Thursday briefing: The largest cluster of cases in a generation – what’s behind the meningitis B outbreak?

Conservationists say population rebound demands rethink of retention zones that allow thousands of the animals to remain in the parkGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastFeral horse numbers in the Kosciuszko national park have surged, with new survey data estimating populations climbed by thousands after the New South Wales government paused aerial culling in 2025.Conservation advocates say the rebound in numbers demands an urgent rethink of retention zones that allow thousands of horses to remain in the park. Continue reading...

The Oscar-winning actor’s role in the mythical drama has been attacked by Elon Musk and others on the far right Oscar-winning actor Lupita Nyong’o has responded to far-right criticism of her role in Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey.In the big-budget film, out in July, the star plays Helen of Troy alongside cast members including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland and Zendaya. Continue reading...

President says reality star a ‘big Maga person’ but backing may prove more hindrance than help in deep-blue bastionDonald Trump’s endorsement is typically a boon for candidates seeking elected office – a show of support, or disapproval, from the president has proved significant in races across the US this year.But Trump’s recent comments on the Los Angeles mayor’s race, just weeks before the primary, are sure to benefit Democrats. The president spoke favorably of Spencer Pratt, a former Republican and reality TV star who is polling second in the contest to lead America’s second largest city. Continue reading...

Approval marks key step forward for project dubbed ‘Arc de Trump’, which will be near Arlington National CemeteryThe Commission of Fine Arts on Thursday approved designs for Donald Trump’s proposed 250-ft triumphal arch in Washington DC.The vote on Thursday by the panel, which is made up of Trump appointees, marks a key step forward for the project. Next month, the proposed design is set to be reviewed by the National Capital Planning Commission, another federal panel that oversees planning for federal buildings and land. Continue reading...

Policy adviser Jen Reed says tech-facilitated abuse has become ‘increasingly prevalent’ and calls for its inclusion in Domestic Abuse ActThe Domestic Abuse Act fails to fully recognise the danger of technology-facilitated abuse, such as location tracking or hidden stalkerware, a Lords select committee has heard.Tech abuse has become “increasingly prevalent” and “very commonplace now within a domestic abuse context”, said Jen Reed, the head of policy at University College London’s Gender and Tech Research Lab, during an evidence session. Continue reading...

Updated code of practice covering England, Wales and Scotland also relates to changing rooms and follows supreme court rulingSingle sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog.But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who don’t wish to use services for their biological sex. Continue reading...

Boys physically overpowered and then filmed attacks on teenage victims in separate incidents in HampshireThree teenage boys convicted of knife-point rape and other serious sexual offences against two teenage girls in Hampshire have not been given custodial sentences because the judge said he “should avoid criminalising these children unnecessarily”.The boys, who were aged between 13 and 14 at the time of their offences, physically overpowered and sexually assaulted the girls, who were aged 14 and 15, in separate incidents two months apart. Continue reading...

Court throws out state’s challenge to judicial finding that inmate convicted of murder is ineligible for death penaltyThe US supreme court on Thursday threw out a challenge by the state of Alabama to a judicial finding that a death row inmate convicted of a 1997 murder is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible under the US constitution for the death penalty.In this highly unusual move, and in a single-sentence, unsigned order, the court dismissed Alabama’s petition for review in Hamm v Smith without deciding it, effectively undoing its earlier decision to take up an appeal by state officials to the method used by a lower court to determine that Joseph Clifton Smith was intellectually disabled and therefore could not be executed. Continue reading...

Highest ranking staff will get 2.5% pay rise with bonuses for top performers in plan to ‘rewire’ civil serviceSenior civil servants will get bonuses for exceptional performance for the first time under a new system that Darren Jones, the Cabinet Office minister, said would reward the “doers, not the talkers”.Jones, who is also chief secretary to the prime minister, said most civil servants would get a 3.5% pay rise, but senior staff would have a base increase of 2.5%, with 1% held back for bonuses for the highest performing officials. Continue reading...

Music is banned on Wednesdays on island of Stromboli where Rolling Stones frontman was celebrating wrapping a filmPolice on an Italian island stopped a party attended by Mick Jagger – because music is banned on Wednesdays.The Rolling Stones frontman was on Stromboli, the volcanic island among Sicily’s Aeolian archipelago, for the production of Three Incestuous Sisters, a film by the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher in which he stars. Continue reading...

Sarah Kellen told lawmakers that convicted sex offender ‘sexually and psychologically abused me … and gaslit me’Sign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email One of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistants has fiercely denied she was an accomplice of the convicted sex offender during a congressional interview, claiming she was “sexually and psychologically abused” by the late financier.“I am here today to answer your questions, to dispel rumors and conspiracies, and to tell you the truth,” Sarah Kellen told lawmakers on the House of Representatives oversight and reform committee on Thursday morning, as part of its ongoing review of the federal investigation into Epstein. Continue reading...

UK’s largest police force says Palantir is only company that can supply what it needs. Is that worth the controversy that comes with it?London mayor Sadiq Khan blocks £50m Met police deal with PalantirIt’s bot vs bobby. The row over whether the controversial US AI company Palantir should be paid £50m to help the Metropolitan police hits to the heart of how public services will be delivered in the coming years.A similar dynamic is playing out in hospitals, schools and town halls, but right now police chiefs are turning to AI to escape a fiscal bind. The UK’s largest police force is shrinking; a £125m funding shortfall means it faces cutting 1,150 posts. Scotland Yard wants to use AI to deploy Palantir’s systems to comb through human intelligence reports, email caches, phone records and the rest of the torrent of digital evidence trail left by 21st century crime. Continue reading...