Bridget Phillipson orders review of hidden childcare charges hitting parents

Announcement comes after Alan Milburn says Britain has neglected generation of young people struggling to access work and training opportunitiesMinisters are expanding youth work experience and training schemes, after Alan Milburn warned Britain is spending £25 keeping young people on benefits for every £1 spent helping them into work.Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary will announce plans for 300,000 extra work experience placements over the next three years as Labour attempts to tackle what the minister described as a “quiet crisis” in youth employment. Continue reading...

The US has apparently had to agree to unfreeze billions of Iranian assets for a regime more hardline than before the warMiddle East crisis: live updatesOn 24 May each year, Iranians celebrate a historic victory in the war with Iraq: the liberation of Khorramshahr in 1982.This year, some were hoping a peace deal looking likely to be signed with the US might mark a similar turning point in their country’s history. Continue reading...

Actor recounts three alleged approaches by intelligence services, including through senior BBC executiveRiz Ahmed, the Oscar-winning actor, has claimed that Britain’s intelligence services tried three times to recruit him, including one occasion involving a senior BBC executive.Ahmed, 43, said: “Well, it’s happened three different times and they’re all slightly ridiculous, and this is what I mean by it, it’s just like inherently comedic. Continue reading...

Suspect who died after exchanging fire with agents had tried to enter the complex last summer, records showA gunman who opened fire outside the White House on Saturday before he was shot by federal agents was already known to the US Secret Service, court records show.The man, 21, was taken to a nearby hospital, before he was later pronounced dead. He had previously tried to enter the complex, according to an affidavit filed in DC superior court in 2025, following an arrest nearby. Continue reading...

Ousted Republican congressman says his party is facing ‘Trump disappointment syndrome’ over president’s agendaDonald Trump’s Republican party is on course for a damaging rejection at the ballot box in November, according to a maverick US congressman ousted by a challenger handpicked by the president.Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, became the latest of Trump’s targets to be defeated in the party’s primaries this week. He had repeatedly broken with the president over military action against Iran, government spending and the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Continue reading...

Some casualties after attacks on multiple locations in south and east of country on Sunday, state media reportsMiddle East crisis: live updatesIsraeli strikes have hit southern and eastern Lebanon, a day after 11 people were killed in a single raid on the south despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war and claims that the US and Iran are about to reach a peace deal.Saturday’s strike in Sir al-Gharbiyeh “resulted in a massacre whose final toll is 11 dead including a child and six women, and nine wounded including four children and a woman,” Lebanon’s health ministry said. Continue reading...

Reform UK leader claims ‘counter-espionage experts’ suggest state-sponsored hackers are behind the disclosure of £5m giftNigel Farage is under mounting pressure to provide evidence for his claim that a state-sponsored Russian hack was behind the disclosure of the £5m gift he received from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.Reform UK claimed over the weekend that analysis of Farage’s phone by “counter-espionage experts” suggested that “Farage’s phone, email and bank accounts were compromised by hostile actors, almost certainly linked to Moscow, using spear phishing tactics”, before the Guardian revealed details of his undeclared gift last month. Continue reading...

Former justice secretary Alex Chalk KC says figures Channel 4 obtained show the ‘horror show’ in the systemAlmost 60,000 arrest warrants were issued for defendants who skipped court in England and Wales last year, up nearly 50% since 2020 in further evidence of the “horror show” in the criminal justice system.The figures, obtained in an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches to air on Friday, also show that more than 30,000 failure-to-appear warrants are outstanding, meaning that tens of thousands of criminals could be on the run after being charged. It is unclear how many have more than one warrant to their name. Continue reading...

La Brea Tar Pits – the only urban, active ice age excavation site in world – gets a mammoth face lift for the first time in nearly 50 yearsLos Angeles is known for famous museum such as the Getty and the Lacma, but perhaps fewer people are aware that – in the heart of the city – lies a museum that contains one of the world’s most remarkable fossil sites.The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum is home to the remains of more than 2 million ice age flora and fauna, including mastodons and saber-toothed cats, that became trapped in oily pools that still bubble up today. Continue reading...

Regulators and gambling harm advocates have been closely watching the rise in popularity of Polymarket and KalshiGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastUS-based “prediction market” websites are taking tens of thousands of dollars in bets on Australian elections and even specific words the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says in parliament, with gambling harm advocates and the wagering lobby raising alarm.Australian financial and media regulators said they were monitoring the explosion in popularity of platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, which operate financial exchanges where users buy “shares” in contracts on the outcome of events. Continue reading...

Exclusive: prison multinational MTC uses a ‘minimalist staffing model’ that critics say is putting detainees and staff in serious dangerGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA series of catastrophic security failures involving the US private prison company running Australia’s immigration detention centres has allowed the escape of high-risk detainees, caused ill-equipped staff to be stabbed and hospitalised, and triggered multiple investigations, one of which warned its “minimalist staffing model” was putting workers and detainees at risk.Guardian Australia can reveal that in September 2025, just six months after Management and Training Corporation assumed control of onshore detention, the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, was forced to haul in the company’s president from the US to dress him down in a secret face-to-face meeting.Seriously ill detainees are missing medical appointments because MTC lacks the staff to escort them to health centres, a situation that has infuriated the home affairs department.Two MTC staff members were admitted to hospital with smoke inhalation after trying to rescue an unconscious detainee from a fire. Investigators found MTC had not given the staff basic respiratory equipment and fire-response training six months after assuming control of the centre.More than 12 escapes or attempted escapes have occurred in the 14 months MTC has had control of the system. A significant number took place during transport and escort operations to hospitals, airports or detention centres.A child sexual abuse offender deemed high-risk escaped MTC custody during an escort to Sydney’s Bankstown hospital despite being handcuffed and supposedly under close watch.In September a detainee absconded by shimmying up a light pole next to a boundary fence at Brisbane immigration detention centre. His disappearance was not discovered for 12 hours.Late last year two detainees were able to flee a guarded MTC vehicle travelling less than 500m in Melbourne. One managed to evade capture for four days.The risk assessment system MTC uses to classify detainees is so broken that Comcare, the federal work safety regulator, has warned the home affairs department it is putting staff at serious risk of violence. Continue reading...