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Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro said the city has suffered damage 'in the hundreds of millions' of pounds after the second-highest tide in the city's history. The city's historic Saint Mark's Basilica (inset) has 'suffered irreparable damage, especially in the lower section of the mosaics and tiling,' Venice Archbishop Francesco Moraglia told a news conference. The church was flooded for just the sixth time in 1,200 years while the adjacent St Mark's Square was submerged by more than three feet of water - so deep that one man even swam across it (bottom right). The flood also brought misery to tourists and shopkeepers (a ferry is left stranded after the water levels receded, top image; a clothes shop is submerged in water, bottom left; water pours from a doorway in a hotel, bottom centre). The mayor said the floods were 'the result of climate change' and warned of severe damage after the tide peaked at nearly 6ft 2in last night, just short of the record 6ft 5in set in 1966. 

Video footage of the defendant's first police interview was played to a jury at Auckland's High Court in New Zealand today. It showed him trying to convince police for more than an hour that he said goodbye to Grace, 22, of Wickford, Essex, (top inset) after their Tinder date ended in December last year and he went drinking with friends instead. But he was forced to concede he was lying after detectives presented him with a CCTV still of him entering the hotel where Grace died the next day with the suitcase she was discovered in (footage left). Jurors were also shown images of the shocking moment detectives found the suitcase Grace's naked body was found in buried in a wooded area outside Auckland (right).

The former head of the Armed Forces and a D-Day veteran (left) who served his country in every major conflict until he retired in 1985 was smeared by fantasist Carl Beech, known as 'Nick', whose lies were swallowed whole by the Met. Lord Bramall, who died at home yesterday aged 95, said police should have been in the dock too and accused Scotland Yard of perverting the course of justice and of raiding his home for a PR stunt when it was led by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe (inset right). The hero has now died without a single officer being held to account in a case that caused widespread revulsion because of the way detectives and Labour's Tom Watson (inset left) gave credibility to Beech's incredible and invented claims about a VIP paedophile ring. Speaking to Nick Ferrari on LBC, Mr Gove (right yesterday) said: 'It was shameful how he was treated in his last years. Action does need to be taken. It is absolutely vital that Lord Bramall's family see that justice is done'.

Mark Davies, who is a first tier immigration tribunal judge and the chairman of the historic Barlow Hunt, denies attacking Austin Jordan and William Robinson during a New Year's day hunt in Derbyshire. The judge's lawyers complained in court that a hunt saboteur group had later published online a photo of him posing for a nude charity calendar in 2007. The case came before Chesterfield Magistrates' Court this week and the court was told the clash unfolded during a trail hunt in the Peak District.

Amanda Wakeley, the British fashion designer who has supplied evening dresses to countless celebrities and royals, was mugged near Chelsea Harbour, west London at around 9.30am. The thieves let the tyres of her car down, stalling her, before riding up and threatening her with an axe. Ms Wakeley (pictured, left, with partner Hugo Morrison), is said to be unhurt, but a source close to her told MailOnline 'this has obviously been a terrifying experience'. She has thanked police for their response and is determined to help catch the muggers, even providing a photo (right) of the moped's number plate.

The workman, who was driving a Ford Transit van through Hendon, north west London on Tuesday attacked the following car with an unidentified object having pulled up abruptly on the street. The footage was shared on a Facebook page devoted to London crime.

Sarah Barrass, 35, (top right) and Brandon Machin, 39, (above, left) were jailed for 35 years yesterday for strangling their son Tristan, 13, (bottom right) in front of 14-year-old Blake (below, left) before killing him as social services edged toward rescuing them from their chaotic home life in Sheffield. After the 12-minute murder spree they attempted to drown a third child in the bath and planned to kill the other three using drugs overdoses, two of whom were under three years of age, but Barrass then called the police. The horrific case raises major questions about who knew the truth and how they kept an illegal sexual relationship secret despite being on the radar of social services since the 1990s - telling people Machin was an attentive uncle despite having six 'planned' children. Today the couple's younger brother Martyn - who shares the same mother - revealed he spoke to social services 10 years before the boys' murder and said: 'Those two have been evil since birth… murdering, evil psychopaths'. He added: 'They loved killing things and inflicting pain. Brandon and Sarah would laugh, chasing the mice - stamping on them, killing them. I tried to push them away but they were too strong'.

The first public impeachment hearing of President Donald Trump's efforts to tie U.S. aid for Ukraine to investigations of his political opponents begins Wednesday. Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William Taylor and George Kent, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, are slated to testify on Capitol Hill before the House Intelligence Committee. Witnesses will be questioned by Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Devin Nunes, followed by members of three committees. Assisting Schiff will be Daniel Goldman, a former Manhattan prosecutor who helped take down members of the Russian mob and Italian Mafia.

Nigel Farage came out swinging at his critics this afternoon as he insisted he will not stand down any more of his Brexit Party candidates at the general election. Mr Farage paid a visit to a boxing club in London and declared that he had weathered a series of 'very heavy blows' in recent days after he announced his decision to pull out of 317 Tory-held seats. He is under growing pressure to go even further and scrap plans to contest Labour-held Leave-backing marginal seats which will be key Tory targets on December 12. But Mr Farage today refused to budge as he said he would not give into what he described as 'intimidation'.

Andrew Griffiths, 49, who sent over 2,000 sordid texts to two barmaids (Imogen Treharne, right) last year, yesterday bowed out of the race to be re-elected to Parliament for the plum seat of Burton and Uttoxeter. He instead threw his support behind wife Kate Griffiths, who was last night chosen by local Tory members to fight next month's election (couple pictured left, in 2018 after the birth of their first child). She is reportedly set to distance herself from her disgraced husband, who she is divorcing, in the upcoming campaign (inset, on their 2013 wedding day).

Chloe Bradley, then 17, (pictured left, outside Bolton Crown Court yesterday and right) messaged 27-year old Anthony Roscoe (inset) about a rendezvous and then escorted the young girl to his home where he took it in turns to have sex with both of them. Police got involved when a passing patrol became suspicious when they spotted the girls leaving Roscoe's home, in St Helens, at 5.30am the following morning. Bradley's phone was examined and found to contain conversations between herself and Roscoe. When detectives quizzed him about the incident he said: 'When somebody hands you the Holy Grail, you're going to grab it, aren't you.' In a statement the victim, now 14, who was missing from home at the time of the incident said: 'I feel numb about what happened and I don't know how to feel about what's happened to me. It's changed me mentally, I don't sleep and I have flashbacks.'

The House holds its first televised impeachment hearing on Wednesday, with top Ukraine diplomat Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent testifying. House Intelligene chairman Rep. Adam Schiff will run the hearing and GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of California is the top Republican. Schiff is exploring whether Trump abused his office through efforts to push Ukraine to probe the Bidens and 2016 elections.

Roman Polanski, 86, was seen leaving through a backstage exit from Cinema UGC Normandie following the screening of J'Accuse on Tuesday night (pictured: Polanski leaving the theatre tonight, right and bottom left; and a few miles away protesters at another screening, top left). A few miles across town, protests took place at another premiere. Demonstrators held banners accusing Polanski of being a rapist and the film industry of complicity. It comes as Polanksi's lawyer said on Sunday he would consider suing Le Parisien for publishing claims by a former actress that she was raped by Polanksi at the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad in 1975, when she was 18.