first time the pair have been seen together […]

A British man has suffered what is believed to be the world's first "vertical broken penis". The unlucky bloke, 40, suffered a 3cm vertical tear along the length of his erect member after it was “bent when pressed against his partner’s perineum” during a steamy sex session last year. In what has been described as the first recorded injury of […]

A NHS boss has been jailed for more than five years after admitting conning the struggling health service out of more than £800k.  Barry Stannard, 53, was the sole director of two companies set up as NHS suppliers where he worked at the time.  Stannard, of Chelmsford, Essex, worked at Mid Essex Hospital Trust  as a manager and submitted false […]

Auckland councillors have mixed views on the issue of replacing some of the city’s kauri villas and bungalows with six-storey apartments to help address the city’s housing crisis. But after an all-day planning meeting, a majority of councillors voted to proceed with a Government directive to increase intensification deep inside many traditional suburbs and along public transport routes. Mayor Phil […]

Lionel Messi is officially a free agent after his contract with Barcelona came to an end. Messi‘s three-year-contract with the club expired at midnight on Thursday, leaving him with the choice of extending it or choosing another team. The 34-year-old – often regarded as the best footballer in the world – tried to leave Barcelona last summer but had his […]