Medicine shortages in England ‘beyond critical’, pharmacists warn

Survey has revealed challenges faced by pharmacists and risk of harm to patients as key drugs are unavailable

• ‘We’re firefighting in the background’: the pharmacists coping with record drug shortages

Drug shortages in England are now at such critical levels that patients are at risk of immediate harm and even death, pharmacists have warned.

The situation is so serious that pharmacists increasingly have to issue “owings” to patients – telling someone that only part of their prescription can be dispensed and asking them to come back for the rest of it later, once the pharmacist has sourced the remainder.

79% of pharmacy staff said that medicine shortages were putting patient health at risk.

91% of pharmacy owners had seen a “significant increase” in the problem since last year.

99% of pharmacy workers found a drug was unavailable at least weekly, and 72% encountered that several times a day.

Nadhim Zahawi to stand down as MP at next general election

MP for Stratford-on-Avon, former chancellor and Conservative party chair will not seek re-election

Nadhim Zahawi, a former chancellor under Boris Johnson, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he will not be standing again at the general election.

First elected in 2010, Zahawi said on Thursday he “had come to feel that the time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to represent Stratford-on-Avon”.

Israel-Gaza war live: Biden warns Israel if it goes into Rafah, ‘I’m not supplying the weapons’

The US president tells CNN he has made it clear to Benjamin Netanyahu that a major offensive on the Gaza city would mean a halt to more weapons shipments

• Analysis: Biden seeks to pull rank in US-Israel relationship

At least 34,844 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza and 78,404 Palestinians injured, according to the territory’s health ministry. Thousands more are believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings. Here are some of the latest images from Gaza:

Israel’s national security minister presented himself before the television cameras to make a statement on Sunday, shortly after leaving a meeting with the country’s prime minister.

UK toddler has hearing restored in world first gene therapy trial

Opal Sandy can hear almost perfectly after groundbreaking surgery that took just 16 minutes

A British toddler has had her hearing restored after becoming the first person in the world to take part in a pioneering gene therapy trial, in a development that doctors say marks a new era in treating deafness.

Opal Sandy was born unable to hear anything due to auditory neuropathy, a condition that disrupts nerve impulses travelling from the inner ear to the brain and can be caused by a faulty gene.

Elite cyclist seeking UK asylum told he must move to Bibby Stockholm barge

Mohammad Ganjkhanlou cannot take his bike onboard and says he ‘will not have the chance to rebuild’ his racing career

A gold medal-winning elite cyclist who is seeking asylum in the UK fears his career will be derailed because he has been told by the Home Office he must move to the Bibby Stockholm barge and cannot take his bike on board.

Mohammad Ganjkhanlou, 26, an Iranian, has won four gold, two silver and six bronze medals in big competitions and has competed in the world championships.

Fraud rife on secondhand marketplaces Depop, Preloved, and Shpock

Survey of 1,300 buyers found 32% scammed on secondhand marketplace in two years, highlighting scale of APP fraud

• Chinese network behind one of world’s ‘largest online scams’

Consumers have been encouraged to be vigilant when shopping online after research showed fraud was rife on secondhand marketplaces, with Depop, Shpock and Preloved named the worst sites, and problems also discovered with industry giants Amazon and eBay.

A survey of 1,300 buyers by Which?, the consumer champion, found that 32% had been scammed on a secondhand marketplace in the two years to January. The most common ruse involved consumers receiving incorrect goods or nothing at all, while others were delivered an empty package or counterfeit goods.

Terrorism arrests of three men in Greater Manchester

Group being questioned after warrants were executed in Bolton, Great Lever, Abram and Hindley, says Greater Manchester police

Three men have been arrested on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism in Greater Manchester.

Warrants were executed by officers in Bolton, Great Lever, Abram and Hindley around 7.30pm on Wednesday, Greater Manchester police (GMP) said. The men, aged 35, 36 and 51, were arrested at separate locations on suspicion of the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Keir Starmer sparks Labour anger with decision to admit Natalie Elphicke

MP says many in party think rightwing Tory defector is ‘vile’, while shadow minister asks: ‘Are we welcoming Farage next week?’

Keir Starmer is facing shadow cabinet anger for welcoming into his party a rightwing Conservative MP who has repeatedly attacked Labour over migration.

Natalie Elphicke became on Wednesday the second Tory MP in two weeks to cross the floor of the Commons, dealing another major blow to Rishi Sunak.

Children ‘piled up and shot’: new details emerge of ethnic cleansing in Darfur

As El Fasher stands on the ‘precipice of a massacre’, rights groups call for sanctions after new testimony describes atrocities carried out by RSF paramilitaries in Sudan

Gruesome new testimony details one of the worst atrocities of the year-long Sudanese civil war – the large-scale massacre of civilians as they desperately tried to flee an ethnic rampage in Darfur last summer.

Witnesses describe children, still alive, being “piled up and shot” by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they attempted to escape the regional capital of El Geneina in June last year during a bout of ethnic violence in which thousands of civilians were killed.

England’s rivers to remain in poor state as EU laws ignored post-Brexit, says watchdog

Government’s failure to match EU measures to improve condition of rivers, lakes and oceans called ‘deeply concerning’

England’s rivers are likely to remain in a poor state for years to come because the government is failing to put in place EU clean water laws post-Brexit, the watchdog has found.

When Britain was a member of the EU, the government was required to follow the water framework directive (WFD), standards for waterways that have been credited with cleaning up Europe’s dirty water.

Under their worst-case assessment, just 21% of surface waters will be in a good ecological state by 2027, representing only a 5% improvement on the current situation. This would break the Environment Act, which aims to improve air and water quality, protect wildlife, increase recycling and reduce plastic waste.

There is insufficient funding to meet the targets, meaning that under the WFD ministers are being compelled by the OEP to write a new, properly funded plan to protect the country’s waters. The Environment Agency has calculated a cost of £51bn to clean up England’s waters, which would provide £64bn in monetisable benefits. However, confirmed funding of only £6.2bn is just 12% of that required.

There is not enough monitoring taking place to find out the state of England’s waterways, making it nigh on impossible to clean them up.