5 h. ago Girl, 9, drowns in busy pool full of adults as child found her 'lying on bottom'

Ava Rose McCourt, 9, was praised as a child who "loved life and enjoyed singing, laughing and giving hugs" following her tragic death at a pool she was visiting with her dad's partner

Events

7 d. ago Cancer loss shaped who I am – those of us left behind have to make meaning out of grief

Losing her dad as a child irrevocably changed the adult that Helen Coffey grew into. But it turns out that pain can be a superpower when it comes to empathising with others and sharing our stories

Politics

7 d. ago Payment warning to people making a new claim for devolved disability benefits

Social Security Scotland has issued crucial advice to people getting help to make a new claim for Adult, Child or Pension Age Disability Payment.

Events

1 week ago BC Camplight: A Sober Conversation review – an eccentric rock opera confronting childhood abuse

(Bella Union)The US singer’s seventh album takes his meta-theatrical style almost into showtune territory, with songs about repression, depression and anger‘Some people face the music,” Brian Christinzio sings on The Tent. “Some people face the floor.” On this outlandish seventh album, the Manchester-based US singer-songwriter makes a bold bid for the former. That song alone excavates childhood memories, with Christinzio crunching leaves and finding caterpillars, cutely illustrated by twinkling piano, only for abrupt tonal shifts (siren-like drones, distorted vocals, heavenly choirs) to crash in like intrusive thoughts. It’s a queasy, visceral introduction to a record which confronts the summer he was abused, as a child, by an adult camp counsellor.A Sober Conversation is an eccentric rock opera about repression, depression and anger told with the meta-theatrical, tragicomic style that has won Christinzio a cult following. The title track veers into showtune territory, shimmying in ...

Events

2 w. ago Remove decisions on lone child asylum seekers from Home Office, report says

Call for root-and-branch reform of treatment of children, many of whom are wrongly classified as adults Decisions relating to lone child asylum seekers should be removed from Home Office officials because of fundamental problems with the way they treat this vulnerable group, a report has found.The report calls for root-and-branch reform of the treatment of thousands of children who have fled persecution in their home countries and made hazardous journeys in search of safety, often crossing the Channel in a dinghy or concealing themselves in the back of a lorry. Continue reading...

Society

3 w. ago Cooper says law on rape being tightened so adults cannot use consent as defence against charge of raping child under 16 – UK politics live

Yvette Cooper tells parliament that Louise Casey audit found some cases were downgraded from rape to lesser charges ‘because 13- to 15-year-old is perceived to have consented’Starmer launches new grooming gangs investigationIn his interview on the Sky News this morning Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said that Keir Starmer should apologise for saying in January that those calling for a national inquiry into grooming gangs were jumping on a far-right bandwagon. Kemi Badenoch, his party leader, is also quoted today in an Daily Express splash story saying Starmer should apologise, but she is saying he should apologise for not agreeing to hold a national inquiry earlier.At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the No 10 spokesperson was asked if Starmer still thought that people who backed a national inquiry in January were joining a far-right bandwagon. In response, the spokesperson defended the phrase, and insisted that it only applied to Tories who were now demanding...

Society

3 w. ago Gunfire at French migrant camp kills one and wounds five including a child as adult and 17

The shots near the Loon-Plage camp outside Dunkirk left two injured seriously and three others lightly, including the child understood to be just two years old.

Events

3 w. ago Confessions of a Parent Killer review – a grisly tale of the murderer who lived with her mum and dad’s corpses

This look at Virginia McCullough tells a deeply strange story. Unfortunately, it also leaves the viewer in suspense about her motive for so long it feels horrifically manipulativeWell, what do you think a 90-minute documentary entitled Confessions of a Parent Killer is going to be about? That’s right, well done! It’s the story of a murder by an (adult) child of her parents. Virginia – Ginny – McCullough killed her mother, Lois, and father, John, and confessed immediately to police when they raided her home in 2023 that she had done so four years previously. The twist was that she had been living with their bodies ever since. “She was weird at school,” says a childhood friend. “But not ‘kill your parents and hide the bodies’ weird.”You can probably tell from such unimpeachably phlegmatic commentary that this case occurred in England. Great Baddow, Essex, to be exact, and the film paints a portrait of quintessential small-town, almost-rural life in these sceptred isles that has gone u...

Events

3 w. ago Stacey Solomon soaks up the sun in a skimpy orange bikini as the busy mum of five enjoys a relaxing pool day during Lake Como work trip

Stacey Solomon made the most of a work trip to Lake Como, taking the afternoon off for a spot of sunbathing on Tuesday.

Politics

3 w. ago SUVs are a 'growing threat to public safety' and drivers can't see children as old as nine directly in front of them

SUVs are more likely to hit an adult's vital organs and a child's head in a collision - and they increase the risk of dragging a pedestrian under the moving vehicle in crashes, a new report said.

Events