A grim portrait emerged Wednesday from the House of Horrors in Ohio where 16 children were kept inside a small room. 

The children, who authorities said ‘looked like feral animals,’ were saved on Tuesday morning when the Vinton County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant for an unrelated investigation.  

Inside the Hamden home, law enforcement discovered a horrific scene. Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson described it as ‘pure evil.’

New harrowing photos reveal the decrepit conditions that the children – ranging in age from 18 months to 18 years – were forced to live in. 

The home in the small town was cordoned off with yellow police tape, while garbage littered the front yard. 

Boxes, trash, and miscellaneous items, including a bicycle, were piled around the front porch. 

Some photos offered a glimpse inside the home, where authorities said the wretched conditions included human waste scattered throughout. 

One nauseating photo appeared to show a window with no glass pane, its opening blocked by piles of debris and trash. 

The home in the small town was cordoned off with yellow police tape, while garbage littered the front yard

One nauseating photo appeared to show a window with no glass pane, its opening blocked by piles of debris and trash

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More photos showed another part of the home’s interior with stained walls as garbage bags and cardboard boxes block an entrance. 

Bowls of cat and dog food were also seen sitting outside the home’s front porch. 

Food containers, trash, and even high chairs could be seen scattered throughout the home through broken windows. 

The rear of the house was also blocked off by police tape, with car tires lying in overgrown bushes and the back porch strewn with junk – including a wagon. 

Some of the children discovered Tuesday were unable to speak and one – an 18-year-old who was developmentally disabled – could not even write her name, investigators said.  

‘Most of our livestock was kept in better conditions than the children,’ said Vinton County Sheriff Ryan Cain. ‘Just a disgusting scene.’

Two parents and grandparents were each charged with 17 counts of endangering children, a second-degree felony. 

The suspects were identified as Gary Siders Jr, Gary Siders Sr, Christina Siders and Elizabeth Siders. 

Felony charges were filed by the DA’s office because the parents and grandparents were responsible for causing ‘serious physical harm,’ according to prosecuting attorney William Archer.  

A cat looks out from a side door opening of the home where garbage is seen piled inside

Garbage bags, cardboard boxes, and trash are seen blocking an entrance of the home

Food containers, trash, and even high chairs are seen scattered

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Bowls of cat and dog food were also seen sitting outside the home’s front porch

More junk is seen through a door opening in the house of horrors

Police tape surrounds the rear of the home where various objects including car tires are scattered in the grass

Several children were in serious condition when found, and two had to be flown to level one trauma centers because of their injuries.

When asked about their emotional state at a press conference, Wilson said that investigators’ primary concern upon arrival was getting the children to a hospital due to the extent of their medical conditions. 

Officials did not confirm how all the children were related, but said it was not a human trafficking situation. 

Authorities added that the four arrested were not locals and appeared to have been traveling. 

‘Our children deserve better from their parents, guardians, and custodians. No child should endure these kinds of conditions,’ Archer, the prosecuting attorney, said. 

‘My office will do everything in our power to make sure these children get the love and care they deserve. My office will prosecute these persons to the fullest extent of the law.’

Elizabeth Siders mugshot, authorities added that the four arrested were not locals and appeared to have been traveling

Gary Siders Jr mugshot, officials did not confirm how all the children were related but said it was not a human trafficking situation

Gary Siders Sr mugshot, the four in custody remain in jail on a $300,000 bond

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Christina Siders mugshot, the four were arraigned in the Vinton County Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday

The four suspects were arraigned in the Vinton County Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday morning and remain in jail on a $300,000 bond. 

Investigators said in an update that they now believe the Siders have lived in multiple Ohio counties since 2008 and have avoided establishing medical or government records. 

Imath Uddin Choudhury was killed in the crash in Bradford

A fundraiser has been set up for a man named locally as one of two fatalities following a 100ft crash in Bradford.

Imath Uddin Choudhury, 23, has been named in a JustGiving appeal launched in his memory. The fundraiser states he died on Wednesday (July 1) after spending just over a week in hospital with severe injuries sustained in the collision.

It was reported that an Audi A3 convertible left the carriageway on Hawksworth Road in Baildon, close to the Potter Brow Road junction, at around 7.24pm on Monday, June 22. The car fell down a steep drop with the vehicle reported to have travelled around 100 feet from the roadside.

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Four people were in the car. A 20-year-old man died at the scene. The driver, aged 24, was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving, while a 23-year-old passenger sustained minor injuries, West Yorkshire Police confirmed previously.

The appeal following Mr Choudhury’s death, set up by the Grains Of Hope Foundation via JustGiving, had already exceeded its £2,000 goal by Wednesday, reports Yorkshire Live.

The foundation stated: “In memory of Imad, Grains of Hope Foundation is raising funds to support the most needy families in The Gambia and provide water pumps in Pakistan, helping those in need whilst creating a source of ongoing reward for him, by the will of Allah.”

They continued: “May Allah forgive Imath Choudhury, grant him Jannatul Firdaus, widen and illuminate his grave, and make every donation a means of Sadaqah Jariyah for him. Ameen.”

It’s the event of the year. The biggest pop star on the planet is about to tie the knot with her NFL star fiancé in the most romantic venue of them all… Madison Square Garden.

Wedding rumours are flying for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s rumoured upcoming nuptials, which are reportedly set to take place on July 4.

Insiders are keeping details under lock and key, not giving away a single hint about the A-list couple’s plans. Yes, we’ve asked.

Their radio silence doesn’t mean the large trucks surrounding New York’s famed music venue have gone unnoticed.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Swiftie celebration without some wild conspiracies and some fans are convinced this is all a decoy so she can elope in private elsewhere.

So between the lorry drivers wearing Fearless-coded t-shirts and the reports of an entire castle being built inside the arena, here’s everything we know about the Swift-Kelce wedding.

Are Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce getting married at Madison Square Garden?

We can say with utmost certainty that something is happening at Madison Square Garden this weekend.

A spokesperson for the New York City mayor’s office, Dora Pekec, confirmed to the BBC that a permit was filed in early June to close roads around the arena from July 2 to 4.

If you check the MSG website, there’s no public event on until Bon Jovi on Tuesday, July 7.

The New York Times echoed this but has not stated the event is a wedding, instead suggesting it is a celebration related to the couple’s nuptials.

They wouldn’t be the first celebrity couple to get married at the Garden, with Kathy Silva and singer Sly Stone tying the knot there in 1974.

Crews have been spotted unloading trucks with signs reading ‘Garden Party’, as well as a box labelled ’40-inch mirrorball’.

Equipment, lights and more have been carted inside the venue, although most is disguised with wrappings and boxes.

What clues have there been?

While the Cruel Summer hitmaker has said she doesn’t Easter egg her private life, it doesn’t stop fans from digging into all the potential clues.

So what is actually tying this to Taylor and Travis? Well, the NYT report said the New York road closure permits had been filed for the couple.

It was also reported that several of Travis’ Kansas City Chiefs teammates have booked hotel rooms nearby.

Taylor’s friends and collaborators Ed Sheeran, Sabrina Carpenter and Aaron Dessner have also all been spotted in the New York area.

Travis himself was spotted out for a run in Tribeca but the Betty singer is yet to make an appearance, although TMZ reported her private jet has landed.

The timing is also serendipitous, as her last Independence Day as a single woman in 2023 was just before she played Arrowhead Stadium on the Eras Tour.

She wrote: ‘Happy belated Independence Day from your local neighborhood independent girlies. See you tonight, Kansas Cityyy.’

Fans have pointed out that sentimental Taylor would probably love to honour the date she played at Travis’ home ground, where he saw her for the first time days later.

If that didn’t make you believe, a source told TMZ that ‘a massive castle’ was being ‘built inside a garden’ at MSG.

According to the unnamed insider, the venue is being transformed into a ‘full-blown fairytale’. It’s a love story, and Taylor has never tried to play things cool.

Could it be fake?

The slightly odd venue choice has left a lot of fans wondering if the couple is attempting to fake out crowds so they can sneak away to tie the knot.

A fake wedding might seem extreme but Taylor has built her career on leaving clues and little puzzles for fans, so many are feeling this is simply too obvious.

RoseMarie Terenzio, who previously worked as John F. Kennedy Jr.’s chief of staff and orchestrated his secret wedding to Carolyn Bessette, agreed that this could be a decoy.

‘I don’t think it’s going to be at MSG,’ she said while on CBA Mornings, suggesting the couple could be leaving a fake paper trail.

She said they would be doing all the organising ‘by phone or in person’, possibly ‘showing up in person to every single person’s place’ to ensure guests ‘keep their mouths shut’.

Anthony Jabin, a celeb memorabilia collector, mentioned a ‘decoy’ when talking to TMZ, claiming he’d been invited by Taylor

With guests allegedly signing an NDA, it seems odd that she’d then just get married at a venue where the staff are wearing Taylor Swift-branded t-shirts.

One guy was apparently seen operating a vehicle outside MSG with a Fearless-coded top reading ‘Taylor Swift Carpenters’. That Easter egg would be a bit too obvious for Miss Swift.

Usually, when things start adding up too perfectly, it’s because there’s something else afoot, and those Swiftie senses might be tingling for good reason.

It’s just unclear if this is a 1989 Taylor’s Version announcement type of situation or if fan speculation is going to end up more akin to those pesky Reputation vault tracks (aka completely wrong).

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What have they said about the wedding?

So far, the couple have remained completely quiet when it comes to sharing details.

While on her press tour for The Life of a Showgirl, she did invite a few celeb friends in interviews, including Graham Norton and Greg James.

She also said on Heart Radio: ‘You would think that I had been the type of person who would have obsessed over the idea of a wedding my whole life, but I actually never thought about what I would ever do or what I would want until I met the person.’

Taylor teased she’s ‘really excited’ for this new era, meanwhile, Travis said he was ‘giddy’ and that he ‘can’t wait.

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The Tim McGraw singer loves to Easter egg and usually wants her fans involved in her life, to a certain extent. They’ve been very public with their romance so far so there’s no reason to think we wouldn’t be told about the wedding.

Most likely, fans will get an Instagram post when Taylor and Travis are comfortable, just like with the engagement.

It’ll probably drop before the next big event they need to attend. For the music world, that’s the MTV VMAs in early September, around the same time the NFL season begins.

That almost certainly means we’ll get an announcement from the couple in September at the latest. Until then, we’ll be keeping our beady eye on MSG.

MORE: Everything Travis Kelce’s family have said about Taylor Swift ahead of wedding

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What do you eat when you’re too tired to cook?

Caroline, East of England

Well, I often tell myself that if I have one biscuit, I’ll be fine. Twenty four biscuits later, clearly, that wasn’t the case. So I have to be careful about this.

Bread, cheese and fruit are a great combination. Good bread, a nice, decent-sized chunk of cheese and a good British apple. Happy days.

Sometimes I get caught short, so to speak, when I’m out on the road. Recently, Leon has reintroduced its superfood salad, and that’s a great, healthy option that keeps me going for a bit.

Do you have any advice for those who want to improve their baking skills?

Thomas, London

Baking is almost not like other cooking. It’s a science, so make sure that your equipment is accurate. Get some good scales and weigh things carefully, making sure your oven is at the right temperature.

Check it with the oven thermometer, or you can take a baking sheet and scatter a thin layer of flour over it. Put that in the oven and bake it at, say, 180C for about 20 minutes just to toast the flour. Then bring it out carefully, and you should be able to see where the hot patch is, where it’s dark and moist. That’ll give you an idea of where you will need to be careful if you’re placing a bake and where you may need to turn things.

The other thing is, after you’ve practised a bit, go and do a course. Because seeing a real professional fold the flour into the eggs or make a perfect cake is a fantastic way of sharpening up your skills.

I wish I was more confident at going off-piste and experimenting with my meals. Any tips to help me be less rigid?

Fiona, South West

It can be a big ask to start experimenting because when you come in at the end of the day, you’re tired, and you just want to get food on the table.

One of the ways that is clever, if you can afford it, is to spring for one of the meal kit boxes. There’s Gousto, HelloFresh and Mindful Chef, and because they send you everything and the recipe, it can encourage you to try some different things without making it too difficult. They are completely brilliant as a present for somebody who needs a boost, or perhaps a student who has just left home.

How do we easily separate harmful ultra-processed foods from less harmful ones?

Kirstyn, East of England

We’re still in quite early days of the science around ultra-processed food, and we’re still learning which things are harmful and which things aren’t. As a rule of thumb, I would say if it’s not something that I can buy in the supermarket as a separate ingredient, then I’m not sure I really want it in the food that I’m buying.

We made your cherry chocolate brownie and it was amazing. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Mark, South West

Some of the best brownies I knew were made by a friend of mine called Rachel Lucas, who had a company called Sugar Moon Brownies. Sadly, she’s not making them any more, but I still have them in my head. Ottolenghi also makes a great brownie.

I don’t want them too thick because you do want a good contrast of crisp versus soft. You want that kind of fudgy centre and a crisp top. That’s really important. That’s down to putting enough sugar in the mix.

Earthquakes still arrive without warning. That is the hard truth scientists have been forced to accept, despite a decade of advances in artificial intelligence, satellite monitoring and dense seismic networks.

We are getting better at detecting earthquakes once they start. We are now better at estimating the damage they may cause. But we still can’t predict the exact time, place and size of a future earthquake.

That may sound like failure. It is not. Over the past ten years, earthquake research has become more realistic. Instead of chasing precise prediction, scientists have focused on what can actually save lives: better risk forecasting, faster detection and earthquake early warning systems that can give people a few seconds to act before the strongest shaking arrives.

A few seconds may not sound like much. In an earthquake, it can be the difference between standing under falling glass and getting under a sturdy table.

What is an early warning system?

Early warning systems work by detecting the first fast-moving seismic waves after a fault starts to rupture. These waves are less damaging than the stronger shaking that follows. Because electronic signals travel faster than seismic waves through the ground, alerts can sometimes reach people first. In countries prone to earthquakes such as Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and the US, even a warning of five to 20 seconds has been shown to reduce injuries and help protect infrastructure.

But the last decade has also shown the limits of these systems. They do not work equally well for everyone. People close to the epicentre may get little warning or none at all, because the earthquake waves arrive before the alert can be processed and sent. This is sometimes called the blind zone. It is not a design flaw. It is a physical limit.

Another lesson is that large earthquakes are often more complex than expected. They do not always rupture in one clean break. Some jump across several fault segments or trigger cascading ruptures. That makes it harder to estimate the size of the event quickly and can reduce the accuracy of early warnings in the first crucial seconds. The earthquake may still be unfolding while the warning system is trying to understand it.

Artificial intelligence is helping with this. Deep learning systems can detect earthquake signals faster than some traditional methods and can improve rapid estimates of location and magnitude. But AI has not solved the prediction problem. It still depends on high-quality seismic data and strong monitoring networks.

Pocket seismic sensors

One promising development is the use of smartphones as seismic sensors. The earthquake network app is a public earthquake early warning system that uses smartphones. It turns users’ phones into motion sensors to detect earthquakes in real time. When an earthquake is detected, the app quickly sends warning alerts to users. Apps such as MyShake and Android earthquake alerts show that millions of phones can act as a distributed warning network. This is especially important for lower-income countries that cannot afford dense traditional seismic infrastructure. A recent global rollout of earthquake detection software (the earthquake network app) through Android phones expanded earthquake warning coverage to 2.5 billion people across 98 countries.

Research has also shown that technology alone is not enough. A warning only helps if people trust it, understand it and know how to respond. Public education, clear communication and simple protective actions such as identifying safe spots in the house, preparing emergency kits and practising mock earthquake drills matter just as much as sensors and software. A warning that confuses people is not much of a warning at all. For example, a new warning after every aftershock is not as effective as alerting people to a new major earthquake.

These lessons help explain what appears to have gone wrong in Venezuela. The country has not developed a mature nationwide public earthquake early warning system on the scale seen in countries such as Japan or Mexico. That means warning capacity was limited from the start. However some people received warnings seconds to minutes before the shaking began through Google’s Android earthquake alerts system.

Several weaknesses probably compounded the problem. If people live close to the rupture zone, the window for warning becomes extremely small. Early reports indicated two large earthquakes happened in quick succession, a pattern that would make rapid detection harder for any warning system. This seems to have created signal confusion in smartphone apps as well as national early warning systems.

The lesson from the past decade is clear. The biggest advances have not come from predicting earthquakes before they happen, but from improving how quickly societies detect them, communicate risk and respond. For at-risk countries such as Venezuela, the way forward is not complicated: invest in dense monitoring networks, protect communication systems, expand public education and build warning systems people can trust. Earthquakes cannot be stopped. But with the right preparation, disasters on this scale do not have to become tragedies of this magnitude.

Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 50, as drones and missiles struck residential buildings in what Russia said was a retaliation for recent attacks on its civil infrastructure.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned of a possible overnight attack and said he was cutting short his visit to Dublin for the start of Ireland’s six-month term in the rotating presidency of the EU. 

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said 10 people were killed, while damage included six floors of an apartment building that had partially collapsed after a direct hit from a Russian projectile.

Reuters video footage showed emergency services working through the rubble of what used to be a nine-story building as the sun was rising over Kyiv and as fires flared up around the city.

Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s ​military administration, said 56 people, including two children, were injured and three dozen locations across the city had been damaged in the attacks.

‘The enemy has once again deliberately targeted residential neighborhoods and killed civilians. We have sustained extensive damage and a significant number of casualties, including children,’ he wrote on Telegram.

In an earlier post, Klitschko said the injured included paramedics and drivers at an ambulance station, and that some people were still trapped inside damaged residential buildings.

Pictures posted online showed a fire burning out of control at the top of a building on the central Shevchenko Boulevard, while elsewhere in the city, windows blew out and cars were destroyed.

Residents react near the site of an apartment building damaged during overnight Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 2

Smoke rises over the city following a Russian air attack on Kyiv, on July 2

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Multiple explosions were heard in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said, and authorities in the region surrounding the capital said on Telegram separately there were also casualties there. 

People crowded into underground stations carrying children, belongings, tents and pets as air raid alerts were issued for most of Ukraine’s territory overnight in Russia’s worst attack on the country since mid-June.

‘Do not delay decisions on air defense for Ukraine! This is our main request to our partners after Kyiv suffered a night of horror,’ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X as he visited Japan, a Ukraine ally, on Thursday. 

Neighbouring Poland, a NATO and European Union member, briefly scrambled fighter jets on Thursday as a preventive measure before calling those back and saying no airspace violation was recorded. 

Finland also briefly issued a temporary aviation restriction zone in the eastern Gulf of Finland before lifting it later, its defense forces said on X.

Russia’s Defence Ministry, in a Telegram post, said its ‘massive attack’ using long-range, high-precision air-, land-, sea-launched weapons and drones hit military and energy facilities, as well as airports in Kyiv and other locations.

The ministry said it was a retaliation for Ukraine’s attacks on Russian civil infrastructure, without elaborating. 

Russia downed 327 drones overnight, the ministry said. This number includes drones shot down over Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Rescuers extinguishing a fire in a residential building damaged following missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine, on July 2

Residents stand next to a crater formed at a site during overnight Russian missile and drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 2

Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s ​military administration, said 56 people, including two children, were injured and three dozen locations across the city had been damaged

Zelensky has proposed talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the more than four-year-old war that the Kremlin leader has rejected. 

Ukraine has recently intensified strikes deeper into the Russian territory, triggering a widespread fuel crisis in the world’s third-biggest oil producer and forcing it to import gasoline from as far away as India.

The governor of the remote Russian region of Novosibirsk, Andrey Travnikov, said on Telegram the fuel crisis was worsening for the area more than 1,860 miles east of Moscow, and re-fueling priority would be given to emergency services.

Elsewhere in Russia, one person was killed, four people wounded and an industrial facility damaged in a drone attack on the Nizhny Novgorod region, Governor Gleb Nikitin said on Thursday. 

The region is home to NORSI oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest.

Governor Alexander Drozdenko of Russia’s northwestern Leningrad region, Putin’s home and where large export and oil refining facilities are located, said on Telegram that Russian forces brought down seven drones on Thursday.

In the Russian Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, a man was killed and his wife injured after a drone hit their home, local authorities said separately on Telegram.

Reuters could not independently verify details of the casualties. Russia and Ukraine say they do not deliberately target civilians.

This is a breaking news story. More to follow.

The Ockenden Review into maternity and neonatal services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust was damning. It confirmed what families, staff and previous reviews have been saying for years: the failures in maternity care are serious, repeated and systemic.

The Nottingham review examined more than 2,500 family cases and engaged with more than 830 current and former staff. It found long-standing failures, including women and families not being listened to, poor responses when things went wrong and missed opportunities to act on concerns that were raised consistently by staff.

Within days, a second review by Baroness Amos – the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation – widened the lens by reviewing care across 12 NHS trusts. It found consistent national patterns: staffing did not match demand, services were under pressure from rising complexity and capacity problems, leadership was lacking, responses to harm were often slow or defensive and inequalities affected women’s experiences and outcomes. Families affected by the Nottingham scandal are now calling for a statutory public inquiry into maternity and neonatal care across England, arguing that “safe care can only be consistently delivered when the full truth is known”. That call deserves to be taken seriously. Accountability cannot be treated as optional.

But a decision to hold another inquiry must take into account the fact that public inquiries do not, in themselves, deliver change. They make findings and recommendations to inform change made by others.

A statutory inquiry has powers to compel witnesses to give evidence. A non-statutory inquiry does not have these powers. However, it does not follow that statutory inquiries are inherently superior. Each type of inquiry has its own strengths. Statutory status alone does not guarantee greater learning, better implementation or safer care. Patients don’t necessarily benefit when healthcare staff are subjected to prolonged scrutiny through overlapping investigations and inquiries, litigation, regulation, media coverage and internal reviews over many years.

A study found that medical professionals changed their practice in response to fear of litigation, inquiries, complaints or professional regulation. Researchers call this “defensive practice”: when doctors, nurses or midwives make decisions partly to avoid blame or complaints, rather than simply because they believe those decisions are best for the patient.

In maternity care, that might mean ordering extra tests, asking senior colleagues to approve decisions the doctors, nurses and midwives would usually make themselves, recommending an intervention earlier than needed, or writing longer records because they fear being criticised later.

A midwife or doctor may spend more time recording why they made a decision than explaining that decision to a woman in labour. They may ask someone senior to take over, not because the situation has changed, but because they feel exposed. They may recommend the option that looks safest on paper, even when the woman’s circumstances are more complex.

Those actions are not automatically wrong. In some cases, they may be exactly what safe care requires. The problem arises when fear starts to shape clinical judgment.

An international literature review tells us serious failures must always be investigated. But investigations that drag on for years without leading to change can make staff more cautious and less confident, without making care safer. It can encourage staff to protect themselves rather than use their judgment confidently, communicate openly and focus on what women and babies need.

Amos supports this concern. Across the trusts reviewed, staff described burnout, stress and heavy workloads. The report says staff were working under intense scrutiny, fearful of making mistakes and operating in what they experienced as a blame culture. It also found that structural and systemic problems can make compassionate care harder to deliver. Staff wellbeing is therefore a patient safety issue.

Our own ongoing research, carried out with maternity and newborn care staff working under years of scrutiny by multiple bodies, found a similar pattern. Staff described losing confidence in their clinical judgment, doubting whether their employer would support them if something unavoidably went wrong, and seeing public trust in the service collapse. Experienced clinicians left, or considered leaving, the profession altogether, because the distance between delivering high standards of care and the care they were able to provide was too great. The impact on mental and physical health was significant, showing how poor staff wellbeing should be considered a patient safety issue.

The case for caution is stronger because the central problems are already extensively documented. Reviews into maternity failures at Morecambe Bay, Shrewsbury and Telford, East Kent and Nottingham have all identified recurring failures in listening, leadership, staffing, governance, safety culture and organisational learning.

Amos makes the implementation problem impossible to ignore. Its report found a maternity and neonatal system that is fragmented, overly complex and too slow to learn. It also examined why avoidable harm continues despite repeated reviews and recommendations.

The issue is no longer a lack of evidence about the main failures. Recommendations have not been translated into reliable change. The government has responded to Amos by announcing a Maternity and Neonatal Commissioner, a National Action Plan due in December 2026, new national maternity triage standards and additional investment in maternity and neonatal facilities. These steps will only improve care if they have authority, funding, transparency and clear accountability attached to them. Most importantly, a concerted effort to address the cultural issues that have created the conditions for poor psychological safety and impeded the delivery of compassionate care.

Families are entitled to ask why so many warnings were missed, ignored or minimised. But the government should not allow calls for another large statutory inquiry to defer changes that are already evidenced.

Statutory inquiries are slow and resource-intensive. The government’s response to the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee noted that statutory inquiries completed in the previous five years took nearly five years on average, with insufficient transparency and accountability around the implementation of accepted recommendations.

Where people may have acted dishonestly, unlawfully or in breach of professional standards, that should be pursued through professional regulation, disciplinary processes, inquests (where deaths are involved) and, where the evidence warrants it, prosecutions.

Individual accountability should not delay organisational and cultural changes already recognised as urgent. The question is whether another statutory inquiry is an effective route to safer maternity and neonatal care, or whether the most urgent need is implementation with transparent accountability.

Acting on Ockenden and Amos’s recommendations will mean funding the workforce and infrastructure needed to make change real, measuring progress publicly, and giving services enough stability to rebuild trust.

Appropriate scrutiny should continue. But it should be designed to enable learning and delivery of safe, compassionate care.

A dozen teams turned out to honour the youngster in a knock-out tournament at Alex’s former school, Calderglen High.

The annual Alex Lindsay Cup pulled in an incredible £3500 at the weekend for a charity set up in memory of the much-loved 18-year-old.

Adored aims to raise vital awareness of mental ill-health in young men following the tragic death of the popular St Leonards teen in 2018.

Sunday’s event saw a dozen teams turning out to honour the youngster in a knock-out tournament at Alex’s former school, Calderglen High.

And Alex’s mum Jill said: “The weather in terms of the football players was probably perfect, because it wasn’t too hot and there was a bit of a wind.”

And she joked: “However for those of us with a stall and a gazebo up, the wind was not exactly ideal, there was a couple of moments where a couple of the gazebos went off to Oz, but it was all fine, it stayed dry. The important thing was to try and bring people out, and it went well.”

The Alex Lindsay Cup is held each year in memory of Alexander Iain Bonomy-Lindsay and raises funds for the family’s dedicated mental health charity Adored.

It has raised tens of thousands of pounds for mental health charities and remembers Motherwell FC fan Alex who tragically took his own life in July 2018.

As well as Adored being there on the day, grassroots mental health initiative Men with Issues was also present along with fitness, mindset and life coaching organisation No Limits Coaching, and Jill said it was potentially helpful for the crowds to link in with them, adding: “It was good for them to see that they were there, see that those agencies are out there.

“You just never know, one person noticing and thinking ‘Oh wait a wee minute, that might be useful for me’, that could be as simple as saving a life.”

The tournament was won for the second year in a row by The Other Team, who defeated Muirend in the final.

After the action on the pitch, everyone went along to a fund-raising after-party in the Village Inn.

Jill said: “We had less teams playing this year, we were down to 12 teams. I think the fact there was another football tournament going on at the same time and just other circumstances like the boys who have traditionally always played in the cup were generally people that Alex was friendly with and at school with, and these boys are now men of 28 years old, people’s lives move on, a lot of Alex’s friends have moved abroad and live away and all the rest of it.

“So I think what we need to do is try and bring fresh blood in, but it was very successful, the 12 teams played well, the runners-up were the team from Muirend, called ‘Muirend’ and the winners were the team called ‘The Other Team’, they won last year so that’s their second year winning.”

She added: “After the tournament we have our traditional after-party and it was down at the Village Inn, courtesy of Paul Jardine who gave us that venue for free, and Ross Martin, one of Alex’s friends who always does the live music, so he played his guitar and sang down at the Village Inn and that’s where we did the raffle draw.

“We had lots of good prizes, lots of local businesses like Ruby’s, Bond’s, Pergola, Once Upon a Table, Arigo all gave vouchers, lots of the barbers in the village gave vouchers.”

And looking forward to next year, Jill said: “I think one decision that we have made is that doing it up at the school is a good venue; we’ve tried different venues in East Kilbride but the school have never let us down, and it’s a good space for both the football and setting up any other vendors.

“And Mr Bell, one of the teachers from the school,he has been pivotal in all of the cups, that we’ve run. Every one, whether it’s been at Calderglen or not, he’s been there to help out and do whatever he can, he’s an absolute star.

“You get great teachers who go above and beyond, and he’s one of those people that go above and beyond, and I can’t thank him enough, his dedication to the tournament has been phenomenal.”

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She continued: “I think what we’re going to try and do is get some younger teams involved, we’re going to start looking at the youth teams in East Kilbride to see if we could perhaps split the tournament and maybe have youth teams playing the morning and maybe eight teams have a mini-tournament, and then have another mini-tournament with the more mature players afterwards.

“But I think it’s really important that we keep the young people in East Kilbride involved in it, because really what the charity is doing is supporting young people in East Kilbride, so we want to try and link all of that together just so that more families, more young people in the community really begin to recognise Adored for the work they’re doing and recognise the link between the Alex Lindsay Cup and Adored, and the support for mental health within the community.”

And a special thank you went to event organiser Jack Smith, with Jill saying: “Jack was one of Alex’s closest friends and he was the person who set up the very first football tournament which was really a memorial tournament and what it’s turned out to be now is a supportive tournament for the charity which developed from it.

“Jack is the person who every year runs the tournament, he’s the one that seeks out all the football teams, he’s works tirelessly trying to make sure that it’s a really, really exciting event every year, making sure that the trophies are right, that the medals are right, organising all the prizes for the after-party as well, so it’s a massive thank you to Jack Smith because without his enthusiasm for the tournament it would probably have dwindled away and I know how dedicated he is in making sure it stays alive in Alex’s memory.”

And the Adored charity will be continuing its work in schools next term, with Jill saying: “We are excited to be working alongside South Lanarkshire Council in their new venture, their outreach venture, and I think what this is going to enable Adored to do is to help more people than if I was just accessing the schools myself.

“So I just feel that we’ll be able to broaden the horizon in terms of how many pupils we’ll be able to actually reach.”

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The desperation of patients haunts Gaza’s hospitals – their exterior walls eaten away by gunfire and Israeli strikes, the health-care system inside them still unrepaired.

Eight months after the ceasefire deal instructed that “full aid” be sent into the Gaza Strip, aid workers say the continued lack of essential medicines and equipment has meant doctors are rationing or loaning each other essential life-saving drugs, or turning patients away from chemotherapy or dialysis appointments.

“The fact that the medical evacuation list is thousands long is a sign that people in Gaza don’t have access to what they should have – which Israel, as the occupying power under international humanitarian law, has an obligation to allow them access to,” said Pat Griffiths, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Jerusalem.

Shortages, he said, run from basic consumables like gauze dressings and painkillers, all the way up to advanced medical equipment.

“There is no doubt in my mind that people in Gaza are dying because they can’t receive the care they need – and that there are preventable deaths happening because of the limits on what can be brought in, in terms of healthcare.”

Asked about the reports of critical shortages, Cogat said in a statement that 17,000 tons of medicines and medical aid had entered Gaza since the ceasefire, including wheelchairs, cancer medications, insulin pens, anaesthetics, X-ray machines, CT scanners, dialysis machines and medical consumables.

“Despite claims to the contrary,” it said, “Israel has approved every request for medicines submitted by international aid organisations.”

In response, one humanitarian official involved, speaking to me anonymously, said that Israeli authorities often used anecdotal examples to mask shortages of key medicines and equipment, and that aid supplies continued to be restricted.

“You don’t count medical aid in terms of trucks and pallets; that’s not a denominator we use,” said the WHO’s Reinhilde Van de Weerdt. “We talk about the needs patients have, and the needs that are met.”

“If medical supply is unrestricted, you don’t have these discussions about what is given versus what is needed,” she said. “We need certain buffer stock levels of medical supplies, [and] you can’t run a hospital hoping the generator doesn’t break down.”

Jamal’s case is not isolated. Law enforcement officers in Europe have told us they know of 15 people smugglers with convictions from courts in France, Germany and Belgium, who they believe are now living in the UK and claiming asylum under false names.

We learned about one man convicted in France, who is now living in Manchester selling used cars and thought to be still involved in people smuggling.

Another man, also with a French conviction, is based in Blackpool. He has claimed asylum under a false name and boasts on social media of being given leave to remain.

Since Brexit, the UK no longer has a data-sharing agreement with many countries in the EU, making it more difficult to check criminal and immigration records of asylum seekers, according to Lucy Morton of the Immigration Services Union.

“If we were able to share databases, even if just with our nearest neighbours, with Germany, with Belgium, with Holland and France, say – then, yes, we’d know that they had a conviction for people smuggling,” she said.

Asylum seekers are fingerprinted on arrival in the UK and checked against UK police databases, but these would not necessarily show a conviction from another country.

The Home Office told us: “All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks.”

This point was also made last November, external by the Minister for Border Security, Alex Norris, who added that to protect the integrity of the checking processes, details about the checks “are not disclosed publicly”.

The Home Office went on to say that the UK has “a number of agreements with countries which enable the sharing of criminal record information”, and that immigration enforcement action is currently at its highest level in history, with arrests for illegal working up 83%.