MSF begins vaccine drive against incurable disease, which is spread via dirty water and kills thousands of pregnant women
A push to tackle an outbreak of hepatitis E in South Sudan is being hampered by flooding that has isolated populations and turned villages into islands.
A pioneering vaccination drive has begun to protect people against a spate of cases but the true scale of the disease outbreak is unknown.
Continue reading...CQC will conduct review into Nottinghamshire Healthcare in tandem with mental health homicide review
A troubled NHS trust that treated Valdo Calocane for paranoid schizophrenia before he killed three people in Nottingham last year is to be the subject of a special review.
Ministers said the review into Nottinghamshire Healthcare foundation trust would help provide answers to the families of Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates, who were killed by Calocane last June.
Continue reading...Piano especially associated with improved mental processes in those over 40, Exeter University research finds
Playing a musical instrument or joining a choir is linked to better memory and thinking skills in older age, research has found.
The piano was especially associated with a better brain in those over 40 in the study from Exeter University, which reviewed data from more than a thousand adults and looked at how much experience the people had in participating in music.
Continue reading...Plans to make vaping less appealing also to include restricting fruity flavours and introducing plain packaging
Ministers are to ban disposable vapes as part of a UK-wide drive to curb youth vaping.
The government is also seeking to make vaping less appealing to children by restricting sweet and fruity flavours, introducing plain packaging and making displays less visible in shops, under newly announced powers. The changes are expected to come into effect towards the end of this year or early 2025.
Continue reading...Opposition would do better on issues including the economy, health, education, the environment, immigration and crime, public says
More than twice as many voters believe a Labour government would be better for housing than the Tories, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.
The survey shows Labour is well ahead of the Conservatives on most issues including the economy, health, education, the environment, immigration and crime, and level pegging on ones it has traditionally lagged way behind on, including defence.
Continue reading...Andrea Salinas warns of ‘upstream problem’ in US mental health crisis and proposes tax revenue be used for treatment
America’s “unchecked” gambling boom risks exacerbating a nationwide mental health crisis, according to a congresswoman pushing for federal government support. The industry is pushing back hard.
Operators must be held “accountable” for rising addiction rates, Andrea Salinas told the Guardian, after lawmakers proposed legislation that – if approved – would provide tens of millions of dollars in funding to help those affected.
Continue reading...Coroner concluded 14-year-old girl took her life after prolonged and sustained bullying in person and online
The father of a 14-year-old girl who killed herself after being bullied has said his family are victims of a “failing system” after an inquest into her death.
Mia Janin, a year 10 pupil at the Jewish free school in Kenton, north-west London, was found dead at her family home in Harrow on 12 March 2021.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Nine-year-old had been recorded as ‘safe and well’ in months before he was killed, review finds
A nine-year-old boy who was tortured to death by his mother and stepfather had been recorded as “safe and well” after visits by police and social services in the months before he was killed, a review has found.
Family and neighbours of Alfie Steele from Droitwich, Worcestershire, made more than 60 calls about his welfare in the period leading up to his murder in February 2021, including a call saying it sounded as if he was “being hit and held under the water”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Test case likely against UK’s seasonal worker scheme as charity alleges breach of right to be protected from labour exploitation
When Ismael found himself sleeping rough at York station in the late October cold he struggled to understand how an opportunity to pick berries 7,000 miles from his home had so quickly ended there.
He had left Indonesia less than four months earlier, in July 2022. He was 18 and ready for six months of hard work on a British farm to save for a science degree. “I thought the UK was the best place to work because I could save up a little money and help my parents,” he said.
Continue reading...Traditional options standing the test of time in top 20 popular baby names for 2023
Names that have stood the test of time have prevailed again in the ranks of the most popular baby names in Victoria, with Amelia rising to be the most popular name for girls in 2023, and Oliver retaining the crown for boys for the tenth year in a row.
The name Amelia knocked Charlotte to second most popular after it held the title in recent years. It was followed by Olivia, Mia, and Isla, while new entrants to the top 20 most popular girls’ names were Harper, Evelyn and Sienna.
Continue reading...ONS figures, which include civil partnerships, spark calls for changes in laws for cohabiting couples
The proportion of people aged 16 or older in England and Wales who are married or in a civil partnership has fallen below 50% for the first time.
The figure dropped to 49.4% in 2022, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Continue reading...Police start to interview witnesses following Guardian reports on adoptions to the Netherlands nearly 50 years ago
Police in Bangladesh have launched an investigation into historical allegations that children were adopted abroad without their parents’ consent, after a Guardian investigation into adoptions to the Netherlands in the 1970s.
Bangladesh special branch in Dhaka confirmed it had opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the adoption of a number of children between 1976 and 1979.
Continue reading...Shop will be open only to non-Muslim diplomats – but some fear it is first step to wider availability of alcohol in teetotal kingdom
The news that Saudi Arabia will allow its first alcohol shop has citizens and foreigners alike mulling one question: is this a minor policy tweak, or a major upheaval?
Sources familiar with preparations for the store disclosed details of the plan on Wednesday, as a document circulated indicating just how carefully leaders of the teetotal Gulf kingdom will manage its operations.
Continue reading...Rights groups hail change to Braverman policy that denied support to people with criminal convictions
The Home Office has performed a U-turn on a policy to deprive some modern slavery victims of protection from traffickers.
Human rights campaigners and lawyers representing trafficking victims have welcomed the government’s change of heart, which they say reinstates vital protections to vulnerable people.
Continue reading...Behailu Kebede remains ‘broken inside’ despite bearing no responsibility, as company executives listen at testimony week
The minicab driver in whose flat the Grenfell Tower fire started has said his heart is “full of pain, grief and desolation” and he can “never forget that it was in my flat, in my kitchen that the fire started … and all those lives were lost”.
Behailu Kebede, who lived in Grenfell Tower for 25 years, told a highly charged hearing in central London – attended by 24 executives from companies accused of responsibility for the fire – that he remains “broken inside”.
Continue reading...James wrote A Life Inside column while serving sentence for murder and later edited Inside Time newspaper
Erwin James, the writer of an influential Guardian column about life in prison who would go on to be a leading voice on criminal justice, has died.
James, real name Erwin James Monahan, was convicted of murder in 1984 and served 20 years in prison.
Continue reading...Six million of the poorest people would need more than double their incomes to move out of hardship, says Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Escaping poverty has become significantly harder over the past two decades, with progress to eradicate hardship in Britain having stalled under the Conservatives since 2010, a major report has warned.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said levels of hardship had deepened for millions of people across the country since the mid-1990s, having been compounded by years of “political failure” to tackle poverty.
Continue reading...Jason Moore says he learned of £10k reward to have him stabbed shortly after court of appeal application
A man in prison for a murder of which the victim’s family believes he is innocent says he fears for his life after learning intelligence of a hit ordered on him.
Jason Moore’s conviction for stabbing to death Robert Darby in an east London pub car park in 2005 relied heavily on witness testimony that is now in doubt. The victim’s brother, Tim Darby, is among those campaigning for Moore’s release.
Continue reading...Royal college voices concern at rise in number of prosecutions of ‘deeply traumatised’ women
Medical staff in the UK should not report women to the police if they believe their patients may have illegally ended their own pregnancy, a professional body is to say.
New guidance from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) will say it is never in the public interest to report women who have abortions to law enforcement agencies, according to the BBC.
Continue reading...Exclusive: whistleblowers allege large sums are being lost to corruption in Iraq as donors fail to track spending on postwar reconstruction
Staff working for the UN in Iraq are allegedly demanding bribes in return for helping businessmen win contracts on postwar reconstruction projects in the country, a Guardian investigation has found.
The alleged kickbacks are one of a number of claims of corruption and mismanagement the Guardian has uncovered in the Funding Facility for Stabilization, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scheme launched in 2015 and backed by $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in support so far from 30 donors, including the UK.
Continue reading...