• Tottenham captain Cristian Romero is reportedly seeking a surprise transfer to North London rivals Arsenal this summer.
• In other transfer developments, Liverpool is showing interest in signing forward Bradley Barcola, while Manchester United is actively targeting a new defender.
• These potential moves signal a period of significant squad restructuring for several top Premier League clubs.
Delays to sexual assault charges and failures to report past convictions in court hearings gave Simon Levy chance to attack more womenCatastrophic errors left a prolific and proven sex offender free before he murdered two women in London, it can be revealed.On Friday an Old Bailey jury found Simon Levy, 40, guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later.The CPS admitted errors at three court hearings in May, June and August 2025, which ended in Levy remaining free. It would not specify publicly what those were, but a source authorised to speak for the organisation said they included failing to mention he had been arrested for Valencia-Trujillo’s murder, and that it could find no record or mention of Levy’s past sexual assault convictions, nor that he was a suspect in a 2024 rape. The CPS said: “We accept there was relevant information regarding bail that was not provided to the court when bail applications were being considered. Our actions fell short of the standards that victims, families and the public are entitled to expect … We could and should have taken a more robust approach to representations about bail.” By May 2025, police wanted Levy remanded, fearing he posed a “high risk of reoffending” with his crimes “escalating”.Levy failed to attend three crown court hearings for the train attacks, and the CPS accepts there is no evidence of a warrant being sought for his detention. For two he claimed illness, for the other that he was not informed. His final non-appearance in crown court was on 11 August 2025. A fortnight later he murdered Wilkins. A CPS source said individuals involved in the Levy case had been disciplined.The assaults on the London tube network and trains were investigated by BTP. Officers arrested Levy, who was travelling on a stolen Oyster travel card, but handed it back to him, unaware it was stolen. With it he travelled to south London to commit his first murder, and carried out further sexual assaults on trains.BTP admitted the charging of Levy for his sexual assaults on trains in November 2024 was held up because of a delay in holding an identification parade after his arrest. It meant his bail was extended and during this delay he attacked and raped another woman and murdered Valencia-Trujillo, a mother of two.BTP identified him as a suspect and charged him but never searched his home. Peter Fulton, BTP’s head of crime, said: “There’s a fine line between going fishing and breaching someone’s human rights.” He said that every woman who reported Levy for attacking them on a train saw him charged and convicted. When the Met, which investigated the murders, searched Levy’s home, evidence was found about his attack on the prison officer.The police watchdog has placed two Met officers under investigation over whether Levy was supervised correctly as a person on the sex offender register. A constable is under investigation for gross misconduct, meaning he could be dismissed. The other officer, under investigation for misconduct, is a detective sergeant.BTP said it had not referred its errors to the police watchdog. Instead it has moved one officer, who it says delayed the holding of the ID parade, out of investigations, and given a supervisor words of advice. Continue reading...
With the debate over prison overcrowding and what to do about it raging, one initiative offers an alternative solutionAs the prison overcrowding crisis shows no sign of abating and the debate rages over early releases, an initiative in the West Midlands offers an alternative to custodial sentences.The Guardian was offered rare access to the project, under which, instead of being sent to prison, convicted offenders work on the improvement of waterways and green spaces around Smethwick. It is a small part of the community payback scheme, which in total clocked up an estimated 5m hours across England and Wales in the last year. Continue reading...
• Arsenal have granted midfielder Christian Norgaard permission to undergo a medical with Everton as part of a proposed £7 million transfer.
• Norgaard has already been excluded from Arsenal's squad traveling to Dublin to facilitate the move.
• The development comes as the transfer window remains open until September 1, with other clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City targeting Pep Chavarria and Pedro Neto.
Duetting stars surpass record set in 1953, when crooner Frankie Laine hit the top with I BelieveSam Fender and Olivia Dean have scored the longest running UK No 1 single in history with Rein Me In, beating a record that has stood since 1953.Back then, the UK singles chart had been running for less than a year and contained just 12 songs when I Believe, a bombastic ballad by US crooner Frankie Laine, hit No 1 and spent a total of 18 weeks on the chart. Continue reading...
• Sam Fender and Olivia Dean have made chart history with their collaboration "Rein Me In," breaking the record for the longest-running number one single by a British act.
• The track surpassed previous records to become the most enduring chart-topping hit by domestic artists in the UK.
• This achievement highlights the significant commercial success and enduring popularity of both artists within the current music landscape.
Exclusive: Deputy PM says opponents have ‘no solutions’ to possible collapse of justice system in England and WalesDrugs, drones and heat: Amber Rudd and David Lammy begin search for answers to prisons crisisOpponents of plans to release rapists and sex offenders early from prison have “no solutions” to halt the criminal justice system’s possible collapse, David Lammy has said.Under pressure from Labour MPs – including the former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips – to curb the early release scheme, the deputy prime minister said failing to implement it could leave no capacity across jails in England and Wales in November. Continue reading...
Sally Dowling admits her office pitched the story but says it was not authorised by her, while her colleagues call her ‘a person of integrity’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA New South Wales parliamentary committee report has made findings accusing the state’s top prosecutor of giving false evidence under oath to an inquiry and recommended the attorney general investigate whether there are grounds to remove her from office.The upper house inquiry voted 4-3 to find that the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Sally Dowling, authorised pitching a story to radio station 2GB about a sentencing hearing involving a young person, and “falsely denied having done so in her evidence to the committee”. Continue reading...
• Top European clubs, including Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Bayern Munich, are reportedly monitoring Barcelona defender Jules Koundé for a potential transfer.
• Juventus has reopened talks with free agent midfielder Leon Goretzka, 31, who is evaluating his career options after Germany's World Cup exit.
• Reports from Gazzetta dello Sport suggest Juventus has an unconfirmed deal in place for Paris Saint-Germain striker Randal Kolo Muani.
• Cybersecurity firm Semgrep discovered that the Chinese LLM GLM 5.2 outperformed other standard models in testing, achieving a 39% F1 score for identifying true positives and negatives.
• The emergence of high-performing models from Chinese firms indicates that frontier AI capabilities are no longer exclusive to US-based companies.
• This trend is concerning for cyber-defenders as it broadens the gap between attackers and defenders by making powerful, offensive AI tools more widely available.
Image: The Independent
