Prosecutors in the northern city of Forlì are investigating a 27-year-old man, currently suspended from the Italian Red Cross
Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Forlì are investigating an ambulance driver on suspicion of murdering five elderly patients.
All the suspicious deaths occurred while or soon after the patients were transported in an ambulance driven by the 27-year-old man, lawyers of the victims told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Alan Nicolle was already approved for urgent aged care supports, but delays and confusion under a ‘Kafkaesque’ system made his final days exhausting and painful
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Dying Australians approved for government-funded aged care home support are struggling to access it, with carers describing a system plagued by delays and lack of control around how funding is spent.
The accounts of carers and aged care assessors spoken to by Guardian Australia show that beyond the controversial, algorithm-driven assessment process for home care funding, many are left without adequate and timely support even after funding has been approved.
Continue reading...Trio given leave to stay in their abandoned convent near Salzburg until further notice, church officials say
Three octogenarian nuns who gained a global following after breaking out of their care home and moving back to their abandoned convent near Salzburg have been given leave to stay in the nunnery “until further notice” – on condition they stay off social media, church officials have said.
The rebel sisters – Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82, all former teachers at the school adjacent to their convent – broke back into their old home of Goldenstein Castle in Elsbethen in September in defiance of their spiritual superiors.
Continue reading...Eleanor Gittens, 107, and Lyle Gittens, 108, of Miami met at a basketball game in 1941 and have been married for 83 years
A Miami husband and wife who recently attained the title of world’s longest-married couple say they managed that feat just by loving one another.
“We love each other,” Eleanor Gittens, 107, said to LongeviQuest when the website specializing on people who are in their second century of life asked what was the secret to her 83 years of marriage to her husband, Lyle.
Continue reading...Older people left in their own excrement and wet beds for hours and forced to watch others die, Age UK report finds
Almost 150,000 people aged 90 and over in England are forced to wait longer than 12 hours in A&E every year, with some experiencing “truly shocking” waits of several days stuck in corridors, a report warns.
Older people are also being left in their own excrement and wet beds for hours, denied pain relief and forced to watch and hear other patients die next to them because they end up waiting so long for care, according to Age UK.
Continue reading...Tests on Maria Branyas Morera, who was world’s oldest person before she died last year aged 117, gave doctors a trove of discoveries
The nonagenarian actor Dame Joan Collins may have been on to something when she declared “age is just a number”.
The deepest dive yet into the biology of a supercentenarian has revealed that even extreme old age can be reached without the brain necessarily faltering or the usual illnesses mounting up.
Continue reading...As House of Lords prepares to debate bill, Hospice UK says sector needs adequate funding for end-of-life care
Hospices are “on the brink” and two in five are making cuts this year despite the importance of end-of-life care if assisted dying becomes legal, the sector has warned before the first House of Lords debate on the legislation.
Hospice UK, which represents the sector, said many were financially struggling and still “in the dark” about how funding for end-of-life care will be improved when assisted dying legislation is passed.
Continue reading...Kent Broussard joined Louisiana State University’s famed Golden Band from Tigerland after retiring as an accountant
Some dreams live on in time forever, says the summer Olympics anthem considered by many to be the greatest – and living proof of that is a retired accountant who recently enrolled as a freshman at Louisiana State University in his mid-60s to fulfill his lifelong ambition of playing for the school’s famed marching band.
Kent Broussard drew nationwide media attention after being shown on ESPN’s broadcast of the LSU football team’s victory at home against in-state rival Louisiana Tech on 6 September.
Continue reading...Kokichi Akuzawa climbed with 70-year-old daughter to break record for oldest person to make ascent – a second time
Kokichi Akuzawa has become the oldest person to climb to the top of Mount Fuji at the age of 102 – despite almost giving up during his trek.
“I was really tempted to give up halfway through,” Akuzawa said. “Reaching the summit was tough, but my friends encouraged me, and it turned out well. I managed to get through it because so many people supported me.”
Continue reading...Grace Chambers, whose daughter dared her to join nine years ago, hopes to be first centenarian at her local event
When Grace Chambers ran her first parkrun, it was the result of a dare. Now, nine years later, and at 97 years old, she has reached the sought-after milestone of 250 runs.
Chambers first took part after her daughter Michele registered her for the free, weekly timed events that take place in parks and public spaces in several countries around the globe.
Continue reading...Merz walks fine line as ‘lazy Germans’ debate sparks protest and economy minister calls to raise retirement age to 70
The fact that ageing Germany’s generous pension system is unsustainable is political Berlin’s worst-kept secret, but a controversial call to save it by hiking the retirement age to 70 has sparked howls of protest and threatened to destabilise the fractious government.
The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely sidestepped the ticking timebomb of the greying population since taking office in May, preferring instead to announce sweeteners such as tax breaks for older Germans to continue working past the retirement age.
Continue reading...Singh’s east London running club confirms death in India of athlete thought to be first centenarian to run a marathon
The runner Fauja Singh, believed to be the oldest person to complete a marathon, has died in a road accident in India aged 114.
The athlete, who lived in Ilford in east London, was hit by a car and suffered fatal injuries while trying to cross a road in his birth village of Beas Pind, near Jalandhar in Punjab, on Monday, according to reports in India.
Continue reading...ASA report finds many use negative stereotypes and highlights concerns about targeting of end-of-life services
An elderly man fires off a tirade at a child who has asked “grandad” to return a mud-covered football that has landed on his gleaming car. He is then seen eating a microwave dinner for one and chuckling, with the now-deflated ball pinned to the table next to him by a large kitchen knife.
The TV advert for the Scotland-based Strathmore Foods, maker of the McIntosh of Strathmore ready meals stocked by most big supermarket chains, has been identified in a report by the UK advertising watchdog as showing an “offensive” portrayal of older people – by stereotyping them as grumpy and intolerant, and implying many are lonely and isolated.
Continue reading...Treasury says move to restore the funding for most pensioners will cost around £1.25bn
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are both trying to take credit for the winter fuel payments U-turn by the government.
This is from Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader.
Keir Starmer has scrambled to clear up a mess of his own making. I repeatedly challenged him to reverse his callous decision to withdraw winter fuel payments, and every time Starmer arrogantly dismissed my criticisms.
This humiliating U-turn will come as scant comfort to the pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating last winter. The prime minister should now apologise for his terrible judgement.
Finally the chancellor has listened to the Liberal Democrats and the tireless campaigners in realising how disastrous this policy was, but the misery it has caused cannot be overstated.
Countless pensioners were forced to choose between heating and eating all whilst the government buried its head in the sand for months on end, ignoring those who were really suffering.
Continue reading...Prime minister to launch strategic defence review in Glasgow this morning
Here is the clip of Keir Starmer in his Today programme interview refusing to say when the government will raise defence spending to 3% of GDP.
In an interview with the Times published on Saturday John Healey, the defence secretary, said that he had “no doubt” that Britain would reach the 3% target by 2034 – ie, before the end of the next parliament. Yesterday he described this as an “ambition”.
Continue reading...Reform UK leader unveils plans to reverse benefit cuts and bring in tax breaks without explaining how they would be funded
Nigel Farage has been accused of leaving a multibillion-pound black hole at the heart of his party’s spending plans after unveiling a series of expensive policy pledges to be paid for by cutting nonexistent items of government spending.
The Reform UK leader laid out a series of economic promises at a speech on Tuesday designed to take advantage of disquiet among Labour voters at the government’s policies on taxes and benefits.
Continue reading...Downing Street unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or when changes would come in
YouGov has published more details of its polling on the electorate’s relationship with Labour, as covered in the Sky News report mentioned earlier. (See 10.06am.)
It shows that Reform UK supporters are most likely to think that Labour is trying hard to appeal to them – but least likely to say they would respond positively. Only 4% of Reform UK supporters say they would consider voting Labour, the poll says.
I ask her if there will be any changes as demanded by MPs
She says while “we want to make sure we address all of people’s concerns, but stressed: “whatever the fiscal position that the government faces, I think the system as a whole needs to change.”
Downing Street unable to say how many more pensioners would receive winter fuel payments or when changes would come in
YouGov has published more details of its polling on the electorate’s relationship with Labour, as covered in the Sky News report mentioned earlier. (See 10.06am.)
It shows that Reform UK supporters are most likely to think that Labour is trying hard to appeal to them – but least likely to say they would respond positively. Only 4% of Reform UK supporters say they would consider voting Labour, the poll says.
I ask her if there will be any changes as demanded by MPs
She says while “we want to make sure we address all of people’s concerns, but stressed: “whatever the fiscal position that the government faces, I think the system as a whole needs to change.”
Keir Starmer did not deny a rethink of benefit cut to 10 million pensioners blamed for Labour’s electoral losses
Downing Street is actively investigating changes to the controversial winter fuel payment cut over growing concerns about the policy’s deep unpopularity among voters.
No 10 has stepped up its work on reviewing the policy by carrying out internal polling and focus groups on how voters would respond to potential modifications to it.
Continue reading...Kingdom Services boss says retailers seeing ‘different sort of shoplifter’ with more theft by people ‘who just can’t afford food’
Food retailers have seen a “massive” increase in pensioner shoplifters over the last year, according to a leading store security firm, amid the rising cost of living.
John Nussbaum, director of service for retail at Kingdom Services Group, has said his staff were seeing a “different sort of shoplifter now” as the cost of living “pushes people to something they’ve never done before”.
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