Category Archives: Society

British woman repeatedly trafficked for sex after Home Office failures

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High court judge intervenes to prevent victim of county lines sex exploitation being made street homeless after refusal to find her safe housing

A young and highly vulnerable British sex trafficking victim was re-trafficked by county lines drug gangs on multiple occasions after the Home Office repeatedly refused to fulfil its legal obligation to provide her with safe accommodation.

A high court judge was forced to intervene to compel the Home Office to house the woman, who was about to become street homeless.

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Met removes hundreds from gangs matrix after breaking data laws

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How list is compiled also to be reviewed amid claims it blights life chances and is discriminatory

Hundreds of young people have been removed from a controversial police list of alleged gang members after claims that it is discriminatory and blighted their life chances, the Guardian has learned.

The Metropolitan police’s gangs matrix, which the force says is a vital tool in tackling violence in London, has been found to be breaking data laws.

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Born on the M5: family thanks NHS staff for help with baby delivery

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Parents were on way to hospital when mother went into labour on busy motorway

A new mother has thanked emergency staff for helping her as she gave birth to a baby boy in the front seat of a car parked on a motorway lane while traffic whizzed past.

Jayne Rowland, 36, a teaching assistant, was on her way to hospital when she went into the final stages of labour on the M5 in Somerset.

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Amsterdam looks to bar foreign visitors from buying cannabis

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Mayor cites survey of tourists in Singel area as she looks to clean up overcrowded red-light district

The mayor of Amsterdam has sought to win political backing for her cleanup of the overcrowded red-light district by revealing that a third of foreign tourists and nearly half of Britons would be less likely to visit the city again if they were barred from buying cannabis in the coffee shops.

Femke Halsema, who is understood to want to reduce the number of outlets selling cannabis, attached the survey results to a letter to councillors announcing her intention to examine how they may reduce the attraction of drug use to tourists.

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‘One rule for black boys and another for white’: Corbyn attacks PM

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Jeremy Corbyn confronts Boris Johnson on drug use after deportation of ex-offenders

Jeremy Corbyn launched a scathing personal attack on Boris Johnson over the way black and white children connected to class A drugs are treated by the government in the wake of the deportation of ex-offenders to Jamaica.

Speaking in the Commons, the Labour leader called out the prime minister over allegations of Johnson’s own drug use, saying: “If there was a case of a young white boy with blond hair who later dabbled in class A drugs, and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist, would he deport that boy?

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‘It’s a pain you will never overcome’: crisis in Venezuela as babies die of malnutrition

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As Venezuela enters its seventh year of a crushing depression, doctors are seeing a rise in infant mortality rates due to deprivation

Her coffin was little larger than a shoe box. Her life had lasted three short months.

“She was a calm little thing,” the girl’s grandmother, Yamilet Zerpa, remembered as mourners filed into her sitting room to say their last goodbyes.

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Chile’s drastic anti-obesity measures cut sugary drink sales by 23%

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Experts welcome example of nation once drinking more per head than any other

The world’s toughest controls over the promotion of sugary drinks, brought in by a nation beset by obesity, have cut purchases by nearly a quarter in two years, research has shown.

Instead of a sugar tax, which the UK and other countries have chosen to impose, Chile has banned sales in schools and adopted stark black and white labels aimed at warning and educating families about the health dangers of junk food and drinks for their children.

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Disability charity boss jailed after stealing from pension fund

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Patrick McLarry sentenced to five years for defrauding scheme of more than £250,000

The former head of a charity has been jailed for five years after he admitted defrauding a pension scheme for workers with disabilities and using the money to buy houses in England and France.

Patrick McLarry took more than £250,000 from the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled and used it to buy homes for himself and his wife and pay off a debt for a pub lease.

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China trials anti-HIV drug on coronavirus patients

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News of Kaletra being tested as a possible treatment for the disease sparks panic buying

Coronavirus – latest news

A drug used to treat people with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, is being trialled in patients in China as a possible therapy against the coronavirus.

News that HIV drugs are being deployed in hospitals, however, has led to panic buying on the black market by people who fear they are ill or are going to get sick. They have been obtaining the drug, Kaletra, from generics companies in India and even from people with HIV in China willing to sell or donate their own stocks.

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Spain abandoning the poor despite economic recovery, says UN envoy

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Special rapporteur says urgent action is needed to tackle ‘appallingly high’ poverty rates

Spain is abandoning people in poverty and failing to take social rights seriously despite its post-recession recovery, according to a UN expert who has finished a 12-day fact-finding visit to the country.

Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said that while Spain had largely bounced back from the economic crisis of 2008, poverty rates remained “appallingly high” and urgent action was required.

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Tunisia to ban plastic bags in supermarkets and chemists

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Gradual phaseout will begin in March as part of government plan to outlaw all single-use bags by 2021

Tunisia has announced plans to stop its supermarkets and pharmacies from using single-use plastic bags from next month before phasing them out completely in 2021.

Plastic pollution has been a growing problem in the north African country in recent years, along with the challenges presented by its ancient industrial plants and barely managed household waste.

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We will end female genital mutilation only by backing frontline activists

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From the Gambia to Kenya, FGM has been fought most successfully at grassroots level. The world must pay heed

I underwent female genital mutilation at the age of seven, while on holiday in Djibouti. When I returned to school in the UK my teacher told me that this happened to “girls like me”.

Thankfully, this type of reaction is no longer common, and this country is much better equipped to protect girls at risk. FGM is now seen as a global issue, which we know has affected more than 200 million women and girls around the world.

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UK taxpayers funding African fossil fuel projects worth $750m

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Watchdog reveals huge sum ploughed into ‘world’s dirtiest fossil fuels’ despite climate vow

UK taxpayer funds totalling $750m (£577m) have been invested in new fossil fuel projects in developing African countries despite the government’s public commitment to tackling the climate crisis, according to an international watchdog.

Global Witness found that a London-based investment group raised $1bn from the UK government over 16 years and spent three-quarters of this supporting oil and gas projects in some of Africa’s poorest countries.

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Police uncovering ‘epidemic of child abuse’ in 1970s and 80s

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PM told to say sorry for remark about ‘spaffing’ money up wall as 4,024 claims lead to guilty verdicts

Police say they are uncovering a hidden “epidemic” of paedophile abuse in the 1970s and 1980s, with thousands of allegations leading to convictions against people who abused their power to attack children.

New figures seen by the Guardian show that 4,024 allegations led to guilty verdicts at court after police investigations since 2014 into decades-old child sex offences.

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How a new Sesame Street show is bringing Muppet magic to refugee camps

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Three new Muppets, Basma, Jad, and Ma’zooza, will star in new show for the millions of children displaced across the Middle East

Cooperation, kindness and the alphabet. For over 50 years, the characters of Sesame Street, from the Cookie Monster to Big Bird, have helped children from diverse backgrounds navigate the challenges of life as a small person in a big world.

From the moment it launched, Sesame Street has unflinchingly dealt with difficult issues – and from this week they are bringing their special brand of magic to the children who need them the most.

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Coronavirus crisis: Raab urges Britons to leave China

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UK citizens should leave ‘if they can’ to reduce risk of exposure to virus, says foreign secretary

All 30,000 British nationals in China have been urged to leave the country “if they can” because of the coronavirus outbreak, in a surprise move that prompted criticism that the UK government has left its citizens to fend for themselves.

In a further sign of mounting international concern about the spread of the coronavirus, the Foreign Office also recommended a ban on Britons travelling to China.

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