Ibrahim Faraj, seven, was abducted and taken to Saudi Arabia in November
A woman whose seven-year-old son was kidnapped by his father and taken to Saudi Arabia has said she repeatedly warned authorities it would happen but “no one listened”.
Ranem Elkhalidi has not seen or spoken to Ibrahim Faraj since November, when he was abducted by his father, Hamzah Faraj, in breach of a court order.
Continue reading...Thinktank warns against wholesale switch to working from home and raises fears over lost productivity in capital
Office workers in central London are spending on average 2.3 days a week in the workplace, according to a report that warns against a wholesale switch to working from home.
The thinktank Centre for Cities carried out polling of office workers in the capital and found they were spending 59% of the time in their workplace compared with pre-Covid levels.
Continue reading...Live life to the full and relish the simple things, says Máirín Hughes
Ireland’s oldest woman has marked her 109th birthday by sharing two tips on how to enjoy a long life: don’t waste time, and live it to the full.
Máirín Hughes follows her own advice by bird-watching, reading newspapers and novels, doing crosswords, listening to music, playing Scrabble – and enjoying the fuss every time she reaches another birthday. “I just like living,” she told reporters on Monday.
Continue reading...Top tea firms investigate as plantation workers say they have to pick 18kg a day but still skip meals and make their children work
Some of the world’s leading tea manufacturers, including Tetley and Lipton, are examining working conditions on the plantations of its Sri Lankan suppliers, following a Guardian investigation.
Two global trade-certification schemes, Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance, are also conducting inquiries after it was revealed that some workers on 10 certified estates could not afford to eat and were living in squalid conditions.
Continue reading...Move comes after inquiry found children had faced ‘limitless’ cruelty with complicity of institutions
The government is to launch a compensation scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse in England, the home secretary has said.
The scheme is in response to the findings of a seven-year inquiry that revealed failings by schools, local authorities and other institutions to protect and safeguard the children in their care.
Continue reading...MPs back new bill for medical graduates, designed to limit brain drain to countries including the UK and US
A new bill to impose five years’ mandatory service on Nigeria’s medical graduates in an effort to stop the exodus of doctors to the UK and the US has been attacked as “obnoxious”.
The bill, which could be put to a public hearing in the next few days, passed its second reading in the Nigerian parliament’s lower house last month.
Continue reading...Co-author says UK’s oldest form of social housing could be part of solution to care crisis
Poor, older people living in almshouses enjoy longer lives than far wealthier people living elsewhere, a study has found.
The secret to longer life has been intensely sought after for centuries. But research using data from almshouses going back 100 years has found that the solution devised in early medieval times to help poverty-stricken knights returning from the Crusades is still relevant today.
Continue reading...Ellie Taylor, 15 at the time of 2017 terrorist attack, was shocked by how hard it was to obtain trauma counselling
Ellie Taylor had been looking forward to the Ariana Grande concert for months. It was a 15th birthday present from her mother and was perfectly timed – the day of her first GCSE exam. The date was 22 May 2017.
Ellie, now 21, recalls shards of memory from that appalling day. She remembers watching Martyn Hett “living his best life” as he danced in Block 103 – he was a stranger at the time but she later recognised his face on the news.
Continue reading...Campaign funded by Entain urging people to write to MP was shameful, says chair of parliamentary group
The owner of Ladbrokes, Entain, has been accused of “dishonest” lobbying after it funded an operation mobilising people to complain to their MP about proposals to reform gambling laws.
The government last month unveiled plans for tighter regulation, including measures it said would make gambling safer but would also reduce revenue for brands such as Coral and PartyCasino, owned by Entain.
Continue reading...Concerns attempts to block local deals with Lib Dems or Greens risk allowing Tories to regain control of councils
Labour faces accusations of overcentralised meddling after the party’s national executive vetoed planned coalitions with the Liberal Democrats or Greens in a series of formerly Conservative-held local authorities.
While it is longstanding Labour policy that local parties need a green light from the national executive committee (NEC) before forming coalitions, some activists say attempts to block deals risk allowing Conservatives to regain control instead.
Continue reading...Annual RHS show uses theme of accessibility in effort to broaden appeal of horticulture
Chelsea flower show has long been a staple of the society calendar, with celebrities and royals making an appearance among the peonies and roses.
However, this year, the Royal Horticultural Society is trying to make the show – and horticulture – more inclusive, by putting on special events for children, and encouraging the creation of gardens with an accessibility theme.
Continue reading...Signs that NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating surge in people resorting to private care
Patients are paying up to £550 an hour to see private GPs amid frustration at the delays many face getting an appointment with an NHS family doctor.
Growing numbers of paid-for GP services are opening up across Britain, in the latest sign of how the NHS’s inability to offer prompt care is creating a surge in people resorting to private healthcare.
Continue reading...Free app designed to shed light on ‘mental load’ overwhelmingly carried by women when it comes to chores
The Spanish government is hoping to encourage men to do more at home by developing a free app that will log how much time each household or family member spends on domestic chores.
Announcing the measure in Geneva earlier this week, Spain’s secretary of state for equality, Ángela Rodríguez, said the aim was to shed light on the invisible “mental load” overwhelmingly carried by women when it comes to domestic tasks.
Continue reading...First official document on VAWG in England and Wales is similar to those used for threats such as serious organised crime, say chiefs
Police chiefs have issued the first official assessment of violence against women and girls in the UK, placing such offences on the same footing as terrorism and serious organised crime.
The 230-page intelligence document outlining the crimes that pose the greatest threats to women and girls has been shared with all forces by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
Domestic abuse.
Rape and serious sexual offences.
Child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Tech-enabled VAWG, such as online stalking and harassment.
Continue reading...Indian drug company to make cheaper generic version of CAB-LA, potentially protecting millions of people in Africa from the virus
An affordable version of a groundbreaking HIV-prevention drug will be made in South Africa for the first time, potentially giving millions of people at risk of HIV infection in Africa access to a two-monthly jab that can almost eliminate their chances of contracting the virus.
The Indian drug company Cipla confirmed that a generic version of the prophylaxis, long-acting cabotegravir (CAB-LA), would be manufactured at its plants in Benoni, near Johannesburg, or Durban.
Continue reading...Report says giving semaglutide once a week gave ‘historically unprecedented’ results
Nearly half of children who were assigned the “skinny jab” lost enough weight to no longer be classed as clinically obese, according to research.
The study, led by Dr Aaron Kelly, the co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota, looked at 201 adolescents who were classed as clinically obese.
Continue reading...Schools told to honour court order as families seek compensation and training for pupils who missed education because of their hair
About 1,200 Rastafarian children in Malawi are expected to return to state schools over the next month after being banned for a decade because of their hair.
After a landmark decision at the high court in March, letters have now been sent out to about 7,000 schools telling headteachers that the exclusion of children with dreadlocks from the classroom has been ruled as unconstitutional.
Continue reading...Charity says number of potential victims identified via helpline more than doubled last year
The number of potential victims of modern slavery in the UK more than doubled to record levels last year, with a particularly sharp increase in alleged exploitation in the care sector, figures show.
Calls to the UK modern slavery helpline identified 6,516 potential victims last year, an increase of 116% from 2021, according to the figures from the anti-slavery charity Unseen. It said the potential victims included 173 children.
Continue reading...Jeremy Hunt’s freeze on allowances and thresholds will put a quarter of teachers and one-eighth of nurses in 40% income tax bracket
One in four teachers and one in eight nurses will be higher-rate taxpayers by 2027 as a result of the government’s record freeze on income tax allowances and thresholds, according to a leading thinktank.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said better-paid public sector workers will be among the almost 8 million people – one in five of all taxpayers – who will pay income tax at 40% or above as result of the Treasury’s attempt to reduce the UK’s budget deficit.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sector’s staffing crisis will have knock-on effect on whole NHS system, warns healthcare leader
UK ministers must set out how to recruit and retain thousands more mental health nurses to plug the profession’s biggest staff shortage, healthcare leaders are warning.
Mental health nurses account for nearly a third of all nursing vacancies across England, resulting in overstretched services that are struggling to deliver timely care, according to research carried out by the NHS Confederation’s mental health network.
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