Category Archives: Society

One in 10 biggest English councils risk bankruptcy over child protection bill

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County Councils Network says local bodies facing insolvency after increase in children being taken into care and ‘out of control’ costs

“Out of control” increases in child protection spending since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic have put one in 10 of England’s biggest councils at risk of effective bankruptcy in the next few months, a survey has revealed.

Many county councils and unitary authorities are “running out of road” to avoid insolvency as they grapple with high inflation, increases in children being taken into care, and massive bills for children’s homes, the County Councils Network (CCN) said.

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‘There is no ban’: Republicans test-drive new abortion messaging

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Ad released in Virginia part of well-funded effort to portray Democrats as abortion extremists and Republicans as reasonable compromisers

The ad opens with the sound of a fetal heartbeat.

“Most people believe that abortion at the moment of birth is wrong, far beyond any reasonable limit. Not Virginia Democrats,” a female narrator says, just before the sound of a baby cooing and crying. “They fought to make late-term abortions the rule, not the exception.”

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UK ministers to hold Cobra meeting on terrorism threat from Israel-Hamas conflict

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Suella Braverman will meet police and national security officials at No 10 to discuss ‘accelerated’ risk

UK ministers will hold an emergency meeting of its Cobra committee amid concerns that the Israel-Gaza conflict has raised the possibility of a domestic terrorist incident.

The home secretary, Suella Braverman, will meet national security officials and police at No 10 on Monday to assess the security risk after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.

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Australian rental vacancy rate falls to record low, data shows

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Limited supply and strong demand prompts national median weekly advertised rents to rise 14.6% over the year

Tenants are continuing to struggle with rising rents and limited supply, with new data showing the total number of rental listings has fallen to a record low.

PropTrack data shows the number of new rental listings declined 5.7% in the year to September, with the fewest new listings in September for more than a decade. The total number of rental listings fell 7.1% on the year before to hit a record low.

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Afghans who fled Taliban to UK ‘set to be made homeless at Christmas’

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Home Office has imposed a 15 December deadline to eject people who worked for UK in Afghanistan from hotels, say councils

More than 1,000 Afghans in the UK face being made homeless days before Christmas after the Home Office imposed a fresh deadline to eject them from hotels.

The Local Government Association (LGA) revealed the number of at-risk Afghans, which includes families, after the Home Office last week imposed the new deadline of 15 December.

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Biggest private children’s homes in England made £300m profit last year

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Fee income for 20 largest operators – many private equity-owned – soars as councils struggle to meet costs

The biggest private providers of children’s homes in England made profits of more than £300m last year, as concern mounts over the conditions some children are being placed in and the spiralling costs for councils.

Fee income for the 20 largest operators of independent children’s homes totalled £1.63bn last year, a 6.5% increase on the previous year. And 19% of that – £310m – was recorded as profit, according to an independent analysis. Half of the top 20 providers have some private equity or sovereign wealth fund ownership.

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‘Misleading’ A&E figures in England hiding poor performance

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Emergency doctors say figures are aggregated with those of minor injury centres to get closer to targets

NHS bosses are using misleading figures to hide dangerously poor performance by A&E units in England against the four-hour treatment target, emergency department doctors claim.

Some A&Es treat and admit, transfer or discharge as few as one in three patients within four hours, although the NHS constitution says they should deal with 95% of arrivals within that timeframe.

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Dementia could affect 1.7m people in England and Wales by 2040, data finds

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Figure is 42% higher than previous estimates and would pose ‘enormous threat’ to healthcare systems

Dementia poses an “enormous threat” to healthcare systems and the general public in England and Wales, experts have warned, as data suggests 1.7 million people will have the condition by 2040.

It is already known to be among the most serious health and social care threats and a new analysis shows the total number affected could be 42% higher than previously estimated.

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UK public warned over dangers of fake weight loss medication pens

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Pre-filled injection devices claimed to hold Ozempic or Saxenda may contain other substances, regulator says

The UK medicines regulator has issued a public warning about fake and potentially harmful weight loss pens after seizing hundreds of devices sold by illegal traders.

The pens, with which the traders’ drugs are injected, are claimed to contain the medications Ozempic (semaglutide) or Saxenda (liraglutide), which are used for weight loss. However, these pens are thought to contain other substances.

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Italian woman wins court case to evict her two sons, aged 40 and 42

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The bamboccioni (big babies) refused to fly nest and ‘did not contribute’ – in country where most under-35s still live with parents

The proportion of Italian adults still living with their parents has long been high but one mother was forced to take drastic action after her two sons – both in their 40s – refused to abandon the comforts of the family home.

The woman, 75, from the northern city of Pavia, had grown weary of having to maintain her sons, 40 and 42, and on several occasions tried to convince them to find a more autonomous living arrangement, especially as each had a job. “But neither of them wanted to know,” she said, according to a report in the local newspaper La Provincia Pavese.

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Japan court rules mandatory sterilisation of people officially changing gender unconstitutional

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Judges reject requirement for trans people to remove reproductive organs for state-recognised gender change

Japan’s top court has ruled that a legal clause requiring people to undergo sterilisation surgery if they want to legally change their gender is unconstitutional.

Several international organisations including the European court of human rights, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and UN had said the requirement was discriminatory and infringed on human rights.

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Young Europeans more likely to quit driving and have fewer children to save planet

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Exclusive: Poll shows young people willing to make big lifestyle changes but baulk at smaller gestures

They are willing to have smaller families, stop using cars and – albeit in smaller numbers – go vegan for the planet, but abandoning single-use plastics and growing a few more plants could be a step too far.

Across Europe, according to a seven-country survey, it seems young people are more willing than older generations to make big lifestyle changes that would help combat the climate crisis – but are less convinced by smaller gestures.

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High-risk prisoners sit GCSE English – and many outperform peers on outside

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Inmates at HMP Frankland in County Durham, some of ‘hardest to reach people in society’, did course in a year with no internet access

Inmates serving long sentences at one of the UK’s most secure prisons have been allowed to study GCSE English for the first time and have outperformed many of their peers on the outside.

More than three-quarters of the small cohort of prisoners who sat the exam at HMP Frankland in County Durham secured a pass at grade 4 or above – equivalent to a C – which is almost three times the success rate in further education colleges in England.

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Fury at year-long Home Office delay over protest buffer zones at UK abortion clinics

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Suella Braverman accused by MP Stella Creasy of denying will of parliament in passing safe access law

Pro-choice MPs and activists have expressed their frustration at the government’s failure to implement a law on buffer zones around abortion clinics one year after 297 MPs voted in favour of the zones and as women face a new wave of protests when accessing reproductive care.

A Home Office spokesperson told the Observer that timelines would be confirmed “in due course” but refused to explain why the law was not yet in force and failed to confirm if a consultation on safe-access zones legislation had been launched.

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Former Hells Angels boss accused of disposing bodies in ‘the pizza oven’

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US prosecutors allege Merl Hefferman, 54, illegally cremated up to four members killed by the group at a California funeral home

Federal prosecutors say that a former Hells Angels boss disposed of the bodies of up to four of the group’s members at a central California funeral home, known to the gang as “the pizza oven”.

US prosecutors set out in gruesome detail last week how they believe members of the gang used the Yost and Webb funeral home in Fresno, California, to cremate four men.

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Britons have started handing in XL bullies to be put down, MPs told

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Select committee hears vets and animal rehoming centres could become inundated as owners seek to offload the dogs

People are already handing in XL bully dogs, with some requesting that their pet be put down, after the announcement of an impending ban, MPs have been told.

At a parliamentary evidence session before the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee, witnesses said vets and animal rehoming centres could become inundated by people seeking to offload the dogs before a ban.

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Battersea Dogs & Cats Home names vet hospital after Paul O’Grady

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Charity says fund set up in late ambassador’s honour has raised £480k, with other charities to benefit

The new veterinary hospital at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home will be named after Paul O’Grady, the charity’s ambassador who died in March.

The announcement on Monday came on what would have been O’Grady’s 11th anniversary in the charity role, with the organisation saying a tribute fund set up in his honour would go towards “life-saving and transformative medical procedures” for dogs and cats that need specialist care and treatment.

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Bad management has prompted one in three UK workers to quit, survey finds

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Study shows widespread concern over quality of managers, with 82% of bosses deemed ‘accidental’, having had no formal training

Almost one-third of UK workers say they’ve quit a job because of a negative workplace culture, according to a new survey that underlines the risks of managers failing to rein in toxic behaviour.

Research carried out by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) pointed to widespread concern about the quality of management, and its impact on workers’ daily lives.

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Prisons plan could add 1,000 places in England and Wales amid overcrowding

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Use of portable buildings and more doubling up in cells could be part of package to be announced next week

Prisoners in England and Wales could be moved into portable buildings or released early as part of a huge extension of the electronic tagging scheme, as the justice secretary considers creative measures to solve the overcrowding crisis.

Alex Chalk KC is expected to reveal a package of measures on Monday that could add 1,000 prison places across the estate, the Guardian understands.

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Don’t avoid discussing Hamas-Israel conflict with children, say experts

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Ignoring tricky questions could drive young people on to the internet, where disinformation proliferates

As difficult as it might be, carers should not avoid discussing the Hamas-Israel conflict with children, experts have said. Doing so, they warn, could drive young people on to the internet where disturbing disinformation and images are easily found.

“Don’t avoid difficult questions,” said Emma Citron, a consultant clinical psychologist with extensive experience of working with children. “If those questions are in the heads of our young people, it’s our job to give them a balanced and reassuring – but also an honest – account.”

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