Lack of funding, resources and rehabilitation leads to bored and angry' prisoners, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben saysThe prison system is broken", with inmates returning to the community bored and angry" and set up to fail", according to Scotland's outgoing chief inspector.Wendy Sinclair-Gieben highlighted a succession of failings in a service she described as the underdog of the criminal justice system", as she stands down as HM chief inspector of prisons for Scotland at the end of August. Continue reading...

Stella Creasy says she wants to put school and hospital debts and impact of trade deals on nation's books'A senior Labour backbencher is seeking to have liabilities from schools and hospitals built under private finance initiative (PFI) deals scrutinised under a new budget responsibility bill.Stella Creasy, who has tabled two amendments to the bill, said this would help highlight the scale of debt incurred. She also wants trade deals such as the post-Brexit arrangement with the EU to fall under its remit, arguing these can have an even greater fiscal impact. Continue reading...

As the final report on the fatal London blaze looms, many developers have not begun safety work Rowan Moore: The Grenfell inquiry is exposing a culture of contempt that has run deep in BritainGrenfell was an avoidable tragedy, the inquiry's counsel said on the final day of hearings. Yet with the report into the blaze that claimed 72 lives due this week, residents of other tower blocks fear that not enough has been done to prevent another catastrophe.One of them is Gemma Lindfield. The 45-year-old barrister is still waiting for flammable cladding to be removed from her eight-storey apartment block in east London. It took three years before anyone even realised there was a problem. The following four years have been mired in indecision and wrangling about exactly who will pay to fix it. Continue reading...

Covid's world of masks and remote health visits has created a generation at risk of social and emotional difficultiesBabies born in 2020 started life in the strange world of lockdown in a small bubble of people with faces hidden behind masks. Social experiences, such as seeing extended family, trips to the playground or mother and baby groups, could not happen. And struggling public services meant infants were likely to miss out on face-to-face appointments with a health visitor who might have been able to spot developmental difficulties early.Those babies are now four years old, and in England are arriving at school for the first time this week. Experts say teachers should be braced to encounter - and tackle - problems ranging from poor speech and language development to social and emotional difficulties. Continue reading...

Impact of abolishing policy would be dented unless overall cap is reformed, figures showTens of thousands of children affected by the two-child benefit limit may not be lifted out of poverty unless the overall benefit cap is reformed, official figures show.Introduced by the Conservatives, the two-child limit stops households with a third or subsequent child born from 6 April 2017 receiving additional universal credit or child tax credits for these members of the family. Continue reading...

It's the third explanation government ministers have given since last Sunday, while Coalition senator Andrew Bragg says questions are reasonable'

New York-born artist, 53, known for collaborating with Missy Elliott, was performing in Connecticut on FridayThe US rapper Fatman Scoop has died after he collapsed mid-performance during a free concert in Connecticut on Friday night, according to reports.The New York-born artist, whose real name is Isaac Freeman III, was headlining the so-called Green & Gold Party in Hamden, Connecticut, when he had what was described as a medical emergency. He was seen in a video posted on X to have collapsed behind the DJ booth after urging concertgoers to make some noise". Continue reading...

Police believes no third party involved in incident after bodies found in Staines-Upon-ThamesThree children and a man have been found dead in a house in Surrey.Police discovered their bodies in a property in Bremer Road, Staines-Upon-Thames, at about 1.15pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

Israel accused of using a 10-year-old girl as a human shield as it carried out its devastating attack on the occupied Palestinian territoryWhen Israeli soldiers arrived at the modest house along an alleyway in Nur Shams camp on Wednesday night, they sent the women and four of the children out into the street, but kept hold of Malak Shihab.They took the muzzle off their dog and it went straight up to the slight 10-year-old girl and sniffed her. Terrified, she pleaded to be with her mother, but the soldiers seemed to have just one phrase in accented Arabic: Open the doors." Continue reading...

Joseph Rowntree Foundation points to critical shift in expectations' and says the public now budget for many routine servicesMost people in the UK now believe they will have to spend their own money on private healthcare for routine services such as dentistry, physiotherapy and counselling because they won't be able to get them quickly on the NHS, pioneering new research has found.The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says its findings, based on extensive focus group analysis, is evidence that Britons have undergone a critical shift in expectations" about the health service's capacity to meet their needs. Continue reading...

The state will decide on a constitutional amendment in November over whether to allow for adult use of potDonald Trump has come out in support for a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, the state where he resides.In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump said personal amounts of marijuana will be legalized for adults" with Florida's amendment 3 whether people like it or not". Continue reading...

Keir Starmer struggling to sell his remedies for the problems facing Britain after Tory messThe prime minister is struggling to communicate how his government will address the significant problems facing the UK. While the public readily accepts that the last government left a mess, selling Labour's remedies as necessary or fair is proving more challenging.The incoming government's first job was to assign blame for the country's current woes. This proved relatively easy, given the last government's unpopularity and the Conservatives' poor campaign. Continue reading...

Convicted sex offender who was also found to have raped child's mother was allowed contact by family courtA mother found to have been raped by her ex-partner was devastated" after the family court permitted the convicted sex offender to have contact with their child.Kristoffer Paul Arthur White, a serial rapist, was granted unsupervised access to his daughter following a recommendation by a Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) officer, who carried out a risk assessment for thecourt. Continue reading...

Several cases have been confirmed and cattle are being kept in restricted zonesThe movement of sheep and cattle has been restricted in Norfolk and Suffolk after several confirmed cases of bluetongue disease.A restricted zone has been put in place to mitigate the risk of further cases of disease occurring", the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. Continue reading...

Public diners as seen in 1940s Britain - offering nutritious meals at reasonable prices - should be everyday eating places, says MP-backed reportIn 1940s Britain, at a time before fast food and ready meals were staples of the British high street and in a country struggling to deal with the ramifications of war, a popular new restaurant chain was established.It served high-quality meals at reasonable prices, attracted customers from the full spectrum of British society, and grew at a rate of 10 new sites a week at its most popular. The brains behind the operation? The British government, led by the prime minister, Winston Churchill. Continue reading...

Anera says four men who died in Gaza were locals who asked to serve as escort for convoy, but IDF describes them as armed assailants'

Officials say it is too dangerous to send in divers to look for the Indian woman who has now been missing for eight daysThe search for an Indian tourist who was swallowed by a sinkhole in Malaysia's capital has stalled after being deemed too risky".Vijaya Lakshmi Gali was walking along a road in Kuala Lumpur on 23 August when the pavement beneath her suddenly collapsed. She plunged into an 8-metre-deep (26ft) sinkhole and disappeared. Rescuers have found no trace of her so far except for her slippers. Continue reading...

The family watched the rare 3,500-year-old jar, believed used for wine or oil, being restored at the Hecht MuseumSmashing a rare museum artefact dating back thousands of years would probably earn you a lifetime ban at the very least.But a four-year-old who accidentally toppled a jar from the bronze age, leaving it broken into pieces, was welcomed back to the Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, a week after the unfortunate incident. Continue reading...

New figures reveal that public bodies paid out at least 60% more to consultancies in 2023-24 than it did pre-pandemicPrivate consultants were paid a scandalous" 3.4bn by public bodies last year, new figures reveal.The statistics, from outsourcing data company Tussell, show that government spending on private consultants was 1.3bn (62%) higher in 2023-24 than 2019-20. They also reveal that the surge in consultant spending seen during Covid has failed to come back down to pre-pandemic levels. Continue reading...

After battling endometriosis herself, a British entrepreneur backs 1m study hoping to improve understanding of the diseaseMarie Macklin was on a Christmas shopping trip in Glasgow in 1997 when she collapsed in a store and was taken to hospital in severe pain. My dad arrived and I told him, I'm dying'," recalled the businesswoman and entrepreneur.Macklin, then 32, turned out to be suffering from endometriosis, a disease in which cells similar to those that line the womb grow elsewhere in the body and can cause severe, chronic pain. The type affecting Macklin was ovarian endometriosis (sometimes referred to as chocolate cysts'). Macklin's cysts were bursting inside her. Continue reading...

She completed 2012 London Marathon in 17 days and raised nearly 1m after being paralysed in a riding fallA charity campaigner who completed a marathon in a bionic suit after being paralysed in a riding accident has died, aged 44.Claire Lomas, who raised nearly 1m competing in events across the country, died following an accident in Jordan on 22 August, her family said. Continue reading...

One person still missing after aircraft that was returning from a firefighting mission crashed into riverPortugal has declared a day of mourning after a firefighting helicopter crashed in the Douro River leaving at least four dead and one missing.The pilot survived the accident, which happened in Lamego a little after 12.30pm on Friday afternoon while the helicopter was returning from fighting a fire near Baiao, just inland from the city of Porto. Continue reading...

Bus was heading to festival in Siegen near Cologne when incident took place on Friday eveningA 32-year-old woman has been arrested after six people were hurt in a knife attack on a bus headed to a festival in western Germany. Authorities said there was no evidence of a political or religious motive.Three of those attacked are in life-threatening condition, police said on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Unseasonably strong winds and record-breaking warm weather has been forecast to continue through the weekend

Experts say sprawling' system, negative attitudes and lack of staff support makes equal access hard to ensure

Prime minister defends government's backflip on census and says single question on sexuality will not limit scope of data

Founding chair Graeme Innes launches petition and accuses service provider of hypocrisy over recruitment for top job

China's representative demanded the scrapping of language about Taiwan in the final communique; Pacific countries will get a new multinational police unitPacific leaders gathered in Tonga this week to discuss the most pressing issues in the region. The group backed a Pacific-wide police training and rapid-response plan championed by Australia, and also reached agreement with France to allow a fact-finding mission to travel to New Caledonia to investigate the recent unrest. But the final day of the talks on Friday was overshadowed by a dispute over language about Taiwan.Here are the key takeaways from the Pacific Islands Forum (Pif) summit, the region's most important annual political gathering, bringing together Australia, New Zealand and 16 Pacific island countries or territories. Continue reading...

Opinion differs only over whether leadership is merely incompetent or actively working with NetanyahuIsrael said on Friday it had killed three militants including a senior Hamas official in an airstrike on a car outside Jenin on the third day of extensive military operations across the West Bank.Israeli leaders say the campaign is designed to pre-empt attacks on Israelis after a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv this month, the first for eight years. Continue reading...

Announcement follows questions over exceptional appointments of Labour donor and former thinktank stafferThe civil service appointments watchdog has launched a review of exceptional appointments to official jobs after a row about alleged cronyism, following a Labour donor and a former thinktank staffer being given roles.Gisela Stuart, the first civil service commissioner, has written to the heads of all government departments asking for details of any appointments since 1 July that were made without going through the normal civil service recruitment processes. Continue reading...

Animal was put down in 2021 after what breeder Helen Macdonald claims was flawed testing for bovine TBA woman who believes her alpaca was unlawfully executed by the state in a miscarriage of justice has said the prime minister should re-examine the case.Alpaca breeder Helen Macdonald said she urgently wanted to meet the newly appointed Labour government to discuss the fate of Geronimo, who was euthanised by the government in August 2021 after twice testing positive for contagious bovine tuberculosis. Continue reading...

Opponents of Labour proposal - including non-smokers - say smoking areas have brought together countless lovers and friendsWhen Lara Bose heard about Labour's proposed ban on outdoor smoking areas, she was shocked. Literally living with the person I got with in the smoking area three years ago. Keir hates love!" she posted on X.Bose, 21, met her partner, Ben, in the outdoor smoking section of a venue in London three years ago, where they shared a cigarette and their first kiss. Describing their fateful encounter at the Under the Bridge venue at Stamford Bridge stadium in 2021, Bose said she spotted Ben, a student at the same university, and found him attractive and charming. Continue reading...

Other private schools say they will absorb some of the cost of the removal of VAT exemptionEton college has sent a letter to parents saying it will raise its fees by a fifth in response to the government's removal of the VAT exemption on private schools. The annual fees will increase from 52,749 to about 63,000.In the letter, the school said: The provost and fellows regret that the government has chosen to tax education in this way. Continue reading...

Police called to house in Oldbury but teenager could not be savedA murder investigation has been launched into the death of a 13-year-old boy after he was stabbed in Oldbury, West Midlands police have said.The force said officers were called to a property in Oldbury, a town west of Birmingham, at about 4pm on Thursday by the ambulance service. A boy was found with stab wounds and treated by paramedics but could not be saved. Continue reading...

Judge tells Hinkley Point worker Gavin Pinder his part in violence is difficult to reconcile' with highly responsible' jobA highly paid" nuclear power plant worker who laughed as he took part in mob violence outside a mosque in Southport has been jailed for two years and four months.Liverpool crown court heard that Gavin Pinder, 47, had a highly paid, responsible" job at Hinkley Point in Somerset. Continue reading...

Wassem Hazem, commander in Jenin, killed in car Israel says container weapons and cashThere is more coming to us on reports from the Israeli military of the death of local Hamas commander in Jenin, Wassem Hazem (see 9.48am post) and two Hamas gunmen.Hamas has not yet commented on the incident.In the village of Zababdeh, just outside Jenin, a burnt-out car riddled with bullet holes stood against a wall where the driver crashed the vehicle after being pursued by an Israeli special forces unit, residents said.Villager Saif Ghannam, 25, said one of the two other men who escaped from the vehicle was killed just outside his house by a small drone strike that shattered the windows, while a second man was killed a short distance away. Continue reading...

With 500,000 households a year cancelling their TV licence, the corporation may have to do less with less to surviveWithin days of her appointment as culture secretary, Lisa Nandy met one of the few prominent BBC presenters who is not currently embroiled in a scandal: Hacker T Dog, the puppet star of CBBC.Hacker, I don't know if you remember but you once met my little boy and made him cry," Nandy told the troublesome terrier at the BBC's Salford studios last month. So I'm afraid I am announcing today that I am shutting the BBC down." Continue reading...

More electricity demand and lower than usual generation from two renewable sources raises questions about climate targets

Sahra Wagenknecht attacked while about to speak on stage in run-up to Thuringia and Saxony state electionsThe leader of a breakaway populist leftwing party in Germany, Sahra Wagenknecht, has been sprayed with pink paint while campaigning in elections in the eastern state of Thuringia.Wagenknecht, a former high-profile member of the far-left party Die Linke who this year founded the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), was attacked on stage on Thursday as she prepared to address crowds in Erfurt. She ducked as a man approached the stage and spattered paint in her direction, which hit her dress and face. Continue reading...

Sales up more than 500%, while streaming of band's music on Spotify has also surgedSales of Oasis music have soared since the band announced it was reforming for a series of live gigs next summer, with vinyl and CD sales up more than 500% in the past week at HMV.The music chain, which operates almost 130 high street stores under the HMV and Fopp brands in the UK as well as an online shop, said that sales across the Manchester band's full catalogue have increased by 526% after the reunion tour announcement compared with last week. Continue reading...

Rough weather forces flight from Mexico to Chicago to make emergency landing in MemphisSevere turbulence caused injuries to seven people on a United Airlines flight from Cancun in Mexico to Chicago and forced an emergency landing in Memphis, according to the airline.The Boeing 737 was hit by the rough weather and forced to land on Wednesday in the latest such incident to hit the industry. One person was taken to hospital. Continue reading...

In sit-down with CNN's Dana Bash, vice-president defends shifts on policy issues and her support for BidenKamala Harris sat for her first interview as the Democratic presidential nominee with CNN's Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz, on Thursday, and defended her shifts on certain policy issues over the years and her support for Joe Biden.In the interview, which was taped from Savannah, Georgia, earlier on Thursday, the vice-president said her highest priority upon taking office would be to support and strengthen the middle class" through policies including increasing the child tax credit, curtailing price gouging on everyday goods and increasing access to affordable housing - all policies that she has announced since she started campaigning for the presidency. Continue reading...

Employees could work longer hours over fewer days under government proposals for flexible working

Prime minister says there will be a question in the census' on sexuality after testing by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

Police continue hunt for man alleged to have thrown coffee on nine-month-old in Hanlon Park in Stones Corner on Tuesday

Wendy Hansen was last seen near Bundaberg in February before her remains were discovered at Coffs Harbour in June. Police say her death is suspicious

An alleged murder victim had a broken heart both literally and figuratively, defence barrister Michael Bonasia tells Brisbane supreme court

Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, from a prominent Spanish acting family, sentenced to life in prison after admitting dismembering the victim's body and disposing of itA court in Thailand has found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, a member of a famous Spanish acting family and a YouTube chef, guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced him to life in prison, in a lurid case that has gripped Spain.The 30-year-old was convicted of the murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, a 44-year-old plastic surgeon from Colombia, when both were vacationing on the Thai holiday island of Koh Pha-ngan in August 2023. Continue reading...

Victorian coroner finds baby's death was entirely preventable after inquest hears Covid lockdowns also affected care

Meteorological agency says over a metre of rain could fall in 48 hours as tens of thousands are advised to evacuate from storm's path in southern island of KyushuJapan's strongest typhoon of the year has made landfall in the country's south-west, bringing torrential rain and winds of up to 252 km/h (157 mph), strong enough to destroy homes.The meteorological agency said Typhoon Shanshan, referred to in Japan as Typhoon No 10, made landfall on the island of Kyushu at around 8am. The power company said 254,610 houses were already without electricity. Continue reading...