Government’s emergency planning advice has sparked sales of essentials but no panic stockpiling, say prepping shop owners

When the UK government launched its “Protect and Survive” public information campaign in 1980 on how to stay alive after a nuclear attack, it was met with a combination of scepticism, disbelief and derision.

The advice included how to build a “fallout room” at home, how to whitewash windows to protect from a blast, and how to store a dead body for up to five days.

Inquiry chair says failure to advise care homes to isolate people discharged from hospital was ‘significant oversight’

Government failures caused Covid-19 to spread “like wildfire” among vulnerable and elderly people, and Matt Hancock’s “protective ring” around care homes did not exist, a public inquiry has found.

Heather Hallett, who is leading the Covid-19 inquiry, said the care sector was an “afterthought” and rejected the former health secretary’s long-held claim that he threw a “protective ring” around care homes from the start of the pandemic, saying it was “unfounded” and the “opposite was true”.

Building safety regulator delays leave London tower block beset by security and vandalism problems

It’s a sunny day with bright blue skies in north London, but you wouldn’t know that in Natasha Dyett’s flat. Most of the rooms are consumed in shadow, while her teenage son’s bedroom is almost completely dark, apart from a few slits of light coming through the window.

She lives in Archway Heights, a nine-storey block of flats that has been covered in scaffolding for more than six years for cladding works that still haven’t started.

Rules mean single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms will now be used by people based on their biological sex

Trans women will no longer be placed on female-only wards under new NHS England guidance on single-sex spaces.

The new rules, published on Thursday, mean single-sex wards, toilets and changing rooms will be used by people based on their biological sex, not their gender identity.

New recruitment campaign to target adults in their 30s and 40s in bid to create 10,000 new foster care places

Viennetta Basterfield, 67, spent two decades fostering more than 100 children in her west London home before she and her husband handed in the reins during Covid.

Her own mother had died when she was nine and she was brought up by another woman who took her in. There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted to dedicate her life to passing that gift on to others.

In first half of this year 1,600 tags also had no signal for over two weeks, highlighting scale of probation crisis

More than 5,000 offenders went unmonitored in the first half of the year because electronic tags were not installed, while 1,600 tags had no signal for more than two weeks due to faults, a report has found.

The Institute for Government (IfG) has revealed the full scale of the crisis in the probation system in England and Wales, concluding that “rationing probation supervision” due to a lack of staff meant sentences imposed by the court had become “essentially a fiction” for most offenders.

Thousands died because of this summer’s extreme hot weather – caused by the climate crisis. Anita Bazell, taken to hospital during June’s heatwave with a body temperature of 41.2C, was one of them

Anita Bazell had never coped with the heat very well, her family said. So they were worried about her when temperatures across the UK soared to record highs of 35C (95F) in May, and then again in June.

She was living in a nursing home in Southampton near her family, who had struggled to care for her at home due to her declining mobility. Although there were air conditioning units in the communal rooms, there was not one in Anita’s room, which was on the third floor.

Social media, mental health problems, the pandemic and financial instability all contribute to the phenomenon

On Tess Lavanda’s YouTube channel there is one video with substantially more views than the rest: it is titled “I don’t have any friends” and has been watched more than half a million times since she posted it a month ago.

Over on Instagram she has posted dozens of reels with titles like “I turned 22 alone”, “Living alone in London” and “Feeling alone this summer is OK”, each garnering thousands of views and hundreds of comments, many from people feeling the same way.

Spectrum Building leaseholders awaiting payouts after freeholder, Arinium, went bankrupt shortly after 2024 blaze

Sarah Williams vividly remembers the night in 2016 when she camped overnight in a car park to put down a deposit on a flat in the newly completed Spectrum Building in Dagenham, east London.

“People started queuing for those flats 24 hours before they went on sale,” she said. “It was basically the only flat I could afford in London. This was a year before Grenfell, and the flats market in London was completely crazy.”

One-fifth of deaths of those in care occur at 18, in what experts call a ‘care cliff’, as vital support is lost

• ‘Immense drop-off’ in support contributing to care leaver deaths in England, review says

David* spent most of his childhood in and out of care after experiencing abuse and neglect, and spent his teenage years in a children’s home, where a nurse helped him keep track of his type 1 diabetes.

But as he approached 18, things changed: he was moved into supported accommodation on his own, and then, at 19 years old, his diabetes nurse stopped working with him because of his age.

UK hosts decades-old event for first time where many participants are from opposite sides of global disputes from Israel and Palestine, to India and Pakistan

On the surface it looks like a normal summer school in the Devon countryside, with teenagers playing volleyball in the sun, doing arts and crafts in the hall, and preparing for the night’s talent show.

But behind the scenes, intensive discussions are taking place. Many of these teenagers come from opposite sides of historical national conflicts – from Israel and Palestine, India and Pakistan.

Returns for breaches of licence conditions rose 31% in the first quarter of 2026, adding to pressure on prison places

More people were recalled to prison than were released during the first three months of 2026, the first time on record the “recall rate” has surpassed 100% in England and Wales.

Between January and March 2026, 12,977 people were released from prison while 13,193 people were returned to prison for breaching their licence conditions, up 31% from last year, new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data showed.

Narzny McKinney and her surrogate, Sarah, discuss their experience – and the misconceptions that surround the practice

• UK surrogacy law ‘creaking at seams’ as demand rises sharply

After struggling with infertility and eight unsuccessful rounds of IVF, Narzny McKinney had two precious embryos left – her last chance to have biological children. After considering her options, she made the decision to find a surrogate to carry her child for her.

“We were eight years down the line at this point and I just didn’t want to risk anything going wrong,” she said. “It was a tough decision but it was absolutely the right thing to do.”

Beira’s Place in Edinburgh, founded by the author, says claim was ‘deeply offensive’ as it considers legal action

Amnesty International UK has referred itself to the charity regulator over a report it published that described a sexual violence support centre founded by JK Rowling as “anti-rights”.

The UK branch of the global human rights charity listed Beira’s Place in Edinburgh among more than 100 organisations it said were part of an anti-rights movement.

Campaign hopes to buy site for community, fearing it could go same route of corporate gentrification as Camden and Old Spitalfields

Traders at Brixton market say they are in a battle of “people over profit” after submitting a last-minute plan to stop the site being bought by a private equity firm which they fear could price out longstanding independent businesses.

Those behind the Buy Back Brixton campaign said they are through to the second stage of a bidding process, competing against multinational companies to buy Brixton Village and Market Row for community ownership.

UK support group says more women are seeking help for experiences that one mother calls ‘lifelong punishment’

“I never thought I would have to report my child to the police. And I would never have thought it would be for something so unthinkable,” said Lucy*, who was sexually assaulted in her sleep by her son, then in his early 20s, in their family home.

He was convicted and given a community order but Lucy said she felt left to suffer in silence.

Zoe Watts and Amanda Stanhope launched network after being repeatedly assaulted by partners while unconscious

Two women who were drugged and raped by their partners while they were unconscious have said hundreds of people – including about 80 in the UK – have come forward to an international support group for victims of the crime.

Zoe Watts and Amanda Stanhope, who were both repeatedly assaulted by their partners while unconscious, are calling for tighter laws to stop men sharing images and videos of sexual assaults and rape online.

Draft bill to ban abusive practices that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity in England and Wales hailed as ‘historic’

Perpetrators of “conversion therapy” against LGBTQ+ people could face up to five years in prison under proposals hailed as a “historic and long overdue” milestone by campaigners.

The government has published its draft conversion practices bill, which would ban abusive practices that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity in England and Wales.

Exclusive: Internal review found charity failed to pass on 37 incidents to authorities over a six-month period

The NSPCC has referred itself to the charity regulator after admitting it failed to flag high-risk Childline cases to the police and local authorities.

An internal review found that over a six-month period, 37 contacts from children categorised as high-risk – which includes reports of physical and sexual abuse, neglect and suicidal thoughts – were not passed on to the relevant authorities.

Some see publication of the Nottingham report as a landmark moment, others as bittersweet and traumatic

The long-awaited report into maternity failures at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS trust (NUH), the largest investigation of its kind involving about 2,500 families, will be published later this week.

Led by the senior midwife Donna Ockenden, the inquiry investigated stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths and babies or mothers who suffered brain damage and other injuries between 2012 and 2025.