Paul Butler stabbed Claire Chick 23 times after she repeatedly reported to police he was stalking and harassing her
A man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 27 years for stabbing his estranged wife to death in Devon after she had made repeated allegations to police that he had been stalking and harassing her.
Paul Butler, 53, stabbed Claire Chick 23 times outside her apartment block in Plymouth on 23 January.
Continue reading...Charity set to reduce its workforce by more than a fifth this year amid mounting financial pressures
Scope expects to cut more than a fifth of its staff this year amid mounting financial pressures, with about a third of those affected to be disabled employees.
The disability charity announced a consultation last week over plans to place 124 of its 326 corporate roles at risk of redundancy, a move likely to result in about 70 job losses in the summer.
Continue reading...Policy in Practice analysis shows twice as many people affected in north-east, north-west and Wales than in London and south-east
A £5bn programme of disability benefits cuts planned by the UK government will disproportionately hit people living in Wales and northern England “entrenching deprivation”, according to new analysis.
The consultancy Policy in Practice has looked at how the proposed changes would affect individual regions and local authorities, and found the impact across the UK starkly uneven.
Continue reading...Internet Watch Foundation report shows 380% increase in illegal AI-generated imagery in 2024, most of it ‘category A’
Images of child sexual abuse created by artificial intelligence are becoming “significantly more realistic”, according to an online safety watchdog.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said advances in AI are being reflected in illegal content created and consumed by paedophiles, saying: “In 2024, the quality of AI-generated videos improved exponentially, and all types of AI imagery assessed appeared significantly more realistic as the technology developed.”
Continue reading...Labour backbenchers demand clarity on practical impact of transgender people’s use of toilets and hospital wards
Ministers have come under pressure to provide answers on how last week’s supreme court ruling on gender identity will affect the daily lives of transgender people, amid confusion over issues such as toilet provision and hospital wards.
Keir Starmer said he welcomed what he called “real clarity” and “a welcome step forward” in his first response to the court decision, which ruled that “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leaked report says high visa costs also derailing clinical trials and research, denying NHS life-saving drugs
The world’s best cancer doctors, scientists and researchers are being put off moving to or staying in the UK by politicians’ rhetoric on immigration, a leaked report reveals.
Recruiting and retaining “global talent” to treat NHS patients and find new ways to cure cancer is vital, amid an acute British workforce crisis and rising numbers being diagnosed with the disease.
Continue reading...Meeting called with justice secretary after attack on three guards at HMP Frankland
Prison officers will demand the immediate issue of electric stun guns to protect staff guarding Britain’s most dangerous jails when they meet the justice secretary this week.
Wednesday’s meeting with Shabana Mahmood was called after the attack on three guards at HMP Frankland, allegedly by the convicted terrorist Hashem Abedi. Two were seriously injured after being doused in hot cooking fat and stabbed, one five times in the torso, in a sustained assault.
Continue reading...Thousands gather in Parliament Square in a show of unity after supreme court judgment
After last week’s supreme court decision, activists had been worried that trans people might become fearful of going out in public in case they were abused.
They weren’t afraid in London on Saturday. Thousands of trans and non-binary people thronged Parliament Square, alongside families and supporters waving baby blue, white and pink flags to demonstrate their anger at the judges’ ruling.
Continue reading...Labour says move is hypocrisy since Greens support ban on no-fault evictions such as one served on Labour candidate and her family
A Green party council candidate is attempting to evict his Labour opponent from a house he owns using a no-fault notice, despite his party supporting a ban on exactly such kinds of eviction.
William Pedley, who is standing for the Greens in the Victoria ward of North Northamptonshire council, has served a section 21 notice on his tenant and political rival Kelly Duddridge, who has lived in the property for 10 years.
Continue reading...Pop star posts on Instagram about his fright and ‘discomfort’ when asked for photos and autographs
Robbie Williams has spoken of the “discomfort” and “panic” he feels when he is approached for photos and autographs by fans.
In a post on Instagram, the pop star said he was able to “mask” the reality that social interactions frighten him.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Henry Dimbleby joins farmers in voicing fears of lower standards and a poor deal for British food producers
Britain’s rural communities could be “destroyed”, the former government food tsar has said, if ministers sign a US trade deal that undercuts British farming standards.
Ministers are working on a new trade deal with the US, after previous post-Brexit attempts stalled. Unpopular agreements signed at the time with Australia and New Zealand featured tariff-free access to beef and lamb and were accused of undercutting UK farmers, who are governed by higher welfare standards than their counterparts. Australia, in a trade deal signed by Liz Truss in late 2021 that came into effect in 2023, was given bespoke sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards aimed to not be more “trade-restrictive than necessary to protect human life and health”.
Continue reading...Orforglipron also reduced blood sugar levels in participants with type 2 diabetes
A significant trial of a daily weight-loss pill has found that it helped people to shed the pounds and reduce their blood sugar levels, making it a contender to join the new wave of drugs that combat obesity and diabetes.
People who took a 36mg pill of orforglipron lost an average of 7.3kg (16lbs) over nine months, according to results from a phase 3 clinical trial reported by the drug’s manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on Thursday.
Continue reading...Surgeries will be able to claim money if doctors refer patients to an out-of-hospital setting in bid to cut waiting lists
GPs in England will be paid £20 each time they decide not to send a patient to hospital under a government scheme to help reduce the NHS waiting list.
Family doctors will be able to claim the money if they instead refer patients for tests and treatment in an out-of-hospital setting, such as a health clinic, or to see a community-based specialist.
Continue reading...Judges say definition of women and sex in Equality Act 2010 act refers to biological women and biological sex
The definition of a woman and sex in the Equality Act relates to “a biological woman and biological sex”, the supreme court has ruled as it unanimously allowed an appeal from gender critical campaign group For Women Scotland.
A possible outcome of the case is that the court will agree with the previous interpretation of the law as it stands, but suggest parliament considers amending the Equality Act to deal with these previously unforeseen consequences.
Continue reading...Judges rule that Equality Act definition excludes transgender women holding gender recognition certificates
Gender critical rights campaigners have won their supreme court challenge over the definition of a woman.
Five judges from the UK supreme court ruled unanimously that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 did not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates (GRCs).
Continue reading...Medical information will be available from UK Biobank, despite western intelligence agencies’ security fears
Researchers from China are to be allowed access to half a million UK GP records despite western intelligence agencies’ fears about the authoritarian regime amassing health data, the Guardian can reveal.
Preparations are under way to transfer the records to UK Biobank, a research hub that holds detailed medical information donated by 500,000 volunteers. One of the world’s largest troves of health data, the facility makes its information available to universities, scientific institutes and private companies. A Guardian analysis shows one in five successful applications for access come from China.
Continue reading...The country’s three special units at high-security prisons are in spotlight after Hashem Abedi’s assault against staff
With its high, ugly, grey concrete perimeter walls HMP Frankland looks as grim from the outside as you would expect for a place nicknamed “Monster Mansion”.
Since it was opened in 1983 on the leafy outskirts of Durham – near a 13th-century priory used for centuries as a holiday retreat for Benedictine monks – its inmates have included Peter Sutcliffe, Harold Shipman and Charles Bronson.
Continue reading...NGOs warn of ‘some difficult years’ ahead as increasing humanitarian needs meet shrinking finances
The dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has captured headlines, but “very regrettable” reductions in European aid budgets are also contributing to a void in support for some of the poorest people in the world’s most fragile states, according to MEPs and NGOs.
Isabella Lövin, a deputy chair of the European parliament’s development committee, said USAID cuts would have “very dramatic consequences around the world”. But she also criticised recent decisions by EU member states to reduce their aid budgets as “very regrettable” and “wrong”. It would be impossible for the EU to fill the gap, she added.
Continue reading...Mental Health Foundation says civil unrest last summer left many fearful of attacks by far-right protesters
Last summer’s riots, which took place after the murder of three girls at a Southport dance class, led to a deterioration in the mental health of asylum seekers, with many becoming fearful of walking down the street in case they were targeted by far-right protesters, according to a report.
The report from the Mental Health Foundation, published on Tuesday, identified a decline in the mental health of asylum seekers as a result of the civil unrest and attacks on hotels, compared with the state of their mental health when they published a similar report in February 2024.
Continue reading...Move comes after Hashem Abedi injured three officers with hot oil and improvised blades at HMP Frankland
The Prison Service is to suspend the use of kitchens for the most dangerous inmates after the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber attacked three officers at HMP Frankland.
Hashem Abedi, a convicted terrorist who was jailed for life after helping his suicide-bomber brother Salman Abedi carry out the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, set upon staff with hot cooking oil and blades made out of cooking trays.
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