BBC’s Trevor Nelson recovering after brain tumour surgery

Government announce plan for ‘stepping stone’ qualification as 620,000 year 11 students face retaking maths or English after failure to achieve grade 4The government’s plans to make young people continue studying maths and English if they fail GCSEs could be demotivating and ineffective, according to education experts and school leaders after retake pass rates slumped this year.Only one in seven students in the age group retaking GCSE maths after a previous failure got a grade 4 or above this summer, while only one in six managed to pass English, meaning the majority will have to retake the exams next year if they remain in education or training. Continue reading...

Researcher Nathan Cofnas previously claimed Black people would hold few high-profile positions in a meritocracyNathan Cofnas, the academic who made plagiarism allegations against Prof Jason Arday before his death, has been suspended by a university.Arday, 41, resigned from his role at the University of Cambridge this month after Cofnas accused him of plagiarism. The allegations, which were not proven in any formal investigation, triggered questions about Arday’s achievements. Continue reading...

Federal agents also ‘seized electronic devices’ from former Democratic representative at San Francisco airportAuthorities are said to have searched the Washington DC home of disgraced former California Democratic representative Eric Swalwell on Sunday amid an ongoing law enforcement investigation into sexual assault allegations.CNN reported that federal agents on Saturday “seized electronic devices” from Swalwell at the San Francisco airport, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. Multiple other outlets have confirmed the federal search; the Daily Mail was the first to report this law enforcement activity. Continue reading...

USS George Washington will replace warship families say suffers from shortages, plumbing problems and low moraleThe USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, where it is expected to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln from its record deployment amid concerns about poor living conditions and morale.US Central Command announced on Thursday that the Washington arrived in the area on Wednesday, and posted an image of sailors working on the flight deck as the ship transited the Arabian Sea. No date has yet been announced for the Lincoln to return to the US. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zhuravlev had been consulted on Snake Island, a dramatised reconstruction of incidentEarlier this month locals in Zagreb noticed something odd outside an art deco building. Sandbags and barricades appeared in front of the Esplanade hotel, along with a film crew and extras sporting Ukrainian military uniforms. Soon afterwards the actors Sean Penn and Adrien Brody were spotted on the set in the Croatian capital, together with Doug Liman, the Hollywood director of the Jason Bourne movies.Liman had come to shoot his latest fictional political thriller. Its subject: the 2022 Nord Stream explosions, in which a team of Ukrainian divers allegedly blew up a pipeline supplying Russian oil to Germany. One of the chief suspects, Volodymyr Zhuravlev, had twice eluded the Germany authorities: once allegedly slipping out of Poland in the boot of a diplomatic car, and on another occasion freed by a court. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Mitchell Palmer has also argued for privatising the NHS and immigration as way of cutting poverty Reform UK’s new economic adviser has previously called the pensions triple lock unsustainable, advocated privatising the NHS and welcomed migration as a poverty alleviation tool, the Guardian can reveal.Robert Jenrick, Reform’s economic spokesperson, has appointed Mitchell Palmer, a rightwing economist at the free-market Adam Smith Institute, as one of his key aides. Continue reading...

Prof Katya Rubia withdraws support for The Great ADHD Myth? as other leading figures voice criticismsA key contributor to a controversial Channel 4 documentary on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has withdrawn her support for the programme, saying it was biased and could lead to an increased suicide risk by encouraging parents to take their children off medication.Katya Rubia, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, also said The Great ADHD Myth? misrepresented her views. Continue reading...

Meta chief executive paid roughly €20m for gothic-style mansion built in 1830 and its surroundingsIt stretches the definition of pied-à-terre but Mark Zuckerberg now has a pad in Ireland: Strancally castle.The Meta chief executive and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have bought the gothic-style mansion and its 178-hectare (440-acre) estate in county Waterford to use as a base during visits to Ireland. Continue reading...

Claire Lomas had been filming a series for Apple TV in Amman, Jordan when she lost control of the aircraftThe death of a disability campaigner after a microlight crash while filming a TV programme for Apple was an accident, a coroner has concluded.An inquest heard on Thursday that Claire Lomas, 44, died of severe traumatic injuries on 22 August 2024, five weeks after a light aircraft that she had been piloting while filming a promotional video for Apple’s Vision Pro headset “veered off the runway” and crashed into a rock in Amman, Jordan, on 15 July. Continue reading...

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to return to live in Britain, six years after leaving for the US: a decision that was subject to intense media scrutiny. The couple and their two children are expected to relocate later in August to a non-royal residence.Nosheen Iqbal speaks to senior national editor Aaron Sharp – watch on YouTube Continue reading...

Pre-tax profits rose at high street opticians to £429.7m in the year to February while sales increased 7% to £4.3bnSpecsavers has paid £12m to its parent company controlled by founders Doug and Dame Mary Perkins after the high street opticians’ profits soared by more than a quarter.The group operates nearly 3,000 optometry, audiology and ophthalmology businesses globally in at least eight countries, including more than 900 in the UK, through hundreds of independent partners. Continue reading...