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Yien Both, from South Sudan, and Tajdeen Adbulaziz Juma, from Sudan, charged with immigration offences in UKTwo men have been charged with immigration offences in connection with the investigation into the deaths of five people, including a child, who were trying to cross the Channel.Yien Both, a 22-year-old from South Sudan, has been charged with assisting unlawful immigration and attempting to arrive in the...

Exclusive: England’s chief medical officer says tobacco industry is the ‘one gainer from the death and disease’ caused by its productsRead Chris Whitty’s comment piece in fullChris Whitty has said lobbying by big tobacco “needs to be addressed head on”, as email evidence emerged of campaigning tactics being used to put pressure on MPs to sink Rishi Sunak’s smoking ban bill.The landmark legislation, which...

West Yorkshire police arrest 25-year-old on suspicion of murdering woman, 27, who was shopping with babyA 25-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman as she pushed her baby in a pram in Bradford city centre.West Yorkshire police said officers had detained him after a four-day manhunt across the north of England. Continue reading...

Emergency services dealing with incidents in Littlehampton and ‘severe flooding’ at a holiday parkThe River Arun has overflowed in West Sussex with rescue operations under way in the seaside town of Littlehampton and warnings of severe flood waters as a result of Storm Kathleen.“Our crews are supporting rescue operations in Littlehampton near Ferry Road and Rope Walk where the River Arun has burst its...

Community facility on UK’s first council estate reopens after outcry at local authority’s attempt to hike rentsWashing machines are once again whirring and dryers tumbling at a community launderette in east London that the local council had abruptly closed just weeks before, in a victory for local residents.People living in and around the Boundary estate, the UK’s first council estate, between Shoreditch and Bethnal...

Schemes to replace EU subsidies will not plug gap left by loss of EU subsidies for most farmersFarmers are calling for the government to grant them a universal basic income, saying the post-Brexit agriculture subsidy scheme has left many poorer.Delays to the sustainable farming schemes put in place after the UK left the European Union, to replace the common agricultural policy (CAP), have meant...

RCEM calculates 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 while waiting up to 12 hours for a bedAlmost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours a new estimate suggests.Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) based on a large study of excess deaths and waiting times show that...

Yearly cost to people, business and public sector found to be twice as big as NHS England’s annual budgetMental illness costs England £300bn a year, equivalent to nearly double its NHS budget, according to research.Researchers for the Centre for Mental Health thinktank analysed the economic, health and care impact of mental ill health, as well as human costs from reduced quality of life and...

MPs due to have free vote on proposal but some in party have privately expressed concerns it goes too farPolice have demanded records from UK abortion provider 32 times since 2020Senior Labour figures want to water down proposed legislation to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales ahead of a historic Commons debate on the issue.Later this spring, MPs are due to have a free...

Public accounts committee finds real-terms median pay has decreased for most Whitehall staff since 2013Morale in the civil service is being hit by chronic low pay, and Whitehall is increasingly unable to keep staff because salaries have declined in real terms for a decade, the public accounts committee has warned.The cross-party watchdog, chaired by the Labour MP Meg Hillier, said there were “chronic pay...

Crime crackdown plan also gives victims of rape and sexual assault the right to specialist support throughout justice processSix police forces will be given powers to charge domestic abuser suspects without the involvement of the Crown Prosecution Service as part of a series of Labour proposals to solve more crimes announced on Thursday.A future Keir Starmer government would also give victims in domestic abuse,...

In today’s newsletter: Amid many other crises, the standard of NHS care for patients’ families is declining – this is what it feels like• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. It is no secret that NHS England has many problems: it is crumbling (literally), patient care backlogs are at record highs, there is a recruitment and retention crisis, and quality...

Five-mile stretch in Surrey of UK’s busiest motorway is shut all weekend while a bridge is demolishedThousands of drivers face being stuck in gridlocked traffic this weekend due to an unprecedented closure of the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway.A five-mile stretch of the motorway between junctions 10 and 11 in Surrey was closed in both directions at 9pm on Friday while a bridge is demolished...

Proposed £100 charge could be seen as a price worth paying to continue to sell the productsFirms flouting the proposed ban on disposable vapes should face harsher fines to deter unscrupulous businesses, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.Under the government’s plans, businesses caught selling disposable vapes once the ban is in place could be given a fixed-penalty notice of £100 by their local...

Mother of murder victim Brianna Ghey and mother of her killer meet and decide to campaign together on dangers of mobile phonesIn an anonymous office on a business park in Warrington, two mothers met last week for the first time. Esther Ghey and Emma Sutton sat down together for what one restorative justice expert called the most “extraordinarily unusual” meeting he had heard of...

Exclusive: Independent examination of rape prosecutions hears lawyers are ‘obsessed’ with credibility of victims and use victim-blaming languageAnalysis: CPS report makes for grim reading – and it’s only the start Lawyers in the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales have trivialised teen sexual abuse, are “obsessed” about the credibility of rape victims and used victim-blaming language, according to a critical official examination into...

Proponents of ‘bathing waters’ designation say it would force action on sewage but others worry about impact of more visitorsThe waters of the River Cam are an unsettling lurid green on a dull day. The river that flows through Cambridge and has been enjoyed by swimmers including Lord Byron, Charles Darwin, Virginia Woolf and Roger Deakin is increasingly polluted from sewage discharges and phosphates...

Latin-inscribed artwork tells story of Walter Tirel, whose son killed British monarchThe Italian descendants of King William II’s killer want to donate a work of art partly depicting William’s death to a British museum.The three-slab triptych is owned by the Tirelli family, whose aristocratic origins can be traced back to France, for over 400 years. They have said they believe it was made by...

Analysis across four exam boards in England reveals white artists comprise 91.6% of all mentionsLess than 3% of artists named in GCSE art exam papers are from Black or south Asian backgrounds, research has found.Analysis of GCSE assessment materials from four big exam boards in England – AQA, Eduqas, OCR and Edexcel – showed only 8.4% of artists referenced across the 27 art exam...

Inspector says he was ‘deeply shocked’ by incidents with no female officer present at young offender institutionAn “incredibly vulnerable” girl held in a young offender institution was pinned down and stripped by an all-male group of officers on at least two occasions, a watchdog has discovered.Charities have called for all female offenders to be removed from YOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire after the damning...

Dostarlimab or Jemperli, an immunotherapy used alongside chemotherapy, could extend life expectancyA drug that could improve the quality of life of hundreds of women with womb cancer will be rolled out on the NHS across England from Tuesday.Dostarlimab, also known as Jemperli, is an immunotherapy that works by attracting specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells to help the immune system attack them....

Eleven people treated for smoke inhalation after fire breaks out in residential building in LondonEleven people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at a converted terraced house in the upmarket London neighbourhood of South Kensington.Fifteen fire engines and about 100 firefighters were called to the fire at a terraced house converted into apartments on Emperor’s Gate, in the south-west of...

UK’s largest water company also calls for dividend payouts and lower fines for breaches to avoid taxpayer bailoutThames Water has been lobbying the government and regulators to let it increase bills by 40%, pay lower fines for breaches and keep paying out dividends as part of efforts to avert a taxpayer bailout, according to a report.The under-fire utilities firm, the UK’s largest water company,...

Proposed sale of Abyssinian artefact taken during 1868 battle triggers appeal for restitution of ‘wrongfully acquired’ itemThe Ethiopian government has called the auction of a looted colonial-era shield “inappropriate and immoral” as it attempts to stop its sale this week and prevent it from disappearing into a private collection.The Anderson & Garland auction house, in Newcastle upon Tyne, was contacted by the Ethiopian National...