Why illegal children's homes are being paid up to £2m per child by councils
A ban was meant to bring an end to the practice - but councils continue to fund illegal placements.
Health & Science
Canadian from hantavirus-hit cruise ship tests positive
The individual is one of four former passengers on the MV Hondius isolating on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Ebola outbreak may be spreading faster than first thought, WHO doctor warns
Hundreds of cases are suspected in central Africa but experts fear the actual number may be much higher.
'We knew somebody would die': Teenage patients 'ignored' before fatal NHS trust failures
Mental health patients say nobody listened to their concerns about a north-east England trust.
Oxford scientists race to prepare Ebola vaccine for trials as DR Congo risk rises
Oxford scientists are developing a vaccine candidate for the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, which has no proven vaccine and is linked to an outbreak in DR Congo that has raised regional health concerns.
Forecasters warn a record-breaking 'super' El Nino may form by late 2026
NOAA puts the odds of a strong El Nino at 61% by July, and one researcher sees a roughly 50% chance the event becomes the strongest on record.
TESS spots 27 possible new worlds by timing eclipses of binary stars
Astronomers used eclipse timing in 1,590 binary star systems to flag 27 candidate exoplanets, including some that conventional transit hunts would miss.
Hubble spies a chaotic planet nursery 40 times wider than our solar system
Hubble Space Telescope images of IRAS 23077+6707 — nicknamed Dracula's Chivito — show the largest known protoplanetary disk, with asymmetric filaments and 10–30 Jupiter masses of material.
FDA approves AstraZeneca's Baxfendy, first-in-class drug for tough-to-treat hypertension
The FDA cleared baxdrostat, a first-in-class aldosterone synthase inhibitor, offering a new option for adults whose blood pressure resists standard therapies.