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Insecure jobs and high housing costs make it hard to maintain decent living standard, says abrdn Financial Fairness TrustBritain’s insecure jobs market and high housing costs are leading to the growth of a precarious middle class struggling to maintain a decent living standard on household incomes as high as £60,000 a year, a report has said.A study released by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, a...

Local WhatsApp group started by two mothers concerned about online safety attracts more than 4,000 membersMore than 4,000 parents have joined a group committed to barring young children from having smartphones, as concerns grow about online safety and the impact of social media on mental health.The WhatsApp group Smartphone Free Childhood was created by the former school friends Clare Fernyhough and Daisy Greenwell in...

Amina Noor travelled from north London with the child to Kenya where the procedure was carried out in 2006A woman who was found guilty of handing over a three-year-old British girl for female genital mutilation (FGM) during a trip to Kenya has been jailed for seven years.Amina Noor, 40, was convicted last year of assisting a Kenyan woman to carry out the procedure overseas...

In today’s newsletter: A good night for Keir Starmer and a bad one for Rishi Sunak – who now has more to worry about from Reform UK• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. While you were sleeping, the Conservative party was having another meltdown. As was widely predicted, it lost two previously safe seats to Labour after yesterday’s byelections, with...

Carla Dejonghe has persuaded her municipality to consider impact of its policies on single peopleFor much of the past decade Carla Dejonghe has worked to highlight the ways in which single people are often disadvantaged, whether through higher household expenses or the assumption that they are available to work evenings and weekends.However, in recent weeks the Belgian councillor has taken matters into her own...

Clinics de-listed people without warning, forcing them to go private or find another NHS practicePatients across England who failed to visit their dentists since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic have been systematically barred by some clinics from getting NHS treatment.Dental practices across the country informed patients they could no longer get NHS treatment, citing non-attendance over a period of two years or more...

Young people with complex needs face long waits for places because providers fear negative watchdog reportsSome care homes in England are refusing to take children with complex needs because they are worried it might affect their Ofsted inspection ratings, fuelling concern that vulnerable young people in the social care system are having to wait months or even years for a stable home.Last month, an...

Teenagers are coerced into committing crime for someone else’s benefit, according to social justice groupsAlmost half of the victims of criminal exploitation in the UK are British boys aged under 18, according to a report calling for new laws to acknowledge them as ­victims of modern slavery.The analysis, by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) thinktank and the charity Justice and Care, found that...

Charlotte Nichols says Brianna gave people someone to identify with and humanised discussion on gender issuesBrianna Ghey’s murder has “humanised the debate” around transgender people in her native Warrington, and stopped local Conservative politicians from using trans issues for “culture war” attacks, according to Brianna’s local Labour MP.“Most people haven’t necessarily met a trans person. And I think what happened to Brianna really gave...

Social housing resident Filippe Scalora alleges a stranger moved into his flat while he could not get home in pandemicA social housing tenant is suing his landlord for £1m in damages, alleging that a housing officer illegally sublet his home when he was stranded abroad at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020.Filippe Scalora’s case against Clarion will allege that when he returned...

Ruling comes months after supreme court ruled that requiring sterilisation before a change of gender in official records was unconstitutionalA court in western Japan has approved a transgender man’s request to have his gender changed in official records without undergoing sterilisation surgery, the first known ruling of its kind since the country’s top court struck down a surgery requirement for such record changes.Tacaquito Usui,...

Activists will cross the continent visiting areas where the practice is prevalent to revive progress in protecting women and girlsAfrican female genital mutilation survivors will lead thousands of campaigners in a two-year “caravan campaign” across the continent, calling for an end to the practice.Organised by #FrontlineEndingFGM, a group of grassroots activists and organisations in Africa will cover about 7,400 miles (12,000km) across 20 countries,...

Families who suffered harmful effects of hormone pregnancy tests not included in Patient Safety Commissioner’s reviewUK ministers are facing a backlash after families affected by the hormone pregnancy test Primodos were excluded from a review about redress for victims of health scandals.A report by the Patient Safety Commissioner says there is a “clear case for redress” for thousands of women and children affected by...

Exclusive: As NHS targets are being missed nearly 300,000 people paid for chemotherapy in last five yearsHundreds of thousands of cancer patients in the UK are being forced to pay for private treatment amid record NHS waiting times, according to data obtained by the Guardian.The figures emerged as King Charles began treatment for the disease within days of being diagnosed. Buckingham Palace has not...

Labour MPs call to extend provision to every primary pupil in England after study finds health and learning improveLabour is facing calls from MPs to back the provision of free school meals for all primary school children in England, after a new study found evidence that it reduces obesity and boosts reading skills.Levels of obesity were reduced by 7% to 11% among reception children...

Exclusive: Local voluntary groups forced to cut services or close as council funding pulledWhen a Citizens Advice has to close despite demand being ‘off the scale’Charity leaders have warned of the “devastating knock-on impact” of the financial crisis in English town halls, as evidence emerges of cuts and closures at local voluntary groups, where vital grant funding has been cut by stricken councils.Citizens Advice...

In Mansfield, the council could not afford the funding needed by a service that is vital to one of the UK’s most deprived areasIn the end it was just £27,000. That was as much as the local district council said it could scrape together, but it was still a 50% cut in core grant funding and ultimately not enough to prevent Mansfield Citizens Advice...

Children’s parents and those who performed the procedure are in police custody, according to local reportsPolice in Sierra Leone are investigating the deaths of three girls who underwent female genital mutilation (FGM).Adamsay Sesay, 12; Salamatu Jalloh, 13; and Kadiatu Bangura, 17, died during initiation ceremonies in the country’s North West province last month, according to local reports. Continue reading...

MSF begins vaccine drive against incurable disease, which is spread via dirty water and kills thousands of pregnant womenA push to tackle an outbreak of hepatitis E in South Sudan is being hampered by flooding that has isolated populations and turned villages into islands.A pioneering vaccination drive has begun to protect people against a spate of cases but the true scale of the disease...

Treatment for ailments including sore throats, earaches and shingles to be offered without a GP appointmentPatients in England can get treatment for seven common conditions without needing to see a GP, under a shake-up of pharmacy services.From Wednesday, thousands of pharmacists will be able to assess and treat patients for sinusitis, sore throat, earache, infected insect bites, impetigo, shingles and uncomplicated urinary tract infections...

Exclusive: testimonies describing malnourishment and disease to renew pressure on government to repatriate dozens of Britons, many of them childrenBritish mothers held in a prison camp in north-east Syria fear that they may die in detention after an “alarming” deterioration in living conditions.Their testimony – revealed in a series of WhatsApp messages seen by the Guardian – will place fresh pressure on the UK...

Study finds that lockdowns and cuts to local services are partly to blameProgress on tackling youth violence in Scotland is slowing as young people struggle to access “safe spaces”, according to a new report.The study, by researchers at the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and the Open University, examined the past, present and future of violence reduction in Scotland and found that while incidences of...

Coroner concluded 14-year-old girl took her life after prolonged and sustained bullying in person and onlineThe father of a 14-year-old girl who killed herself after being bullied has said his family are victims of a “failing system” after an inquest into her death.Mia Janin, a year 10 pupil at the Jewish free school in Kenton, north-west London, was found dead at her family home...

Shop will be open only to non-Muslim diplomats – but some fear it is first step to wider availability of alcohol in teetotal kingdomThe news that Saudi Arabia will allow its first alcohol shop has citizens and foreigners alike mulling one question: is this a minor policy tweak, or a major upheaval?Sources familiar with preparations for the store disclosed details of the plan on...