Three of the five teenage boys killed in a head-on crash have been pictured for the first time after police revealed gangs of youths have been ‘trying to outdo each other’ online.

The youngsters were travelling southbound on the northbound carriageway of the M9 motorway in County Kildare yesterday morning when they smashed into another vehicle.

The collision left four others, including a seven-year-old child, seriously injured.

Kamil Pustowski, Joe Carthy, Jeremy O’Brien, Alex McCarthy and Jack Kennedy, who are believed to be aged between 14 and 16, allegedly stole the BMW they were travelling in.

Gardai are attempting to verify whether the boys, who were reportedly wearing balaclavas or masks, are part of the ‘Lucky Dip’ burglary and car theft gang in Dublin. 

Post-mortem examinations will soon be carried out to establish a cause of death.

Three women, two in their 30s and one in her 20s, and a seven-year-old child were rushed to hospital, where they remain in serious or critical condition. 

They are understood to be members of the same family and were travelling in a Hyundai towards Dublin Airport when their car was struck near junction three at around 3am. 

Joey Carthy also died in the crash on the M9 motorway

Jeremy O’Brien was one of five teenagers to lose his life in the collision 

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The five teenage boys were driving southbound on the northbound carriageway of the M9 motorway in County Kildare and crashed into another vehicle near junction three

The Garda Representative Association (GRA) said its members were ‘all in shock’ after the ‘horrific incident’. 

GRA vice-president John Joe O’Connell said: ‘This involved a stolen BMW that drove – trying to evade gardaí – drove the wrong way down the M9 and then a head-on collision occurred with this car of a family heading to Dublin Airport on holidays for a few days.’

Mr O’Connell explained the BMW had earlier failed to stop for gardaí and that it was his understanding that an instruction was given not to pursue the vehicle as it travelled the wrong way down the M9.

Asked if this was standard procedure, he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland radio programme: ‘It would be standard practice, and the command and control centre would be dictating what happens in a live environment – but the members in the cars have to make a split-second decision.’

Mr O’Connell said there were ‘numerous gangs’ of boys and young men ‘trying to outdo each other’ in social media videos depicting interactions with Gardaí, pursuits and wrong-way driving.

‘Our members are not going to follow down that route – we’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t, that way,’ he said. 

The Kildare-based representative said the GRA did not ‘know what the exact answer is’ to address the problem, but added: ‘There’s not one member of An Garda Síochána trained in pursuit – never mind in dealing with cars going down the wrong way.’

Mr O’Connell said gardaí also face internal sanctions, discipline and possible criminal offences when they decide to chase in pursuits. He said garda cars have also been rammed by stolen vehicles.

Police said a car was travelling on the M9 in the wrong direction in Co Kildare before it smashed into another vehicle at junction 3 at around 3am on Sunday. Pictured: The scene on the M9 northbound

A forensic collision examination will take place while police investigate the circumstances of the head-on crash

Mr O’Connell said there was a need to ‘look at the sentences’ when these cases come before the courts, as he criticised those partaking in wrong-way driving as ‘playing Russian roulette with their lives and everyone else’s lives’.

He urged parents to talk to their sons about the potential consequences of getting into a stolen car ‘for the craic and the clicks’.

Friends and family have paid tribute to the five dead teenagers, who were described as ‘angels’. 

In a social media post, a cousin of Joe Carthy and Alex McCarthy said: ‘Rest in peace to my two cousins Alex and Joey. 

‘May you get a best bed in heaven, watch over your mother and father and brothers and sisters at this hard time. Left away to soon.’

In a separate post, she added: ‘God give your family the strength to get through this difficult time.’ 

Sharing pictures of Carthy wearing a balaclava, another cousin said: ‘Never in a million years would I ever (have) thought it would come to this Joe. 

‘The thought of us never seeing you again. No matter where you were, you always put a smile on anyone’s face. Forever 15, my cousin.’ 

Meanwhile, a family friend said of Carthy: ‘Only a baby with his whole life ahead of him, most mannered little boy you were Joey.

‘Too good for this big cruel world, watch over my James he’s heartbroken over you. Your poor father and mother, Joey. 

‘Please God give them this strength to get through this. Rest easy champ.’

A friend of Kamil Pustowski wrote: ‘My heart is broken, you’re gonna be missed so much by everyone.  Rest in paradise, God is going to give you the best bed up there.’

A cousin of Jeremy O’Brien said: ‘RIP to my cousin. (He) was like a brother. (May) God give you the bed in heaven, you’ll be missed.’ 

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly has described the head-on collision between junctions 3 and 4 as ‘horrific’ and warned that ‘in some cases’ vehicles are being driven on the wrong side of motorways for social media likes.

The previous weekend, nine people were injured in a head-on collision on the M50 in Dublin with a car travelling in the wrong direction on the motorway.

Downing Street declined to say “at this stage” whether Andy Burnham was considering an inquiry into Arday’s death, reiterating that it was “a moment for reflection”, and that it was right for “the usual processes” like an inquest, to conclude.

Sir James Cleverly said he was angry with the what happened to Arday, and the university establishment – not just Cambridge – should have “done the robust due diligence and checking that should happen with any senior academic appointment”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme on Monday, the shadow housing secretary said he felt Arday was used as “bragging rights by some universities”, and that people spoke of his “age and his ethnicity rather than his talent”.

“I think it was part of the reason that he was lifted so high so quickly and then when the scrutiny did come – external to the universities – his reputation had so far to fall. I think it was unfair on him and I think it’s been a terrible, terrible situation.”

Sir James – who was Britain’s first black home secretary and foreign secretary – said much of the coverage surrounding Arday was “quite possibly” motivated by racism, but that the questions over plagiarism were legitimate, regardless of motivation.

Meanwhile, when housing minister Matthew Pennycook, was questioned over whether the press behaved poorly, he echoed comments by the prime minister that it was not the time to “rush to judgement on this”.

“I do think the events leading up to his death raised questions about duty of care and the nature of modern media scrutiny, but I don’t think the time is now to get into a debate about those, I certainly don’t intend to sit here and opine on them myself,” he said.

Pennycook added that it was a time to reflect and “think compassionately about how we got to this situation, which is a desperately, desperately sad one”.

The row first erupted after another academic – self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 – said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in the professor’s work.

Cofnas’s post had been terminated amid a backlash to his view that under a true meritocracy black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”.

Cambridge had celebrated Arday’s appointment as a young black professor, one of a tiny and visible minority in academia. Only 1% of professors in UK universities are black, making each appointment hugely significant.

A vigil organised by the group Stand Up To Racism is set to take place on Monday evening in Trafalgar Square.

On Sunday, more than 200 people attended a vigil at Cambridge that was organised by Arday’s postdoctoral students.

By PHILLIP NIETO, US POLITICAL REPORTER

Published: 13:00 BST, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 13:15 BST, 17 August 2026

Donald Trump threatened to ‘bomb the s***’ out of Oman if it continues negotiations with Iran without American approval as the ceasefire with Tehran nears its expiration.

Oman, a major US defense ally in the Middle East, is currently negotiating with Iran over a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by placing the narrow waterway, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes, under joint control. 

Trump has previously stated that Iran will not be allowed to control the waterway by charging levies or taxes from US-backed oil tankers. 

The President issued a dire warning on Monday morning during a Fox News interview if Oman moves forward with its negotiations: ‘If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s*** out of them.’ 

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The Strait of Hormuz has been shut since Iran closed it after US and Israeli airstrikes in late February. The strait’s reopening remains a key sticking point in peace talks.

Oman has a history of serving as a friendly mediator between the White House and the Iranian regime. 

The country helped broker the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and has acted as a US defense partner in the Middle East since 1980.

Trump’s threats against his own ally come as the 60-day US-Iran ceasefire is set to expire today, raising fears of renewed fighting that could further destabilize the region and disrupt global oil supplies.  

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Oman, a major US defense ally in the Middle East, is currently negotiating with Iran over a plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by placing the narrow waterway under joint control

Trump’s threats against his own ally come as the 60-day US-Iran ceasefire is set to expire today, raising fears of renewed fighting that could further destabilize the region and disrupt global oil supplies

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An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11

Trump has previously stated that Iran will not be allowed to control the waterway by charging levies or taxes from US-backed oil tankers

Trump’s Monday morning warning to attack Oman is not the first time the president has threatened the US Middle Eastern ally. 

Back in May during a cabinet meeting, a reporter asked Trump whether he was comfortable with Oman jointly controlling the strait with Tehran.

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‘The strait will be open to everybody,’ Trump said before being asked who would control it. ‘Nobody is going to control it… We will watch over it.’

Trump then turned his attention back to Oman, threatening to attack the country.

‘Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that. They’ll be fine,’ Trump added.

Oman did not publicly respond to Trump’s threat at the time. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the following day that Oman’s ambassador had assured him Muscat had no plans to charge vessels for passing through the strait.

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Culprit Sean McKinley, 26, was jailed for 17 months on two counts of wilful fireraising, in one case to danger of life.

A traumatised mum who was the victim of four separate car fire attacks says her children are lucky to be alive.

The brave single parent dragged youngsters aged four and seven to safety after one blaze spread from a vehicle to the front of their house as they slept.

The mum, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke out after Sean McKinley, 26, was jailed for 17 months on two counts of wilful fireraising, in one case to danger of life.

He admitted torching cars outside the woman’s home in Chapelhall in March 2024 and February last year.

Two similar charges relating to vehicle fires in September and October 2024 were dropped.

The 36-year-old mum-of-four welcomed McKinley’s jail sentence but said it should have been longer.

She said: “This has been a terrifying time for us. Life hasn’t been the same since and never will be.

“To have this happen once is scary, but four times is going too far.”

Airdrie Sheriff Court heard the woman was targeted for “personal” reasons and McKinley carried out the attacks on behalf of another individual to fund his drug habit.

The mum went on: “If someone has a vendetta against me, fair enough, but don’t bring my babies into it.

“I’ll never forget the look of terror on their faces during the first fire when I managed to get them out of the back door to a neighbour.

“The flames incinerated the front door of the house and badly damaged my oldest child’s bedroom. Luckily he wasn’t at home that night.

“Thinking about what could have happened is the worst part of it.”

Annette Ward, prosecuting, said the mum and two of her children were asleep in their home when the car alarm went off at 2.45am.

Ms Ward told the court: “She saw her black Audi was on fire in the driveway. She called 999 and evacuated the house along with her children.

“A neighbour saw a hooded male running from the burning vehicle which was extensively damaged.”

The attack in February last year also happened in the early hours of the morning.

This time all four children were at home with their mum but the flames from a Range Rover in the driveway didn’t spread to the house.

Ms Ward said: “By this stage the woman had her own ring doorbell camera. This showed a hooded man pouring liquid over the bonnet of the car and setting it alight.

“Firefighters extinguished the flames but again there was extensive damage to the vehicle.”

Police linked McKinley, of Greenwood Crescent, Coatbridge, to a flat bed van that was seen in the street and at a filling station in Coatbridge.

McKinley’s own CCTV footage showed him leaving his home at 3.11am and returning at 3.48am. He was wearing a jacket similar to that worn by the hooded male in the victim’s doorbell footage.

Defence lawyer Tony Linden said McKinley was immature at the time and had used payment for the attacks “to fund his cocaine and alcohol habits”.

The solicitor added: “He is in a very different position now. He is in full -time employment and is in a strong relationship with a child due early next year.”

Jailing McKinley, Sheriff Tony McGlennan said: “These are extremely serious offences. Setting fire to vehicles carries an inherent risk, particularly when in close proximity to houses.

“Matters are aggravated because this was clearly a calculated choice by you. It might have been underpinned by an addiction to drugs, but you had every opportunity to step away.

“You chose to engage with an organised enterprise and, to make matters worse, did it not once but twice.”

The sheriff said the prison sentence would have been longer but for McKinley’s youth, guilty pleas and limited criminal record.

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Hayden Panettiere spoke about giving up custody of her daughter while struggling with addiction in her memoir, released just three months before her death aged 36.

The Hollywood actress, best known for her roles in Heroes and Nashville, was pronounced dead yesterday at an apartment block in Greenville, South Carolina.

Her raw and candid memoir ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning’ was released in the UK and US on May 19 and featured a series of details about being separated from her only child.

In it she discussed her depression after giving birth to her daughter Kaya, 11, and the eventual decision to give up custody to her ex-fiance Wladimir Klitschko, 50.

Panettiere, who began acting as a child, also wrote about being put into bed with a British singer and the moment an Oscar-winning actor exposed himself to her.

Put into bed with British singer

Panettiere described a troubling incident at the age of 19, when a friend told her to have sex with an unnamed British singer aged in his 30s.

The friend invited Panettiere to the south of France in 2009, where she boarded a ‘super yacht’ which the friend had hired for a week.

One day her friend told her to go downstairs with her. They entered a cabin, where she ‘saw a famous thirtysomething British singer songwriter lying in a bed’. She described him as shirtless and ‘from the waist down, he was covered by bedsheets’.

The friend then ‘leaned down and whispered in my ear: ‘I want you to get in bed with him. He has a huge d***.’ Panettiere did as she was told, before her friend left.

But before anything happened, the actress soon felt her heart pounding and told the man: ‘Look… I don’t know what she said to you, but this is not going to happen.’

She then jumped out of the bed and towards the door, running into the hall and toward her room. She booked a hotel and started packing her bags before leaving.

Panettiere said of her friend: ‘She’d confided in me, pampered me and treated me like her best friend – then turned around and treated me like a call girl.’

Hayden Panettiere in New York in July 2009, soon after the incident on the yacht that spring

Oscar winner exposed himself

Panettiere also explained the distressing moment an ‘Oscar winning actor and director’ exposed himself to her months earlier, when she was still aged 19.

The actress said the ‘actor and director’ showed his genitals to her at a private party – organised by the same friend who invited her to the yacht.

Panettiere was chatting with a group of men ‘in their forties and fifties’ at the party, when she ‘sensed these men’s eyes on me and it made me uncomfortable.’

She felt like a ‘young commodity ripe for the picking in that moment and decided to leave – when one of the men approached her as she was putting on her coat.

Panettiere said the man – whom she did not identify – claimed to have a ‘big wad of gum on his pants’. But she wrote: ‘I looked down and recoiled. This well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly.’

She did not tell her friend about the incident because she believed ‘the moment had passed’ and ‘assumed some older men had just grown up with no manners.’

Struggling with depression

After giving birth to her daughter Kaya, Panettiere began haemorrhaging before she underwent seven blood transfusions and surgery to repair vessels that began to fail.

And in the months following the birth in 2014, Panettiere faced a significant struggle with depression, explaining in her book how they did not bond as she had hoped.

The actress, who was aged 25 at the time, wrote: ‘I’d always heard that mothers feel an instant rush of love the moment they lay their eyes on their baby, but I felt nothing.’

Panettiere said she was finding it difficult to soothe her daughter and understand what she was experiencing, admitting her ‘natural optimism and pep’ had vanished.

In one incident, she worried that she had accidentally hurt Kaya while taking her out of the bath, but explained: ‘It wasn’t panic that was sitting in my chest.

‘It was nothing. A total blackout of emotion, like my soul was dead. I wasn’t myself, yet the problem was I didn’t know what I was supposed to be.’

Hayden Panettiere hugs her daughter Kaya in a photo she posted to Instagram in March 2017

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Medication causing problems

Panettiere was diagnosed with postpartum depression and began having treatment when Kaya was four months old – but her medication caused further issues.

She explained how this kept her from ‘cracking’, adding: ‘To help me with my insomnia I had meds, the really powerful kind they’d prescribed me in treatment.’

However, Panettiere said this left her feeling like a ‘zombie’ – explaining: ‘They had a catch: if I didn’t take them, I couldn’t sleep. If I did, I slept too much.’

She also wrote: ‘I walked into rehab addicted to one substance, and I walked out, completely dependent on something else.’

The actress further explained how ‘anxiety buzzed inside me like a fluorescent light’, which she said was ‘keeping me reactive, on edge and full of dread’.

Alcohol addiction

Panettiere began turning to alcohol to cope with her depression after giving birth, and said she once poured so much wine into her glass that it ‘almost overflowed.’

The problem worsened when she returned to acting in TV drama Nashville, needing a drink just to get out of bed. She wrote: ‘It’s 6am and I’m trying to get drunk.’

Panettiere added: ‘The first thing I’d thought of when I woke up was alcohol. Not my child, not my job, and not the rest of my life.’

‘I needed a drink to function – at 6am – and that was f***ed. If I didn’t get some help as soon as possible, I was f***ed.’

She also said: ‘I’ve always strived to be a positive person, but I grieve all the hours I lose to addiction, my broken relationships and my loved ones who are no longer here.’

Giving up custody of Kaya

Panettiere discussed her heartbreaking decision in 2018 to give up custody of her daughter Kaya, now 11, to her ex-fiancé, Ukrainian former boxer Wladimir Klitschko.

Kaya had lived with her father full-time from a young age amid the actress’s struggles with substance addiction and mental health.

As these battles continued, the actress decided to sign over custody of her daughter to Klitschko who was not living in the same country as Panettiere at the time.

She said: ‘I remember every second of that day. Every f**ing second. No mother could forget a single thing about the day she signed her child away.’

Panettiere believes she had enough money to fight a custody battle but feared this would have destroyed her, given she was still in recovery at that point.

She decided not to celebrate the series finale of TV series Nashville, saying: ‘I couldn’t pretend that this chapter of my life was something to memorialise.’

After selling her home in Nashville, Panettiere said she now had ‘no work, no plan for work anytime soon, no boyfriend, and no Kaya to care for.’

Hayden Panettiere and Wladimir Klitschko with their daughter Kaya, now 11, in July 2016

Living without her daughter

Panettiere wrote movingly about the eight years of trying to be a mother having given up custody of her child Kaya, who was just three at the time.

The actress said: ‘Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life, and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion – including sadness, resentment, and anger – I’ve felt because of it.

‘I grieve that I’m not the mother I thought I’d be and definitely not the mother I want to be (trust me, no one should ever have to raise a child on FaceTime), and although I miss Kaya so much my heart aches, I know how blessed I am to be her mom.

‘She is the greatest gift of my life, with all the best parts of her father and me, and, today, I believe I have the opportunity to be a different kind of parent than most.’

Taking full responsibility

Panettiere explained how she takes full responsibility for her shortcomings to her daughter – insisting she does not blame her former partner Klitschko.

The actress also described the Ukrainian former boxer, who competed from 1996 to 2017, as ‘one of the most courageous people I’ve ever met’.

She wrote: ‘She didn’t ask to be born into the limelight or my chaos, and she didn’t get to choose her parents. I want her to have every choice that I didn’t, including the ability to live a private life.

‘So out of respect for her right to normalcy, my stories of motherhood will be through my eyes only, and I’ll keep personal details of her life to a minimum.

‘I also want to make clear that I don’t blame Wlad for any of my wrongs; I take full responsibility for my part in our relationship and my shortcomings as a mom. Wlad is one of the most courageous people I’ve ever met and a true hero in so many ways.’

Panettiere has said she takes full responsibility for her shortcomings to her daughter Kaya 

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Hopes for the future

Despite her struggles with addiction and depression, Panettiere spoke positively about the latest stage of her personal journey and how experiences had affected her.

She said: ‘Life can shake you up and tear you down, but even when you’re at your worst, there’s hope and you have an opportunity to rebuild.’

Speaking about her ‘years in treatment’, Panettiere also insisted she had ‘concluded that the only thing I can change is myself and the person I want to be’.

She also referred to ‘lifequakes’, which are defined as a big and often-unexpected shift or crisis in life, popularised in author Bruce Feiler’s book Life Is in the Transitions.

And Panettiere said: ‘I’m far from perfect, but my life quakes and moments of struggle are little miracles that have helped me grow.’

‘This Is Me: A Reckoning’ by Hayden Panettiere is available in hardback for £22

“One of Scotland’s most unique fish and chip restaurants.”

A one-of-a-kind ‘sail-thru’ fish and chip shop in Scotland has been crowned among the top “hidden gems” in the UK. The waterside eatery, which has recently gone viral on social media, was named one of the best food destinations that can be reached via boat or paddle board.

On Friday, August 14, Paddle UK shared a list of the UK’s best hidden pubs and coffee shops that can be accessed on a paddle board. According to the experts, ‘paddle boarding to the pub’ has exploded in popularity in recent months. Various viral social media videos have inspired people to swap busy roads for rivers and canals.

One of the locations that was named as part of Paddle UK’s roundup of the best “hidden gems” you can reach by paddle board is McMonagles Fish and Chips in Clydebank. The fish and chip shop and tourist attraction is housed within a boat that is located in the Fourth and Clyde Canal.

READ MORE: The huge Edinburgh fish and chip restaurant perfect for Fringe bite to eat

READ MORE: This 100 year old chippy near Glasgow has ‘delicious fish and chips’ and £6 breakfast

The restaurant and takeaway is unique in that customers can pick up their order by boat from its window that faces the water. This has earned McMonagles Fish and Chips a significant following on social media, with one recent video on Instagram receiving more than 530,000 views.

McMonagles Fish and Chips was recently named as the Daily Record’s Chippy of the Week, and was praised for being a top destination for both formal dining and a casual meals. In addition to its sail-thru window, it has an indoor eating space in its upstairs and casual seating outside.

Paddle UK described McMonagles Fish and Chips as one of Scotland’s “most unique fish and chip restaurants” and praised its “freshly cooked fish and chips”. The eatery sources high-quality and sustainably caught fish, and its chips are hand-cut every day and fried until golden and crispy.

A spokesperson for Paddle UK stated: “One of Scotland’s most unique fish and chip restaurants is going viral on social media, with an Instagram reel gaining over 530k views. Many are feeling inspired to partake in watersports with the incentive of fish and chips along their route, with users commenting: ‘Time to dust off my kayak. That’s epic!’

“McMonagles is located on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Clydebank. Paddlers can travel along the canal and can pull up outside the window for freshly cooked fish and chips. Known as the world’s first ‘Sail-Thru’ restaurant, it’s become a popular stop for canal users.”

Elsewhere, another destination that was named one of the top hidden gems in the UK for paddle boarders is The Hidden Tap in Hampshire. The riverside brewery taproom allows paddlers to pull a bell rope from the water’s edge and place their order, before drinks are lowered down using a wooden pulley system.

Head of Recreation at Paddle UK Rich Ramsdale commented: “Paddle boarding is more than just exercise. Whether it’s paddleboarding with friends, or trying out SUP yoga paddling gives people the chance to slow down, switch off and reconnect with nature. It’s great that we’re seeing more people explore their local waterways, discover independent cafes and pubs, and experience places they simply wouldn’t see from the road.”

The full list of the best hidden pubs and coffee shops in the UK that can be reached via paddle board can be found below.

The hidden UK gems you can access by paddle board

• The Hidden Tap, Hampshire
• Riverbank Coffee, Manchester
• McMonagles Fish and Chips, Clydebank
• The Anglers, London
• The Wateredge Inn, Ambleside
• Elsie’s Riverside Coffee Shop, Newcastle

Here’s when you can start playing Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 later this week.

Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 is almost upon us with the next era of the Battle Royale shooter set to begin later this week. After months of rumours, Epic Games has finally revealed some of what we can expect in the latest season, which is themed around a massive collaboration between legacy gaming franchises.

So far, we’ve seen the likes of Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon and Mega-Man appear in promotional artwork for the new season. If you want to jump into Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 as soon as it starts, here’s when it all kicks off.

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Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 release date

Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 is set to start on Thursday, August 20 2026 .

This is the date that the current season – Season 3 – is due to end with a few hours of maintenance usually scheduled while Epic Games swaps out the old content for the new. This doesn’t usually take a while, with the new content normally available by around lunchtime here in the UK.

What’s new in Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 ‘Override’?

As mentioned above, Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 4 is all about a big gaming crossover with some of the industry’s biggest stars. So far, these are all the characters we’ve spotted in the reveal trailer:

• Sonic
• Shadow
• Knuckles
• Eggman
• Tails
• Crash Bandicoot
• Spyro the Dragon
• Joker (Persona 5)
• Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
• Tetris
• Mega Man
• Rush (Mega Man)
• V (Cyberpunk 2077)
• Pac-Man and Ghosts

As you can see from above, this season is set to be a real ‘Ready Player One’ style era.

Not all of these crossovers will be getting skins, with their references manifesting in other ways. For example, the Pac-Man ghosts will appear as clouds in the sky above the island, while the Green Hill Zone from Sonic will appear as a landmark in the game.

Certain characters will also get a ‘Tetris’ variant to their skin, which will make them appear a bit more ‘blocky’ than normal.

We’ll no doubt find out more about what will be included in the Override event when it launches later this week on August 20.

Foreign nationals would be excluded from most benefits under a Reform UK government, the party has said.

The ban, part of a proposed overhaul of Britain’s benefits system, would include European Union (EU) nationals with settled status in the UK.

It would require renegotiating the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU, potentially meaning that British expatriates living in the EU could lose equivalent rights.

Reform claims the policy would save £21bn a year by its fifth year, but Labour insists the “vast majority” of migrants have no access to benefits and the Conservatives have dismissed the plans as “cobbled together”.

Robert Jenrick, Reform’s economy spokesman, said there has to be a change of approach to “restore fairness” to the welfare system.

In a speech on Monday to unveil the plans, Jenrick said one-in-six Universal Credit claimants are not a British or Irish citizen and suggested the money should instead be used to “make the lives of British people better”.

He added: “The British taxpayer is acting as the welfare state for the world. That’s unfair, we all know it.”

This year the government expects, external to spend a total of £322bn on welfare in Great Britain, or 10.6% of GDP, just over half of which goes to pensioners.

Reform says it has spent six months drawing up a 50-page plan that it claims will save a total of £50bn a year.

Jenrick said the proposals also include a “welfare to work” scheme which will require people who have claimed benefits for more than 12 months to provide 20 hours-a-week of work for their community.

This would apply to those deemed fit to work and will be organised by their local council, the MP said.

Those who fail to take part or poorly perform will face sanctions, including potential cuts to their benefits, according to Reform’s policy document.

Jenrick said: “They’ll work to clean up high streets and parks, to beautify neglected places, to carry out minor repairs to staff libraries and community centres, to perform many other tasks from the list that we’ve published today.”

New Scotland boss Sebastien Pocognoli says the passionate nature of Scottish football was a key factor in him taking the job.

Pocognoli, 39, was confirmed as Steve Clarke’s successor on Sunday and introduced himself to the media on Monday.

Clarke ended his seven-year reign earlier this summer after Scotland failed to progress from the World Cup group stage after a victory over Haiti was followed by defeats to Morocco and Brazil.

Former Belgium defender Pocognoli left Monaco at the end of last season and previously led Union Saint-Gilloise to their first league title in 90 years in 2024-25.

He becomes just the second foreign boss of the Scotland men’s team, after the German Berti Vogts, and believes he has what it takes to build on Clarke’s “strong foundation”.

“I’m very proud to be here,” Pocognoli said, flanked by Scottish FA chiefs Ian Maxwell and Craig Mulholland at his introduction.

“It’s a very strong challenge, with a project to develop the future of Scottish football. There are the metrics, but the human aspect was also very important. I never go to a challenge where I can’t feel the connection.

“Scotland is a passionate country and I think also, regarding the strong foundation that Steve Clarke and his staff laid, that I can use this heritage to put the next accent on the style of play while also developing players for the future.

“That’s why I’m here.”

By JADA BAS, REPORTER and NATALIA PENZA

Published: 11:14 BST, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 12:25 BST, 17 August 2026

A pregnant woman and her child have been killed in a triple shooting after a pair of men opened fire at a Spanish holiday resort.

The two masked men stormed in on motorbikes last night aiming at several members of the same family, who were staying in the Costa de la Luz region near Spain‘s southern border with Portugal.

The mother, her young son and the child’s maternal grandmother all died at the horrific scene, which took place at the El Rocio resort.

Local police confirmed two more people were caught in the crossfire, with one of them rushed to hospital ‘in serious condition’. 

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The victims’ bodies were left lying on the street until a judge arrived to authorise their transfer to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in the provincial capital Huelva so autopsies can take place.

Police have said early investigations suggest the shooting could have been ‘a settling of scores’ between members of two different gangs.

Grisly photos said to have been taken by locals and holidaymakers before they were removed have started to appear on social media. 

No arrests have yet taken place but the fatal incident has been linked to a previous shooting that took place in Huelva in September 2024 which left one person dead and two injured.

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A pregnant woman and her child have been killed in a triple shooting after a pair of men opened fire at a Spanish holiday resort

The mother, her young son and his maternal grandmother all died at the horrific scene

The three people killed last night are the sister, mother and nephew of the man arrested over the 2024 shooting, according to local reports.

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He was held in Gijon in northern Spain after going on the run and remanded in custody pending a trial.

Several relatives of the suspect, thought to include those killed last night, are said to have moved to Isla Cristina from the provincial capital following the earlier crime.

The Civil Guard is leading the ongoing investigation into the fatal shootings. 

Isla Cristina, one of southern Spain’s most important fishing ports, is known for its fine sand beaches. The nearest airports are Faro on the Portuguese Algarve which is just 40 miles away and Seville which is 80 miles away.

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A Civil Guard spokesman said: ‘Around 10pm yesterday in the town of Isla Cristina, the occupants of a motorcycle opened fire on several people who were in a public area, resulting in three people dead and two injured, one of them in serious condition.

‘The initial lines of investigation indicate that it could be a settling of scores between members of different clans, although no hypothesis has been ruled out.

‘The Guardia Civil has activated a large-scale security and search operation to locate the alleged perpetrators. Any information can be provided confidentially.’

Police confirmed a secrecy order had been placed over the case by a judge.

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A secrecy order is a tool commonly used in Spain to protect judicial probes especially in their infancy, and limits the amount of information civil servants can give out.