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The Guardian view on probation: overcrowded prisons need an outlet | Editorial

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Wes Streeting’s unintelligible jargon shows how well he’s bedded in at the MoD | John Crace
For the first time in his life, Wes is enjoying keeping secrets – though he did admit he isn’t ‘keen on fighting a war’ When Andy Burnham announced his first cabinet in July, few would have had Wes Streeting marked down as a likely defence secretary. Not even Wes. And no one is more bullish about Wes’s life chances than Wes. It just didn’t seem a natural fit. Defence secretaries tend to be more the unsmiling types who operate in the shadows. Politicians like John Healey, with the pallor of someone who has spent too long in underground bunkers with military chief of staffs. People who slide in and out of rooms without making a fuss. Wes has always been someone who likes to be noticed. Enjoys the theatre of Westminster. The first to arrive at a party and the last to leave. A natural gossip. “Psst – you’ll never guess what Zelenskyy just said to Trump.” Continue reading...

MI5 chief warns against overstating Russian interference in Brexit vote
It comes after Andy Burnham said Moscow had tried to interfere in the 2016 referendum.

MI5 chief Ken McCallum confirms Russia did interfere in Brexit referendum but says it had little impact – as it happened
He argued there was no evidence to suggest the result of the Brexit vote had been swayed as a result of the effort Andy Burnham promises ‘serious dialogue’ over UK’s relationship with EU Zia Yusuf , Reform UK’s home affairs spokesperson, has said he does not agree with his colleague Suella Braverman’s assertion that black people cannot be English. Asked about her views in an interview on Sky News , Yusuf said: In my view Ashley Cole is the best English fullback in history, and I won’t take any other position. So in my view, Ashley Cole is English. I think the argument that he’s not English doesn’t hold water with me. Nasser Hussain, who I grew up watching when I went to the cricket, the idea that those people aren’t English is an alien concept to me. I would respectfully disagree with people, who make the opposite argument. To say I’m English is to take a ‘laissez-faire, anything-goes’ a

Farage denies Reform would let troops shoot small boats after Jenrick’s ‘lethal force’ claim
Farage’s intervention comes as Reform chair Zia Yusuf criticises ‘everybody’ in former Tory government that included Jenrick and Suella Braverman Nigel Farage has denied that a Reform UK government would authorise lethal force against small boat crossings in the Channel, hours after one of his MPs said the Royal Marines should be permitted to fire on the boats. Farage overruled Robert Jenrick, a Reform UK MP who defected from the Conservatives, who had told TalkTV that the party would deploy the marines to take boats back to France. Continue reading...

Hundreds more prisoners being freed in second phase of early release scheme
The second tranche of prisoners being released includes those serving up to two and a half years.

Welsh government and Labour strike budget deal with £60m for additional learning needs
The Plaid Cymru-led administration had failed to pass its spending plans during the summer.