Lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers held up by new checks, with retailers rejecting some orders

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan to announce guidelines for phased discussion of topics depending on pupils’ age

Sex education in England’s primary schools is to be limited to those aged nine and over, with “explicit” discussions on topics such as contraception to be delayed until the age of 13, according to new guidance to be proposed by the government.

The revised guidance on relationships, sex and health education is expected to be published this week by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, and is likely to contain further restrictions on teaching about gender and identity, with teachers told to instead explain “biological” facts, according to reports.

Cross-party group of 50 calls on prime minister to appoint climate envoy and back Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance

A cross-party group of MPs and peers has urged Rishi Sunak to make a U-turn on his oil and gas extraction plans as part of a broader plea to increase efforts to address the climate crisis.

The 50 politicians, including three Conservatives, wrote to the prime minister calling for the UK to regain its international leadership on the crisis by ending the licensing of new oil and gas fields, appointing a climate envoy, and backing the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance.

Researchers say that a critical mass of female anaesthesiologists and surgeons in operative teams can reduce postoperative complications

Hospital surgical teams that include more female doctors improve patient outcomes, lower the risk of serious complications and could in turn reduce healthcare costs, according to the world’s largest study of its kind.

Studies show diversity is important in business, finance, tech, education and the law not only for equity but for output. However, evidence supporting the value of sex diversity in healthcare teams has been limited.

Commander says authorities scrambling to keep up with supply trends as knife crimes rise

Young people are using sites such as Telegram and TikTok to buy large knives for use in attacks and intimidation, with some linked to Britain’s drug wars, police said.

Stephen Clayman, national lead for knife crime for the National Police Chiefs’ Council, made it clear on Tuesday that police want tougher action after a 7% year-on-year rise in knife offences, with a 20% rise in knife-point robberies.

Research finds four-year-old boy who remains severely obese into adulthood has life expectancy of 39

Children who are severely obese could have just half the average life expectancy if they don’t lose weight in adulthood, according to a study.

Research suggests that a severely obese four-year-old boy has a life expectancy of 39, half that of a boy the same age with a healthy weight in the UK.

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development cuts growth forecasts for regions it operates in, saying war ‘casting long shadow’

Ukraine’s war-torn economy faces a renewed threat as Russia’s intensifying war takes its toll on power plants and forces Kyiv to send key workers to the frontline, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has warned.

In its latest economic update, the EBRD cut its growth forecasts and said more than two years of fighting in Ukraine was affecting not only the warring countries but also their neighbours.

Exclusive: Illegal Migration Operations Command freezes recruitment and draws up redundancy plans, leaked documents show

The head of the Home Office section that detains and processes asylum seekers for deportation to Rwanda has halted recruitment and is drawing up plans for staff cuts after demands from Jeremy Hunt, leaked documents show.

Stuart Skeates, the director general for strategic operations at Illegal Migration Operations Command (IMOC), wrote to colleagues on Tuesday to say his department had been told to cut the numbers of staff to “pre-pandemic levels”, in line with the chancellor’s plans.

Report from public spending watchdog comes soon after similar data from parliamentary committee

Average call waiting times at HM Revenue and Customs have soared by more than 350% in five years, with increasing numbers of people not getting through in the first place or having their calls terminated, according to an official report that says the public is being “let down”.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the quality of customer service provided by HMRC had been “far below” the levels expected in recent years, and that its phone lines in particular were “not delivering”.

Seven-year-olds trusted good gossip if it came from multiple sources but the bad only had to be heard once

In the ruthless world of the primary school playground, one bad rumour is enough to make children wary of another, new research suggests.

Psychologists who studied gossip in seven-year-olds found that the children trusted good rumours when they came from several sources, but could be swayed by bad rumours they heard only once.