Romeo Is A Deadman is very Suda51 (Grasshopper Manufacture)
The creator of No More Heroes is about to release new game Romeo Is A Deadman and we’ve talked to him about modern development and setting his next game in the UK.
The games industry has a number of great characters and Goichi Suda – known to all as Suda51 – is emphatically one of them. The CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture is more than a mere games developer; he’s an auteur, no less, whose extensive and utterly distinctive games catalogue (whose highlights include killer7 and No More Heroes) has earned him comparisons with the likes of Quentin Tarantino.
I caught up with him on a rare visit to London, as part of a tour to drum up interest in his latest game, Romeo Is A Dead Man, due to be released on February 11 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. There’s no mistaking Romeo Is A Dead Man for anything other than a Suda51 game and it’s surely already a shoo-in for 2026’s most bonkers game.
It follows the bizarre exploits of Romeo Stargazer, a small-town American cop who is killed but resurrected, thanks to his boffin granddad, as a lightsaber and gun-wielding operative in the FBI’s Space-Time Department, zipping back and forth in space and time to take down a bunch of time criminals (including his ex-girlfriend in many different guises) who are creating world-destroying anomalies.
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The most immediately striking aspect of Romeo Is A Dead Man is that, in its first hour, it zaps through a welter of different art styles, from a diorama style intro, via comic book style cut scenes, and more conventional third person 3D to a spaceship hub that’s rendered in top-down retro 8-bit graphics (in which homages to both Pong and Pac-Man can be found). Miraculously, what should be a mish-mash of conflicting style coalesces into a highly distinctive whole, with a weird logic of its own.
‘Whenever you’re developing a game, things are going to change at some point,’ explains Suda. ‘There’s always something that gets taken out, put in or tweaked a little bit. And at first, we were going to do the whole game in full polygon, 3D graphics style. We got to some point in the development and realised: ‘OK: this is not only going to take a lot longer than we thought, but it is going to cost a lot more money too.’ Some people think that it must have been really expensive putting all these different visual styles in the game, but actually, it’s the opposite.
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‘One of the things we came up with was the realisation that we have a bunch of people at the studio who are really good at a specific art style, or at a specific aspect of the development. It could be someone who is really good at realistic illustration, somebody who is really good at comic book style stuff, somebody who is really good at video production, somebody who is really good at environments and backgrounds, stuff like that.
‘So what I wanted to do is have the light shone on each of these people who are really specialised in these certain styles. And it took a while to figure out how to get everything to fit together, to make a coherent game out of it. But I feel the end product came out pretty well for the jumble of stuff that it is, you know?’
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Suda51 alludes to a situation which arose at Grasshopper Manufacture, which has been operational since 1998 but in 2021 was bought by Chinese publisher NetEase, when it was on a massive acquisition spree. In early 2025, NetEase announced its desire to sell most of the international game developers it had acquired.
Although it still owns Grasshopper, Suda51 says: ‘When we started out, I was kind of hoping that this would be the sort of game that we would be able to take our time on and relax while we put it together. But it ended up being the opposite. It ended up pretty much from the earlier stages of development, both as a studio and also for me personally being: ‘OK, we’ve got to do something about this, or this has to be worked out somehow’.
‘Every time I make a game, I figure: ‘Oh wow, that was rougher than I thought it would be.’ But it was the first time in a long time that I’ve thought: ‘OK, making games is not as simple as a lot of people who don’t make them think it is’.’
Suda51 loves big guns (Grasshopper Manufacture)
Luckily, improvisation is Suda51’s superpower. He has always been regarded as a maverick in the world of games development, so I ask him whether he thinks that is fair enough, and whether he embraces the term: ‘I feel like maybe one of the reasons I get called something like that is obviously because of the games I make and the way I make games. But, specifically, I have learned how to improvise, and figure out how to make things work that normally wouldn’t work in a certain way.
‘When I started out at a company called Human, in my first job in the games industry, I began writing for games, then ended up as director, and I’ve been doing both of those things ever since. Especially back in the day, when game specs were a lot lower than they are now, and you couldn’t do nearly as much stuff in a video game as you can now; if there was something that you wanted to express visually or story-wise, you had to figure out: ‘Yeah, OK, this is what I want to show, but we simply don’t have the technology to actually show it, so how can I express this either a different way visually or in literary terms, or thematically?’
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‘I feel like one of the strengths that I’ve gained over the years is being able to figure out ways of creative problem-solving. Nowadays, when things are a lot more advanced than they were before, you’ve got a lot more technical freedom of expression, and there’s more stuff that you actually can show, and things that you actually can do with a game than you could 20, 30 years ago.
‘So there aren’t as many limitations as there were before, but conversely, since there is so much more stuff that you can do, I keep trying to find new ways to use these new means of expression, and new ways to come up with on-the-spot ideas.
‘A lot of the development we do, I kind of view as ad-lib development, as tossing ideas back and forth – it’s kind of like jazz-jamming: ‘This guy’s doing this, and if I do this, it’s going to match in some cool way.’ While the other guy is like: ‘Actually, no, I think I’m going to add this in.’ And when you get a really good bunch of improvisers together, then you have a really good jazz jam band, you know?
‘I feel like that’s probably a reason that I get thought of as something like a maverick – not necessarily because I’m trying to break rules on purpose. To answer your question of how I feel about being called a maverick, honestly I’m happy, because it feels kind of cool, like a pro wrestler nickname or something like that, so I dig it.’
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Romeo Is A Dead Man will be the 28th game that Suda51 has helmed at Grasshopper. During that non-stop burst of creativity, he has collaborated with some other legends of the games industry, but one creative partner stands out for him: Shinji Mikami, originator of Resident Evil and co-founder of Clover Studio, PlatinumGames, and Tango Gameworks.
Suda51 says: ‘We worked together both on killer7 and Shadows Of The Damned, as a kind of producer-director tag team. I’ve learned so much from him over the years, especially back in the day, when we started working together. When it comes to action games, he’s done so much and he’s taught me so much – I truly consider him to be a mentor of sorts. And he’s even given me permission to call him that.
‘He’s had the biggest impact, not only on myself, but on Grasshopper Manufacture as a studio, as far as the way we make games is concerned, and specifically regarding how to make action games work. It’s not necessarily that he sat there and gave me these lessons and told me verbally: ‘This is how you make an action game.’ It’s hard to explain, but it’s almost as though I learned it through feeling and sensing and working with him.’
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Suda51 has been around for a long while (Daniel C. Griliopoulos – Hot Grill)
With his career spanning over 30 years, Suda51 is ideally placed to pinpoint how the art of games development has altered, as the technology underpinning it has exploded in complexity: ‘It’s hard to say whether this is a good thing or a bad thing – it’s both good and bad at the same time, for different reasons. But as the general scale of games got bigger and bigger, over the past 30 years, the amount of work that goes into a game, the amount of people that you need working on a game, and the number of types of specialists and professionals you need working on a game has also expanded.
‘For example, back in the day, there weren’t level designers. One of the planning guys would draw the map on a piece of paper, and the graphics guys would turn that into a level, and there you go. But now you have to have somebody planning this stuff out, and somebody actually designing the level itself, then people adding graphics to that, plus backgrounds and so on.
‘So while it’s a good thing in that it provides more work for more people, it also means that things take more time and cost more money. Also, there are less and less people these days who are able to do multiple types of development, multiple jobs. Again, it’s a good thing, because you get people who are really specialised, who get really good at doing a specific part of game development.
‘Personally, I was always worried about not being able to maintain my career and my lifestyle if I was only able to do one thing, so I started out in game design as a scenario writer and tried to work out how to do things like backgrounds, direction, and game design. Ever since I started working in the industry, I’ve been trying to spread out as much as possible, to at least be somewhat proficient, or have usable skills, in multiple areas of game development, just because, again, I never thought that one person would be able to make a career in game development only focusing on one thing.’
This is a game of many art styles (Grasshopper Manufacture)
So now that Romeo Is A Dead Man is ready for release, what’s next for Suda51? You might expect that after that game’s fraught development, he would be looking forward to holing out on a southern hemisphere beach. But that isn’t Suda51’s style: ‘No: I’m going right back into work, work, work mode, basically. I’m actually at the point where I’m planning on taking some time to sit down and put some thought into what kind of projects I should come up with next.’
Jokingly, he dangles what would be a delicious prospect indeed: ‘While we’re on this promotional tour, I’m just constantly trying to work out what the next thing is going to be. Maybe the setting is going to be in the UK. You feel like there should be lots of games set in London, but when you think about it, there aren’t that many. Recently I was watching that show MobLand, and it made me think, oh man, the UK would be a really cool place to set a game.’
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Suda51 was laughing while he said that, but his brand of hard bitten, off-the-wall, literary-infused action would work gloriously well in a British setting. Who knows what he may come up with next?
Come with him if you want to not die (Grasshopper Manufacture)
The airport has confirmed the new system will come into effect from midnight on March 26, allowing drivers to enter and exit the car park without stopping at barriers or pay stations.
Announcing the change, a spokesman said: “We’re introducing a new barrierless parking system, so you can simply drive in and out without stopping.
“No barriers. No queues. No pay stations.
“Your vehicle will be recognised automatically, and you can pay after your visit – online, by phone, or via Auto Pay.
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“This change takes place from 00:01 on March 25, 2026.
At the time, Manchester Airport said the changes would “streamline the drop-off and pick-up process, making it quicker, more convenient, and stress-free”.
When the forecourt system was rolled out, Manchester Airport’s landside operations director Sue West said: “Here at Manchester Airport we’re always looking for ways to make our passengers’ lives easier.
“By removing barriers in our drop-off and pick-up zones it will speed up the process and make it feel seamless.”
However, the barrierless system has proved controversial, sparking debate among Bolton residents.
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Yasmin Qureshi has voiced her concerns over the barrierless drop-off system (Image: Office of Yasmin Qureshi MP)
Yasmin Qureshi raised the issue in Westminster after receiving complaints from constituents who were fined £100 at the airport.
The penalties followed confusion with payment systems, with some unable to complete payment despite “genuine attempts to do so”.
She said: “The current system is unfair, confusing and punitive. It does not work for passengers, and it is time for a change.
“The aim of a barrierless system is to keep traffic moving, but we have to be honest about the human reality.
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“A parent unloading luggage at 5 am or a carer helping an elderly relative to the terminal door is not thinking about an online payment later that day.
“They should not receive a penalty notice in the post just because there is no clear or simple way to pay at the time.”
The penalties followed confusion with payment systems, with some unable to complete payment despite “genuine attempts to do so”.
In response, a Manchester Airport spokesperson said: “Dropping passengers off at Manchester Airport is free if drivers use the drop-off area at JetParks One.
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“This is served by regular shuttle buses that take passengers to the doors of our terminals in just a few minutes.
“For those that want to be able to drop passengers off on our forecourts, we offer a service that lets drivers pay £5 for five minutes.
“This is cheaper than is offered at most comparably sized airports and our analysis shows it allows most people more than enough time to drop passengers off, thanks to our barrierless exits which remove bottlenecks.
“People can, however, stay for longer at a small extra charge – that rate is also cheaper than at most comparable airports.
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“Space in our drop-off and pick-up zones is finite so charging to use them helps make sure they are available to people who need them and function efficiently while also helping us manage traffic on our road network.”
The new barrierless system at the T2 multi-storey car park comes into force from March 26, with drivers urged to ensure payment is made by midnight the following day to avoid a charge.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating a global economic revolution that began back in the 1970s. Researching the impacts of AI on different sectors of society highlights an important parallel moment in history: the creation of the “service economy” in the US.
In 1972, amid a period of global turmoil, a group of OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) economists sought to reinvent how nations thought not only about wealth but the very purpose of society. They did this by proposing a broad new category of commerce: services.
It seems hard to imagine now, but until then economists had perceived and measured trade largely in terms of goods alone. Money was made by exchanging tangible, physical products (wheat, guns, butter). To become a rich nation, the wisdom went, you needed to add unique value to your raw materials (crops, iron) by turning them into more complex products (processed foods, steel) that gave you a competitive advantage over other countries.
Instead, this new category of services lumped together a diverse range of “intangible” jobs and social goods – from teaching and driving trains to social housing and water – in a huge new economic basket. It suggested there could be common standards by which to trade in them globally, creating metrics that offered a new source of wealth for investors.
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While it would be two decades until the General Agreement on Trade in Services became a cornerstone of the newly formed World Trade Organization in 1995, the reimagining of jobs and social goods as tradeable services had an immediate effect on nations around the world. It spurred a new wave of private enterprise, and changed how and why essential societal activities were provided.
It also enabled the rise of the generalist boss and the creation of the “CEO class”. To run complex sectors from public transport to healthcare required accepting a view of management as a skill divorced from the specifics of the activity being managed.
Statistics and benchmarks became more important than the particulars of the task at hand, since they determined how services were valued in the market. Consulting firms supercharged this new era of key performance indicators, audits, rankings and standardised workflows.
While trade unions and the public sometimes resisted these changes through strikes and street protests, they were largely unable to stem the tide. Many governments came to see their role less as providers of public goods, more as managers of services outsourced to the private sector. This dramatic shift in how global trade operates set the scene for how we view and measure AI today.
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Services on steroids
At its core, AI technology is about seeing patterns across data that, due to scale and complexity, we humans cannot. Acting on what AI tells us can, for example, save lives through early detection of cancer. Yet within that promise, how AI is sold today looks very much like services on steroids.
The services revolution helped create common standards and means of valuation across different sectors of society. Today, when politicians and CEOs speak of AI, it is usually in terms of universal models that can be applied to almost anything, regardless of context or human values.
This understanding is only possible in a society in which many of the sector-specific challenges of, say, health services and utility companies are ironed out and glossed over by those operating and investing in them. The services approach has enabled this.
Amid strategies of mass data capture and subscription services, there is the assumption that only the private sector can be a provider – and that the solutions are largely the same. AI is the lucrative but badly defined tool with which mainly US providers are seeking to drive home their existing competitive advantage.
But this leaves us with an important question from history.
CNBC.
Who benefits?
Looking for parallels between what we see as AI today and the creation of the services economy points to the classic question, cui bono? Who benefits?
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The invention of trade-in-services greatly expanded the range of activities in which financiers might speculate. Through pension funds and private shareholding, many people’s personal wealth grew rapidly as a result.
But it has also led to the rise of large multinational corporations, for example in energy and water utilities. Anger over rising prices and exorbitant CEO bonuses in these sectors are in part a consequence of the services revolution.
The present approach to AI is following a similar, but much-accelerated, path. The rollout of AI has not only made a small group of companies extraordinarily rich and powerful, it has created a global sovereignty crisis.
To use and regulate AI wisely requires being clear-eyed about whether we are talking simply about technology, or a broader political project. Given the evidence of the services revolution, we believe it is time to look beyond the hype and examine more rigorously what AI actually means for different sectors of society – and what exactly it is trying to achieve.
With many people looking for medicines in supermarkets, the Money Saving Expert has shared a way to pay less and save money.
Amber O’Connor and Eilidh Farquhar Trainee Trends, Showbiz and Lifestyle Writer
21:16, 25 Feb 2026
Martin Lewis has shared a handy way shoppers can pay less for medication when shopping at a pharmacy or supermarket. With prices of medicines rising over the years, the money saving expert has revealed a ‘hidden’ code that Brits need to look out for.
With many medicines claiming to do the same thing, it can be hard for shoppers to choose which tablets will work best for them. And with branded items receiving more advertisement, quite a few of us choose them over cheaper alternatives.
However, the MoneySavingExpert website has revealed that people could be paying half the price if they checked the ingredients rather than the brand name. The website advises: “It’s important to realise you can often save big by buying an identical pill, just in different packaging. Some tablets are half the price of their doppelgangers.”
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In order to make sure you aren’t overspending on your non-prescription medication, which is usually sourced for cold, flu, allergies or pain relief, shoppers are advised to look out for a nine-digit identification code on the packaging, reports the Express.
The money saving tool’s guidance states: “How to spot which tablets are identical. Check the ‘PL number’ on the packet. It’s a unique licence number given to a particular drug made by a particular manufacturer.”
This ‘hidden’ code is usually found under the distributor’s information on the back or side of medicine packets. Martin Lewis also highlighted the nine-digit code in a variety of TV shows.
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In a previous appearance on This Morning, he shared that branded doesn’t always guarantee that you are getting the best. He explained: “If they have an identical PL code, which is on the back of the packet, they are the same tablet.
“Not the same active ingredient—the same tablet. “Big pharmaceutical companies spend millions of pounds promoting this, ‘Go with the name you know.’ And that’s just baloney in most cases.”
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To prove his point he compared a £1.85 product with a branded £4.99 medicine, both of which had the same PL code. He added: “This happens all over the place”.
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Many people on social media were blown away by this money saving tip, with the clip racking up over 2,000 likes when it was uploaded on Facebook.
Thousands of people also flooded the comments section, with one person who worked in a pharmacy explaining that most shoppers wouldn’t listen when they gave this advice.
They wrote: “I work in a well-known pharmacy. We tell people of the price difference in pain meds and hay fever stuff mostly, and it’s amazing how many people dare not buy the cheaper own-brand stuff. It can make about £12 difference in some cases. Branding really works.”
With another person adding: “I worked in a pharmacy for years trying to get people to buy the store’s own cheaper brand, but most customers would say only the branded medicines worked!!”
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A third also shared that they have not taken on Lewis’ advice, writing: “Used to buy expensive hayfever tablets for my daughter. Now buy Wilkinson’s own, same PL code and only 89p a box.”
This was followed by another social media user adding: “I’m always baffled when people buy expensive branded paracetamol or ibuprofen. let’s hope more people take heed of this video and start buying medicines more sensibly.”
As of Wednesday, visitors to Britain will need an electronic travel authorisation (ETA), which is form of digital permission to travel, first introduced in October 2023.
They cost £16 and permit multiple journeys to the UK for stays of up to six months over two years or until the holder’s passport expires, whichever is sooner.
Those without an ETA will not be able to board their flight, ferry or train.
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UK visitors urged to be ‘travel-ready’ following ETA introduction
Enforcement of this new border system for visitors to the country is “vital”, a minister has said.
ETAs aim to “strengthen the UK’s border security,” according to Home Office minister Mike Tapp.
Mr Tapp is now urging anyone planning a trip to the UK to “ensure they are travel-ready”.
He commented: “The ETA scheme is a vital part of our work to strengthen the UK’s border security, helping to deliver a more efficient and modern service that works for both visitors and the British public.
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“I’d urge anyone wanting to travel to the UK to ensure they are travel-ready and have the right permission, to make their journey much smoother.”
What is an ETA?
An electronic travel authorisation lets you travel to the UK for tourism, visiting family or certain other reasons for up to six months, GOV.UK explains.
Most visitors travelling to the UK need an ETA or a visa, but what exactly you need depends on your nationality and why you’re coming to the country.
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GOV.UK shares you usually need an ETA rather than a visa if you’re from Europe, the USA, Australia, Canada or certain other countries.
Find out if you need one, or need to apply for one via the GOV.UK website.
Who is exempt from an ETA when travelling to the UK?
British and Irish citizens, including dual nationals, are exempt from the ETA requirement.
But due to the introduction of the border system, dual British citizens will now need a valid British passport to travel to the UK.
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Ukrainians can now extend their stay in the UK by applying up to 90 days before their permission expires – triple the current window.
The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme is being expanded by two years, giving Ukrainians in the UK ongoing sanctuary from Russia’s illegal war. pic.twitter.com/MhgSF8ZL87
Alternatively, they can pay £589 for a certificate of entitlement, which can be applied for on the GOV.UK website to prove they have right of abode in the UK.
Some dual nationals have said enforcement of ETAs is being brought in at short notice and was poorly communicated.
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Recommended reading:
There are fears that holidays or work trips could be affected if people cannot get a passport or certificate of entitlement in time.
The Home Office previously said public information advising dual nationals to carry the correct documentation has been available since October 2024, and a “substantive communications campaign” has been running since 2023.
Are you a dual national? Let us know how you have been affected in the comments below.
A second-grade basketball game in Pennsylvania erupted into a postgame brawl and arrests after an argument between an assistant coach and her father and members of the opposing team escalated.
Brittany Ortiz, 38, of Malvern, and her father, William Stanley, 70, of Paoli, face multiple charges, including assault on a sports official, stemming from the alleged February 1 incident at Holy Child School in Rosemont, according to Lower Merion police.
The alleged altercation left the opposing coach, his wife and the coach’s 3-year-old daughter injured, the victims told authorities.
The dispute allegedly started when Ortiz began shouting and cursing during the game, which involved 7- and 8-year-old players in the Malvern Basketball League, which is not associated with the Catholic school. This sparked a verbal argument with the opposing team’s assistant coach.
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Stanley joined his daughter in arguing with the opposing head coach, according to the affidavit of probable cause, NBC 10 Philadelphia reports.
Brittany Ortiz and her father, William Stanley, were arrested after a verbal dispute with the opposing team during a second-grade basketball game escalated into a physical altercation (Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office)
After the game, Ortiz continued her argument with the opposing coach and his wife in the gym hallway. Witnesses told police that she grabbed the coach’s wife by the hair and slammed her to the ground, causing her head to strike the floor. This resulted in a concussion, a scalp contusion and clumps of hair being pulled out, according to the criminal complaint reviewed by the outlet.
As the opposing coach attempted to intervene, Stanley allegedly struck him in the head, while Ortiz kicked him in the inner thigh and attempted to kick him in the groin, according to the report. The coach was holding his 3-year-old daughter during the attack, who became hysterical, urinated on herself and got a bruise on her leg.
The opposing coach sustained bruising to his inner thigh.
Ortiz was charged with assault on a sports official, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct and harassment. Her unsecured bail was set at $10,000, with a preliminary hearing set for March 5. Her attorney told NBC10 that he plans to review the evidence and will “vigorously defend” her.
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Stanley later turned himself in to authorities, NBC10 reported. His attorney, Nathan J. Schadler, told the outlet that Stanley maintains his innocence and was taken to the hospital with broken bones and a head injury.
“We will be doing our own investigation and speaking to people who were there,” Schadler said. “My client asserts his innocence, and it was my client’s family who called 911 and asked the police to show up in this matter.”
The Independent has contacted Schadler and the Malvern League for comment.
Draper said he was “really proud” to make a winning return to the tour following “a lot of down moments [during] the last eight months”.
Seeking to build on the victory over the 68th-ranked Halys, Draper made an assured start on serve as he lost just two points across his opening four games.
But he crucially failed to take his first two break points in the 11th game, before Rinderknech seized his opportunity to clinch the opening set in the following game.
Draper was the first to come under pressure in the second set as he withstood three break points to restore parity at 3-3 but, from the brink of trailing by a set and a break, he reset impressively.
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The Briton lost just one point over his next three service games and would not relinquish control of the tie-break after winning four of the first five points.
However, it was Rinderknech who forced the breakthrough in the deciding set – with that proving enough to secure a quarter-final meeting with Russian fifth seed Andrey Rublev.
A third man, an 18-year-old driver of the car, suffered serious injuries and has been transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
The three men were returning home to Derry having gone to Asda in Strabane when the tragedy occurred at around 11.15pm on the R236 road. The Vauxhall Corsa collided with a Volvo FH 500 lorry towing a cattle trailer on the main Lifford-Derry road.
Local curarte Fr Damien Nejad attended the scene at around 1am and administered the Last Rites to one of the young men at the scene.
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“It was very, very sad,” Fr Nejad said. “I said a prayer over the body of a young man. There is just shock in the area. It is shocking that this could happen here.”
Already dark clouds in the small village of St Johnston felt blacker on Wednesday morning as news broke of the death of the two young men. One of the young men was pronounced deceased at the scene, while the other died a short time later at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.
Derry-based cleric Fr Michael Canny met with the bereaved families on Wednesday. “Their family and their friends are in total shock,” he said. “This is a close knit community that sticks together, but nevertheless their lives are now going to be changed forever. We also pray for the young man in hospital.”
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“Our thoughts and the thoughts of most of the people in the city are with the families who are totally devastated to have received this news last night.”
The Shantallow Community Centre opened its Youth Wing to offer support. Grief counsellors were also on site for assistance. A spokesperson said: “Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with their families and everyone who loves them.”
The collision occurred close to the Presbyterian Church and the manse house, at a known blackspot for collisions. Local Presbyterian Minister Rev Craig Wilson said: “It’s terrible. We have families devastated and the loss of two teenage lives is desperate. We heard the sirens going on Tuesday night.”
The road was closed for a technical examination by Garda Forensic Collision Investigators, who arrived at around 10.30am on Wednesday. Local diversions were put in place and a dark cloud hung over the village.
Donegal County Councillor Gary Doherty said the incident was “an absolutely devastating tragedy”.
“Our thoughts, first and foremost, are to the family and friends of the young lads who have lost their lives and also to the other young lad who is in hospital,” the Sinn Féin representative told Donegal Live.
“The entire community in St Johnston and across east Donegal is in complete shock. This was a quiet Tuesday night and people woke up to go to work not thinking that something like this would come to their own doorstep.
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“The fact that we are talking about two teenagers losing their lives, the fact that they are so young, makes it even more profound.”
Councillor Doherty said that St Johnston is a “very close knit community” and the tragedy left a dark cloud over the village.
“East Donegal is intertwined with our neighbours in Derry and Tyrone given the proximity and people will know someone connected,” he said. “There are members of our community who know the leds and the sense of shock is just devastating.”
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Foyle MP Colum Eastwood said this was a “profound tragedy”. He said: “Today and the days ahead will be unimaginably difficult. But I know that people in Derry and Donegal will offer them every possible support to get through this.”
The Donegal Coroner, Dr Denis McCauley, was notified and post mortem examinations will take place in due course.
Gardaí are appealing to anyone who may have witnessed the collision to come forward. A spokesperson said: “Road users who may have camera footage (including dash-cam) and were travelling in the area between 10.45pm and 11.45pm on Tuesday 24th February 2026 are asked to make this footage available to investigating Gardaí.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact Letterkenny Garda Station on (074) 9167100, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda Station.”
The JD Sports Bar will open on Friday, March 6, and aims to become the go-to spot for live sport, games, and socialising with friends in the town.
The bar is kitted out with five new pool tables, two snooker tables, and three virtual darts lanes.
JD Sports Bar say they will also have Sky Sports and TNT Sports. (Image: JD Sports Bar)
In a Facebook post the Northumberland Street bar said: “Welcome to the new home of game nights.
“We have five brand new pool tables, two brand new snooker tables, three brand new virtual darts lanes, custom seating design, the list goes on!!”
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The post also mentions eight “massive” built-in media wall screens.
The bar is kitted out with entertainment options including five new pool tables. (Image: JD Sports Bar)
They also promoted ice-cold beers, next-level cocktails, good music and good vibes, adding that this isn’t just another bar opening, this is a sports bar when you can have fun with your friends whilst enjoying drinks.
The bar will open at 12pm and show sport on Sky and TNT.
The news has been met with excitement from people in the community. (Image: JD Sports Bar)
The news has been met with excitement from people in the community, with social media users quick to share their support.
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One Facebook user said: “Looks absolutely mint, it’s definitely something needed for Horden.”
Another wrote: “Looks amazing, absolutely unrecognisable.”
Their social media page describes it as “the best place to catch every game. Whether you are here for the action or the rivalries, or just good times with friends – we’ve got you covered.”
On test, the quality shone through. The Dryrobe Advance is reliably waterproof, windproof and lined with a cosy synthetic ‘lambswool’ material that provides instant warmth and comfort when you get out of winter water and feel the cold bite.
This robe is roomy enough to get changed under in chilly, windy conditions too, but is on the bulky side, so I’d size down if you’d like to wear it as a coat.
There are plenty of pockets, plus a waterproof hood. The waterproof outer material is a tough nylon that feels made to last and doesn’t let an inch of rain or a breath of wind through. This robe ticks the sustainability box too, using recycled materials throughout as well as ECO Durable Water-Repellent (DWR), which is a plant-based coating that delivers weather resistance without harmful chemicals.
If you’re more of a dog-walking or city street-donning Dryrobe wearer, the brand has just launched the brand new Nexus. It’s more waterproof (30,000mm) and more breathable than the Advance (and consequently more expensive), but it is also more tailored, making it more of a hybrid between a winter coat and a changing robe.
On first test, after a cold plunge bath outside on a chilly 3C morning, it performed excellently, keeping me snug and warm. We will publish a full review after further testing.
Key specifications
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Waterproof level: 25,000mm
Outer material: Recycled nylon
Lining: Recycled polyester
Colours available: 16
2. Best Value Changing Robe: Passenger Escapism Recycled Robe
The Hawking family have defended the late physicist after a photograph from the Epstein files
Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas News Reporter and Benjamin Blosse
20:43, 25 Feb 2026
The family of the late British astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking have responded to ‘insinuations of inappropriate conduct’ following the emergence of a photograph from the Epstein files showing him alongside two women in bikinis.
A spokesperson for the Hawking Family told the Mirror: “Professor Hawking made some of the greatest contributions to physics in the 20th century whilst at the same time being the longest-known survivor of motor neurone disease, a debilitating condition which left him reliant on a ventilator, voice synthesiser, wheelchair and round-the-clock medical care.
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“Any insinuation of inappropriate conduct on his part is wrong and far-fetched in the extreme.”
The two women pictured with Professor Hawking in the photograph are understood to have been his long-standing carers, with the image now confirmed to have been captured at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in the US Virgin Islands in 2006, where Professor Hawking delivered a lecture on quantum cosmology.
Professor Hawking was amongst 21 distinguished scientists who participated in a conference organised by Epstein on his Little St James island and the neighbouring St Thomas in 2006, reports the Mirror.
Prior to the summit, Professor Hawking appeared in two photographs – one depicting him at a barbecue with several other attendees, and another showing him being given a tour of the island’s seabed from within a submarine. Epstein had reportedly adapted the underwater vessel to accommodate Hawking, who was wheelchair-bound due to his motor neurone disease.
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There are no known photographs of Professor Hawking and Epstein together.
The esteemed Cambridge professor is mentioned at least 250 times in the multitude of emails and documents released by the US Department of Justice as part of their investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. However, being referenced in these files does not imply any wrongdoing, and Professor Hawking has never been accused of any criminal activity.
In a poorly composed 2015 email sent by Epstein to his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier proposed a monetary reward for anyone close to Virginia Giuffre who could help refute an allegation that Hawking had participated in an “underage orgy” in the Virgin Islands.
Epstein wrote: “You can issue a reward to any of virginias friends acquaionts [sic] family that come forward and help prove her allegations are false. The strongest is the clinton dinner, and the new version in the virgin isalnds that stven hawking particpated in an underage orgy.”
Ms Giuffre did not publicly accuse Professor Hawking of such actions before her death last year, and Epstein’s email is the sole recorded mention of such a claim.
An unverified tip received by FBI officials in 2019 and subsequently released by the US Department of Justice suggested that Epstein and Hawking attended an “all-male” club together in 2011.
