Keir Starmer says £88m package will help tackle trend of young people becoming ‘disconnected from their communities’
Youth clubs and after-school activities in England will receive a funding injection of £88m as ministers try to get more children away from smartphones and computer screens.
The package, which Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday, is intended to give pupils access to sport, outdoor activities, art, music, debating and volunteering.
Continue reading...Charities urge government to move quickly after it announced scheme to help critically ill and injured children
More than 100 critically ill and injured children in Gaza hope to come to the UK as soon as possible after the government announced a scheme to provide those in severe need with NHS care.
The government announced on Sunday that it would evacuate children from Gaza to the UK for treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.
Continue reading...Emergency measures bailed out jails at last minute as No 10 refused to cut prisoner numbers until ‘cliff edge’ reached, former watchdog reports
The criminal justice system was within days of collapse on three occasions before being bailed out by “last-minute emergency measures”, an independent review by a former prisons watchdog has found.
Dame Anne Owers said the prison system, under pressure from overcrowding, was “in crisis” between autumn 2023 and the summer of 2024, but No 10 under Rishi Sunak refused to cut the numbers in jail until “the next predictable cliff edge”.
Continue reading...Merz walks fine line as ‘lazy Germans’ debate sparks protest and economy minister calls to raise retirement age to 70
The fact that ageing Germany’s generous pension system is unsustainable is political Berlin’s worst-kept secret, but a controversial call to save it by hiking the retirement age to 70 has sparked howls of protest and threatened to destabilise the fractious government.
The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely sidestepped the ticking timebomb of the greying population since taking office in May, preferring instead to announce sweeteners such as tax breaks for older Germans to continue working past the retirement age.
Continue reading...Rodent said to be 22in (56cm) long from nose to tail found in Normanby, where rat problem is said to be worsening
Cuts to council pest control services are being blamed for a town’s rodent problem, which includes the discovery of a supersize rat said to be 22in (56cm) from nose to tail.
The giant rat, about the length of the carry-on luggage people might be wheeling on to a flight – or, if not on holiday, a desktop monitor – was found inside a person’s home in Normanby, Teesside.
Continue reading...Minister points to ‘sexist’ practice of country relying on women to provide services so government did not have to
Labour MP Jess Phillips has said the UK has got “fat” from the free labour of women for decades.
The minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls said the country has relied on women providing charity, adding it was a “fundamentally sexist” practice that meant the government was less willing to provide the service itself.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Data reveals ‘invisible crisis’ with millions yet to have first specialist appointment or diagnostic test
Almost half of the 6 million people needing treatment from the NHS in England have had no further care at all since joining a hospital waiting list, new data reveals.
Previously unseen NHS England figures show that 2.99 million of the 6.23 million patients (48%) awaiting care have not had either their first appointment with a specialist or a diagnostic test since being referred by a GP.
Continue reading...Stephenson to take over at equality watchdog even though committees raised concerns about breadth of experience
Mary-Ann Stephenson has been confirmed as the new chair of the equalities watchdog, after the government overruled the objections of parliament’s equalities committee over her suitability for the job.
Stephenson, the chair of the Women’s Budget Group, will take on the role at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in December. It includes responsibility for implementing guidance about transgender rights after the supreme court judgment on the definition of a woman.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing urges ministers to improve 3.6% offer to avoid industrial action ballot later this year
Nine out of 10 nurses have rejected a 3.6% pay award for this year and warned they could strike later this year unless their salaries are improved.
In an indicative vote among members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 91% said the 3.6% rise was not enough.
Continue reading...Warning: this article contains graphic and distressing testimony and images
Research documents ‘horrific and extreme’ attacks by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and warns that impunity has meant such atrocities are expanding to new regions
Hundreds of health workers across Tigray have documented mass rape, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy and sexual torture of women and children by Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers, in systematic attacks that amount to crimes against humanity, a new report has found.
The research, compiled by Physicians for Human Rights and the Organization for Justice and Accountability in the Horn of Africa (OJAH), represents the most comprehensive documentation yet of weaponised sexual violence in Tigray. It reviewed medical records of more than 500 patients, surveys of 600 health workers, and in-depth interviews with doctors, nurses, psychiatrists and community leaders.
Continue reading...Chinese media said more than 100,000 were members of Telegram group that shared pictures taken without consent
Anger is growing on Chinese social media after news reports revealed the existence of online groups, said to involve hundreds of thousands of Chinese men, which shared photographs of women, including sexually explicit ones, taken without their consent.
The Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily published a report last week about a group on the encrypted messaging app Telegram called “MaskPark tree hole forum”. It said it had more than 100,000 members and was “comprised entirely of Chinese men”.
Additional research by Lillian Yang and Jason Tzu Kuan Lu
Continue reading...Aid agencies, governments and UN’s food security monitor report evidence of worsening starvation, particularly among under-fives
Humanitarian experts and doctors are warning that children, elderly people and those with pre-existing health conditions are most at risk of famine in Gaza.
Pro-Israeli activists and Israel’s foreign ministry have tried to challenge the veracity of shocking pictures that have appeared in the international media, despite widespread and well-documented evidence of growing and worsening famine under conditions of Israeli restrictions on aid.
Continue reading...Changes to welfare reforms not enough to protect newly sick and disabled people from financial hardship
About 50,000 people who become disabled or chronically ill will be pushed into poverty by the end of the decade because of cuts to incapacity benefit, despite ministers dropping the bulk of its welfare reform plans, MPs have warned.
The work and pensions select committee report welcomed ministers’ decision earlier this month to drop some of the most controversial aspects of its disability reforms in the face of a parliamentary revolt by over 100 Labour backbenchers.
Continue reading...American Medical Association writes to health secretary after reports he aims to overhaul taskforce for being ‘woke’
A top US medical body has expressed “deep concern” to Robert F Kennedy Jr over news reports that the health secretary plans to overhaul a panel that determines which preventive health measures including cancer screenings should be covered by insurance companies.
The letter from the the American Medical Association comes after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Kennedy plans to overhaul the 40-year old US Preventive Services Task Force because he regards them as too “woke”, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Continue reading...Modified images of minors appear on social media account allegedly owned by 17-year-old
Police in eastern Spain are investigating a 17-year-old boy on suspicion of using artificial intelligence to create and share fake nude images of his female schoolmates that he intended to sell online.
Guardia Civil officers in the Ribera Alta area of Valencia began investigating in December last year after a female student reported the creation of a social media account in her name that featured an AI-generated video.
Continue reading...Event becomes biggest of its kind as more than 100,000 turn out to support its ‘existence and resistance’ theme
More than 100,000 people took to the streets for London Trans+ Pride 2025 on Saturday, making it the biggest such event in the world, organisers said.
The route wound through the centre of the capital’s most famous sites, taking in Regent’s Street, Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square. It concluded at Parliament Square with speakers including Heartstopper and Doctor Who actor Yasmin Finney.
Continue reading...The BMA says resident doctors have seen their pay fall by a much greater amount in real terms since 2008-09 than the rest of the population
The Conservatives have accused Labour of having “opened the door” to fresh resident doctors’ strikes with a “spineless surrender to union demands last year”.
Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew said: “They handed out inflation-busting pay rises without reform, and now the BMA are back for more.
It is hard to believe that, yet again, we are going into industrial action by our resident (formerly junior) doctors. It has only been a year since the last round of strikes and the length of this one – five days at two weeks’ notice over the summer when people are away – is designed to send a message.
Consultants were, by and large, supportive of the previous rounds of strikes. There is a recognition our residents have it harder than we did. There is more financial hardship than there used to be, their salaries don’t go as far as ours did when we were training, and they have amassed more student debt.
Continue reading...Beeban Kidron says it is not ‘nanny state’ to prevent firms investing billions on making platforms addictive from targeting under-18s
A leading online safety campaigner has urged the UK government to “detoxify the dopamine loops” of addictive social media platforms as tech companies prepare to implement significant child protection measures.
Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer, asked the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to use the Online Safety Act to bring forward new codes of conduct on disinformation and on tech features that can lead to children becoming addicted to online content.
Continue reading...The warning comes after a string of shows by women comedians joking about men went viral
Chinese provincial officials have warned comedians against stirring up discord between the genders, instructing them to criticise constructively rather than “for the sake of being funny”.
The warning came from authorities in eastern Zhejiang province on WeChat over the weekend after a comedian referred to her allegedly abusive marriage in a performance that went viral on Chinese social media.
Continue reading...Cutting aid budget to 0.3% of national income will hurt many African countries, says FCDO impact assessment
Labour’s deep aid cuts will hit children’s education and increase the risk of disease and death in some African countries, according to the government’s own impact assessment.
Keir Starmer announced earlier this year that he would reduce the aid budget to 0.3% of national income, from 0.5%, to fund increased spending on defence.
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