The boy failed to attend school and his parents couldn’t be reached, prompting police in Taiwan to issue a missing-person alert before he was found safe at sea

A frightened youngster was discovered adrift at sea on a massive polystyrene slab a day after he failed to appear at school.

The 11 year old pupil was absent from lessons on Tuesday morning, and alarmed by his unusual non-attendance, his teacher tried reaching his parents but got no response, reports the Mirror.

The lad, identified only by his family name Tsou, had previously been flagged by social services as belonging to a vulnerable household, triggering a welfare visit to the family residence. Despite numerous knocks at the door, there was no answer, leading officers to issue a missing-person bulletin.

That same afternoon, while the hunt continued, a fisherman noticed a child bobbing in the water at the mouth of the Zhonggang River off Zhunan Township, Taiwan, perched on a chunk of polystyrene.

He promptly alerted authorities and coastguard personnel raced to the location and succeeded in bringing the youngster, subsequently confirmed as Tsou, safely ashore in an urgent rescue mission.

Following the rescue, they got in touch with his father, who is employed in Hsinchu, and made arrangements for him to pick up his son.

Preliminary enquiries indicate Tsou may have journeyed unaccompanied from nearby Houlong Township to the coastal spot to play.

The precise details and his reasoning are still being examined. The Miaoli County Government’s Education Department has now stepped in and is offering counselling and assistance for both the youngster and his parents. Two years ago, a youngster was discovered trapped inside a large inflatable bubble drifting at sea by a shocked sailor who was enjoying a family boat trip.

Rafael Graça do Prado, then 32, was out on the water with his children when he spotted the unusual object floating off Lazaro Beach in Ubatuba, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 24.

Video footage captures the see-through bubble bobbing in the waves with the young lad, approximately eight years old, trapped inside.

It’s understood the child had been playing with his parents on the shore inside the bubble, which was tethered by a rope to prevent it from drifting away. However, the rope had broken and the youngster floated out to sea before being fortunately spotted by Rafael.

His immediate worry was whether sufficient oxygen remained inside the ball.

“I was worried about whether he was able to breathe or not because the balls can be dangerous,” he said. “There is a certain amount of time that you can breathe inside it. I calmed him down, and that was when my daughter started filming.”

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Cutting up a watermelon can be a messy and frustrating job, but this simple watermelon cutting hack will make the process a lot easier as it claims to be ‘mess-free’

Is there anything more delicious and satisfying on a scorching summer’s day than a slice of wonderfully juicy watermelon? Not only is it packed with water to keep you hydrated in warm weather, it also contains vital vitamins and powerful antioxidants that contribute to heart health, muscle recovery, and general wellbeing.

While most supermarkets offer the option of purchasing the fruit pre-sliced into chunks or wedges, it’s frequently more economical to buy a whole watermelon and slice it yourself at home. But this can quickly become messy, as the large fruit can prove awkward and challenging to cut into, particularly if you’ve purchased one of the larger varieties.

Fortunately, the internet is brimming with ingenious cooking and food hacks that make everyday tasks, such as cutting up a melon, considerably easier than you might initially expect.

One TikTok user known as Timbits is amongst those who has shared his life hack, leaving nearly a million viewers astonished by demonstrating his clever and mess-free approach to cutting up a watermelon.

“You’ve been cutting watermelon wrong your whole life and your ancestors are disappointed. This hack will change your life – no more messy slices, just clean grids every time,” the video’s caption stated, as a man was shown demonstrating the straightforward cutting technique.

How to cut a watermelon without mess

Having already cut the watermelon in two, the person preparing the fruit carefully sliced the pink flesh into evenly distributed portions, creating rows spaced a few centimetres apart. They then rotated the watermelon to add further cuts, transforming the rows into neat, square pieces of fruit.

To extract the chunks from the rind, the man reached for a large metal spoon, which he used to scoop out the individual pieces of watermelon, then transfer them to a bowl. He continued scooping out the remaining fruit, which resulted in perfectly bite-sized portions.

The straightforward hack quickly captured people’s attention, with over 997,700 viewers watching the clip, and many heading to the comments section to share their reactions.

“The things I learn on this app!!!!” wrote one viewer, while another commented: “You have changed my life forever.”

A third person chimed in: “I use a ice cream scoop and scoop it out lol.”

However, one sceptic remarked: “But if you dont cut deep enough, especially in the middle it’ll just break off and kind of defeats the purpose. You still gotta spoon it off the rind. Idk why ppl dont just spoon it out to begin with. Less mess. More water melon.”

Yet another user suggested: “Cut it a second time down the middle and slice it the same way on each side then cut along the grind. it’ll get the most fruit!”.

Child killer Kyle Bevan was stabbed 25 times during an attack by convicted killers Mark Fellows, Lee Newell and David Taylor at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire

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Riot police appeared on the screen wearing helmets, stab vests and arm protection. The four officers were surrounding a man wearing a grey, prison issue jumper and jogging bottoms.

Both hands were cuffed behind his back. Slowly and methodically they removed the cuffs off one hand, and then the other. He was appearing at Leeds Crown Court for his trial on video link from HMP Full Sutton near York, one of the country’s high secure jails.

On first glance the man, bald, middle aged and bespectacled, did not appear to justify the level of security he was being afforded. It was an extraordinary scene, which played out in court in the absence of a jury, before they were sworn in to determine his case. Stay in the know by making sure you’re receiving our daily newsletter

But it was an indication of who the court was dealing with. David Taylor, although perhaps not currently a well-known name within the wider public, is surely one of the country’s most dangerous prisoners.

Because by this time, he had already killed one prisoner in another high security jail, and attempted to murder a police officer in another category A prison, after the Greater Manchester Police cop had come to question him about another murder he had committed before he was remanded in prison to await his day in court. He had also boasted about being able to ‘make a shiv [an improvised weapon] out of all sorts’.

In Leeds, he was standing trial alongside two of the country’s most high profile prisoners – Mark ‘The Iceman’ Fellows and Lee Newell. Both were already serving whole life orders. With Taylor’s help, they murdered child killer Kyle Bevan in HMP Wakefield, which has earned the nickname ‘Monster Mansion’ due to its notorious inhabitants over the years including Harold Shipman.

The trio bonded over their hatred for child killers and sex offenders. We may never know whether the alliance was created to enforce their own warped moral code, or whether it was purely out of self-interest and a desire to be moved away from the jail and a prison regime which they hated.

Whatever the reason, it had murderous consequences. And it left serious questions about how a prisoner could be murdered and lay dead and discovered for more than 12 hours, and the whole ‘very strange’ policy of mixing vulnerable and main prisoners.

Mark Fellows and Lee Newell both had little to lose by the time they joined forces with David Taylor in HMP Wakefield. CCTV in the days leading up to the murder, on November 4 last year, showed them associating with each other at various times.

Fellows was a high profile, category A prisoner serving a whole life order for the murders of gangland figures Paul Massey and John Kinsella. Massey was hit by a hail of bullets as he emerged from his BMW on the drive of his home in Clifton, Salford, on July, 26, 2015.

It would be the highest profile casualty of a gang war which rocked the city. His assassin was dressed head to toe in combat gear, having waited for the perfect moment to strike. Fellows was generally thought to be a gangland ‘nobody’ before he slaughtered Mr Big.

But, nicknamed ‘The Iceman’ by his friends, Fellows was capable of cold-blooded murder. Fitted with a colostomy bag in his youth, he was fastidious about cleanliness, his health – and his murderous work.

A non-smoking, long distance runner, Fellows plotted murders with clinical efficiency – using GPS technology and a night-vision hunting scope to track down his targets. He remained a free man for three years after killing Massey, allowing him to commit his second gangland murder.

John Kinsella and his pregnant partner Wendy Owen were walking their six large American Bulldogs through woodland in Merseyside on the morning of May 5, 2018.

Suddenly, Fellows, masked, in a hi-vis jacket and on a mountain bike, appeared and began opening fire with a revolver. Kinsella was an ally of Massey, and carried ‘Mr Big’s’ coffin at his funeral.

Fellows spent the afternoon after the murder with his mother at the Trafford Centre, eating at Zizzi restaurant, and buying a trendy pair of £165 Mallet trainers from Tessuti. Later, he socialised with pals in the pub and enjoyed a meal at KFC. He flew out to Amsterdam on holiday a few days later.

With a second killing on their hands, police moved quickly. There were similarities in the M.O. Officers already suspected Paul Massey’s killer had fled on a bike, and Mark Fellows was already in the frame. GMP went to colleagues in Merseyside and told them what they knew.

Just a few minutes after Fellows’ return flight touched down at Manchester Airport on May 30, officers boarded the easyJet aircraft and arrested him on suspicion of both murders. A raid of Fellows’ flat turned up a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch.

Data on the watch would reveal Fellows had conducted a reconnaissance mission in the days before Massey’s murder in vivid detail. Police were not only able to trace his route, but could even tell when he had been running, cycling or pushing his bike.

At the time of the Kinsella murder, Fellows was working as a sous chef preparing sauces at ready meal firm Greencore in Warrington. He worked nights, starting his shift at 5.30pm.

But charged with the murders of Massey and Kinsella, after being convicted with the help of the GPS watch in the first ever prosecution which had used such data, Fellows will call high security prisons home for the rest of his life.

Lee Newell also had a shocking criminal past. He was handed a whole life order in 2013 for murdering child killer Subhan Anwar in HMP Long Lartin. Anwar, from Huddersfield, was serving a life sentence for the murder of his partner’s two-year-old daughter.

At the time of the killing in the Worcestershire jail, Newell had already been serving a life sentence for strangling his neighbour, 56-year-old Mary Neal, to death in Norwich in 1988.

Newell had lost the sight in his right eye after being attacked by double killer Gary Vinter at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes in November 2014.

A more recent inmate at Wakefield, David Taylor’s wrap sheet was no less shocking.

Even before being found guilty of murdering Bevan, Taylor had admitted murdering a missing woman and been found guilty of attempting to murder a police officer in prison. Taylor pleaded guilty to murdering Alisha Apostoloff-Boyarin from Ashton, who was reported missing by her family in February 2022. Her body has never been found.

Taylor then tried to murder a GMP police officer who had attended HMP Frankland in Durham, where Taylor was being held, to interview him about Alisha’s disappearance. Taylor had claimed to have information about her whereabouts.

But during an interview, Taylor produced an improvised weapon and stabbed Detective Constable Darren Bratby to the chest, an attack captured on shocking CCTV footage from the jail.

A few days later he admitted in a chat with a prison governor: “So it was a planned attack.

“I’m going to tell you straight. I went to f****** kill him, there’s no two ways about it. I went to f****** kill him.”

Taylor appeared to be furious about being accused of murdering Alisha. He was also said to be angered about being subject to an IPP sentence, imprisonment for public protection, after being convicted of aggravated burglary and possessing an offensive weapon in 2007.

Taylor had accused a man in his 30s of being a ‘sexual predator’ and behaving inappropriately with his teenage daughter. Taylor forced his way into a property armed with a baton, hitting his victim to the back.

“I didn’t know what an IPP was,” he told his attempted murder trial. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 899 days, about two-and-a-half years. It meant 99 years. With an IPP you have to lower your risk, so it’s low enough for the judge to release you.”

While in prison he studied humanist psychology and counselling, and gained a foundation degree from the Open University. Taylor told the court: “I did everything I needed to do, which is what you have to do to progress. I went through the system completely, from A, to B, to C, to D.”

He said he was released on licence in 2013. Taylor described himself as an ‘old fashioned villain’, with convictions dating back to 1977 when he was a teenager. Describing a conviction for wounding, Taylor, originally from Glossop, said: “It was an after school brawl. I’ve always been a bit of a scrapper.”

He told how in his later life he came to live in Ashton-under-Lyne, Skegness, and then Durham in 2019. Taylor still had friends in Manchester, including one man named Norman who has since died. He said he knew Alisha through Norman. “She was Norman’s son’s girlfriend,” Taylor told the court.

“She phoned me up asking me for help. I went down, back to Ashton-under-Lyne. She stayed with me with her boyfriend in County Durham.” Asked when was the last time he’d seen her, Taylor said “Probably 2021 or 22?”

“She just got on with her life as far as I was concerned, that was it.” He told how he was spoken to by police as a person of interest, and then a suspect. “I told them everything I could to help them with the case,” he said.

Addressing the attack on DC Bratby, Taylor said the weapon came from the ‘side of the chair’ in the interview room. He told how he ‘retrieved it’ during a visit with his solicitor. Taylor said: “I knew exactly where they are stashed. They are everywhere.”

Asked why he attacked the police officer, Taylor said: “Because I’m angry, I’m enraged with what’s going on in my life.” When he was asked what had been going through his head at the time, Taylor responded: “I just don’t know. I just snapped. I lost it, I lost my mind, I lost my nerve. I completely lost it.

“All I think is I’m being accused of something I haven’t done. It all came pouring out on that particular visit.” It was November last year when the unholy alliance began to form. CCTV showed the trio associating with each other. What they were discussing remains unclear.

But footage showed them follow Kyle Bevan into his cell at about 5.30pm on November 4. Bevan was in the jail serving a life sentence for the murder of his partner’s daughter, two-year-old Lola James, at her home in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales. Bevan had launched a frenzied and brutal attack on the defenceless tot, who suffered injuries usually found in car crash victims.

He had only been in a relationship with her mum, Sinead James, a few months after adding her on Facebook before moving in with her in early 2020 as the country went into lockdown. Drug user Bevan claimed he was innocent but refused to give evidence during his trial at Swansea Crown Court.

James was sentenced to six years after being found guilty of causing or allowing her daughter’s death. Serving a minimum term of 28 years, Bevan was said to have kept himself to himself in Wakefield and was ‘very reserved’, often remaining in his cell.

Wakefield prison was something of an outlier within the UK’s jails, in that lags termed as ‘vulnerable prisoners’, including sex offenders and those who have committed crimes against children, were able to mix with the other ‘main’ prisoners. A prison officer from Strangeways called to give evidence at the Leeds Crown Court trial described the arrangement as ‘very strange’.

Only weeks before Bevan was killed, former rock star and Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins was allegedly murdered in the prison on October 11. Two weeks later, on October 25, prisoner David Minto, was ‘severely attacked’ in the prison by another inmate. The jail was on ‘high alert’.

It is unclear exactly how Bevan came to his death. Cells within the prison do not have CCTV cameras. But he was stabbed 25 times, and his body was left to look as though he was asleep.

Prison officers checked on him through the window of his cell during the evening, but they did not spot any cause for concern. It was only the following morning when a screw tried to wake Bevan up, that his death was discovered.

No murder weapon was ever discovered but prosecutors claimed he must have been stabbed to death using improvised weapons. In the aftermath of the killing there was ‘something of a satisfied, job done mood’ amongst the perpetrators, prosecutors said. When Fellows’ cell was searched, he was all packed up and appeared ready to leave.

The jail was placed into lockdown and in the days and weeks that followed, the trio were moved out to other prisons. On his transfer out of the prison, Taylor was heard to shout by a nurse in the vicinity of Newell ‘nice working with you and the Iceman’.

Then came the trial at Leeds Crown Court, which began earlier this month. The judge told how it was an ‘enormous enterprise’ to bring all three defendants to court, given the ‘serious security concerns in this case’.

Prosecutors in their opening speech claimed that Taylor also referred to Fellows as the ‘Wakefield Dexter’. The TV show featured the character Dexter Morgan, who lived a ‘double life’ as a blood spatter analyst who worked for the police, but was also a ‘vigilante serial killer who targets criminals’.

Following inspection reports by the Prison Inspectorate there has been a ‘reconfiguration’ of the prison population at Wakefield. A report published earlier this month by the Inspectorate said: “There had been several serious incidents at HMP Wakefield since our inspection, including the alleged murder of two prisoners.

“Leaders had responded to these incidents by introducing a coordinated set of measures aimed at improving safety. Leaders had reconfigured the population following a review of common themes from these incidents, including a self‑inflicted death.

“The population had previously been integrated, with prisoners convicted of sexual offences accommodated alongside those convicted of other serious offences. As a result of the reconfiguration, a considerable number of prisoners had moved out of the prison to be replaced by others considered more suitable. Nearly all prisoners at Wakefield were now deemed vulnerable due to their offence or circumstances.”

Taylor could soon join Fellows and Newell among the ranks of criminals to be given a rare whole life order. The case also poses questions to law makers of what can be done to prevent criminals serving whole life orders, with seemingly little to lose, simply doing as they please, with little threat of further consequences.

Fellows, Taylor and Newell will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Friday (June 19).

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A judge said it was clear there had been a ‘loss of control and temper’ in the context of a neighbour dispute

A dispute over parking on a residential street ended in violence with a man punched unconscious and a woman beaten with her own crutch as she lay defenceless on the ground, a court has heard. Former sailor Richard David attacked two of his neighbours after losing his temper because they would not move their car.

Swansea Crown Court heard the 54-year-old “believes he has the right” to park outside his house or very near to it, and that he has “greater rights” in parking because he has lived on the street longer than other people.

The court heard the veteran – who has a conviction from a court martial for assault from his time in the Royal Navy – does not accept his guilt. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here

Tom Scapens, prosecuting, told the court that the background to the incident was a dispute about parking on the street where the complainants – Mark Elliot and Nicola Fox – and the defendant lived.

He said there were no parking restrictions in place on the road but the defendant “believes he has the right” to park outside his property or very near to it. The court heard David had been “verbally abusive” about the issue on previous occasions.

The prosecutor said that at around 9.30pm on August 19 last year the defendant knocked on the complainants’ door and asked them to move their car – Mr Elliot told the caller that as he had been to the pub earlier that evening and had a few drinks he could not drive the car. The defendant was told the car would be moved the following morning.

The court heard that an altercation developed on the street with the defendant – a former Royal Navy sailor – essentially arguing that because he had lived on the street longer than Mr Elliott and Miss Fox “he had some sort of greater right” to park there.

David repeated that he wanted the couple’s car moved and began to make comments about them, their family, and their dog.

The court heard that at this point Miss Fox – who was on crutches following a major operation to her leg – came outside to see what the raised voices were about.

The prosecutor said as the couple turned to go back inside their house the defendant punched Mr Elliot to the face causing blood to spurt from his mouth and causing him to fall unconscious to the floor. Fearing she was also about to be attacked, Miss Fox waved a crutch at the defendant who responded by grabbing the mobility aid causing his second victim to go to the floor.

The prosecutor said David then began beating the unconscious Mr Elliot with the crutch as he lay defenceless on the ground, striking the stricken man “multiple times”. The defendant then hit Miss Fox with her own crutch. The court heard that such was the force being used by the defendant that the crutch ended up “deformed”.

Neighbours on the Cwmavon street rushed outside to help the couple, the defendant returned to his own property, and the police were called.

The prosecutor said that when Mr Elliot regained consciousness he went to David’s door and began “barging” it, and he said it would be fair to say that there was an “ongoing scene” in the street.

Police arrived at around 10pm and arrested the defendant. In his subsequent interview he claimed Mr Elliot had been “abusive and intoxicated” and had, in fact, fallen over.

The court heard that Mr Elliot suffered a cut to his inner lip and bruising to his face and back. Miss Fox suffered “extensive bruising” to her chest.

In an impact statement read to the court by the prosecution barrister, Mr Elliot said he had been hit with a “sucker punch” from behind in an unprovoked assault which had knocked him out. He said the defendant had then assaulted his partner but he had been unable to protect her, a fact which was humiliating and which had “taken something from me which I am not sure I will get back”. He said the assault had changed “every part of my life”, and said it has had long term emotional and psychological impacts.

In her statement Miss Fox said she had been defenceless on the floor and unable to escape as David struck her with the crutch, and she said the experience had left her “a nervous wreck” and “emotionally shattered”, and suffering with nightmares.

Richard David, now of Gerbera Way, Cullompton, Devon, had previously been convicted at trial at magistrates court of two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has two previous convictions for two offences – a driving with excess alcohol, and a common assault which was dealt with by a Naval court martial and for which the defendant received a sentence of 42 days detention.

Andrew Evans, for David, said the defendant accepts there had been a “confrontation” on the day in question but does not accept the prosecution case, though he said his client understands he is going to sentenced in accordance with the finding of the district judge at trial.

The advocate said David served in the Royal Navy from 1997 to 2024 before finding work as a service engineer and said he lives in south west England with his partner. He invited the court to find that the circumstances of the offending were unlikely to arise again, and he invited the court to pass a sentence which was not one of immediate custody.

Judge Catherine Richards said it was clear there had been a “loss of control and temper” in the context of a neighbour dispute. She said the contents of the pre-sentence report taken with the sentencing guidelines meant she was satisfied that the defendant could be managed in the community.

David was sentenced to 30 months in prison suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and to pay each of his victims £1,500 in compensation. The judge said the compensation orders were not intended to reflect the full impact of the offending and said it was open to the complainants to pursue compensation though other means.

The defendant was made subject to restraining orders banning him from contacting his victims for five years.

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Vice President JD Vance is the new face of Donald Trump’s Iran deal, as the president returns from his attendance at the G7 summit and remains wary of the intense blowback awaiting him on Capitol Hill.

The vice president took the White House briefing room stand Thursday to discuss the terms of the administration’s 60-day ceasefire extension with Iran, which sets the stage for sanctions relief and immediately triggers processes to allow Iranian oil to hit the global market in what would represent a major economic boon for Tehran and a lifeline for its struggling autocratic government. There is also a $300 billion economic development fund the U.S. hopes to develop with funds sourced from regional investing partners, rather than taxpayer dollars.

Vance’s day in the spotlight was notable as it came just 24 hours after the president jokingly remarked that his vice president would be the fall guy if the administration’s off-ramp to end the four-month war with Iran was poorly received by Congress. That negative reception was playing out on bipartisan lines on the Hill as Vance stepped in to stem the bleeding.

He lashed out at neoconservative critics of the deal within the Trump coalition, who’ve unfavorably compared the memorandum of understanding signed Wednesday to the Obama-era JCPOA, which similarly sought to restrict Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“The idea that they get benefits before they change their behavior is fundamentally a talking point that is issued by people who want the conflict to continue indefinitely,” Vance told reporters. “No sanctions will come off unless they perform their end of the bargain and every sanction will come back on [if they don’t comply].”

“What I would say to anybody, any of the critics is No. 1, have a little bit of faith in the president of the United States. The idea that he is going to strike a deal that’s bad for the American people, it’s preposterous.”

But on Capitol Hill, the vice president’s assurances were already set to fall on deaf ears. While Republican members of Congress held their fire in terms of criticizing the agreement earlier in the week while the conservative commentariat sphere exploded around them, some of those same senators and representatives are piling on now that the text of the MOU has been released.

One key defection was Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, chair of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. Wicker’s committee oversees the entire military and is set to be the first stop for a Pentagon supplemental budget request that the Trump administration still hopes to push through Congress this year. He and other hawkish Republicans are deeply concerned about the $300 billion economic development fund, which, along with sanctions relief, they see as aiding a hostile Iranian government in its efforts to cling to power for the foreseeable future.

“The Iranian regime has not renounced its ultimate goal — ‘Death to America, Death to Israel.’ The regime will invest every penny it receives to further that aim,” Wicker warned Thursday.

Wicker is far from alone among Republican, who’ve been reluctant to pick a fight with the White House. Sen. Ted Cruz issued a scathing statement tearing into the president’s closest advisers when asked about the deal by The Independent.

“History demonstrates that sending billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is a very bad idea, and I think the president is receiving very, very poor advice on this deal. I hope we don’t send a single penny to the Ayatollah,” said the Texas Republican, who sits on the Foreign Relations panel.

Part of Trump’s problems clearly stem from the arm’s length relationship the White House has taken with members of both the Republican House and Senate caucuses this term, often steamrolling GOP priorities on the Hill or complicating the passage of key legislation for Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

The Senate is currently watching a spying powers provision lapse while the White House issues veto threats over unrelated voter ID legislation and a spat with Democrats over shoving a political operative into the position of director of national intelligence.

To that note, the president’s strongest critic on the signing of the MOU on the Republican side was Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of two incumbent GOP senators who lost their respective primaries after Trump endorsed their challengers. Cassidy issued a dismayed statement late Wednesday afternoon, calling the MOU the worst American foreign policy blunder in decades.

“Reagan is rolling over in his grave. Iran’s nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works and will undoubtedly leverage it in the future. Now, Iran gets to build brand-new infrastructure under this deal,” added the Louisiana senator.

The other Republican senator to face Trump’s electoral shiv this cycle was Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. Cornyn, asked by The Independent about the issue on Thursday, took a more reserved tone. But like Cruz and the others, he seemed opposed to the idea of the economic fund or the unfreezing of Iranian assets in U.S. financial systems.

“It’s still money, and if they get $300 billion they’re gonna.. it’s not going to be for constructive or useful purposes,” Cornyn said.

He also faulted top administration officials for not being on the same page about whether Iran would be allowed to maintain a stockpile of ballistic missiles, noting that Trump’s comments Wednesday clashed with remarks made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. On Wednesday, Trump posited that Iran should be allowed to stockpile such weapons based on the fact that their neighbors do, telling reporters: “It’s a little bit ​unfair for them not to have some.”

“It’s the opposite of what Marco Rubio said. So they need to sort that out among themselves. I think that’s a bad idea,” said Cornyn.

With Vance making clear that the White House has no plans to submit the MOU to Congress or ask lawmakers for permission to extend sanctions waivers to Iran, it’s clear that the administration recognizes that the gulf between the president and his party’s establishment on the Hill remains very wide. What remains to be seen is whether Thune and other members of the GOP old guard continue to distance themselves from the White House as election season heats up, or whether the president and his team will seek a mending of ties to spur party unity in the face of potential electoral doom.

In The Mixer’s World Cup special

Everything you need to know about the World Cup – England updates, the games to watch and stories you missed – in five minutes, at 1pm, every day.

A Reform UK MP has been branded “irresponsible” after suggesting that England’s football team needs to keep winning games in the World Cup to prevent a spike in incidents of domestic abuse.

Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, made the claim in a short video message posted on social media the day after England won their first World Cup game 4-2 to Croatia.

“England won the football last night, and thank goodness they did,” she said.

Ms Pochin added: “Because on the occasions that England lose their football matches, the incidences of domestic violence go through the roof. So boys, keep winning.”

Leading charities which support domestic abuse victims were among those who criticised Ms Pochin’s remarks.

Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women’s Aid, said: “Football does not cause domestic abuse – it is a choice that is made by the abuser, time and again, regardless of whether a team wins or loses a match.”

One local claimed the new facilities would turn the garden into a noisy ‘boys’ club’ where Paul Woods, 52, and his friends enjoy ‘padel and beers’ at his home in Poole, Dorset

Residents of an upmarket neighbourhood are celebrating after a millionaire’s bid to put up a flood-lit padel court on the grounds of his mansion was refused.

IT entrepreneur Paul Woods was determined to install the open-air court in the back garden of his £4million property to play the trendy racket sport at his leisure. His plans showed the court would have been surrounded by 14ft tall steel mesh fencing and tempered glass and four 20ft tall floodlights.

The padel court was to be part of a wider sport and leisure development on the grounds of Mr Woods’ home which horrified posh neighbours in the affluent Branksome Park area of Poole, Dorset. They expressed concerns about the noise from the court, fearing the ‘piercing’ bursts from balls hitting solid rackets would reverberate around the sylvan suburb, shattering the peace of the conservation area.

Now BCP Council has refused the planning application submitted by Mr Woods, a 52-year-old managing director of an IT marketing company who was once named entrepreneur of the year.

Planning officer Emma Woods found the development would “result in an erosion of the spacious, verdant and sylvan character which defines the Branksome Park Conservation Area.” She added it would introduce an “overly urbanised and visually intrusive” development that would appear incongruous with the area. She noted concerns raised by the council’s own conservation officer who found the padel court was a “particularly harmful element of the scheme”.

They stated the tall floodlights would introduce “visual clutter” during the day and would erode the “dark, tranquil qualities of the Conservation Area during evening hours”.

One neighbour said: “I am pleased it has been refused, that is good news and the right decision.”

Local councillor Gavin Wright had been approached by several residents asking him to take up their objections.

He said: “I wouldn’t want to live next to a padel court because they are incredibly noisy. Padel is a great game and a great way to exercise but it has to be in the right place such as a tennis club, not in a residential area because of the repetitive noise.”

Padel is the world’s fastest growing sport, with more than 25 million players across the globe.

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Unlike in tennis, a Padel racket is solid with no strings and thicker meaning it makes a very loud noise when striking the ball.

Neighbours had previously spoken of their concerns that had the padel court been allowed Mr Woods’ garden would turn into a ‘boy’s club’ for him and his friends.

But his application was backed by several letters of support with people claiming it wouldn’t.

A spokesperson for Mr Woods architects said they were due to meet next week to discuss the option of appealing the council decision.

It comes as amber heat health alerts have been issued in parts of England

The Met Office has issued a statement regarding the chances of whether Northern Ireland will experience heatwave conditions in the coming days.

It comes as amber heat health alerts have been issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) with a potential heatwave to develop this weekend across southern England. Yellow alerts are in place across the Midlands.

Temperatures in England are set to climb above 30C during Friday then again from Sunday. Amber heat health alerts are issued when high temperatures are likely to have a significant impact on health and social care services.

In Northern Ireland, a heatwave is officially defined as a location recording at least three consecutive days with daily maximum temperatures meeting or exceeding the heatwave temperature threshold of 25C.

This temperature varies by area across the UK, with it being 28C in parts of south-east England, for example.

While heatwave conditions will be met in parts of England in the coming days, the Met Office are not currently forecasting such temperatures in Northern Ireland. However, it will feel warm at times over the weekend and into next week.

Met Office forecaster Craig Snell said: “We are currently not expecting any heatwave conditions to develop across Northern Ireland with temperatures set to generally remain below the threshold of 25C.

“Saying that it will certainly feel rather warm and humid at times, especially later in the weekend and early next week with temperatures widely reaching the low twenties across Northern Ireland and possibly up to 24C on Monday.”

The forecast for the coming days shows rain clearing north early on Saturday morning to leave the day and Sunday dry and bright. Into early Monday morning, the current outlook shows a band of cloud and outbreaks of rain, before conditions turn drier for much of the new week.

Meanwhile, the Met Ofice has officially verified a new May temperature record for Northern Ireland following last month’s UK heatwave.

At Killowen in Co Down, the overnight temperature didn’t fall below 15.9C on May 28, making it the warmest night on record for the month. That broke the previous record where temperatures did not fall below 15.6C, recorded at the same site, in May 2012.

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