The Guardian

Justice secretary David Lammy says two are still at large and overall ‘trend is downwards’ Prisoners continue to be released mistakenly with a further 12 inmates let out of jail in error since November, the UK justice secretary has revealed. David Lammy told BBC Breakfast that despite the latest figures the “trend is downwards” after improvements to the system were put in place. Continue reading.…

Independent inquiry into fire and media questions to leader would not happen in mainland China, but crackdown on dissent has begun As Hong Kong mourns the victims of its worst fire in decades , the response to the disaster reveals the ways in which the semi-autonomous city retains differences from mainland China – and how some of those differences are being eroded. Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, a…

US has said it hopes other countries will follow as health policy experts say the agreement signals a shift away from value-for-money assessment Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The federal health minister, Mark Butler, said the government is trying to understand a “dynamic shift that’s happening in the global pharmaceutical market” following a new agreement that will …

Former SBS newsreader defends sharing two X posts about a speech by the late Hezbollah leader as fair comment on a matter of public interest Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Racial discrimination proceedings brought by the head of the Zionist Federation of Australia were “part of a deliberate campaign to undermine and discredit” Mary Kostakidis, court documents claim. …

Justice secretary appears to have pulled back from plans to scrap juries for all but the most serious cases Good morning. David Lammy , the deputy PM and justice secretary, will today unveil plans to slash the use of jury trials in England and Wales. With the backlog of cases due to be heard in courts already at 78,000, and heading for 100,000, Lammy will argue that drastic action is needed to ha…

Justice secretary suggests he will stick to Levesen’s recommended three-year sentence threshold, after ‘cabinet feedback’ David Lammy is expected to back down from removing jury trials for all but the most serious charges of murder, manslaughter and rape, but trial by jury will still be radically reduced for more minor offences. The justice secretary said there had been “cabinet feedback” on the …

‘Mansion tax’ announced by Rachel Reeves will have limited impact on property market, building society says Business live – latest updates UK house prices rose last month despite uncertainty before the budget, according to Nationwide, which predicted that the newly announced “mansion tax” would have a limited impact on the housing market. The UK’s biggest building society said the average house p…

Bank of England says stress tests show seven biggest lenders can weather financial hit in severe downturn Business live – latest updates The Bank of England is planning to ease capital rules for high street banks for the first time in a decade, marking the latest attempt to loosen regulations designed to protect the UK economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. The central bank has propose…

Exclusive: Rising flood risks driven by climate change could release chemicals from ageing sites – posing threats to ecosystems ‘I kept smelling a horrible nasty smell’: the risks of England’s old dumping grounds Thousands of landfills across the UK and Europe sit in floodplains, posing a potential threat to drinking water and conservation areas if toxic waste is released into rivers, soils and e…

Talks come after Witkoff led US discussions with Ukraine at weekend amid European concerns that Kyiv will be pressured to make concessions to Moscow US-Russia talks may pile pressure on Kyiv to make concessions, says EU foreign policy chief See all our Ukraine war coverage The Kremlin has said Vladimir Putin will meet Steve Witkoff for their talks on Tuesday afternoon. It’s now approaching 9.10am…

Exclusive: wide-ranging police powers used to conduct non-compliant searches that resulted in 33 people being charged or fined Victoria police will inform the state’s anti-corruption watchdog that it did not comply with the law when it used wide-ranging powers to search people for weapons on 23 separate occasions dating back eight years. The non-compliant searches resulted in 33 people being char…

Conch-shell trumpets discovered in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia make tone similar to french horn, says lead researcher As a child, Miquel López García was fascinated by the conch shell, kept in the bathroom, that his father’s family in the southern Spanish region of Almería had blown to warn their fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters. The hours he spent g…

New Zealand police allege 32-year-old ingested the 18-karat gold egg – a James Bond Octopussy locket – and say the object has ‘not yet been recovered’ A New Zealand man has been charged with theft after allegedly swallowing a Fabergé James Bond Octopussy egg pendant worth more than $33,500 (US$19,200). Police were called to a central Auckland jewellery store, Partridge Jewellers, on Friday aftern…

Sanae Takaichi’s not-so-catchy remarks about everyone working like a horse did not go down well in a country notorious for its demanding work culture It is not, perhaps, a word many people in Japan will want to hear as they prepare for the bonenkai office party season and some well-earned time off over the new year. But the promise made by Japan’s new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi , that she wou…

Man in his 60s was fighting large blaze near Ravensthorpe, about 500km south-east of Perth Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A farmer working frantically to protect his property from a fast-moving bushfire has died after his vehicle was engulfed in flames. The man aged in his 60s was operating a front-end loader as …