Oasis ‘shocked and saddened’ after man dies at Wembley Stadium concert
A man has died after falling at London’s Wembley Stadium during an Oasis concert on Saturday.
Officers at the stadium responded to an incident at 10:19pm alongside medics at the venue and the London Ambulance Service after reports that someone had been injured.
“A man – aged in his 40s – was found with injuries consistent with a fall. He was sadly pronounced dead at the scene,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
According to reports, the man was in the upper tier of Wembley before he fell while watching the sell-out reunion.
Oasis said in a statement: “We are shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death of a fan at the show last night.
“Oasis would like to extend our sincere condolences to the family and friends of the person involved.”
The Met have called on people who witnessed the incident, or who knowingly or unknowingly took mobile phone footage of it to come forward.
The brothers were performing at Wembley Stadium as part of Oasis’s ongoing reunion tour, which has seen hundreds of thousands in the UK witness Noel and Liam Gallagher’s much-anticipated return.
Oasis will tour Scotland, Ireland, Canada and the United States before they return to London for two final dates at Wembley.
Police said in their statement: “At around 22:19hrs on Saturday, 2 August, officers on duty at Wembley Stadium for the Oasis concert responded alongside venue medics and the London Ambulance Service to reports that a person had been injured.
“A man – aged in his 40s – was found with injuries consistent with a fall. He was sadly pronounced dead at the scene.
“The stadium was busy, and we believe it is likely a number of people witnessed the incident, or may knowingly or unknowingly have caught it on mobile phone video footage.
“If you have any information that could help us to confirm what happened, please call 101, quoting 7985/02AUG.”
Protesters try to break into Canary Wharf hotel housing asylum seekers
Protesters have been accused of trying to break into a hotel used to accommodate asylum seekers in London.
A mixture of men wearing face masks and families with children waved flags and listened to speeches outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf on Sunday.
Metropolitan Police said that protesters were “making concerted efforts to breach the fencing and access the hotel”.
It also accused members of the group of “harassing occupants and staff” and trying to stop people from making deliveries.
Officers were forced to step in after flares were let off in the crowd, the force said.
A man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed.
Onlookers chanted “shame” towards the police as he was carried away.
Tourists, shoppers and guests at a nearby hotel stopped to take pictures of the demonstration.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “At one point, officers intervened after flares were let off in the crowd. Several people were searched. No further flares were found.
“One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed. He was taken into custody.
“Officers remain in the area to provide reassurance to local residents and businesses, to ensure that any further protest takes place peacefully, and to respond to any incidents.”
It is the latest in a series of demonstrations over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
On Saturday, the force made nine arrests after rival groups gathered outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, north London.
A protest and counter-protest also took place outside the New Bridge Hotel in Newcastle and four people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Northumbria Police said.
Scotland Yard said plans were in place to “respond to any protest activity in the vicinity of other hotels in London being used to accommodate asylum seekers”.
Elsewhere, Essex Police placed a number of restrictions on a planned protest in Epping on Sunday evening.
The force ordered that the demonstration should finish by 8.30pm and must take place in designated areas outside the Bell Hotel, which has been the focus of a series of protests over the last few weeks.
Police have also placed requirements on the removal of face coverings until 3am on Monday and have the power to direct anyone committing or suspected of committing anti-social behaviour to leave the area until 8am on Monday.
Family condemns Hamas video showing emaciated Israeli hostage in Gaza
The family of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, held by Hamas in Gaza since their bloody attack in Israel on 7 October 2023, has accused the group of deliberately starving him as part of a “propaganda campaign”.
The family statement came after Hamas released a video showing an emaciated Mr David in a narrow concrete tunnel.
“We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza – a living skeleton, buried alive,” the family statement said.
The hostage’s family also urged the Israeli government and the world community to do “everything possible to save Evyatar”.
Hamas released its second video in two days of Mr David over the weekend. In it, Mr David, who is very thin, is shown digging a hole, which, he says in the video, is for his own grave.
Mr David is heard saying: “I haven’t eaten for days… I barely got drinking water”
“They are on the absolute brink of death,” David’s brother Ilay said at a rally in support of the hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday, where thousands gathered holding posters of those in captivity and chanted for their immediate release.
“In the current unimaginable condition, they may have only days left to live.”
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar said the “world cannot remain silent in the face of the difficult images that are the result of deliberate sadistic abuse of the hostages, which also includes starvation”.
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, has told families of hostages that he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza.
Trump has made ending the conflict a major priority of his administration, though negotiations have faltered. Mr Witkoff is visiting Israel as its government faces mounting pressure over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the enclave.
In a recording of the meeting, reviewed by Reuters, Mr Witkoff is heard saying: “We have a very, very good plan that we’re working on collectively with the Israeli government, with Prime Minister Netanyahu … for the reconstruction of Gaza. That effectively means the end of the war.”
Mr Witkoff also said that Hamas was prepared to disarm in order to end the war, though the group has repeatedly said it will not lay down its weapons.
In response, Hamas, which has dominated Gaza since 2007, said it would not relinquish “armed resistance” unless an “independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital” was established.
Indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel aimed at securing a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza war and deal for the release of half the hostages ended last week in deadlock.
Mr Witkoff, who arrived in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government facing a global outcry over the devastation in Gaza and the starvation growing among its 2.2 million people, met the prime minister on Thursday.
Afterwards, a senior Israeli official said an understanding between Israel and Washington was emerging that there was a need to move from a plan to release some of the hostages to a plan to release all the hostages, disarm Hamas and demilitarise the Gaza Strip, echoing Israel’s key demands for ending the war.
On Tuesday, Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating ceasefire efforts, endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia outlining steps toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As part of it, they said Hamas must hand over its arms to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
The crisis in Gaza has also prompted a string of Western powers to announce they may recognise a Palestinian state.
On Friday, Witkoff visited a U.S.-backed aid operation in southern Gaza, which the United Nations has partly blamed for deadly conditions in the enclave, saying he sought to get food and other aid to people there.
Dozens have died of malnutrition in recent weeks after Israel cut off all supplies to the enclave for nearly three months from March to May, according to Gaza’s health ministry. It said on Saturday that it had recorded seven more fatalities, including a child, since Friday.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza and says it is taking steps for more aid to reach its population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
UN agencies have said that airdrops of food are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and quickly ease the access to it.
The Gaza war began when Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in an attack on southern Israel on 7 October 7, 2023. Israel’s offensive has since killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Reuters
Brook and Root set up thrilling finale after Siraj’s error turns Test
So this brutal, gruelling series goes the distance, to the fifth day of the fifth Test just like all four Tests before it. England need 35 runs to win the match and the series; India need three and a half wickets to draw the series. The half is Chris Woakes, who was seen shuffling around the dressing room in full whites late in the day, with his dislocated shoulder in a sling, ready to go into battle should England need him.
England have Jamie Smith and Jamie Overton at the crease but they have Joe Root and Harry Brook to thank for getting to this position, only six sixes to the winning line as Brendon McCullum might see it. Chasing 374, the No 1 and No 3-ranked batsmen in the world both scored magnificent centuries as they demolished India’s towering lead. They rattled off the milestones at a rate of about one applause per over – Brook’s ton, their 150 partnership, 100 left to win, England’s 300th run – until Brook finally succumbed, charging Akash Deep and spooning the ball to cover.
Brook had stood tall and swung to all corners, making a breathtaking 111 from 98 balls, while Root painted pictures with his cover drive, scoring 105 from 152 balls and celebrating with an emotional nod to his old mentor Graham Thorpe, donning a headband in tribute. But Brook, in particular, never should have had the opportunity. A summer’s cricket may all come down to one misjudgement by Mohammed Siraj here on day four.
Shortly before lunch, on 19, Brook flashed a short ball from Prasidh Krishna over his shoulder down to deep backward square leg. Siraj took the catch on the boundary and India’s slip cordon jumped for joy while Krishna stared at Brook with a big grin, arms wide, fists clenched in celebration. But his smile melted away when he noticed Siraj with his head in his hands, the fielder having stumbled over the rope while still clutching the ball like a drunk trying not to spill his beer.
A theme of this series has been the players’ workload, after the ECB crammed five Tests into six weeks before the Hundred begins. This Oval finale has been denied some of the game’s best players: Ben Stokes bowled himself to pieces, and India couldn’t risk Jasprit Bumrah doing the same. And perhaps the sheer intensity of cricket indirectly did for Siraj, the most overworked bowler on either side.
The moment came on the very first ball after he had returned from a brief break in the changing rooms, having hammered through his overs in the morning. Fresh down the Escher’s staircase that is The Oval’s route from pavilion to pitch, Siraj hadn’t yet got his bearings when he made the catch. A step forward and he could have comfortably taken it at chest height, Brook would have walked, and the match would have been almost over.
It was apt that it should be Siraj, India’s stirrer-in-chief, never far from the latest spat. This has been the other recurring theme, an animosity between the two sides no doubt partly fuelled by exhaustion in which Siraj has revelled. He has been India’s beating heart through this tour, with a contribution measured in more than just maidens and wickets – the most of the series with 21 – but in miles, in hours, in buckets of sweat. Without him, the series would have been England’s long ago. And yet his misstep here was a catalyst.
The morning session had begun in India’s favour. Siraj and Krishna hit a relentlessly good length, the ball pitching just outside off with a touch of swing, nibbling off the pitch just enough to trouble the bat’s edge. Ben Duckett was soon on his way after falling into Krishna’s well-laid trap, attempting the straight drive that is his kryptonite and sending a thick edge to third slip.
Ollie Pope followed for 27: Siraj nipped one in beautifully with a wobble seam and a few extra miles per hour, trapping the England captain plum on his front pad in a mirror image of his first innings dismissal. England were 106-3, effectively four wickets down due to Woakes’s injury. India were bowling beautifully under cloudy skies, and the result seemed inevitable.
But Siraj’s stumble shifted the mood. England supporters roused from their Sunday morning slumber, gleefully revelling in the replays on the big screen, as Brook cut loose and began carving to all corners to reach 164-3 at lunch. India’s cordon gradually disappeared through the afternoon session as Shubman Gill stationed four men on the boundary to stem the flow.
Brook heaved hard pull shots over mid-wicket for a cluster of fours, as Root waited for bad balls and punished the Indian bowlers with crisp hitting, including one drive so attractive it could have started its own modelling career. Deep chipped in with his own comedy fielding on the boundary, trying to stop the ball with one foot before the other knocked it over the rope for four. Gill turned to spin but Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar were hammered around the ground and soon brought off again.
The late scalps of Root and Jacob Bethell, who chopped on to his stumps for five, gave the tourists encouragement before heavy rain brought an early end. India finished the day still believing. But the destiny of this match may ultimately have been decided a few hours earlier, by a catch worth six runs.
Lucy Letby was taught to write down darkest thoughts, friend claims
A bombshell new documentary on child killer Lucy Letby will offer a new explanation behind a number of scribbled notes written by the nurse which were used as evidence to convict her.
Britain’s most prolific child serial killer is currently serving 15 whole-life sentences for seven murders and seven attempted murders of babies while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
Notes such as “I am evil, I did this” were scrawled on a scrappy notepad found in her house, which also read: “I killed them on purpose because I am not good enough to care for them and I am a horrible evil person.”
“Hate” was also written in block capitals with heavy ink and circled, while the note is headed: “Not good enough.” But the notes also included other phrases such as: “I haven’t done anything wrong” and “we tried our best and it wasn’t enough”
The NHS neonatal nurse is currently serving 15 whole life sentences for seven murders and seven attempted murders of babies while working at the Countess of Chester Hospital.
According to The Times, a new ITV documentary will put forward a new explanation for the notes, which were presented by the prosecution as amounting to a confession – despite some of the notes appearing to deny her guilt.
Dawn is a childhood friend of Letby with whom she studied her A-Levels at Aylestone School in Hereford. The 35-year-old, who did not want her last name to be published, said the pair were taught while in school to write down their most dark thoughts during “peer-support training sessions”
Speaking to the Lucy Letby: Beyond Reasonable Doubt? documentary, she said: “At all of those training sessions, it was recommended to us that, you know, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, you write down everything that’s going through your mind that is, you know, troubling you.
“So, all of the dark thoughts, all of those inner voices that you can’t silence. You just write it all down on a piece of paper to get it off your mind.”
Letby has lost two attempts to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal so far, but questions are growing about the safety of Letby’s convictions after multiple experts have cast doubts over some of the evidence used in the trial in August 2023.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is reviewing an application by Letby’s legal team, which includes a 300-page report from chemical engineer Helen Shannon and professor Geoff Chase, who refute claims made by the prosecution that Letby “undoubtedly” poisoned two babies by spiking their feeding bags with insulin.
Ms Shannon and Prof Chase, who were given access to the babies’ medical notes, say they could have been born with specific types of antibodies in their blood which can cause a high reading of insulin.
Speaking to the documentary, Ms Shannon said according to The Times: “What was presented in court as this is smoking-gun evidence of poisoning actually looks pretty typical for a pre-term neonate.
“And we can’t see any justification whatsoever for the prosecution statement that it could only be poisoning.”
Dawn also tells the documentary about the moment Letby was found guilty: “I think I was at work when I heard that they were, sort of, returning the verdict, and sort of tuned in and I think I just sat there dumbfounded for a while, not really knowing how to process what I was hearing,” she said.
“I didn’t think it was real. I immediately switched to thinking: ‘Well, what’s next, you know? What happens next? This can’t be it. She can’t just spend the rest of her life in prison’.”
How Macmillan Cancer Support built a movement that reaches everyone
Norris holds off Piastri in thrilling finale to Hungarian Grand Prix
Lando Norris held off a thrilling late charge from Oscar Piastri to win the Hungarian Grand Prix and reduce his F1 world championship rival’s lead to nine points.
Norris was running in fourth place but benefited from stopping for tyres one fewer time than his rivals to land his fifth victory of the season.
The British driver took the chequered flag just six-tenths of a second ahead of Piastri, who went within centimetres of colliding with Norris on the last-but-one lap when he locked up his front-right tyre at the opening corner.
George Russell passed Charles Leclerc with eight laps to go to take the final spot on the podium.
Pole-sitter Leclerc had to settle for fourth. Lewis Hamilton, who urged Ferrari to replace him after he qualified only 12th, also finished in that position, a lap down.
Norris’s win in the concluding round before the summer break – his third triumph from his last four appearances – reignites his bid to land a maiden world crown.
But the Bristolian can count himself somewhat fortunate to be standing on the top step of the podium.
Norris started third, and although he got away well from his marks, an attempt to pass Piastri on the inside of the opening corner backfired. Norris did not commit to the overtake, and that left him in no-man’s land, allowing Russell and then Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to breeze through.
On lap three, Norris fought his way clear of Alonso but was then tucked up behind Russell and making little progress.
On Saturday, Hamilton described himself as “absolutely useless” after he was knocked out of Q2, while Leclerc, in the other scarlet car, took the Scuderia’s first pole of the year.
By the end of the first lap, Hamilton dropped behind Carlos Sainz and Kimi Antonelli and was 14th. After eight laps, he was 20 seconds behind Leclerc, and at the end of lap 14, he trailed his teammate by half a minute.
Piastri was the first of the leaders to blink, stopping for hard tyres on lap 18. Ferrari, reacting to Piastri’s stop, pulled in Leclerc on the next lap.
On fresh tyres, Piastri had been quicker than the Ferrari, but Leclerc managed to stay ahead. Russell also stopped on lap 19, promoting Norris to the lead.
Further back, Max Verstappen, who had also taken on fresh tyres, was tucked up behind Hamilton, yet to stop, in a duel for 11th.
Verstappen threw his Red Bull underneath Hamilton’s Ferrari at turn 4 on lap 29, with the seven-time world champion running off the road and losing the place to his old nemesis. The flashpoint will be investigated by the stewards after the race.
Returning to the front, McLaren were now considering a one-stop strategy for Norris. His race engineer, Will Joseph, was on the radio: “Lando, 40 laps on the hard tyre, you up for it?”
Norris replied: “Yeah, why not?”
On lap 31 of 70, he came in for his sole change of tyres before lighting up the timesheets with the fastest laps of the race so far.
Norris then dropped two wheels through the gravel on the exit of the chicane, which irked Joseph.
“Lando, just keep the focus, we don’t want these mistakes,” he said.
Both Leclerc and Piastri were forced to stop again on laps 40 and 45, respectively. Norris now led Leclerc by seven seconds, with Piastri five seconds further back.
But Piastri was on the move, swatting Leclerc aside on lap 51 and then setting about reducing Norris’s nine-second advantage.
With five laps to go, Piastri was just a second behind, and on the penultimate lap attempted a banzai move at the first corner, but Norris remained ahead to land what could be a pivotal win in his championship charge.
Alonso finished fifth, one place ahead of rookie Gabriel Bortoleto. Verstappen finished ninth, with Hamilton fighting his way past Pierre Gasly and then Sainz, but finishing outside the points on a desperate weekend for the 40-year-old.
“I am dead, I am dead,” Norris said. “We were not planning on the one-stop, but it was our only chance after the first lap. I have pushed hard, and my voice has gone a little bit, but it was the perfect result today.
“We are so close in the championship, it is hard to say if the momentum is on either side, but it is fun racing against Oscar, and I just about held on, so I look forward to plenty more of these.”
Piastri said: “I pushed as hard as I could. After I saw Lando take on the one-stop, I knew I would have to overtake on track and that is easier said than done.”
Jess Phillips: Nigel Farage would enable ‘modern day Jimmy Saviles’
Jess Phillips has joined criticism of Reform UK’s pledge to repeal the Online Safety Act, suggesting such a move would empower “modern-day Jimmy Saviles”.
Ms Phillips, the Home Office minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, appeared to accuse Nigel Farage of being more concerned about “clicks for his monetised social media accounts” than children’s safety online.
She backed her colleague Peter Kyle after his row with the Reform UK leader last week.
The Technology Secretary said Mr Farage was putting himself on the side of “extreme pornographers” and people like Savile by opposing the law.
Under rules that came into effect on July 25 as part of the act, online platforms such as social media sites and search engines must take steps to prevent children from accessing harmful content such as pornography or material that encourages suicide.
Mr Farage has said the legislation threatens freedom of speech and open debate.
Writing in The Times, Ms Phillips said: “Farage said it’s the biggest threat to freedom of speech in our lifetimes.
“My colleague Peter Kyle said he was siding with modern-day Jimmy Saviles preying on children online.”
She said she would like to speak to Mr Farage about “one of those modern-day Saviles, Alexander McCartney”.
McCartney, who posed as a teenage girl to befriend young females from across the globe on Snapchat and other platforms before blackmailing them, “just needed a computer” to reach his targets, Ms Phillips wrote.
Believed to be one of the world’s most prolific online offenders, McCartney abused at least 70 children online and drove one girl to suicide.
Ms Phillips said the Online Safety Act exists to try to provide a “basic minimum of protection, and make it harder for paedophiles to prey on children at will”.
She said police have told her that paedophile networks use “normal websites where their parents assume they’re safe” to coerce and blackmail young people.
“Perhaps Nigel Farage doesn’t worry about that — there’s no political advantage in it, and no clicks for his monetised social media accounts. But I do.
“I worry about what it means now and what it will mean when boys reared on a diet of ultraviolent online child abuse are adult men having children of their own. I can’t ignore that, neither can Peter Kyle, and, most importantly, nor can millions of parents across the country.
“I defy Nigel Farage to tell me what any of that has to do with free speech.
“I defy him to meet even one parent who has lost a daughter to suicide because she was being blackmailed online and tell them that is just the price of civil liberties. Maybe he’d feel differently after that kind of meeting, or maybe he wouldn’t care.”
Her comments echo those of Mr Kyle, who said last week: “Make no mistake about it, if people like Jimmy Savile were alive today, he’d be perpetrating his crimes online. And Nigel Farage is saying that he’s on their side.”
Mr Farage demanded an apology from the Technology Secretary, who refused to withdraw the remarks.