A team of British adventurers has broken two world records by rowing unsupported across the Pacific Ocean – raising thousands of pounds to help families affected by brain tumours.

The five-man Ocean5 crew completed the 2,800-nautical mile journey from Monterey, California, to Hanalei in Kauai, Hawaii, in just 32 days, six hours and 51 minutes, shattering the previous record of 54 days.

Their expedition also saw 66-year-old businessman and team member Kevin Gaskell become the oldest person to row across the Pacific, according to the organisers of the World’s Toughest Row.

He was joined by his son Matt, 33, adventurer Tom Higham, 37, martial arts champion and Amazon explorer Patrick Deacon, 40, and performance therapist Stephen Greenan, 40.

The crew ended their journey in Kauai, Hawaii (World’s Toughest Row/PA) (PA Media)

The team, who trained in Lymington, Hampshire, survived on freeze-dried meals, protein snacks and 10 litres of water each per day, while enduring severe exhaustion, sleep deprivation, salt sores, sea sickness and towering waves.

Their carbon-fibre boat, Lady Jane II, powered by solar panels, carried enough food for 55 days and was equipped with three rowing positions and two small cabins.

Before setting off, Mr Gaskell – a former managing director of Porsche, BMW and Lamborghini – described the challenge as the toughest they had faced.

He said: “This will test our resilience to the limit – the boat will not stop and we’ll each be rowing for two hours on, two hours off.”

The mission has raised more than £50,000 for The Lewis Moody Foundation, which supports people living with brain tumours.

The foundation was set up by the former England rugby captain in 2015 following a family friend’s diagnosis.

One man is dead and two more are injured after they were attacked by a swarm of bees while working at a retirement home in Arizona.

The incident occurred Monday around 9:30 a.m. at a senior living facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, as two of the men were up on a lift attempting to “remove stucco from a side column near the roof area,” said police.

As they scrambled down and away from the insects, the other workers saw that their colleague Nicolas Lopez Soto, 65, was unconscious, ABC15 reported.

Soto was taken to safety and CPR was performed at the scene. He was rushed to a local hospital by a responding fire crew.

Soto was pronounced dead by medical staff just after 10:15 a.m., said Scottsdale Police Officer Aaron Bolin in a statement.

His cause of death remains under investigation, authorities said.

Police shared that Soto was fully clothed, wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and boots when he was stung across his body.

Both the exposed and unexposed areas of his skin had “numerous” stings, police said.

The two other workers were stung dozens of times between them but are expected to make full recoveries.

A beekeeper was scheduled to attend the premises the following day to remove the hive, Officer Bolin said.

A 65-year-old worker has died after being attacked by bees while working at a job at Vi senior living facility (pictured) (Google Maps)

The average person can safely tolerate 10 stings per pound of body weight, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

This means that although 500 stings can kill a child, the average adult should be able to withstand more than 1100 stings.

Arizona Bee Kings founder Aaron Lorti said that bee attacks of this nature are common in heat waves.

“These bees are very active and very aggressive… They are very aggressive, very territorial, and if something sets them off, they will attack. When one stings you, they will leave a scent on your skin that tells everyone else to attack,” he told Fox Phoenix.

Experts advise wearing light-colored clothing, not panicking, turning on lights, and covering your face, as well as never attempting to remove hives yourself, as the most practical steps to aid in avoiding being stung.

An investigation by the Scottsdale PD and the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner is now underway.

LONDON (AP) — The Bayeux Tapestry, a 70-meter- (229 foot)-long medieval artwork that depicts the Norman conquest of England, will be displayed in Britain next year for the first time in 900 years.

LONDON (AP) — The Bayeux Tapestry, a 70-meter- (229 foot)-long medieval artwork that depicts the Norman conquest of England, will be displayed in Britain next year for the first time in 900 years.

It will be exhibited at the British Museum in London from September 2026 to July 2027 as part of a bilateral celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, the French nobleman who led the invasion. The loan was announced during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to the UK this week.

Millions of Britons and people from around the world are expected to view this slice of English history — which is normally housed in France at a dedicated museum in Bayeux, in Normandy — while it is on loan to the British Museum. The Bayeux Tapestry Museum will close later this year until 2027 for the construction of new facilities.

Here is a brief history of the Bayeux Tapestry, which shines a light on the long and sometimes bloody links between Britain and France.

Art, propaganda and history

Stitched in wool thread on linen cloth, the tapestry tells the story of the events surrounding the Norman invasion of England.

The story begins in 1064 when Edward the Confessor, the king of England, sends his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson to offer his cousin William, the Duke of Normandy, the succession to the English throne. When Edward died, however, Harold has himself crowned king and William set sail for England to reclaim the throne. The tapestry ends with the epic Battle of Hastings on Oct. 14, 1066, where William’s Normans rout the Anglo-Saxon forces.

Historians suggest the events leading to the invasion were a bit messier. But the artwork in thread tells the story of the victor.

There are banquets, fleets of Viking-style ships, and battles between armored knights wielding swords and spears. The bodies of the dead and wounded are strewn about the battlefield, and one scene depicts Harold pulling an arrow from his eye.

The story is told in 58 scenes that include 626 characters and 202 horses.

While the tapestry is a work of art, it is also considered an accurate account of 11th century life, offering clues about architecture, armor and ships.

Kept in a box for 700 years

Historian’s believe the tapestry was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, shortly after the events it depicts. Exactly who crafted it is unknown, though evidence suggests the artisans were Anglo-Saxons, according to the Bayeux Tapestry Museum.

For the first 700 years of its existence, the tapestry was a little known church artifact that was hung in Bayeux Cathedral once a year and stored in a wooden chest at other times. According to local lore, it was almost cut up in 1792 during the French Revolution, but was saved by a local lawyer.

The first public displays of the tapestry took place at Bayeux city hall in 1812.

Studied by the Nazis

At the start of World War II the tapestry was placed in an underground shelter in Bayeux for safekeeping. But by 1941 it had attracted the attention of the Nazi’s pseudoscientific ancestral heritage unit, which removed it for study. By the end of the war, the tapestry was at the Louvre in Paris.

After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June of 1944, The New Yorker magazine played off the parallel between those events and the Norman invasion of England nine centuries earlier. The cover of the magazine’s July 15, 1944, edition showed Britain’s King George VI, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a cartoon version of the tapestry alongside Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery.

British authorities highlighted the connection when they built a memorial in Bayeux to honor U.K. and Commonwealth soldiers who died in Normandy.

“We, once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror’s native land,” reads the inscription on the memorial.

‘It reeks of male hormones!’

For those who can’t wait until next year, the Reading Museum, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of London, has a full-size replica of the Bayeux Tapestry.

The “faithful replica” was created in 1885 by 35 skilled female embroiders, according to the museum’s website, though one thing you won’t see in the Reading Museum’s tapestry is genitalia. The Victorian artisans who created the replica worked off glass photographic plates that obscured the spicy details that were included in the original.

“Although a faithful copy, it’s not quite exactly the same,″ said Brendan Carr, the community engagement curator at the Reading Museum. “There are differences that you can spot. So if any visitors to the museum might be shocked by, you know, body parts, then they’re protected if they come to Reading.”

Such niceties didn’t stop an Oxford University historian from counting 93 penises, 88 belonging to horses and five to men, in the original. But earlier this year Dr. Chris Monk, a consultant on medieval history, argued that that an appendage previously thought to be a scabbard was actually another example of male genitalia, pushing the number to 94.

Male genitals are a “mode of emphasis” that articulate machismo, Monk wrote in a blog post.

“A more testosterone-soaked scene is hard to find,” he wrote. “Well, truthfully, there are plenty of scenes of political aggression and posturing in the Bayeux Tapestry: it reeks of male hormones!”

Danica Kirka, The Associated Press

A 12-year-old boy has died after a fire in south London.

Emergency services were called to a blaze at a block of maisonettes in Lewisham Road, Lewisham, just before midnight on Tuesday.

A boy, aged 12, died at the scene, the Metropolitan Police said.

Officers attended the scene alongside the London Fire Brigade and London Ambulance Service.

London Fire Brigade said ten fire engines and 70 firefighters were dispatched to tackle the fire.

A maisonette split between the ground and first floors was destroyed by the fire. Part of a maisonette split between the second and third floors was also damaged by the fire.

The boy’s family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.

A woman, aged 54, was treated at the scene by London Ambulance Service taken to hospital. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Three other people left the building before the Brigade arrived at the scene.

The fire was brought under control by 2am on Wednesday.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Firefighters said it is not believed to be suspicious at this stage.

Detective Chief Inspector Danian Reid, from the Met’s local investigations team in south east London, said: “This is a tragic incident and our thoughts are with everyone involved.

“We continue to work alongside investigators from the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire.

“We understand the impact this will have on the community and there will be local neighbourhood officers, and other emergency services, in the area as enquiries continue.”