‘Worst nightmare’: South Korea mulls disastrous Scout jamboree

Youngsters faced a heatwave, flooded tents, sewage spills and an expensive evacuation – but concerns were raised before the event even began

Media outlets in South Korea have labelled its hosting of the World Scout Jamboree a “national disgrace”, a “survival game”, and a “worst nightmare”. Public outcry has intensified online and strangers are approaching scouts on the streets, apologising on behalf of their country and handing out gifts.

South Korea has successfully hosted large events such as the Fifa World Cup and Winter Olympics, but the mismanagement of the global scouting event, which struggled with heat and hygiene and eventually had to be evacuated as a typhoon approached, has left many wondering: where did it all go wrong?

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Wednesday briefing: What went wrong at South Korea’s World Scout Jamboree?

In today’s newsletter: As thousands of scouts are evacuated from their quadrennial global get-together, the host nation’s handling of the event is in the spotlight

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Good morning. Imagine you are going on a school trip, but it’s with thousands of other schools, and the trip is to Fyre festival, and the guys from Trainspotting are taking care of the sanitation. Oh, and there’s an enormous hurricane on its way.

That may sum up what 4,500 British scouts have felt this week, after their trip of a lifetime to the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea turned into a bad comedy marked by successive calamities, natural and human-made, that yesterday culminated in the mass evacuation of all 43,000 young people.

Northern Ireland | A “monumental” data breach has exposed the names and rank of every serving Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officer. A spreadsheet was mistakenly published online for up to three hours in response to a freedom of information request. The Police Federation for Northern Ireland said it was a “breach of monumental proportions”.

Security | The data of millions of voters was accessible to hackers in a cyber-attack by “hostile actors” discovered almost a year ago, the Electoral Commission has admitted. The watchdog apologised for the security breach in which the names and addresses of millions of voters were accessible to hackers as far back as 2021.

Health | Millions of people under the age of 65 in England will be denied flu and Covid jabs this winter despite one of the government’s top public health officials warning that coronavirus has not “gone away”.

Conservatives | The Home Office spent more than £1,500 of public money painting over cartoon murals that were meant to welcome children to a controversial asylum reception centre, it can be revealed.

France | Five Marseille police officers have been detained for questioning over the death of a 27-year-old man during rioting in the French city on 1 July. The public prosecutor suggested it was “probable” Mohamed Bendriss died after “a violent shock to the thorax caused by a ‘flash-ball’ type projectile”, a controversial police weapon, that caused him to go into cardiac arrest.

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Bowel cancer screening programme finds 20,000 cases in decade, study finds

Tests have been available to people aged over 60 since 2006, and will be offered to those aged 50 and above from 2025

A new study has found that 20,000 cases of bowel cancer have been prevented by England’s screening programme in a decade, as over-50s are set to be offered tests from 2025.

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. By 2040 there will be 3.2 million new cases per year and 1.6 million deaths per year, according to the World Health Organization. In the UK, nearly 43,000 patients are diagnosed with bowel cancer each year.

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Firm behind ‘voice of gamblers’ group co-owned by betting industry consultant

Gamblers Consumer Forum aims to derail planned betting reforms and claims to act on behalf of ordinary punters

The company behind a lobby group that wants to derail planned overhaul of UK gambling laws and claims to act on behalf of ordinary punters is co-owned by a consultant for the betting industry.

Ministers proposed a series of changes in April that they said would make gambling safer by imposing tighter regulations on online betting firms, though they added that further consultation was needed before a bill could be put before parliament.

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Palantir lobbied UK disabilities minister to use software to tackle benefits fraud

US data firm wanted to brief Tom Pursglove on how its technology could help recover ‘large amounts’

The US tech firm Palantir lobbied the UK disabilities minister to adopt new technology to crack down on benefits fraud, emails released to the Guardian have revealed.

The company wrote to Tom Pursglove to brief him on technology it had recently deployed elsewhere, promising that it had the potential for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to rapidly “recover large amounts of fraud”.

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Consultants in England to strike in September if government refuses talks

BMA highlights government’s ‘complete disregard’ for the health service and its patients

Consultants in England will strike for two additional days in September if the government continues to refuse pay talks and fails to present the profession with a credible offer, the British Medical Association has said.

The BMA said on Monday that it had written to the health secretary, Steve Barclay, to inform him that on top of strikes by consultants on 24 and 25 August, there would be additional strikes on 19 and 20 September, unless the government agrees to further negotiations.

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BBC presenter Nick Owen announces prostate cancer diagnosis

The Midlands Today presenter has undergone surgery and plans to return to work for the broadcaster in autumn

Nick Owen has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and has undergone surgery, the BBC Midlands Today presenter has announced.

After a period of absence from the programme, the 75-year-old broadcaster spoke on Monday about the impact of the condition on his life since he received the news in April.

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Mother begged Oldham council to move her and late son from damp house, inquest hears

Court had earlier been told the death of Luke Brooks, 27, in 2022 had been provisionally linked to mould exposure in freezing home

A mother begged a council for help to move her family out of a privately rented house that was freezing and had chronic damp and mould, which she believes killed her son, an inquest has heard.

The hearing resumed on Monday into the death of 27-year-old Luke Brooks, from Oldham, who died in October 2022. The inquest in Rochdale has previously heard that Brooks died after developing an acute respiratory illness which was provisionally linked to mould exposure.

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South Korea to evacuate scout jamboree as typhoon looms

Site has been plagued by issues including heatwave that left hundreds ill last week

All participants at this year’s World Scout Jamboree in South Korea will be evacuated from the campsite before the scheduled end date of 12 August due to a typhoon that is expected to make landfall over the Korean peninsula in the coming days, in the latest blow to the event.

The World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) said it had received confirmation from the South Korean government that, due to the expected impact of Typhoon Khanun, an early departure would be planned for all participants at the global youth event in the south-western county of Buan.

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UK Scouts says £1m cost of relocating jamboree will affect its work for years

Head of Scout Association says event in South Korea had been poorly organised even before threat of Typhoon Khanun

The £1m cost of relocating the 4,500-strong UK contingent at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea will affect the work of the Scout Association for as much as five years, the organisation’s boss has said.

Matt Hyde, the UK Scouts chief executive, said the association had been forced to dip into its reserves after the event’s organisers decided to clear the campsite five days early because of an incoming typhoon that is expected to make landfall over the Korean peninsula in the coming days.

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New vaccine research centre to help scientists prepare for ‘disease X’

Facility in Porton Down, Wiltshire will allow vaccines to be developed for future pandemic pathogens

Ministers have opened a new vaccine research centre in the UK where scientists will work on preparing for “disease X”, the next potential pandemic pathogen.

The state-of-the-art Vaccine Development and Evaluation Centre is based at the UK Health and Security Agency’s (UKHSA) Porton Down campus in Wiltshire.

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English and Welsh football fans could be banned for mocking disasters

Offensive chants about tragedies such as Hillsborough can be public order offences under new guidance

Football fans in England and Wales could be banned from matches if they mock tragedies such as the Hillsborough disaster, under updated guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service.

The CPS guidance will state that actions such as singing, chanting or displaying offensive messages about disasters or accidents involving players or fans can be seen as a public order offence.

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Britons living in deprived areas have poorer sleep quality, study finds

First large-scale UK investigation of its kind discovers social deprivation and ethnicity both affect sleep

People living in deprived areas of the UK have poorer sleep quality than those in affluent areas, the first large-scale study of sleep across the population has found.

Black people reported the worst sleep overall, with the research finding both social deprivation and ethnicity affect sleep quality, irrespective of age, sex, personal wealth, employment and education.

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Two-thirds of sexual assault support centres in England branded inadequate

Inspectors find failures to protect victims and risks of contaminating forensic evidence

More than two-thirds of England’s specialist support centres for victims of sexual assault or abuse have been found to have flaws in the care they offer in their most recent full inspections, the Observer can reveal.

Almost half were found to be breaching their minimum legal obligations to victims in their last full inspection, with problems ranging from a failure to deal with suicide and self-harm risks, cleaning so bad it risked contaminating forensic evidence collected for criminal cases, and failures to do adequate background checks on the staff working with victims.

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Ian Watkins, singer jailed for child sex offences, ‘stabbed in prison’

Former Lostprophets frontman reportedly taken to hospital after being held hostage by other inmates at HMP Wakefield

Ian Watkins, the former lead singer with Lostprophets who was jailed for 29 years for child sex offences, has reportedly been stabbed at HMP Wakefield.

He is said to have been taken to hospital after being stabbed at the prison in West Yorkshire.

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Rishi Sunak warned of concerns over NHS private sector partnerships

Plans to cut waiting lists in England were welcomed but critics say they do not address deeper staffing issues

Rishi Sunak has been warned his plan for more private sector partnerships with the NHS in England to cut waiting lists will amount to “reshuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic” without addressing deeper structural issues with staffing.

The recommendations of an elective recovery plan, published on Friday, were broadly welcomed by opposition parties and health experts, but said to be overdue. Critics also said they only addressed a fragment of the much wider capacity and staffing issues across the whole of the country’s health systems.

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Let private and third sectors cut NHS waiting lists, says Steve Barclay

Health secretary says ‘every available resource’ must be used to help patients access diagnosis and treatment faster

More private and third sector providers should be used by the NHS to help cut post-Covid waiting lists, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, will say after a review of capacity in the health service.

Barclay will draw on the work of his “elective recovery taskforce” – a group convened by ministers to look at how to bring down waiting times.

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Top US doctors’ group backs gender-affirming care amid rightwing attacks

American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirms support for transgender children in face of growing push for restrictions across US

The American Academy of Pediatrics has reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming medical care for transgender children, even as the treatments face a growing push for bans and restrictions from Republican lawmakers across the US.

The board of directors for the group, which represents 67,000 pediatricians, unanimously voted to reaffirm its 2018 position on the treatments. The board also voted to provide additional documents to support pediatricians, including clinical and technical reports, and to conduct an external review of research regarding the care.

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Nose-picking healthcare workers more likely to catch Covid, data suggests

Rhinotillexis may be underestimated cause of transmission between staff, say researchers

Nose-picking should be given greater consideration as a potential health hazard, researchers have said, after finding healthcare workers who engaged in rhinotillexis were more likely to catch Covid than those who refrained.

Scientists in the Netherlands say research has previously found healthcare workers who had direct contact with Covid patients were more likely to catch Covid than those who did not.

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Women’s health at risk from UK aid cuts, Foreign Office warned

Thousands more women will be forced into unsafe abortions and die in pregnancy and childbirth, ministers told

Hundreds of thousands more women will face unsafe abortions and thousands will die in pregnancy and childbirth as a result of UK aid cuts in 2023-24, Foreign Office ministers were warned in an internal assessment.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) published its programme allocations for the next two years last month, showing that official development assistance (ODA) spend is due to rise marginally in 2023-24 and then increase by 12% in 2024-25 to £8.3bn.

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