News 26/02/26

A police sergeant has been dismissed for using a picture frame to weigh down her laptop keys to create the impression she was working from home.

Avon and Somerset Police said the officer, known as Sergeant X, used the method on most shifts in April and May last year. She admitted placing a corner of the frame on the keyboard so the laptop would not enter sleep mode during personal difficulties. An investigation began after professional standards data showed her keystrokes were unusually high.

Parents using Instagram’s child supervision tools will soon be alerted if their teenager repeatedly searches for suicide or self harm related terms.

Meta will, for the first time, proactively notify parents about such searches rather than only block them and direct users to external help. Families enrolled in Instagram’s Teen Accounts in the UK, US, Australia and Canada will receive notifications from next week, with other countries following later.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has called early elections, describing the next four years as decisive.

She told parliament that Danes and Europeans would have to stand on their own feet and define their relationship with the United States. Recent Danish politics has been dominated by President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Greenland, a semi autonomous Danish territory. Last month he dropped threats to use force against the Nato ally to seize the Arctic island.

The number of young people not in education, employment or training has risen, moving closer to one million.

Official figures show 957,000 people aged 16 to 24 were classed as Neet between October and December 2025, representing 12.8 per cent of that age group. The Office for National Statistics said this was a slight quarterly increase. It added more young people were actively seeking work during the final three months of 2025.

[Pause(1)]

Jeremy Corbyn is expected to become parliamentary leader of Your Party after his supporters secured control of its leadership committee.

The group known as The Many won 14 of 24 seats on the central executive committee, compared with seven for Grassroots Left backed by Zarah Sultana. Corbyn said members had voted for a mass socialist party to challenge Sir Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage. Grassroots Left urged unity.

Soham murderer Ian Huntley has been seriously injured in an assault in prison.

He was taken to hospital after being found in a pool of blood following an alleged attack by another inmate. Huntley was convicted of murdering 10 year olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in 2002. He is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 40 years at HMP Frankland in County Durham.

Jersey has voted to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill adults, becoming the second of the British Isles to do so after the Isle of Man.

Members of the States Assembly backed plans in May 2024 to draw up laws for the service. The vote was 32 in favour and 16 against, and the bill will now go for royal assent. Under the proposals, a person with a terminal illness who is experiencing, or expected to experience, unbearable physical suffering and likely to die within six months, or 12 months with certain neurodegenerative conditions, would be able to choose to end their own life.

Dame Esther Rantzen, who has terminal cancer and campaigns for assisted dying, has criticised attempts to delay related legislation.

She said news the bill could run out of time in the House of Lords amounted to blatant sabotage. Speaking to presenter Gareth Barlow, she claimed a small number of peers had tabled 1,200 amendments not to scrutinise the bill but to block it. Dame Esther said the only way to stop them would be to use the Parliament Act or abolish the House of Lords, which she described as not fit for purpose.

An interim report into maternity and neonatal services in England has uncovered allegations of racism, bullying, crumbling infrastructure and births in undignified circumstances.

Some families told investigators that baby deaths were being misclassified to avoid further scrutiny. Baroness Amos, who is leading the national investigation, said maternity and neonatal services are failing too many women, babies, families and staff.

The UK’s first geothermal power plant is set to go live, generating a new form of renewable electricity using hot water from underground.

The Cornish site will be switched on after nearly two decades of development. Geothermal Engineering Ltd drilled the deepest onshore well in the UK to reach water heated by rocks. The energy will power turbines to supply electricity to 10,000 homes and also provide the country’s first domestic source of lithium, a mineral used in green technology.

Councillors have voted to withdraw from a Government programme to build a special free school in Windsor after being told the project would be significantly delayed until the mid 2030s.

In 2023 the Royal Borough secured a place in the Department for Education scheme for new special free schools. The proposed school, for children aged seven to 16, was planned for a site in a new housing development west of Windsor between the A308 and Dedworth Road.

Cuba’s government says its forces have shot and killed four Cuban nationals after a US registered speedboat entered its waters and opened fire on a patrol boat.

Six other people on board, also Cuban citizens, were injured and detained. The commander of the Cuban border patrol boat was wounded, according to the interior ministry. In a statement, the ministry said the 10 passengers had been living in the United States and that, according to preliminary statements from those detained, they intended to carry out an infiltration for terrorist purposes.

The UK could see what forecasters describe as an explosion of colour as warmer conditions bring flowers rapidly into bloom over the next two weeks.

The change follows the hottest day of the year so far, although temperatures are expected to dip before rising again. At Kew Gardens in London, 18.6 Celsius was recorded on Wednesday, the hottest February day since 2019. Parts of Kent and Suffolk also exceeded 18 Celsius, with some areas warmer than Spain and Malta after a very wet start to the year.