PROUD MEDIA NEWS CENTRE

  Former health secretary Matt Hancock is among witnesses to appear before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry as it investigates the pandemic’s impact on the care sector. Mr Hancock, who resigned from government in 2021 after admitting breaking social distancing guidance by having an affair with a colleague, has given evidence to the inquiry multiple times. He will return on Wednesday for a full-day session to face questions specifically about the adult social care sector. In a previous appearance before the inquiry he admitted the so-called protective ring he said had been put around care homes early in the pandemic was not an unbroken one and insisted he understands the strength of feeling people have on the issue. At a Downing Street press conference on May 15 2020, Mr Hancock said: “Right from the start, we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.” Bereaved families have previously branded this phrase a “sickening lie” and a “joke”. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, h...

Highs of 30C are expected across the UK this weekend with heatwave conditions likely to be met on Sunday and Monday. An amber heat health alert has been issued for some parts of England - days before what could be the hottest June day on record. Sky News weather producer Joanna Robinson said highs of 34C are possible on Monday - with a 20% chance of beating the hottest day in June record of 35.6C from 1976. The likelihood of a record-breaking temperature on Monday could increase over the weekend as the day approaches. If the temperature does exceed 35.6C it would make it the hottest start to Wimbledon ever - with the world-famous tennis tournament beginning on Monday. The highest temperature for the opening day of the tournament so far came on 25 June 2001, with 29.3C at Kew Gardens. Heatwave criteria are likely to be met in a few places on Sunday and Monday, mainly across parts of central and eastern England. A heatwave is recorded when an area reaches a certain temperature - the leve...

  Nurse Colin Campbell, formerly known as Colin Norris, who was jailed for life in 2008 for the murders of four elderly patients and attempting to murder a fifth, has lost appeals against his convictions at the Court of Appeal. Nurse Colin Campbell, formerly known as Colin Norris, who was jailed for life in 2008 for the murders of four elderly patients and attempting to murder a fifth, has lost appeals against his convictions at the Court of Appeal. He was found guilty in 2008 of killing Doris Ludlam, Bridget Bourke, Irene Crookes and Ethel Hall. They were inpatients on orthopaedic wards where Campbell worked in Leeds in 2002 before they died, and had developed severe, unexplained hypoglycaemia. Campbell denied any wrongdoing and said he did nothing to cause hypoglycaemia in any of the patients. His case was referred to the Court of Appeal in London by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) in 2021, which said previously that the prosecution relied on “wholly circumstantial” e...

  Drivers were fined nearly £1 million from just 36 yellow box junctions last year after councils were given new enforcement powers, figures show. The RAC, which obtained the statistics through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests, said the “enormously high number” of penalty charge notices (PCNs) should “send alarm bells ringing in council offices”. Yellow boxes are used in an attempt to ensure traffic flows smoothly through busy junctions. Motorists should not enter them unless their exit is clear or they are waiting to turn right. London and Cardiff were the only parts of the UK where drivers could be fined for yellow box offences until the Government introduced new legislation in May 2022, which enables all councils across England to apply for enforcement powers. Data provided by English councils in response to FoI requests by the RAC showed 36 yellow boxes outside London and Cardiff were enforced last year. This led to a total of 32,748 PCNs issued, with drivers paying £998,6...

There are “ongoing challenges” in the early diagnosis of a life-threatening medical emergency, safety experts have said. The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) said that the “recognition of sepsis remains an urgent and persistent safety risk”. It comes as the watchdog examined three cases where patients suffered severe harm or death as a result of sepsis not being diagnosed soon enough. Sepsis is a life-threatening reaction to an infection that occurs when the immune system overreacts and starts to damage the body’s tissues and organs. In the UK, 245,000 people are affected by sepsis every year. The three cases described in HSSIB’s latest reports include: – An elderly man named as Ged, who had a urine infection. Ged died from sepsis after his antibiotics were not given to him for almost 20 hours due to difficulties lining up GP out-of-hours systems and those of his nursing home. – A grandmother called Lorna, who died from sepsis after being admitted to an acute assessme...

  Emma Raducanu’s attempt at a miraculous recovery against Maya Joint fell just short as she exited the Eastbourne Open. The British number one looked dead and buried in her second-round battle with the Australian, trailing 5-2 in the deciding set. But she produced an inspired spell, breaking Joint three times when she was serving for the match, to set up a tiebreak. Victory was in sight when she got a mini-break to lead 4-3 but Joint reeled off four successive points to claim a 4-6 6-1 7-6 (4) victory and move into the quarter-finals. Raducanu revealed on Tuesday after her opening round win that she had received “some pretty bad news” and that perhaps affected her as she seemed subdued on court and looked increasingly leggy in the deciding set. The 22-year-old will now head to London where she will prepare for her SW19 campaign, the scene of her 2021 breakthrough. She lost the opening two games of the match but battled back to gain control, breaking twice to take the opening set 6...

 "Fito" had cult status among the public and was known for throwing parties in prison, where he had access to alcohol and roosters for cockfighting matches. Ecuador's most-wanted fugitive has been recaptured - more than a year after he escaped from a maximum-security prison. Jose Adolfo Macias, also known as "Fito", led a gang called Los Choneros and was discovered in his hometown of Manta following a 10-hour operation. Footage from the Ecuadorian army showed a uniformed officer aiming a gun at the drug trafficker's head after finding him hiding in a small hole beneath a kitchen counter. "Fito" has an extensive criminal record including charges of murder and organised crime, and he was sentenced to 34 years behind bars in 2011. Officials are yet to explain how he escaped - and only realised he was missing when the military arrived to transfer him to another prison and found his cell empty. A 60-day state of emergency was declared, with hooded gunme...

  Hundreds of people have reported problems with their pancreas linked to taking weight loss and diabetes jabs, prompting health officials to launch a new study into side effects. Some cases of pancreatitis reported to be linked to GLP-1 medicines (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists) have been fatal. Data from the medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), shows that since the drugs were licensed there have been hundreds of cases of acute and chronic pancreatitis among people taking GLP-1 medicines. This includes: – 181 reported cases of acute and chronic pancreatitis linked to tirzepatide – the active ingredient for Mounjaro. Five people died. – 116 reported reactions of this kind linked to liraglutide, one of which was fatal. – 113 cases of acute and chronic pancreatitis linked to semaglutide – the active ingredient for Ozempic and Wegovy. One person died. – 101 reported reactions of this kind linked to exenatide, three people died...

 Richard Gerald Jordan kidnapped Edwina Marter and shot her dead in a forest - before demanding a $25,000 ransom from her husband A man who was on death row in Mississippi for almost 50 years has been executed. Richard Gerald Jordan kidnapped and killed Edwina Marter, a stay-at-home mother who was married to a banker, in a violent ransom scheme. The 79-year-old, a Vietnam War veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, died by lethal injection at 6.16pm local time (12.16am UK time) on Wednesday. Jordan was the longest-serving man on death row in Mississippi - and had sued the state over its three-drug execution protocol, arguing it was inhumane. When given an opportunity to make a final statement, he said: "First I would like to thank everyone for a humane way of doing this. I want to apologise to the victim's family." Jordan's wife Marsha and his lawyer Krissy Nobile attended the execution, and dabbed their eyes several times as it took place. He thanke...