Government lawyers tell coroner disclosing intelligence would pose serious risk to national security
Ministers are seeking to block intelligence material from being heard at an inquest into the death of two men killed in the 2025 Manchester synagogue attack.
Lawyers for Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, told a coroner on Thursday that disclosing the MI5 files would pose a serious risk to national security.
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson says government would not have to consider releasing prisoners early if Tories had created more capacity
Cells to hold newly arrested people could run out without the early prison release scheme, a minister has said.
Bridget Phillipson defended the plan to address the prison capacity crisis in England and Wales by releasing thousands of prisoners early, which has been criticised by domestic abuse charities, bereaved families and probation officers among others.
Continue reading...About 125 firefighters tackle blaze at Neasden waste facility as nearby Amazon warehouse is evacuated
A large fire broke out at a waste facility close to Wembley Stadium in north-west London, disrupting tube and train lines in the area.
Twenty fire engines and about 125 firefighters were sent to tackle the blaze at a mixed-waste facility on an industrial estate in Neasden, less than a mile from the venue.
Continue reading...New rules are aimed at protecting people in debt in England and Wales and stopping homeowners being ripped off
A clampdown on “rogue bailiffs” has been launched by Andy Burnham amid concerns that vulnerable people are being overcharged and face aggressive behaviour.
In the latest in a series of “everyday fixes” to ease the cost of living and “make Britain fairer”, the prime minister said he was strengthening the rules that apply to bailiffs in England and Wales to better protect people in debt.
Continue reading...Sally-Anne Bowen, now 65, convicted of assaulting boys at Christ’s College, Finchley, where she was chemistry teacher
A chemistry teacher has been found guilty of indecently assaulting two teenage pupils at an all-boys school in the late 1980s.
Sally-Anne Bowen, who taught at Christ’s College in Finchley, north London, assaulted the teenage boys when they were aged around 14 to 15 and she was in her mid-20s.
Continue reading...Neil Gilson completes 230-mile challenge after a ‘tough’ 22-hour crossing of Lac Léman
He staggered rather than sprang out of the lake but it wasn’t surprising.
Neil Gilson, a former international athlete, could be forgiven for feeling a little wobbly, having become the first person to swim the 10 largest lakes in Switzerland, a total of about 230 miles (370km).
Continue reading...NHS has target of eliminating the cancer by 2040, but up to 4 million eligible women are not up to date with screening
Millions of women in England who have missed cervical screening appointments will be offered free home testing kits on the NHS.
The move comes amid concerns that only two-thirds of women attend in-person cervical screening appointments when asked to do so, leaving as many as 4 million women not up to date.
Continue reading...Campaigners accuse ministers of trying to grab headlines with announcement before a working system is ready
Survivors of violent crime and families of victims have criticised the UK government for announcing “world first” plans to introduce restriction zones for serious offenders freed from prison within a few weeks without spelling out how they would work.
Key campaigners who have championed the idea of the zones, designed to “lock” offenders into specific areas, accused the government of seeking to grab headlines rather than providing the detail that would reassure survivors and families.
Continue reading...Emotional tributes paid to PCs Matthew Blades and Tom Clough whose vehicle was in a head-on collision with car travelling wrong way
Cleveland police have published photographs of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough who died when a car travelling the wrong way on the A66 crashed head-on into their police vehicle.
Two 17-year-old boys were among the seven people who were killed in the incident on Teesside.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Voluntary use of sex drive-suppressing medication to expand to 20 prisons and expert says it could be rolled out widely by late 2028
Drugs that help control the libidos of people who have committed sexual offences could be rolled out for thousands of male prisoners in England and Wales from December 2028, an expert has said.
Prof Belinda Winder, who has evaluated the use of sex drive-suppressing medication in prisons, said about one in four sex offenders – equating to 3,750 current prisoners – would be considered for the treatment.
Continue reading...MPs receive Harry Styles concert tickets worth £858, Chelsea flower show tickets worth £1,839, and £3,432 of hospitality at Brit awards
MPs have been accused of failing to learn their lesson over freebies after taking almost £400,000 of hospitality to concerts, sport matches and other events this year, with Louise Haigh, Lucy Powell and Wes Streeting among those accepting tickets.
Despite the outcry in 2024 over Keir Starmer accepting football tickets and gifts of clothing, MPs appear to have been declaring hospitality since the start of the year on a greater scale than previously seen.
Continue reading...Aalim Ahmed, five, fell from 15th-floor window at tower block family had asked to be moved out of, court hears
An inquest into the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from a 15th-floor window has heard that more measures could have been taken to make it safer.
Aalim Ahmed, who was autistic, died when he fell from a kitchen window at a residential block in Plaistow, east London. His father, Makail Ahmed, rushed from the top floor temporary social housing flat and discovered his body shortly before 6am on 16 May 2024.
Continue reading...Owner of firm behind ‘Temu Range Rover’ will open facility in Bedfordshire in autumn
The Chinese carmaker behind the irreverently nicknamed “Temu Range Rover” is plotting further UK expansion with a major research and development centre in England.
Chery, which makes the Jaecoo and Omoda car brands, said the launch of a new R&D site was “the next step in our long-term plan” for Britain as it also moves towards manufacturing its cars in the UK.
Continue reading...‘First meaningful rain for a long time’ is forecast but water firms continue to ask customers to restrict use
Floods and drought could hit the UK at the same time this week, with heavy rain forecast to fall on hard, parched soil.
While some parts of the UK will have the “first meaningful rain for a long time” in the coming days, it will not reverse widespread drought conditions that have put pressure on wildlife, farmers, firefighters and water resources.
Continue reading...Force has seen busiest month in its history, with heatwaves putting added strain on criminal justice system
On England’s hottest day of the year so far, Ashton-under-Lyne in Greater Manchester was thronging with pedestrians, many clutching ice-creams or cold drinks as they passed through the town centre.
Officers from Greater Manchester police were also out in force, some in plainclothes, some stationed by a facial-recognition van, apprehending wanted suspects and stopping persons of interest. In total, officers made 54 arrests across the borough of Tameside as part of Operation Avro, GMP’s blitz on local crime which runs in a different district each month.
Continue reading...Detectives say 55-year-old man arrested and appeal for anyone who witnessed altercation in Wakefield
Police in West Yorkshire have launched a murder investigation into the death of a man after he was bitten by a dog.
Officers were dispatched to Wakefield just after 1.30pm on Saturday, after receiving reports of an altercation a short time earlier on an old trainline footpath.
Continue reading...Many complained online that piercingly loud tone was ‘overreach’ while others lamented lack of action on decarbonisation
On Friday at 7pm, Thérèse Coffey was nine miles away from a nuclear power station when her phone made a loud, piercing and very worrying sound: it was a “severe” emergency alert. “Was expecting [a] much more specific alert, not a generic message on wildfires,” the former Conservative cabinet minister said on X.
She wasn’t alone in being alarmed by the alarm sent to phones in England and Wales. In the aftermath, thousands of social media users expressed their shock at alert. Some shared funny memes and others lamented what they viewed as lack of government action on decarbonisation. Academic John Ritzema called it a “massive overreach” and said the alert system should be “be for ‘drop everything and prepare for something terrible’ situations”, something Coffey echoed, saying alerts should not become commonplace to avoid “Peter cries wolf situations”.
Continue reading...People urged not to light barbecues, campfires or anything else that could spark fire during period of extreme heat
Millions of people across England and Wales received an emergency alert to their phones on Friday as the government warned against activities that could start fires.
The deputy prime minister, Louise Haigh, said it was the most extensive use to date of the emergency alert system, with phones beaming a siren noise about 7pm, with the warning: “There is a serious risk of wildfires nationally.”
Continue reading...One person killed and hundreds evacuated in Croatia as blazes also hit Germany, Greece and Spain
Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave.
A fire engulfed homes in a Croatian holiday resort on Friday, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.
Continue reading...Reform UK leader’s return to Clacton restarts inquiry into £5m gift from crypto-billionaire and support from fraudster
• UK politics live – latest updates
The suspended parliamentary standards investigation into Nigel Farage over accusations he failed to declare gifts and donations has resumed after the Reform UK leader’s re-election as the MP for Clacton.
The twofold investigation by Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, was paused after Farage resigned from his seat and called a byelection in protest at what he said was unfair scrutiny of his finances.
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