Calls grow for government to automatically release child trust funds at 21

• Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt have initiated mediation between the US and Iran to end the ongoing war, relaying messages since its start. • An Islamabad-brokered ceasefire plan was presented to both sides on Monday, proposing a 15-20 day settlement with immediate ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz ahead of a US Tuesday deadline threatening escalated strikes. • Earlier on March 25, a 15-point US proposal via Pakistan demanded dismantling Iran's nuclear facilities, missile limits, and a 30-day ceasefire, countered by Iran's five conditions including compensation and maritime control rights.

In today’s newsletter: As cases charged hit their highest level on record in England and Wales, a look at what is behind the increase and whether the criminal justice system is keeping paceGood morning. Disturbing new data shows that stalking offences recorded by police in England and Wales have surged over the past decade, with sharp rises in every region. The number of cases charged by the Crown Prosecution Service has also climbed to the highest level on record.But those figures only tell part of the story. Stalking is not a single incident but a pattern of behaviour – one that can leave victims living in constant fear, reshaping every aspect of their lives.NHS | Wes Streeting has accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England.Middle East | Diplomatic negotiations aimed at halting the war in the Middle East appeared to be faltering a day before a deadline imposed by Donald Trump with a threat to destroy Iran’s bridges and attack its power plants.UK News| Children are reporting online sextortion attempts in record numbers in the UK, as campaigners urge tech companies to do more to stamp out the crime.Space | Artemis II astronauts broke Apollo 13’s distance record, hugging each other in the cramped capsule as they made history by being the four humans to travel the farthest from Earth.Weather | Parts of the UK are forecast to experience the warmest temperatures of the year so far in the wake of Storm Dave, which caused widespread damage and disruption over the Easter weekend. Continue reading...

CBI figures showing surprise jump in financial sector’s growth will be welcome news for Rachel ReevesBritain’s financial services companies have reported a strong recovery in activity at the start of the year, in a surprise boost to the government after a gloomy end to 2025.Banks, insurers and investment managers said their businesses were growing, with a positive balance of nearly two-thirds noting an expansion, according to a long-running survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a lobby group. That contrasted with the negative balance of 38% in December, despite the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Health secretary says industrial action in England also threatens to derail NHS progress on waiting timesWes Streeting has accused resident doctors of “torpedoing” their own pay rises and training jobs by walking out on strike again, as tens of thousands of doctors began a six-day stoppage in England.The health secretary said there was a “legitimacy” to concerns over jobs and wages but that the British Medical Association had scuppered any chance of a breakthrough when it rejected what he said was a serious offer from the government to transform medics’ conditions. Continue reading...

UN assists in emergency vaccination drive as country battles worst surge in cases in years amid fall in vaccination ratesBangladesh is battling its worse measles outbreak in years, with more than 100 children dead amid a rise in unvaccinated infants.The government, in partnership with the United Nations, has begun conducting an emergency measles-rubella vaccination drive for children across the country, after more than 900 cases were confirmed since March. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Call for nudity-detection tech on phones as number of under-18s reporting blackmail attempts rises by 34%• ‘I felt ashamed and scared’: how an online friendship became a sextortion nightmareChildren are reporting online sextortion attempts in record numbers in the UK, as campaigners urge tech companies to do more to stamp out the crime.The Report Remove service, which allows children to flag intimate images or videos of themselves that have appeared, or could appear, online, said it received 394 reports from under-18s last year of blackmail attempts after sending sexual images to predators. The figure is 34% higher than in 2024. Continue reading...

With polls suggesting Plaid Cymru, the SNP and Sinn Féin could be in power after May vote, constitutional challenges may lie aheadIn four weeks, the shape of British politics is likely to change dramatically. For the first time, nationalists who aspire to break up the UK are expected to be in control of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland simultaneously. “The change will be seismic,” said Angus Robertson, a senior minister in the Scottish government.Opinion polls consistently suggest that after the elections on 7 May, England will be flanked by countries run by restless centre-left nationalist parties – Plaid Cymru in Cardiff, the Scottish National party in Edinburgh and, in Belfast, Sinn Féin, which shares power with the Democratic Unionists. Continue reading...

Signed acoustic guitar used on (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? – the bestselling album of the 90s – could fetch up to £60,000 at Sotheby’sIncredibly, some critics were lukewarm about Oasis’s second album, with one calling it “laboured and lazy” and another dismissing it as a “marginally less hook-laden reprise” of their debut.But (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? went on to become the bestselling British album of the 90s and a guitar Noel Gallagher used to write it will, Sotheby’s has announced, be a star lot of its April rock and pop sale. Continue reading...

Withdrawal of additional speciality training roles amid strike deadlock has left some doctors with uncertain futureAfter almost two years on the NHS frontline as a resident doctor, Heather Gunn says she is bracing herself for unemployment. Like many of her colleagues, she was desperate to secure one of the up to 4,500 additional training posts the government agreed to introduce in England over three years to help doctors progress into more specialised fields.The posts were promised in negotiations between the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association (BMA), and the government in a long-running dispute over resident doctors’ pay and job security. Continue reading...

Madrid and Basque government leaders call each other ‘provincial’ in dispute over the artworkA row has broken out between the Madrid and Basque regional governments in Spain over the latter’s request for Guernica, probably Picasso’s most celebrated work, to be housed temporarily in the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao to mark the 90th anniversary of the bombing of the Basque town.The work has hung in the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid since 1992 and repeated requests for it to be moved to the Basque Country have been refused. Continue reading...

US demands Iran reopen the strait of Hormuz while Tehran rejects 45-day ceasefire proposal and insists it wants permanent end to conflictTalks to end Iran war appear to falter a day before Trump deadlineHello and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran and its consequences for the region, the world and the global economy.Donald Trump said he was “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants if Tehran does not meet his Tuesday 8pm ET deadline to reopen the strait of Hormuz.The UN security council is expected to vote on Tuesday on a resolution to protect commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz but in significantly watered-down form after veto-wielding China opposed authorising force, Reuters is reporting, citing diplomats.The Israeli military said early on Tuesday it had completed an “air strike wave” aimed at damaging Iranian regime infrastructure in Tehran and additional areas across Iran. It said soon after that missiles were launched at Israel from Iran and defensive systems were operating to incept them.Israel’s military also said it carried out strikes on three airports in Tehran, targeting several Iranian planes and helicopters.The World Health Organisation suspended medical evacuations from Gaza to Egypt via the Rafah crossing after a contract worker for WHO was killed in Gaza on Monday. Separately, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people outside a school housing displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, health officials said. Before the strikes some Palestinians had clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia who they said attacked the school, Reuters cited medics and residents as saying.Oil prices extended their rises on Tuesday amid Trump’s heightened rhetoric against Iran. The head of the IMF, meanwhile, said the war would lead to “higher inflation and slower global growth”.The head of International Committee of the Red Cross said that “deliberate threats ... against essential civilian infrastructure and nuclear facilities must not become the new norm in warfare”. Mirjana Spoljaric said, without singling out any country or leader: “Any war fought without limits is incompatible with the law.”Israel said it struck Iran’s largest petrochemical complex on Monday. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the facility had been “destroyed” and his country was “systematically eliminating the Revolutionary Guards’ money machine”.The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Maj Gen Majid Khademi, was killed in US-Israeli strikes at dawn on Monday, the Guards said.Saudi Arabia intercepted seven ballistic missiles launched towards its eastern region and debris fell in the vicinity of energy facilities, the defence ministry of said on Tuesday.Two blasts were reportedly heard near the Erbil airport – which hosts advisers from the US-led anti-jihadist coalition – in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, an Agence France-Presse journalist said. Continue reading...