EastEnders have confirmed that Brian Conley is leaving the soap after three years.

The actor, 62, has played Thomas ‘Rocky’ Cotton since May 2021 but is now moving on to new projects. 

The BBC told in a statement on Wednesday that they supported his decision and denied claims of a feud and that he had demanded to be written out of the show.

Brian also took to his Instagram grid to confirm the news and further refuted claims there had been disagreements.

The Sun had claimed on Tuesday night that BBC bosses were ‘furious’ he was leaving as they had planned important storylines around his character.

EastEnders said in a statement: ‘We can confirm that Brian Conley will be leaving EastEnders. 

‘There is absolutely no truth in any claims of a feud with bosses and the show fully support Brian in his decision to leave which was made some time ago. 

‘We wish him the best of luck for the future as we continue to work towards his exit storyline which has been in the works for some time.’ 

Meanwhile Brian said in a social media video: ‘Hi it’s me Brian, AKA Rocky from EastEnders. I am just sending out this message to all the fans. You may have heard reports that I am leaving.

‘It was a tough decision but it is true that I am going, I made it for many reasons that decision. It was tough as they are such a wonderful crowd in front and behind the cameras and I have loved my three years there.

‘That is the truth. There are reports that I clashed and that I was ranting, but I’m not ranting. I have gone with their blessings the Beeb and I am excited about the future and where it’s going to go and I am excited about Rocky’s exit because it’s good!

‘So I am sending you much love to all EastEnders fans and enough said!’ 

It comes after in June Brian revealed he could be facing the chop in this year’s Christmas cliff-hanger.

The actor told host Steph McGovern Steph’s Packed Lunch that the BBC1 soap is planning to film a number of different endings for this year’s Christmas Day episode to keep viewers guessing.

He said: ‘In February we had a lovely episode where if flashed forward to Christmas, and someone’s dead in The Vic and Letitia is there in a wedding dress and she’s covered in blood.

‘So everyone’s going, ‘O my God, who’s dead?’, as well as all the actors in the show, and all you saw was it’s a male, or is it, I don’t know.

‘You just saw the cufflinks and I think everyone has been looking out for those cufflinks for a while now.’

Asked by Steph if the cast knew who the victim was Brain replied: ‘None of us have got a clue. 

‘I believe leading up to Christmas, there might be ten of us laying there so that it will be a big surprise to us as well.

‘We’re all going to maybe film a moment where we’re all laying on the floor and then right up until the last minute they can reveal on Christmas Day who it is.’

Asked if he was worried about potentially being killed off, Brian said: ‘You’re in an ongoing drama so you know people do pass away and you do live on tenterhooks, especially if you’re enjoying it, and we all are, they’re a lovely bunch, everyone there.

‘I’m very happy to be there and I just think what we’re doing now and the fact that it’s the number one soap is very exciting.’

Conley has been the host of The Brian Conley Show, as well as presenting the Royal Variety Performance on eight occasions. 

Police now believe Britain’s most wanted man is in Chiswick wearing a black baseball cap, t-shirt and dark bottoms as their search moves to west London.

The new information follows witness sightings of Daniel Khalife confirmed overnight, including calls from members of the public.

Officers remain in Chiswick and are now planning to carry out further intensive search activity today.

A police helicopter was deployed last night over Chiswick House and Grove Park amid the search. 

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement today: ‘We urge members of the public in that area to remain vigilant and call 999 immediately should they see Khalife, or if they have any information that could assist the search. 

‘Whilst we advise members of the public not to approach Khalife if they see him, we still assess that he does not pose a threat to the wider public.’

Former soldier Khalife, 21, who is alleged to have spied for Iran, escaped from Wandsworth Prison in a delivery van on Wednesday morning. 

The search for him remains a significant operation led by the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command. 

More than 150 of the Met’s counter terrorism officers and staff are working at pace around the clock to try and find Khalife. 

The Met is offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of Daniel Abed Khalife, as detectives confirmed a sighting of him near Wandsworth Roundabout. 

CCTV shows the van after it left the prison but detectives believe Khalife had already made off by the time the footage was captured. 

Elsewhere, officers received a tip-off from a member of the public who said they saw a man fitting Khalife’s description walking away from a BidFood van that stopped near the south entrance to the Wandsworth Roundabout, at the top of Trinity Road, shortly after his escape. 

The man was then seen walking towards Wandsworth town centre.

Khalife escaped the Victorian jail by strapping himself to the bottom of a delivery lorry after leaving the prison kitchen in a cook’s uniform.

Elsewhere, a shop assistant also reported seeing ‘a tall, lanky dude with dark hair’, who he later claimed to recognise as Khalife from media images, enter a black coloured vehicle outside Wandsworth County Court – but police have not confirmed whether this sighting is of interest.

The witness, who was working at The Market – Putney Newsagents on Wednesday morning, heard a commotion outside the store, before seeing the man sprint across the street and get into a car on the other side of the road by traffic lights.

His manager told the Telegraph: ‘There was lots of beeping by cars and people were annoyed.

‘My friend, one of the workers at the shop, was in the shop on that morning, at around 7.30, and he went outside where he saw a man running into a black car. The man was some tall lanky dude with dark hair and there was a Bidfood van.

‘My friend didn’t see him getting out of the van but he saw him sprint across the street to the traffic lights.’

The Met Police has opened its UK Image Appeal website which allows people to submit any relevant imagery and video directly to the investigation team.

This could be CCTV, doorbell footage, mobile phone footage, or dash-cam footage.

Commander Dominic Murphy, who leads the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: ‘This remains a fast-paced and dynamic investigation, but I want the public to know that a large number of officers are working extremely hard to locate Khalife.

‘We have now received more than 100 calls from the public, and we thank everyone who has contacted us with information.

‘The sighting near Wandsworth Roundabout could be very significant, and this is one of many useful lines of enquiry that officers are perusing.

‘We continue to urge the public to contact us straight away if they think they have seen Khalife or have information on his whereabouts.

‘We will continue to work closely with all our colleagues in police services across the country and other partners to trace Khalife and bring him back into custody.’

Officers continue to focus investigative efforts in London. This included search activity at Richmond Park overnight into the early hours of Friday, 8 September.

A nationwide alert put out on Wednesday has led to tightened security at ports and borders. 

The force has assessed that Khalife ‘does not pose a threat to the wider public’ but advises the public not to approach him and call 999 immediately. 

Former soldier Khalife, 21, was declared missing at 7.50am on  Wednesday. The Met was notified at 8.15am and took immediate action to track down a delivery van that had left the prison.

At 8.37, police officers stopped the van in Upper Richmond Road, near the junction with Carlton Drive. Officers spoke to the driver and carried out a thorough search. Police discovered strapping on the underside of the van.

Detectives believe Khalife was hiding underneath the van and used this strapping as part of his escape.

The force previously gave details of the route the van which they believe Khalife escaped on took after it left Wandsworth Prison, based on GPS data detectives had obtained from the vehicle.

As a result of further CCTV enquiries, it has been determined that the van took the following route upon leaving Wandsworth Prison. After reaching Wandsworth Roundabout, the van turned onto Swandon Way and the van remained on the road until turning onto Fairfield Street.

Khalife, who served in 16 Signal Regiment, whose motto is Find A Way Or Make One, is thought to have clung to the underside of the truck by fashioning straps out of the plastic covering on his cell mattress. 

Sir Mark told LBC of the escape this morning: ‘It is clearly pre-planned, the fact that he could strap himself onto the bottom of the wagon.’ 

He added a prison escape is ‘unlikely to be something you do on the spur of the moment’.

Asked if police are looking into whether it was an ‘inside job’, the commissioner said: ‘It is a question. Did anyone inside the prison help him? Other prisoners, guard staff? Was he helped by people outside the walls or was it simply all of his own creation?’

He called it ‘extremely concerning’ that Khalife is ‘on the loose’.

Asked whether he was surprised to learn that the terror suspect was in a Category B prison, Sir Mark said it did ‘seem odd’ on first inspection.

The commissioner said the hunt for Khalife is a ‘massive operation’ involving ‘well into three figures of officers’ as well as help from forces around the country and from the border force.

‘At the moment we are still really keen to get any reports from members of the public,’ he added.

It came as police chiefs involved in the Richmond Park search apologised to locals for the disruption.

The National Police Air Service tweeted: ‘To dispel some rumours that have been circulating. We were deployed to Richmond Park last night searching for escaped prisoner Daniel Khalife. 

‘Due to the size and complexity of the park this took a protracted period of time. Apologies for the noise.’

Meanwhile, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said there were questions about the ‘link between government austerity and this man escaping.’

He said: ‘There’s a question in relation to the medium and long term about the link between government austerity and this man escaping.

‘I know from my own experience, as the member of parliament previously for Tooting where Wandsworth prison is, (there are) big problems in relation to it being overcrowded and being a Victorian prison, lack of investment, lack of enough staff and those questions will need answering from the Government.’

Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor said staff shortages at Wandsworth are ‘the source of many problems’ and that ‘in an ideal world’ the jail would be shut.

The prison’s performance has been rated a ‘serious concern’ and watchdogs issued a string of warnings about the jail in the year before the incident.

It comes as pharmacies have been urged to keep a lookout following suggestions that the ex-British Army soldier may have suffered burns to his face during his escape.

Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Bleksley told Sky News: ‘Clinging to the bottom of a vehicle, if it’s got a petrol or diesel combustion engine, it is a pretty risky thing to do, not only because of course you can lose your grip and fall on a roadway, but exhaust systems, which generally speaking run the entire length of a vehicle like that, get incredibly hot.

‘The slightest touch of that exhaust system will leave you with a vey unpleasant burn.

‘So I would suggest to anybody who works in a chemist or pharmacy or shops where medical supplies are sold – just keep your eyes out today if somebody comes in asking for advice on how to treat burns, and sourcing bandages… and the like.’

Elsewhere, CCTV footage today showed the van Khalife escaped under just 200 yards from the prison, with no sign of the suspect.

Questions continue to grow over how the suspected terrorist, who is alleged to have spied for Iran, was able to flee the Category B prison, where there have long been concerns over security.

An inmate who worked with Khalife in the jail kitchen revealed how they used to joke about jumping in a delivery lorry and driving off.

And another former prisoner revealed how staff were so overstretched they even asked him to help lead the roll call of inmates on his wing.

Meanwhile, a barrister and former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation said today it was ‘mind-boggling’ that Khalife was able to work in a kitchen with access to knives.

Jonathan Hall KC told Radio 4’s World at One programme Mr Khalife has been ‘charged with collecting information which might be useful to an enemy’ and that he should have been held in a higher security prison.

‘I would have thought someone charged with espionage should be held more securely…just based on what the authorities knew’

‘They knew he was charged with an offence under the Official Secrets Act, that’s a very serious offence… one would have thought that you would look at the advanced capabilities that might come with working for or having relations with a hostile state’ he said.

Mr Hall also warned against legislation to make all of those accused of terrorism to be placed in a category A prison.

‘I’d be worried if there was a reaction which said now every person suspected of terrorism should be categorised as a high escape risk’.

Fresh CCTV footage today shows the Bidfood lorry which Khalife used for his escape driving down a residential street just 200 yards from the jail.

There is no sight of the fugitive in the images, suggesting that he may have leapt off the vehicle immediately after it left the prison gates.

Scotland Yard revealed last night there was 65 minutes between it leaving the prison and being stopped and searched by police, meaning a huge number of possible places where Khalife might have slipped away. 

As investigators worked to unravel how he managed to pull off a Colditz-style breakout in broad daylight, more details emerged of the audacious escape.

Khalife, who police suspect used his military training to carefully plan his escape, began Wednesday morning by helping to prepare breakfast at the Victorian jail.

He turned up for duty dressed in his chef’s uniform of a white T-shirt, distinctive red and white chequered trousers and brown steel-toe boots. 

After serving breakfast to inmates and guards, he slipped out of the kitchen carrying makeshift strapping of some kind, which police have declined to describe in more detail. 

In the yard outside the kitchen building, a lorry from the wholesaler Bidfood was making a routine delivery of groceries.

When no one was looking, Khalife ducked under the sidebars of the lorry and positioned himself precariously beneath the truck’s underbelly, using the strapping to support his weight.

At around 7.30am, with the driver blissfully unaware of the stowaway, the Bidfood lorry was driven 250 yards along the road running along the inside of the 30ft perimeter wall famously scaled by Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in 1965. Two internal security gates had to be opened to let it pass.

At 7.32am, the lorry carrying the former Royal Signals soldier rolled through the prison’s imposing Victorian gate into the open. 

It was waved past guards and CCTV cameras with another cursory inspection, with no one thinking to check underneath at any of the three security checks.

As Khalife clung on, just inches from the wheels and the spinning drive shaft, the lorry turned right on to residential Heathfield Road, then left, then left again on to the busy triple-laned A214.

Police have stressed there is no suspicion about Bidfood or its driver, and said they had been co-operating fully.

Officers either do not know or have not said at what point Khalife decided to leave his escape vehicle, or what he did next. 

But the truck embarked on a near four-mile route through Wandsworth Town and on to the South Circular A205 road heading west towards Putney.

Khalife had an 18-minute head-start before anyone even noticed his absence. He was declared missing at 7.50am, and prison officers launched an urgent search, but it was a further 25 minutes before the police were called at 8.15am – by now a full 43 minutes after he had sprung himself.

Metropolitan Police cars descended on the area, while the lorry driver was called by his company and ordered to turn around and return to the prison.

On a busy high street close to East Putney station, officers swooped on the Bidfood truck at 8.37am outside a coffee shop.

A business owner who witnessed the operation told the Mail: ‘The police were searching inside the van, underneath it, on the roof, in the cab, everywhere. 

‘At first there was one unmarked, black police car, then a van and about five police cars. They were using two dogs to search it, one inside and one underneath.’ 

He said the search lasted for two hours.

Scotland Yard Commander Dominic Murphy said last night: ‘We searched it, but we found no trace of him. But we did find strapping that meant he had been underneath.’ 

Officers were keeping an open mind as to whether Khalife was helped by accomplices, but Mr Murphy cited the fugitive’s ‘ingenuity’ and said: ‘We have some of the best military in world and he was a trained soldier.’ 

He said police officers believed Khalife – a ‘very resourceful individual’ – would have needed to plan his escape, rather than it being opportunistic.

Police refused to confirm or deny if they had recovered potentially useful CCTV during their trawl, but said there had been no sightings by members of the public, despite it being ‘a busy area of London’. 

It prompted speculation as to whether the fugitive could have arranged to be picked up by an accomplice in another vehicle.

Many ChatGPT users have suspected the online tool has a left-wing bias since it was released in November.

Now, a thorough scientific study confirms suspicions, revealing it has a ‘significant and systemic’ tendency to return left-leaning responses. 

ChatGPT’s responses favour the Labour Party in the UK, as well as Democrats in the US and Brazil President Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party, it found. 

Concerns regarding ChatGPT’s political bias have already been raised – one professor called it a ‘woke parrot’ after receiving PC responses about ‘white people’.

But this new research is the first largescale study using a ‘consistent, evidenced-based analysis’ – with serious implications for politics and the economy. 

The new study was conducted by experts at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and published today in the journal Public Choice. 

‘With the growing use by the public of AI-powered systems to find out facts and create new content, it is important that the output of popular platforms such as ChatGPT is as impartial as possible,’ said lead author Dr Fabio Motoki at UEA. 

‘The presence of political bias can influence user views and has potential implications for political and electoral processes.’ 

ChatGPT was built by San Francisco-based company OpenAI using large language models (LLMs) – deep learning algorithms that can recognise and generate text based on knowledge gained from massive datasets. 

Since ChatGPT’s release, it’s been used to prescribe antibiotics, fool job recruiters, write essays, come up with recipes and much more. 

But fundamental to its success is its ability to give detailed answers to questions in a range of subjects, from history and art to ethical, cultural and political issues. 

One issue is that text generated by LLMs like ChatGPT ‘can contain factual errors and biases that mislead users’, the research team say. 

‘One major concern is whether AI-generated text is a politically neutral source of information.’ 

For the study, the team asked ChatGPT to say whether or not it agreed with a total of 62 different ideological statements. 

These included ‘Our race has many superior qualities compared with other races’, ‘I’d always support my country, whether it was right or wrong’ and ‘Land shouldn’t be a commodity to be bought and sold’. 

For each one, ChatGPT was asked the extent to which it agreed as a typical left-leaning person (‘LabourGPT’) and right-leaning person (‘ConservativeGPT’) in the UK.

The responses were then compared with the platform’s default answers to the same set of questions without either political bias (‘DefaultGPT’). 

This method allowed the researchers to measure the degree to which ChatGPT’s responses were associated with a particular political stance. 

To overcome difficulties caused by the inherent randomness of LLMs, each question was asked 100 times and the different responses collected. 

These multiple responses were then put through a 1,000-repetition ‘bootstrap’ – a method of re-sampling the original data – to further increase the reliability of the results.

The team worked out a mean answer score between 0 and 3 (0 being ‘strongly disagree’ and 3 being ‘strongly agree’) for LabourGPT, DefaultGPT and ConservativeGPT. 

They found DefaultGPT and LabourGPT were generally more in agreement than DefaultGPT and ConservativeGPT were – therefore revealing the tool’s left bias. 

‘We show that DefaultGPT has a level of agreement to each statement very similar to LabourGPT,’ Dr Motoki told MailOnline.

‘From the results, it’s fair to say that DefaultGPT has opposite views in relation to ConservativeGPT, because the correlation is strongly negative. 

So, DefaultGPT is strongly aligned with LabourGPT, but it’s the opposite of ConservativeGPT (and, as a consequence, LabourGPT and ConservativeGPT are also strongly opposed).’ 

When ChatGPT was asked to impersonate parties of two other ‘very politically-polarized countries’ – the US and Brazil – its views were was similarly aligned with the left (Democrats and the Workers’ Party, respectively). 

While the research project did not set out to determine the reasons for the political bias, the findings did point towards two potential sources.

The first was the training dataset, which may have biases within it, or added to it by the human developers, which the OpenAI developers perhaps failed to remove. 

It’s well known that ChatGPT was trained on large collections of text data, such as articles and web pages, so there may have been a imbalance of this data towards the left. 

The second potential source was the algorithm itself, which may be amplifying existing biases in the training data, as Dr Motoki explains. 

‘These models are trained based on achieving some goal,’ he told MailOnline.

‘Think of training a dog to find people lost in a forest – every time it finds the person and correctly indicates where he or she is, it gets a reward. 

‘In many ways, these models are “rewarded” through some mechanism, kind of like dogs – it’s just a more complicated mechanism.

‘So, let’s say that, from the data, you would infer that a slight majority of UK voters prefer A instead of B. 

‘However, the way you set up this reward leads the model to (wrongly state) that UK voters strongly prefer A, and that B-supporters are a very small minority.

‘In this fashion, you “teach” the algorithm that amplifying answers towards A is “good”.’ 

According to the team their results raise concerns that ChatGPT – and LLMs in general – can ‘extend and amplify existing political bias’.

As ChatGPT is used by so many it could have great implications in the run-up to elections or any political public vote. 

‘Our findings reinforce concerns that AI systems could replicate, or even amplify, existing challenges posed by the internet and social media,’ said Dr Motoki. 

Professor Duc Pham, an expert in computer engineering at University of Birmingham who was not involved in the study, said the detected bias reflects ‘possible bias in the traning data. 

‘What the current research highlights is the need to be transparent about the data used in LLM training and to have tests for the different kinds of biases in a trained model,’ he said. 

MailOnline has contacted OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, for comment. 

Premier League confirm FIVE English clubs could qualify for the Champions League next season

•  Usually the top four clubs in the Premier League qualify for Champions League
• Extra spot to be awarded based on performance across European competitions
• In five of the last six seasons English clubs would have merited additional team

By Sonny Cohen For Mailonline

Published: 09:53 EDT, 9 August 2023 | Updated: 14:21 EDT, 9 August 2023

Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday overcame a challenge from the conservative right to his leadership and secured the top spot among House Republicans.

He only needed a majority of votes to secure his victory. He won 188 to 31. 

The win was the first step on the road for him to become next speaker of the House should Republicans win a majority. He must still win a vote on the House floor when the new Congress reconvenes on January 3. 

And Tuesday’s vote left him 30 votes shy come that election, where he needs 218 votes to become speaker. 

Republicans were one seat away from winning the House on Tuesday afternoon with 12 races still tabulating ballots. The GOP is expected to prevail.

Outgoing Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who sat in the back of the room during the vote, described the atmosphere as ‘very unified,’ though 31 objections to McCarthy’s leadership was more than expected. 

Rep. Andy Biggs challenged McCarthy in a show of force from the conservative wing of the party, which wants a strong voice on committees and political decisions in the coming two years of GOP power.

He acknowledged ahead of the contest that will be tough to beat the California Republican. 

‘It’s going to be tough,’ Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, told Newsmax. ‘Kevin has raised a lot of money and done a lot of things, but this is not just about Kevin. I think it’s about institutional direction and trajectory, and that’s where we’re going to see if we have enough people who agree that we need to change the trajectory of this place and open it up.’

In other leadership races, Steve Scalise was elected to the GOP’s Number Two spot in leadership. In the race to replace Scalise, R-La., as whip, Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the current National Republican Congressional Campaign (NRCC) chair, beat out Republican Study Committee chair Rep. Jim Banks and Rep. Drew Ferguson.

Tasked with helping Republicans across the board win to get to a majority, Emmer was able to overcome his party’s lackluster showing in the midterm elections to cinch the role.  

McCarthy is now tasked with wrangling dozens of votes back in his favor before the speaker’s race at the start of the new Congress in January.  All Democrats are expected to vote against him for speaker, meaning he can only afford to lose one less than however many the Republicans end up holding the majority by. 

’31 votes against. Big opposition. Kevin McCarthy does not have the votes to be Speaker of the House,’ Rep. Matt Gaetz taunted on Twitter. 

Earlier he said there were at least five members of the GOP caucus who would ‘rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney’ than vote Kevin McCarthy for speaker. 

In the race for House GOP Conference chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., was able to fend off a challenge from Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., 144-74 and hold on to her seat. 

Republicans were shaken when a red wave failed to appear in last week’s election, a move that endangered the leadership of McCarthy and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

Democrats retained their control of the Senate. Republicans, however, are one seat away from winning the 218 seats necessary for the majority in the House.

McCarthy worked to shore up his support among House Republicans ahead of Tuesday afternoon’s meeting, particularly among the right flank, which is where Biggs had his strength.

If he prevails as speaker, he will need conservatives in his pocket in order to move any legislation through the House. Republicans are expected to have a narrow majority when they are in power and McCarthy will need every GOP vote. 

Any faction of dissent would have substantial influence to block legislation or otherwise defy the Republican leadership. The right wing appears to be ready to exert their influence – much as liberals did to Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she had a narrow majority.

Conservative Freedom Caucus lawmakers are demanding concessions from McCarthy in return for their support. 

They have have a long list of asks – from prime positions on House committees to guarantees they can have a role in shaping legislation. 

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia threw her support behind McCarthy, who has promised her spots on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees – two powerful panels if Republicans carry through on their threat to investigate President Joe Biden and his administration. 

On Monday, McCarthy met with House GOP lawmakers for two hours in the Capitol to make his pitch. 

‘The one thing you got to think about is it´s going to be a tight majority so everyone is going to have to work together,’ he said afterward.  

‘We’ll be successful as a team and we´ll be defeated as an individual if we don’t all work together,’ he said. 

Some in the House GOP Conference have made it clear McCarthy does not have their support. 

‘There are definitely at least five people, actually a lot more than that, who would rather be waterboarded by Liz Cheney than vote for Kevin McCarthy for Speaker of the House. And I am one of them,’ Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said on Charlie Kirk show.

Kai Havertz took to social media to vent his frustration over the fact his Arsenal unveiling video had been leaked before he had confirmed his departure from Chelsea. 

Havertz – who has become Mikel Arteta’s first signing of the summer – said he would have preferred more time to tell the Chelsea fans he was leaving before his transfer to Arsenal was announced. 

The German said he was ‘upset’ the Chelsea fans had to learn of his £65million transfer through a leaked video and insisted it wasn’t how he would have done it but thanked them for their support. 

Havertz said Chelsea will remain in his heart forever after creating ‘memories that will last a lifetime’. The German also said he made ‘friends for life’ after joining the Premier League giants in 2020 under Frank Lampard – who was the manager at the time. 

 Havertz said ‘it was an honour to be a part of Chelsea history’ and insisted he would continue to care about the club going forwards – despite expressing his excitement about joining Arteta’s side. 

Havertz wrote the following caption on Twitter: Dear Chelsea FC, I would have preferred for you to hear my thoughts on leaving Chelsea first from myself before my thoughts on me joining my new team. 

‘This isn’t my style and it upsets me that you had to hear of it in this way. I write this letter with a heavy heart to all the fans. A big thank you for all your support, we achieved a dream of winning the Champions League together! Kai.’ 

He shared the following statement alongside it: ‘Today, I find myself at a crossroads, where words can’t describe the emotions I’m feeling. It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter, saying goodbye to the club that has become my second home and to the fans who have supported me throughout this amazing journey. 

‘Together we have experienced the highs and lows, the joys and the heartaches. I want to thank each and every Chelsea supporter, member of staff, coaches and my team-mates for the last years. 

‘Joining Chelsea three years ago was a big moment in my life and I’m looking back on these years with nothing but pride, gratefulness and lots of sport success.

‘From winning the Champions League in my first season, to winning the Super Cup and the Club World Cup and now saying goodbye. It’s been quite a journey that I will never forget.

‘Everyone second of my time at Chelsea, I identified with what it means to represent the club on and off the pitch. I hope that everyone remembers me for this. I’m looking back at the memories that last a lifetime. The club will be forever in my heart and I made friends for life. 

‘It was an honour to be a part of Chelsea history. Thank you, Kai.’

Nevertheless, Havertz is excited about his new adventure and praised the ‘mentality’ within the Arsenal squad.  

‘It’s super exciting for me to be joining this amazing club and to be part of the Arsenal family. This club has such a big history, and I hope we can achieve lots of things,’ Havertz, who will wear the No 29 shirt, said.

‘The mentality in the Arsenal squad is very high and you can feel that. That was one of the reasons why it has been so hard to play against Arsenal recently.

‘The aim is to win trophies and I’m going to give everything to do that for the supporters and everyone at the club. I’m now looking forward to meeting all the players and the staff when we come back for pre-season.’

Havertz moved to Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen for £75m back in 2020 after breaking through and starring for the Bundesliga side.

He has been a regular at Stamford Bridge, featuring across the front-line, and he spent most of last season as the Blues’ striker amid their struggles up-front.

In total, Havertz racked up 139 appearances for the club, scoring 32 goals and adding 15 assists.

He will be most remembered for netting the winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final when the Blues won the European Cup for the second time in their history thanks to a 1-0 victory over Man City. 

During the 2022-23 campaign, Havertz contributed seven goals and one assist in 35 Premier League games.

The bodies of the five Titanic sub crew may never be recovered from the ‘unforgiving’ ocean where they perished, the US Coast Guard announced grimly today after confirming that shattered pieces of the vessel have been found 500meters from the bow of the famous ship the men died trying to see. 

The nail-biting search for the Titan, a 21ft submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions, drew to a devastating close today when a remote operated submarine from a Canadian ship found broken pieces of it on the ocean floor. 

Search and rescue efforts say they likely died on Sunday – before military planes using sonar buoys detected what they thought could have been SOS ‘banging’ sounds in the water. 

‘The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up,’ explained Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard at a press conference today. 

It would have been an instant death for the men, some of whom had paid $250,000 each to see the famous shipwreck. 

In a gut-wrenching blow for the victims’ families, experts say there is little prospect of recovering any of their remains.  

‘This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there. The debris is consistent of a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.. we’ll continue to work and search the area down there – but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time,’ Paul Hankin, a deep sea expert involved in the search, said. 

In addition to the landing frame and rear cover that were the first pieces of debris detected, the ROV submarine also found fragments of the pressure hull – the main body of the submersible. 

‘The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination we immediately notified the families. On behalf of the Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,’ Rear Admiral Mauger said.

In its own statement, OceanGate said this afternoon: ‘We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

‘These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. 

‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.’

The company added: ‘This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. 

‘The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission. 

‘We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.

‘This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. 

‘We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.’ 

Earlier, David Mearns, who was friends with two of the men on board, said the ‘only saving grace’ for the men was how quickly their deaths would have occurred. 

‘The hull hasn’t yet been found but two very important parts of the whole system have been discovered and that would not be found unless its fragmented. That really indicates what is the worst case scenario which is a catastrophic failure, an implosion. 

‘The only saving grace is that it would have been immediate, literally in milliseconds and the men would have no idea what was happening… my worst fears have now been realized,’ he said. 

The world has been praying for a ‘miracle’ after rescuers estimated the vital oxygen supply would end at 7.08am EST (12.08pm UK time, 9.09pm Sydney) on Thursday.

Officials said the field had been found by Odysseus 6k, a remote operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel, the Horizon Arctic, that can dive 20,000ft underwater. 

A glimmer of hope came yesterday when the Coast Guard confirmed consistent ‘banging’ noises had been detected by P-3 aircraft, but the search teams were unable to find the source of the sound, or confirm that they were the SOS signals the world had hoped for. 

The families of the five men on board the sub are yet to publicly react to news of the debris discovery.

Experts have for days warned of the possibility that the Titan had sprung a leak and imploded under the pressure, which is 400 times that experienced at sea level. 

‘They would be dead before they knew anything had even happened,’ L. David Marquet, a retired Navy nuclear submarine commander, said earlier this week. 

If the debris does not belong to the Titan, the Coast Guard has vowed to continue its search. 

Earlier this morning, Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is coordinating the effort from Boston, said during an appearance on NBC’s Today show: ‘People’s will to live has to be accounted for.’ 

The submersible’s oxygen theoretically should have run out at 8am EST (1pm BST) Thursday, according to the 96 hours limit listed on OceanGate’s specs of the ship. 

The family of British billionaire, Hamish Harding, have spoken of their fury that it took OceanGate’s mothership, the Polar Prince, eight hours to report the sub missing on Sunday. 

The Titan submerged at 8am (1pm BST) and lost communications at 9.45am (2.45pm) but was not reported as missing to the US Coast Guard until 5.40pm (10.40pm). 

The sub was due to return to the Polar Prince ay 3pm EST (8pm BST) Sunday. 

Since Sunday night, there has been a frantic, international effort to find it and save the men on board.  

Those stuck onboard the sub included British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French navy veteran PH Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19 and a student at Strathclyde University in Scotland. 

 The Titan craft, run by OceanGate Explorations, submerged on Sunday at 1pm UK time (8am EST and 10pm in Sydney) around 400 miles southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland.

At 2.45pm it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince. But it wasn’t reported missing to the US Coast Guard until 10.40pm.

Kathleen Cosnett, a cousin of UK businessman Hamish Harding, 58, who was on the sub, said the eight-hour delay before contacting the authorities was ‘far too long’.

She told the Telegraph: ‘It’s very frightening. It took so long for them to get going to rescue them, it’s far too long. I would have thought three hours would be the bare minimum.’  

Titan lost communication on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic off the coast of Canada. The last ‘ping’ of its homing device was heard on Sunday afternoon – directly above the world’s most famous wreck.

A Canadian Navy ship carrying medics specializing in treating health issues relating to deep-sea diving arrived on the scene this morning on the HMCS Glace Bay, according to officials. 

They also brought a  hyperbaric chamber – which can be used for decompressing divers after they return to the surface. 

Above the wreck is a flotilla of at least ten ships, two robot subs and several aircraft scanning the Atlantic for any sign of Titan as sonar continues to hear a banging noise from the depths.  

Speaking today to Sky News, Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed the initial reports suggesting the noise heard by sonar buoys was ‘background ocean noise’.

‘We’ve taken that information and shared it with top leading experts from the US Navy and the Canadian Navy, and they’re working on the analysis of that information, they’re continuing to work on the analysis of that information,’ he said. 

‘The initial reports is that there’s a lot of the sounds that were generated were from background ocean noise, but they continue to … look for all available information there.

‘What’s important to me, and what’s important as the unified command, is that we’ve continued search in the areas where noise was detected with the ROVs that we have from the time of that detection, so we’re not waiting for this analysis to take action.

‘The analysis is really helpful to our overall search-and-rescue efforts, but we’re not waiting on it, we’ve moved the remote operated vehicles that we’ve had on site to those areas where noise was detected.’

Shipping experts Marine Traffic have shared an animation of the ships rushing to the search zone. Titan’s mothership Polar Prince has been searching the area since Sunday and is zig-zagging the site in the hope that it will appear on the surface or get back in contact after communications cut out more than 72 hours ago. 

A Royal Navy submariner, as well as equipment from a British company, has been sent to assist in the search for Titan. Number 10 said Lieutenant Commander Richard Kantharia had been ’embedded… to assist the search and rescue effort’.

Rob Larter, a marine expert at the British Antarctic Survey, told a press conference on Thursday that he thought the Victor 6000 was the ‘main hope’ for an underwater rescue.

Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said the robot’s two manipulator arms could potentially allow it to untangle the Titan, or attach a device that could float it to the surface.

The Victor 6000 also has strong lights, allowing it to see through some of the murk at such depths.

But the experts warned that the rescuers would need to know fairly precisely where to look for Titan, which currently does not seem to be the case.

Finding the submersible ‘could potentially take weeks of intense survey,’ Larter warned.

And even if search teams do find the submersible, a rescue operation could take up precious time.

In a normal situation, it would take two hours for a ROV like the Victor 6000 to get down to the necessary depth – and another two hours to float back up, Greig said.

The missing submersible is also reportedly bolted from the outside, which could take up more time, he added.

Larter said it was a ‘desperate situation’.

‘It’s kind of unimaginable if people are alive, trapped in a submersible with oxygen supplies running down.

‘An objective assessment of where things are at the moment: it doesn’t look good,’ Larter said, adding that it was important to stay optimistic.

The Coastguard has admitted it does not know if it is the five men hammering on the side of their sub or simply the sound of the sea including perhaps debris falling from the Titanic itself at 12,500ft below the surface. 

But even if it is discovered it will take many hours to save Titan – meaning that the oxygen could run out before they get to the surface. Rescue efforts to find them have continued overnight – and are becoming ever more desperate.

Oceanographer and water search expert Dr David Gallo said today: ‘It’s going to be almost impossible. We need a miracle — but miracles do happen’. 

But former Royal Navy Officer, Chris Parry, said as Midday approached: ‘I’m afraid time’s up – I don’t think there’s any prospect of getting those people out alive now’.

It is a bleak picture for those trapped inside the stranded vessel, but officials have continued to insist that the hunt is ‘100 per cent’ still a search and rescue mission. 

Rescuers searching for the missing Titanic explorers had been racing against the clock as they struggled to find the source of underwater ‘banging noises’ detected earlier this week. 

Canadian aircraft picked up the sounds by sonar – some of which were said to be heard at regular 30-minute intervals – as recently as yesterday afternoon, close to where the Titan submersible disappeared.

But the Coast Guard admitted last night that extensive searches around the area 435 miles off Newfoundland had so far ‘yielded negative results’.

Rescuers were insistent that they would continue to look for the men even after the 96 hour oxygen window expired. 

Response co-ordinator Captain Jamie Frederick for First Coast Guard District said: ‘This is a search and rescue mission, 100 per cent.’

Men with long noses really DO have bigger penises, scientists confirm

By Pat Hagan for MailOnline

Updated: 03:30 EDT, 22 June 2023

Former UFC champion Francis Ngannou signs ‘exclusive partnership’ with PFL but won’t make his debut until mid-2024… with ‘The Predator’ set to have one boxing bout before MMA return

• PFL have confirmed the signing of former UFC champion Francis Ngannou
• The Cameroonian departed from the UFC after a breakdown in negotiations 
• He will not make his PFL debut until 2024, with his sights set on a boxing bout 

By James Cohen For Mailonline

Published: 05:28 EDT, 16 May 2023 | Updated: 07:39 EDT, 16 May 2023

ITV bosses were in crisis talks over Phillip Schofield‘s future on This Morning last night, after he was said to have ‘confronted’ Holly Willoughby in a tense phone call.

Holly is considering her own position following the pair’s fall-out after 14 years hosting the popular daytime show together. 

Amid rumours of their feud, a ‘devastated’ Phillip is said to have phoned Holly to discuss it and is reportedly ‘saddened’ she didn’t speak out, with a pal describing her silence as ‘deafening’. 

However, Holly is said to have been ‘blindsided’ after her co-star went behind her back to release an extraordinary statement confirming rumours of a rift.

Chiefs at ITV have now called meetings to discuss what to do next amid the duo’s row and Schofield’s popularity with the programme’s viewers plummeting.

And the Daily Mail can also reveal that the channel would not confirm that Monday’s episode of This Morning would take place as normal. The pair host the chat show together from Monday to Thursday every week.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Phillip and Holly’s feud has seen then abandon their annual routine of holidaying together with their families.

Amid reports of their feud, Phillip is said to have called Holly to discuss how publicly it has aired, after he released a statement saying the last few weeks hadn’t been ‘easy’.

Phillip has reportedly been left ‘saddened’ that his words didn’t prompt Holly to speak out on the alleged feud too, according to The Sun. 

A friend told the publication: ‘Things have been difficult between them, but for it to play out so publicly was the last thing Phil was ever expecting.

‘He has spoken with Holly over the phone about how this all played out. He’s devastated by it all and is incredibly upset.’

Phillip’s contract is up for renewal in September but because he takes the summer holidays off, his final episode would be in July if ITV were to axe him.

According to a source, Phillip wants to stay on This Morning and is said to be ‘scared’ he is going to be pushed out amid rumours of a feud with Holly. 

Amid claims Holly wants to move on alone on-screen, the source told The Sun: ‘His relationship with Holly had become more distant recently but Phil had no idea it would all become so public and that she wanted to strike out alone.’

MailOnline has contacted ITV and Holly and Phillip’s representatives for comment. 

Holly, 42, is said to be mulling over how her career moves forward, as those close to her fear that there is ‘no way back’ for her friendship with Phillip. 

Sources close to the star say she was ‘surprised and sad’ that her co-star, 61, released a statement on Thursday night where he confirmed their friendship had been under strain recently.

He said: ‘The last few weeks haven’t been easy for either of us. As I have said before, Holly is my rock.

‘We’re the best of friends – as always, she is an incredible support on screen, behind the scenes and on the phone. Holly has always been there for me, through thick and thin. And I’ve been there for her.’ 

However, friends of Holly view the outburst as a ‘betrayal’ and some of her loved ones are now urging her to ditch Phillip – the man who gave her her break on This Morning back in 2009.

One said: ‘The statement came out of nowhere for Holly and it was upsetting. What a betrayal. It feels like Phil is looking after himself here, with no regard for her.

‘Can she move forward with Phil? Probably not. That’s certainly what those who care for her are saying.’

Rumours of a rift began after it was claimed Holly was upset that she heard from a third party about Phillip’s brother Timothy’s child sex court case in March.

Phillip’s statement to The Sun newspaper read: ‘Holly’s support throughout meant the world to me, as did the support of my bosses at ITV, my editor Martin Frizell and the whole This Morning family.

‘And of course Holly has herself been ill with shingles.’

Meanwhile, This Morning editor Mr Frizell has pulled his support for Phillip having previously been a staunch supporter of the star.

Sources said he is fed up with clearing up Phillip’s ‘mess’. Holly has made it clear that she has no intentions to leave This Morning.

It is likely that if Phillip does depart it would become her show or she would be joined by Alison Hammond.