Keir Starmer gives resident doctors 48 hours to call off strike or lose training offer

Keir Starmer has threatened to withdraw an offer of thousands of extra NHS training posts if resident doctors in England do not call off a six-day strike after Easter.The prime minister has given the doctors’ union, the British Medical Association, 48 hours to ditch its plans for industrial action or the government will pull the current offer from the table.Last week, the BMA resident doctors’ committee rejected an offer that would have given doctors a pay rise of up to 7.1% this year, without putting it to members for a vote.Writing in the Times, Starmer labelled the BMA’s rejection of the deal “reckless” and said it “benefits no one”

Vaping likely to cause lung and oral cancer, Australian researchers find in new review of evidence

Vaping is likely to cause lung and oral cancer, researchers have found, as they urged regulators to act now rather than wait decades for a definitive level of risk.Cancer researchers led by the University of New South Wales in Sydney analysed reviews of evidence from animal studies, human case reports and laboratory research published between 2017 and 2025, in one of the most detailed assessments to date of whether nicotine e-cigarettes could cause cancer.There are early warning signs in the body strongly linked to cancer risk, including DNA damage and inflammation, co-author Adjunct Prof Bernard Stewart said. The review, published in the journal Carcinogenesis on Tuesday, found vaping is associated with these pre-carcinogenic changes.“There is no doubt that the cells and tissues of the oral cavity, the mouth and the lungs are altered by inhalation from e-cigarettes,” Stewart said

Expansion of HMP Parc in Wales should be paused, MPs say

Plans to expand one of the most troubled prisons in England and Wales should be paused until serious failures surrounding staff and inmate safety are addressed, MPs have said.Seventeen men died at HMP Parc in Bridgend in 2024 – the highest number recorded at any prison in England and Wales that year – amid drug use, self-harm, violence and understaffing issues. Another three men died there in the first nine months of 2025.A Welsh affairs committee report released on Monday acknowledged the need for more prison places for adult men, but concluded that Parc is “not the right place to expand the prison population”.Despite the prison’s problems, pre-application approval for adding 345 inmates and 160 staff to the category B facility was granted in September 2024, after the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said England and Wales would run out of prison places in two months without urgent action

Court of appeal says it cannot rule on which identical twin fathered a child

A woman who had sex with identical twins within four days of each other is unable to ensure one of them takes parental responsibility because it is “not possible” to know which is the father, the court of appeal has said.One of the twins was registered as the father on the birth certificate of the child, referred to as P. His identical twin, along with the mother, sought to take over parental responsibility by asking the court of appeal to overturn a previous family court decision.Sir Andrew McFarlane, sitting with Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Stuart-Smith, said that while DNA testing has revealed that either of the twins could be the father, it cannot distinguish between them so there is a 50% chance of the correct father being already on the birth certificate.He said the twin on the birth register will no longer have parental responsibility until the court hears further arguments

Prison officers are key to reforming the criminal justice system | Letter

The role played by prison officers is so often overlooked and misunderstood, and your editorial (22 March) is right to highlight staff when addressing some of the issues facing prisons. Those on the frontline are uniquely placed to drive change across the system, and good prison officers can radically improve outcomes for those in their care. To build a prison system that promotes rehabilitation, staff must be at the heart of these efforts and we need to be recruiting, training and developing outstanding frontline leaders.The challenges in prisons are well documented and reoffending rates remain stubbornly high, costing the taxpayer billions every year. With so many prisoners spending more than 22 hours in their cells every day, the officers on the landings are the most influential members of staff in a prison

Adults underestimate risk of abuse posed to women by ex-partners, UK data shows

The risk posed to women by ex-partners in cases of abuse is underestimated by large swathes of the British public, according to the charity Refuge.Data from the charity’s helpline found that 42% of people who call Refuge for help identify a former partner as their abuser, a statistic which underlines how common it is for an ex to be a cause of harm after a relationship has ended.Despite this, a survey of the wider national population found that many UK adults did not name a former partner as a probable culprit in ongoing abuse.YouGov data commissioned by Refuge found that, while 71% of UK adults identified that a woman is most likely to be abused by somebody she knows, of this percentage, only 12% recognised an ex-partner as the most likely to be the abuser, while 78% identified a current partner.Sasha* said she has experienced stalking and harassment since separating from her partner and father of her child in 2012