CHICAGO (AP) — DiJonai Carrington of the Chicago Sky was ejected Saturday after being called for a Flagrant 2 foul on Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever. Minutes later, Carrington posted on social media the words “WHITE PRIVILEGE” and tagged the Fever.

Cunningham, who is white, was shooting a fast-break layup in the first quarter when Carrington, who is Black, came from behind and hit her in the head and neck, knocking her to the court as the shot went in.

Cunningham got up immediately, charged toward Carrington and pushed her as she was held back by a teammate.

The play was reviewed and upgraded to a Flagrant 2 after the referee said there was windup, impact and follow-through on the foul.

In the third quarter, Fever star Caitlin Clark was assessed a technical foul after she made contact with a referee when she was forced out of bounds. The technical was Clark’s eighth of the season, triggering a one-game suspension for Indiana’s next game.

Cunningham has frequently come to Clark’s defense after physical play by opponents and has become one of the higher-profile players in the league this season. In an ESPN article published last month, she voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports, which led to small protests and rallies outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland.

In a memo to teams on Friday, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league would have ongoing discussions about the issue of transgender participation in women’s basketball.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Danny Regan was found dead inside the high-security home he ran to in 2002

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A drug dealer who fled his hometown in a desperate bid to escape the dark hole he had fallen into was killed inside his high-security home.

Danny Regan told his mum that he did not think he would live to see his 30th birthday – an ominous premonition which proved correct, as he was shot dead aged 26.

Nearly 24 years later, his murder remains unsolved. Danny, 26, had moved to Haydock from Leeds just 12 months before he was killed on December 12, 2002. The dad-of-two lay dead for days before his body was finally discovered, three days after it is believed two men broke into his house and shot him in the chest with either a pump action or semi-automatic shotgun, reports the Liverpool Echo.

The hitmen escaped in a silver or grey Rover, which was later found burned out on Cooper Lane.

Two men aged 22 and 25, from Leeds, were arrested in connection with the incident. An e-fit of the suspect was also later released by police. But nobody was ever charged with Danny’s murder, and his killers have so far evaded justice.

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On the second anniversary of her son’s death in December 2004, Danny’s mum Pat Regan told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “I miss Danny so much more this year than last year, because last year it felt like he would still come home.

“Every day I thought I would walk in, and find the trail of cornflakes he used to leave on the kitchen table, which would mean he’d been here. It’s still so hard to face the idea that my son is never coming home.

“My son was no angel and became involved in drugs and with dealers. I would not want anyone to go through it.

“Danny knew the dangers he was facing and I was always waiting for a knock at the door. He came home in a coffin and his designer gear came home in big brown envelopes.

“He wanted to escape the world he lived in and knew the dangers he was facing. I was always waiting for a knock at the door and eventually it came.”

Danny, who had ties to Leeds’ criminal underworld, had been living in a fortified property on Station Road, surrounded by security cameras and a 6ft-high spiked fence.

It was later discovered the house was owned by an on-the-run drugs baron, Mark Lilley. The 6ft tall, 20-stone bodybuilder was sentenced in his absence to 23 years in prison in April 2000 – but had disappeared mid-trial after skipping bail, and was believed to be hiding in Spain or Holland.

He was one of the UK’s most wanted criminals before he was finally apprehended in the Costa Del Sol and extradited in August 2013.

In the wake of her son’s death, Pat became a fierce voice in the fight against gun crime. She set up a Mothers Against Violence group in her hometown of Leeds, and also campaigned for Mothers Against Guns (MAG) and Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (Mama).

The mum-of-six said in 2004: “When I first met other mothers who had felt what I did, | was speechless, and felt numb at finding others who could understand what my family has been through.

“It made me determined to try to stop this violence, which is why I set up the Leeds branch of Mothers Against Violence. l know it’s too late to save Danny and persuade him to give up the lifestyle which led to his death. But it’s not too late to save others, and if the work I do can make another young man think twice, then perhaps Danny’s life won’t have been lost in vain.”

Her tireless fight for justice ended in tragedy four years later, when she was stabbed to death by her grandson, Danny’s nephew, Rakeim Regan, 21.

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Rakeim, who had paranoid schizophrenia, had experienced a severe decline in his mental health before the attack, and believed his grandmother was “conspiring with police to get him”. He admitted manslaughter and was detained indefinitely in a secure psychiatric hospital in 2008.

In a final appeal for Danny’s killer to be exposed, made one year before her own death, Pat said: “I know that Danny’s lifestyle may have led to his death and some of the things he did were wrong. But he wasn’t an evil person and didn’t deserve to die like this.”

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The UK’s prime minister, Andy Burnham, is facing his first major test with the public over the upcoming early release of thousands of prisoners. These plans are part of the Sentencing Act 2026, passed by Keir Starmer’s government in response to an independent review of sentencing.

The review recommended a model whereby eligible prisoners could be released at the one-third point of their custodial term, if they engaged constructively with the prison regime. (If not, they could stay in custody until the halfway point or longer.)

But the proposals as enacted under the Sentencing Act simply mean many prisoners will automatically be released earlier. The new law also reduces the use of short sentences, which have contributed to recent increases in the UK prison population.

This was a response born of crisis, designed to stop the operational collapse of a prison estate running close to absolute capacity. Nonetheless, it can be defended on public protection grounds.

Reoffending rates are highest among people serving short sentences. Diverting them into community supervision rather than inflicting a short, disruptive spell inside is likely to help bring these rates down.

Reoffending rates are markedly lower among those serving longer sentences, so releasing them earlier – particularly when those releases are planned and supervised – is unlikely to make much difference to public safety.

The rollout of this law change has placed Burnham in an unenviable position. Unless the prison population is reduced, police cells will back up and courts won’t be able to remand dangerous defendants, because there is nowhere to hold them. But this clashes with the emotional force of what criminologists call “penal populism” – the pursuit of penal policy for its electoral appeal, rather than its effectiveness.

Burnham is understandably reluctant to risk an early-released prisoner committing a serious offence in the opening months of his premiership. Faced with that bind, he has largely deferred to populist pressure.

Penal populism explains a political context in which the need to appear tough on crime overrides expert consensus and operational reality.

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Will ending short prison sentences fix prison overcrowding? What an expert thinks

When survivors of serious crimes began receiving letters from the probation service informing them that “their” offenders were being considered for release, public anger built quickly.

This anger has coalesced around emblematic cases such as the killers of PC Andrew Harper (two of whom will now become eligible for release at the halfway point of their manslaughter sentences). Political opponents led by the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, have weaponised the outcry effectively.

Placed in this invidious position, Burnham paused the scheme and announced exclusions for rape, serious child sexual offences and grooming – though, controversially, not for domestic abuse. This pause calmed the immediate storm – but at the cost of a smaller reduction in the prison population, leaving the underlying capacity crisis unresolved.

The problem with ‘tough on crime’

All of this gives rise to difficult questions about what leaders need to do if they want to win votes using crime – or avoid losing votes as a result of crime.

The evidence that punitiveness wins elections is weaker than one might think. Although concern has been increasing recently, crime is only fifth on the list of issues that decide votes. Research consistently finds that support for punitiveness softens once people are given the specifics of real cases, rather than abstract categories of “offender”.

Despite many people thinking England and Wales’s criminal justice system is getting more lenient, sentencing has in fact become harsher in recent years. Much of the growth of the prison population is down to increased sentence lengths, rather than more crime.

What actually shapes leaders’ responses to issues of crime and justice is not that toughness wins, but that leniency-gone-wrong loses. A single serious offence by an early-released prisoner is a political catastrophe, while the thousands of quiet, successful releases are invisible. Leaders are not, therefore, responding to a clear public appetite for harshness, but acting in anticipation of what might happen if things go wrong.

Ultimately, bringing release dates forward is politically dangerous because it can be reframed as “letting criminals out early”, and is easily portrayed as a policy which undermines the imposition of retribution as intended by a judge.

Four solutions

So, what should Burnham do? The political storm around the early release scheme is an opportunity to pursue reforms that are harder to politicise. Four such reforms stand out to me:

1. Reform use of prison recall

Recalls are the biggest lever: in early 2026, for the first time on record, more people were recalled to prison than released – 13,193 in a single quarter. Only 22% involved a further charge; the rest were for technical breaches such as missing probation appointments. Burnham should make recall proportionate, reserving it for genuine risk rather than administrative non-compliance.

2. Address Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences

The legacy of the indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection still holds, despite being abolished in 2012. Around 946 people have never been released, 99.6% of them past their tariff, with a further 1,476 inside on recall. Legislative change could lead to the safe release of this cohort.

3. Reduce use of remand

The remand population – those held in prison while awaiting trial or sentencing – makes up close to a fifth of all prisoners (and is up to 16,000 in 2026, from 9,000 in 2019). These numbers could be safely reduced through tagging, enforced time limits and bail accommodation.

4. Community sentences for women

Most women in custody – less than 5% of the prison population – are serving short sentences for non-violent offences. Replacing these with community provision would cut prison numbers and avoid the wider harm of imprisoning primary carers.

À lire aussi :
How to stop released prisoners reoffending: what the evidence says

Meaningful reform in these four areas would help ease capacity issues. Importantly, these alternatives share a feature that the early release scheme lacks. All rest on a claim of procedural legitimacy (technical breach, expired tariff, unconvicted status, non-violent offending) that is far more defensible in public argument, and therefore more durable against a populist attack.

We know that the more time people spend in prison, the more harm they suffer. Even Conservative governments have accepted that prison can be “an expensive way of making bad people worse”.

However, the early release policy has been caught by the familiar tough-on-crime script. In the process, it appears to have damaged the very confidence in the justice system it was supposed to sustain.

The lesson is not that reform is impossible. But when it is introduced under crisis conditions and applied retrospectively to people the public can already name, it is uniquely exposed to political attack.

Changing the point of release may yet have a future. But doing it in the glare of a moral panic, as a response to an operational crisis, almost certainly does not.

As I strolled around the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatory in Delhi on July 28, the atmosphere was finally calm. Jantar Mantar had been the focus of the recent “cockroach” protests, in which tens of thousands took to the streets to push for education reforms in India.

While police and riot control vans remained, life was returning to normality. Street vendors and small businesses were bustling again. I joined people drinking tea and heard a range of opinions. The resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, a few days earlier seemed to satisfy the protesters’ calls for accountability in India.

But there were still competing narratives as to what happened in those few short weeks of protest. To me, after talking with many people on the streets of Delhi, it feels as if six words changed the political atmosphere in India completely: “What if all cockroaches come together?”

These words were posted online on May 16 by 30-year-old Abhijeet Dipke, an Indian political communication strategist studying at Boston University in the US. He was responding to a comment from India’s chief justice, Surya Kant, made from the bench during a legal case.

While criticising attacks on the judiciary on social media, Kant said: “There are youngsters like cockroaches … they don’t get any employment, they don’t have any place in profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, some of them become RTI activists, some of them become other activists, and they start attacking everyone.”

Kant later clarified he had been referring to fake degree holders. But the remark was widely interpreted as a slur against jobless young people at a time of high youth unemployment in India.

In response, Dipke created a website, Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), as satire – but within a fortnight, 22 million people were following his posts. He returned to India on June 6 and was immediately swarmed by the press at Delhi airport. Holding up a copy of the autobiography of the late B.R Ambedkar, who chaired the drafting committee for India’s constitution, he demanded the resignation of India’s education minister.

This was a direct call for accountability after the government had abruptly cancelled India’s medical entrance exam, which had been sat by 2.28 million students, on May 12. The National Testing Agency explained that a paper very like the one sat by the students had been leaked and circulated online.

At least 21 students are subsequently reported to have taken their lives in response to the exam’s cancellation.

Sonam Wangchuk, an educationalist and climate activist, joined the protest and commenced a hunger strike, along with some other students. On July 18, the 20th day of his fast and having lost 10kg, Wangchuk was forcibly removed from the protest site to a hospital. This was met with further outrage.

On July 20, the cockroach protesters took to the streets en masse, with Jantar Mantar, site of the astronomical observatory established in 1724, becoming the focus of activism for educational reform.

The ensuing march to India’s parliament building in New Delhi drew more than 50,000 protestors. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, it was met with tear gas, police batons, pellet guns and excessive force against the young protesters.

The movement had three demands: the resignation of the education minister, compensation for the families of students who had taken their lives over the medical entrance exam’s cancellation, and the dropping of all charges against protesters – along with an apology for the police crackdown.

Pradhan resigned. The government agreed to meet the other two demands, and on July 25 the protest was called off.

The power of satire

The CJP bills itself as “the voice of the lazy and unemployed”. Yet the massive response suggests otherwise.

The movement called out to disenchanted youth – a generation that has grown up amid disruption, economic crisis, pandemic and wars. The satirical tone of the new party’s communication strategy proved an effective way to convey its serious message.

Political satire, which uses memes rather than merely rhetoric, can create what scholars call a “medium of value”. The young people in India have found a new identity through this.

A single reaction to a derogatory remark spurred collective resistance. The movement’s wider manifesto included calls for judicial reform, electoral integrity, increased representation for women, and the break-up of media monopolies.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, reacted quickly, publishing video messages to the young people of India. He established an expert taskforce to examine the issues, and announced fast-track courts. On July 29, India’s parliament passed a Bill establishing stricter penalties for anyone found to be leaking exam papers.

On August 3, the Supreme Court announced that Delhi and other state governments would be allowed to withdraw “first information reports” – complaints against protesters – except in especially serious cases. It also said it would frame a new protocol governing the use of pellet guns.

What’s different about this protest?

The cockroach protest surfaced after more than a year in which young people had already shaken governments on three continents. Since 2022, Gen Z-led protests erupted across Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Morocco, Kenya, Indonesia, Peru, Mexico, the Philippines and beyond.

The triggers were local: economic mismanagement in Sri Lanka, a social media ban in Nepal, an unfair quota system for employment in Bangladesh, chronic water and power cuts in Madagascar, new taxes in Kenya, misallocated public spending in Morocco.

But the message was shared: the need for economic social and cultural rights, freedom from corruption and inequality, and dissent against a governing class that appeared to have stopped listening.

In Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Madagascar, governments fell as a result of the protests.

How does India’s cockroach protest compare? Where in many cases, the Gen Z protesters called for their government to resign, India’s cockroaches did not seek regime change. They peacefully marched for accountability within the system. And their demands were – largely – met through the machinery of Indian democracy.

Calling this simply a Gen Z movement misses the point. Young people and students were joined by their parents, grandparents, and even toddlers and children. Where the global wave was defined by the age of its participants, India’s was defined by an intergenerational solidarity gathered around a single grievance.

The global Gen Z uprising asked who should hold power. The cockroach protesters in India asked something more specific – and arguably harder: whether India’s governing institutions can still be trusted to uphold the constitution. For Indians, this meant something deep — guarding the soul of their country.

The man was found injured after being attacked in an apparent murder bid on Thursday night.

A man has been rushed to hospital following an alleged attempted murder in Glasgow. The alarm was raised around 10.40pm on Tollcross Road, near to its junction with Crail Street, in the east end of the city on Thursday, August 6.

Emergency services, including Police Scotland and Scottish Ambulance Service, raced to the scene after receiving reports of a man being seriously assaulted.

He was taken by ambulance to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where he is being treated for stab injuries. His condition is described as serious but stable.

Footage taken from the scene shows at least three blue-lit police vans and an ambulance parked on the busy road.

An attempted murder investigation has been launched. Police Scotland are asking anyone with any information on the attack – including potential witnesses – or those with dash-cam footage to get in touch. Detective Inspector Graham Clarke said: “Enquiries are ongoing into this attempted murder and we are appealing to the public for any information.

“This is a busy area and we are urging anyone who witnessed this attack, or anyone with information which could assist our enquiries to contact us. “We would also appeal to anyone with dash-cam or personal footage to get in touch in case it holds anything relevant.”

Information can be passed to Police Scotland through 101, quoting incident number 3565 of 6 August. Alternatively, Crimestoppers can be contacted on 0800 555 111, where anonymity can be maintained.

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The Royal Navy has warned of a significant increase in Russian naval activity near UK waters, having spent 21 days in July monitoring Moscow’s vessels.

Naval operations to track Russian ships surged by 25 per cent in July compared to last year, with warships repeatedly traversing the Dover Strait and North Sea.

Offshore patrol vessels HMS Tyne, HMS Mersey and HMS Severn were deployed throughout the month to monitor Russian frigates Neustrashimy and Admiral Grigorovich, which are tasked with escorting so-called “shadow fleet” tankers.

Russia uses its ageing shadow fleet to evade international sanctions on its oil exports and help fund its war in Ukraine.

HMS Tyne was also tasked with monitoring the Neustrashimy as it carried out a live firing exercise outside British and French waters on July 20.

Another ship, the frigate HMS Somerset, has been involved in monitoring Russian activity in the North Atlantic as part of a four-month Nato deployment searching for submarines, alongside helicopters from the Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.

Somerset’s commanding officer, Commander Matt Millyard, said: “This deployment demonstrates exactly what the Royal Navy exists to do, protect the UK and our allies from wherever our interests are threatened.

“I am immensely proud of every single member of the ship’s company for what we have achieved over the past four months.

It is fantastic to bring the ship home after a highly successful deployment and reunite with our families.”

The increase in Russian naval activity follows the seizure of the tanker Smyrtos by Royal Marines in June, the first time British troops have directly boarded a shadow fleet vessel.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the diversion of Russian ships to escort shadow fleet vessels meant Russia was “using up valuable operational capacity to constantly guard cargo”.

Last month, the MoD said in its annual report that Royal Navy vessels had been “activated” 116 times in the year to March 2026, shadowing 61 Russian warships and 28 merchant vessels around the UK’s waters.

This reflected a 30 per cent increase in Russian naval activity over the previous two years, and included operations to deter the spy ship Yantar that was spotted near undersea cables off Scotland in November 2025.

It’s the explosive diarrhoea bug that’s struck down tens of thousands of Americans this summer. Cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection that spreads via contaminated food or water, has hit more than 22,000 people across 45 states.

Linked to an iceberg lettuce farm in Mexico, it swept quickly through the US, killing two and leaving hundreds hospitalised over the past few weeks alone.

And health chiefs now warn the debilitating infection – which causes weeks of violent diarrhoea, abdominal cramps and vomiting – has reached the UK.

At least 67 Britons have fallen ill with cyclosporiasis since May. Officials are urging all travellers to take precautions when visiting or returning from North, Central and South America.

It may sound terrifying but experts say that, armed with the correct information, the parasite, called cyclospora, needn’t be a cause for concern.

‘It’s not something you want to get,’ says Dr Paul Hunter, microbiologist and professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, ‘but there are clear ways to reduce your risk, on holiday or at home.’

What exactly is the cyclospora parasite?

Cyclospora is a single-cell organism, meaning, in layman’s terms, it is microscopically tiny.

It is a parasite that lives and multiplies in the small intestine, burrowing into cells that line the gut wall. The frequent, watery diarrhoea associated with the bug is the body’s attempt to expel them.

Symptoms typically go on for a couple of weeks but can last up to a month, says Dr Lindsey Ann Edwards, senior lecturer in microbiology at King’s College London.

She adds: ‘The main sign is very watery diarrhoea over a prolonged period. While other bugs may clear up after a few days, cyclosporiasis continues.’

Some sufferers have described having to use the toilet up to 20 times a day, while others told of a bubbling, or balloon-like feeling in the stomach.

The parasite can also cause abdominal pain and nausea, but rarely vomiting.

Can I catch it from an infected person?

Cyclosporiasis differs from more common bugs in how it is spread. ‘The parasite can’t be passed on between humans, unlike many other diarrhoea-causing infections,’ says Professor Hunter.

In fact, people become infected with cyclospora only when they consume food or water that contains the parasite.

‘If you were just at dinner with, or even lived with, an infected person, you likely wouldn’t get it,’ says Professor Hunter.

Instead, outbreaks, such as the one in the US, occur when infected faecal matter comes into contact with crops, usually due to contaminated water supplies used to wash or grow produce.

Prof Hunter adds: ‘It’s raw vegetables and fruit – crops you won’t typically cook – that tend to spread cyclospora, as boiling can kill the parasite.

‘Salad leaves in particular are full of nooks and crannies and have a lot of surface area for the parasite to lay eggs on. And you don’t cook them – making them a perfect vehicle for cyclospora.’

Raspberries and blackberries have been behind a number of outbreaks for the same reason as salad leaves now are – they’re hard to clean well and full of little troughs and pits

Is it only salad I need to be worried about?

The US outbreak has been linked to Taylor’s Farm, a farm in Mexico that supplies bags of shredded lettuce to fast-food giant Taco Bell as well as grocery stores.

But previous outbreaks have been caused by a range of other fresh vegetables and fruit, including, most commonly, raspberries. ‘Anything that you eat without peeling or cooking could carry the parasite,’ says Professor Hunter.

Raspberries and blackberries have been behind a number of outbreaks for the same reason as salad leaves now are – they’re hard to clean well and full of little troughs and pits.

‘Vegetables with a waxy skin, like cucumbers, or that you typically peel – like oranges or carrots – are less likely to cause infections.’

How come it is now spreading to the UK?

Cyclospora is most prevalent in tropical regions such as South and Central America, Southeast Asia or the Middle East, as the parasite’s eggs can usually only survive in warm, humid conditions.

These regions typically also have poorer water treatment and sanitation infrastructure, making crop contamination more likely.

But while rare, there have been cyclospora outbreaks in the UK and Europe. Imported produce can bring in the infection, although most commonly people pick it up abroad, says Dr Edwards.

‘The parasite tends to incubate for around ten days, so people can go on a week-long holiday but then develop symptoms two or three days after getting back.

‘In the current outbreak, it seems most people have picked it up travelling to Mexico and the US.’

Will washing fruit and veg get rid of it?

‘It’s always a good idea to wash fresh fruit and vegetables,’ says Professor Hunter. ‘But with cyclospora, washing produce – while removing maybe 80 per cent of the parasites – won’t stop you getting sick, as the eggs, once laid, are difficult to dislodge.

‘Cooking is really the only way to kill off the bug.

‘I’ve always cautioned against eating uncooked vegetables – especially salads – when abroad.’

People with healthy immune systems can also usually get over the infection without treatment, but their symptoms can last up to a month and may relapse

What’s the best way to treat an infection?

Once diagnosed via a stool sample, cyclosporiasis infections can be easily treated with antibiotics.

Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, commonly sold as Bactrim, Septra or Cotrim, is taken twice daily for seven to ten days.

People with healthy immune systems can also usually get over the infection without treatment, but their symptoms can last up to a month and may relapse.

Hydration is key, says Dr Edwards, because of how much fluid is expelled. Sufferers should drink a lot of water, broths and take electrolytes and antibiotics.

Should I be worried about getting it?

Not unless you are planning an imminent trip to the US or Mexico.

If you are, at mealtimes or in restaurants, stick to cooked vegetables or ones that are peeled.

Those with a weakened immune system, as well as the elderly and children, should also be careful, adds Dr Edwards.

‘It’s not usually deadly – and given the number of infections in the US, two deaths makes sense statistically,’ she says.

‘But if you have underlying health conditions, it can make it much more difficult for your body to get rid of the parasite. Constant diarrhoea can cause severe dehydration, which can be deadly.’

Anyone returning from abroad who develops symptoms should seek help from their GP.

Flights have resumed at Bristol Airport after a chaotic Friday night and Saturday morning which saw passengers stranded and diverted as operations grounded to a halt.

The airport suspended all flights on Friday evening due to a runway defect. All flights were suspended until 8am on Saturday, sparking major disruption for passengers.

The airport said early on Saturday morning: “Due to a defect on the runway, we have temporarily suspended operations as a precaution, in order to inspect and repair the section affected.

“We apologise for any inconvenience. Safety is always our number one priority.”

In an updated statement issued at 8am on Saturday, the airport said: We’re very sorry to customers affected and any impact this has had to their summer holiday. We continue to work closely with all airlines affected.

“The safety of passengers and staff is of paramount importance, which is why we made the decision to temporarily suspend flights as a precaution and to allow for the runway repair to be carried out.”

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He was a pop superstar adored by millions, a devoted son and father, a man who had amassed a fortune of £22million and appeared to have the world at his feet.

Yet in the final days of his life, former One Direction singer Liam Payne was in the grip of a devastating spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, paying sex workers to keep him company in a soulless hotel room while bingeing on crack cocaine and whisky.

While much has been written about Liam’s death, the full heartbreaking facts have not been revealed – until now.

Today, The Mail on Sunday can disclose details of the singer’s death from an extraordinary trove of 3,000 documents, photographs, sworn statements and official reports gathered by investigators after he died in Buenos Aires on October 16, 2024.

One haunting CCTV image shows him hollow-eyed and gaunt, stumbling through the corridors of the CasaSur Hotel just one hour before he plunged from the balcony of Room 310.

The report also lays bare his family’s despair, with a sworn statement from Liam’s grief-stricken father Geoff telling prosecutors his son ‘went away’ when he was in the grip of his demons saying: ‘He was not in control with what he did. He was not Liam.’

While some information is too graphic and personal to be shared, the cache of evidence paints the clearest – and most profoundly painful – portrait yet of a man completely out of touch with reality in the hours before his death.

Prostitutes Aldana Serrano and Lucila Goitea in the hotel lobby. The file is filled with new images showing the escorts imploring hotel staff to help them, after they argued with Liam over their payment

The MoS can reveal the documents show Liam:

•  Begged one prostitute to bring him ‘five grams’ of cocaine ‘so I can make crack’.

• Was addicted to ‘sexting’ and sent a prostitute a graphic naked photo on the morning of his death.

• Told his best friend he was ‘afraid’ he might have accidentally sent a nude photo to a minor.

• Became so volatile hotel staff warned each other to be careful how they handled him to ‘stop him from continuing to be aggressive’. One waitress was told to take security with her when she took five bottles of whisky to his room.

• Racked up a $550 booze bill on his last day – despite a psychiatrist’s letter warning him not to mix alcohol with the prescription drugs he was taking.

• Swung around a pole in the street at 3am as he waited for drugs to be delivered – leading investigators to conclude he may have had the upper body strength to believe he could safely climb down from his hotel room balcony (more on which later).

To fully understand how quickly Liam turned from sober friend and father – he ‘adored’ his nine-year-old son Bear (with singer Cheryl Cole) – into a man one witness described as ‘possessed’, you have to start at the beginning of the case file.

Liam was in Argentina to renew his US visa and to watch his former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan in concert.

He spent two weeks on holiday with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy, but when she left him alone to return to their home in Wellington, Florida, Liam spiralled. He was asked to leave one hotel for ‘acting belligerent’ and checked into the CasaSur on the afternoon of October 14.

His father Geoff later told prosecutors that Liam could keep his addictions under control as long as he always had someone with him to prevent him going off the rails.

Geoff said his son became ‘another person’ on drugs. His family had last seen him on August 29 when the singer was filming a Netflix show in Manchester and he appeared ‘well, stable, clean of any drugs or alcohol’.

That meant that, when police initially labelled his death as a ‘possible suicide’, Geoff was insistent this could not be the case.

‘I have no doubt that Liam wanted to live,’ he said. ‘It doesn’t cross my mind that it was possible that he wanted to hurt himself.’

Yet staff at the CasaSur became aware that something was badly wrong within hours of Liam checking in that day.

Liam chatting with the two prostitutes in the hotel. By 7am on October 16, the day he died, Liam had messaged his best friend Roger Nores saying: ‘Buddy, I think I’m going to f*** a prostitute’

Liam is seen swinging around a pole in the street at 3am as he waited for drugs to be delivered – leading investigators to conclude he may have had the upper-body strength to believe he could safely climb down from his hotel room balcony

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Liam is seen with the two call girls in the hallway of the hotel as he takes them to his room

The hotel room where Payne had been staying in Buenos Aires. The TV was left with a broken screen

Liam’s black Yankees cap was found near his body. He’d smashed through a patio umbrella and died instantly from massive internal injuries

He started calling the front desk asking for drugs and was ordering bottle after bottle of Johnnie Walker Black label whisky from room service.

The files contain messages from a ‘Reception’ group WhatsApp chat on October 14, where hotel manager Gilda Martin wrote: ‘This person is going to be very intense throughout his stay.

‘It’s important that we tell him “no”, always kindly and with excuses. This is to stop him from continuing to be aggressive. Or at least not so much.’

Reception replied: ‘Will do whatever we can as long as he doesn’t get violent.’

Reception messaged a room service waitress called Adri, requesting that she deliver five bottles of whisky to Room 310, but warned: ‘Take security with you.’

Liam was also begging staff for drugs. Hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra and waiter Braian Paiz have been charged with bringing cocaine to him during his two-day bender. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges and are negotiating plea deals with prosecutors to avoid jail.

By 7am on October 16, the day he died, Liam messaged his best friend Roger Nores saying: ‘Buddy, I think I’m going to f*** a prostitute.’

Roger admitted he knew his friend had addiction issues with drugs and alcohol – and sexting.

In his later statement to police, Roger referred to allegations made by an ex-girlfriend of Liam’s, Maya Henry, who released a book a month before Liam’s death accusing the singer of sending sexually explicit texts to women over the internet, some of whom, Maya alleged, were under-age. Roger said: ‘I didn’t ask him many questions. He did tell me that he was afraid to think that he might have sent a nude photograph to a minor without realising it, but he did not accept any kind of responsibility.

‘In fact, the only thing he did was direct his anger towards his [ex]-girlfriend who did not support him very much.

‘I know that he was addicted to sexting. I never saw him doing it but he had told me about it. His major problem was that, as well as his addiction to drugs and alcohol.’

At 10.30am, the case files show Liam messaged prostitute Aldana Serrano on WhatsApp after finding her profile on an Argentine escort site. Liam showed up on her phone as ‘LP’.

LP said: ‘We should get cocaine’, and sent a graphic nude picture of himself.

She replied: ‘When it arrives.’ Aldana later told investigators her English was poor and she meant to say, ‘When I arrive’.

LP then told her: ‘Can you get? We need 5 grams so I can make crack.’

Aldana offered to bring her friend Lucila Goitea and Liam said he would pay the girls $5,000 to spend the day with him.

This was followed by another picture of himself lying in his hotel bed. The two women were shocked when they eventually arrived at Liam’s room.

While pictures have previously emerged of a smashed TV set, Room 310 was ‘carnage’.

Packets of baking soda found in the hotel room suggest he melted the cocaine down into rocks which he smoked

A bottle of Johnnie Walker Double Black whisky was also found in his room

Packets of pills were lined up along the back of the sofa. They included Klonopin (a powerful prescription sedative), the sleep aid melatonin and an over-the-counter ‘energising’ drug used to increase sexual performance 

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Liam with prostitute Aldana Serrano in the lobby of the hotel. Liam had said he would pay the call girls $5,000 to spend the day with him

A hotel worker delivers scotch and champagne to Liam’s room

Sheets were pulled off the bed, there were streaks of blood on the bathroom sink, and drug paraphernalia littered the room, including burned Coca-Cola can lids, a blackened spoon and half-burned candles. Police and prosecutors believe Liam heated the powdered cocaine into a liquid ‘crack’ form of the drug which he snorted or injected.

Packets of baking soda suggest he also melted the cocaine down into rocks which he smoked.

There were ‘baggies’ of white powder and a crumpled $100 bill.

Packets of pills were lined up along the back of the sofa. They included Klonopin (a powerful prescription sedative), the sleep aid melatonin and an over-the-counter ‘energising’ drug used to increase sexual performance.

When the escorts arrived, Liam ordered more whisky and champagne, and room service receipts show he spent $550 on booze.

The women drank champagne and both had sex with him.

Then things turned sour.

They demanded their $5,000 payment in cash but he did not have enough cash to pay them and offered to wire transfer the money from his bank.

A furious row ensued. Liam offered his gold Rolex as payment and when they refused he smashed it against the wall.

The file is filled with new images showing the escorts in the hotel lobby, arguing with Liam and then imploring hotel staff to help them.

CCTV footage shows Liam pacing back and forth. He goes up and down to his room multiple times to take more drugs.

The women left around 3.30pm and Liam’s friend Roger arrived at 4pm, the footage shows.

The men talked, but Roger said his friend did not seem impaired and so he left again. Forty minutes later, Liam was dead.

Roger was originally charged with ‘abandoning’ Liam, but all charges were dropped and he was completely exonerated.

Certainly, Liam became increasingly erratic after his friend left.

At one point he lay on a sofa in the lobby and smashed his computer on the ground screaming ‘F*** this s***!’

He told a fellow guest: ‘I was in a boy band that’s why I’m so f*****d up.’ He then began convulsing in the lobby. A series of pictures show him passed out, and being carried back to his room by hotel staff shortly before 5pm.

Then, at 5.07pm, staff heard a loud ‘bang’.

Liam’s crumpled body was on the ground in the hotel courtyard. He’d smashed through a patio umbrella and died instantly from massive internal injuries, his baseball cap was a few feet away.

Liam in the lobby on the day of his death. The police files contain messages from a ‘Reception’ group WhatsApp chat on October 14, where hotel manager Gilda Martin wrote: ‘This person is going to be very intense throughout his stay’

Liam in the hallway of the hotel. CCTV footage shows him pacing back and forth. He goes up and down to his room multiple times to take more drugs

Liam’s crossbody bag was found at the scene of his death, after he plunged from the balcony

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Receipts from the hotel show him purchasing vast quantities of expensive alcohol

Since his death, fans have come up with wild conspiracy theories. Some have suggested there was someone else in Room 310 with the star. But the case file says no evidence was ever found that anyone entered the room after he was carried back there.

And the file suggests an intriguing new theory about his death.

One of the new images shows Liam, dressed in a green top and grey jeans, swinging around a pole outside the hotel at 3.21am in the early hours of the morning before his death.

He was waiting for Ezequiel Pereyra to allegedly deliver drugs.

A source close to the investigation last week said police consider the pole picture ‘highly significant’ because it showed Liam’s upper body strength. This suggests that, rather than being suicidal, he may have been trying to climb out of his hotel room, confident he could hold his weight, before he lost his grip and died.

Pictures taken at the scene show distinctive palm prints on the glass around the balcony, which fingerprint analysis confirmed were Liam’s. The marks show his fingers apparently slid on the glass. It is also known that, before he fell, Liam threw a leather duffel bag from his third-floor balcony onto the balcony of the second-floor room below his.

During his One Direction days, the singer was known to have climbed out of hotel windows to ‘escape’ fans.

The source said: ‘Liam was a fit young man. Who you see the image of him swinging around the pole, with his body at a 90-degree angle to the ground, you see how strong he is.

‘His bodyguard told us he escaped out of hotel windows before. The forensic examination of the palm prints show Liam may have climbed over the railing and attempted to use his strength to drop onto the second-floor balcony.

‘Maybe he thought he could swing down to the second floor and then safely to the ground? The trouble is he was so impaired by drugs and alcohol his fingers slipped on the glass and he fell.

‘The pole picture is huge. Liam threw a bag over the balcony and then attempted to get down.

‘People have been asking for two years what happened? This is what we believe happened.’

The hotel room is seen covered in evidence markers following Liam’s death. Drug paraphernalia littered the room, including burned Coca-Cola can lids, a blackened spoon and half-burned candles

There were ‘baggies’ of white powder found in Liam’s hotel room, too

Waiter Braian Paiz seen with Liam in the lobby of the hotel. He and hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra have been charged with bringing cocaine to Liam during the singer’s two-day bender

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In his statement, Liam’s dad Geoff poignantly said his son was an artist who liked to sketch, and would always carry a set of pencils around with him

Shocking pictures in the file show Liam’s crumpled body in the courtyard. They reveal he was carrying a ‘man bag’ across his body that contained his passport, money, a bottle of Johnnie Walker, his phone and a set of colouring pencils. In his statement, Liam’s dad Geoff poignantly said his son was an artist who liked to sketch, and would always carry a set of pencils around with him.

Toxicology reports showed Liam had high levels of cocaine in his blood and urine and traces of the drug in his nose and stomach.

His alcohol level was more than four times the drink-drive limit. There were prescription sedatives and anti-depressants in his blood.

A letter from his US psychiatrist, Dr Rachel Rohaidy, addressed to Liam, had warned him about mixing prescription drugs with alcohol.

She said he needed ‘a higher level of care’ than she could offer.

Dr Rohaidy wrote: ‘I will no longer be able to render psychiatric care to you. You should avoid heavy drinking while on medication.

‘You must take your medications exactly as prescribed. This means taking the medication orally, as instructed, and not by any other means, such as snorting.’

The investigation into Liam’s death continues in Argentina but investigators say they believe it will be wrapped up ‘soon’ once the plea deals are arranged with the two men charged with allegedly supplying him with cocaine.

One mystery remains: what happened to the gold Rolex that Liam is said to have smashed in a temper?

Police had search warrants for the prostitutes’ houses but came up empty-handed.

A source last week told the MoS police are working on the theory that someone who went into his room after his death may have removed it.

For now, the 3,000-page enquiry into Liam’s death remains the closest we are likely to come to discovering exactly what happened on the fateful day that Liam Payne’s demons overcame him – and which led to a global superstar dying alone, thousands of miles from home.

Additional reporting by Eliana Silver