Britain reactivates "Operation Safeguard" to tackle prison overcrowding, temporarily holding inmates in police cells. With prisons at over 99% capacity, the move comes amid a surge in the prison population, outpacing major European nations in incarceration rates.
The emergency action, dubbed "Operation Safeguard", allows inmates to be held in police cells when prisons are full, and was previously used from February 2023 to October last year.
The prison population in England and Wales has doubled in the last 30 years, according to official data, leading to overcrowding as new places have failed to keep pace with demand. Justice systems in Scotland and Northern Ireland are run separately.
In a statement to parliament, Shabana Mahmood said the prison system was operating at more than 99% occupancy.
January saw the highest average monthly prison population growth in almost two years, as part of a rising trend in the last three months that "has only just begun to slow", she added.
"Given the recent increase in demand, it is necessary, and prudent, for me to temporarily reactivate Operation Safeguard to better manage the flow of offenders into the prison estate," Mahmood said.
According to the World Prison Brief database, imprisonment rates in England and Wales are higher than in other major European countries, with 141 detainees per 100,000 population, against 120 in France, 117 in Spain, 105 in Italy and 68 in Germany.
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Canadian manufacturers and union leaders are warning of job losses and sales disruptions after the U.S. raised tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%, prompting Ottawa to prepare retaliatory measures.
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Reddit has taken legal action against AI startup Anthropic, accusing the company of unlawfully scraping content from its platform to train the Claude AI chatbot, despite public promises to avoid such practices. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, marks a major escalation in the ongoing battle over
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As peace talks progress, voices from Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Baku reveal hopes, concerns, and expectations for a future shaped by trade, trust, and generational change in the South Caucasus.
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A bridge collapse in the Vygonichsky district of Russia’s Bryansk region, near the Ukrainian border, caused a train derailment and a traffic accident early Sunday, killing at least seven people and leaving 30 injured, according to emergency services.
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The Philippines has inked a $700 million agreement with South Korea's KAI to acquire 12 advanced FA-50 fighter jets by 2030, enhancing its military capabilities amid regional tensions.
The Trump administration may roll out a $1,000 fee to fast-track visa interviews, raising legal concerns from within the State Department.
A U.S. federal judge ruled Wednesday that hundreds of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law must be granted the right to challenge their detention—dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s controversial immigration crackdown.
Canadian manufacturers and union leaders are warning of job losses and sales disruptions after the U.S. raised tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%, prompting Ottawa to prepare retaliatory measures.
Nvidia’s new Blackwell chips are twice as fast as their predecessors in training massive AI models, cutting chip use and time dramatically, new benchmarks reveal.
A U.S. federal judge ruled Wednesday that hundreds of Venezuelans deported to El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law must be granted the right to challenge their detention—dealing a blow to the Trump administration’s controversial immigration crackdown.
Canadian manufacturers and union leaders are warning of job losses and sales disruptions after the U.S. raised tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum to 50%, prompting Ottawa to prepare retaliatory measures.
The Government of Ghana has signed a $2 billion memorandum of understanding with key energy partners to extend oil production licenses for the Jubilee and TEN fields through 2040, aiming to boost output, increase gas supply, and drive infrastructure development.
Reddit has taken legal action against AI startup Anthropic, accusing the company of unlawfully scraping content from its platform to train the Claude AI chatbot, despite public promises to avoid such practices. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, marks a major escalation in the ongoing battle over
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