Second major fire at south London recycling centre in under three months

Fifteen fire engines tackling blaze at Landmann Way in Deptford involving 50 tonnes of household waste

Fifteen fire engines and about 100 firefighters are tackling a blaze in a south-east London recycling plant for the second time this summer.

London fire brigade said the blaze on Landmann Way in Deptford involves about 50 tonnes of household waste stored at a recycling facility.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/aug/18/second-major-fire-at-south-london-recycling-centre-in-under-three-months

Burnham launches ‘national drive’ to get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas

Prime minister urges local leaders to act as homelessness campaigners welcome move but say more needs to be done

• I won’t abandon anyone to sleep rough on our streets. That’s my £442m promise

Andy Burnham has urged local leaders to offer all rough sleepers in England a route off the streets by Christmas, as he pledges another £100m to end street homelessness.

Arguing in the Guardian that rough sleeping has become so common it now “feels like part of the scenery”, Burnham promised he would mount a Covid-style campaign to get everyone off the streets this winter.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/18/burnham-national-drive-rough-sleepers-christmas

Harvard to pay $53m over theft and sale of human remains from medical school

Cedric Lodge, 58, sentenced in December to eight years in prison for stealing and selling body parts in national scheme

Harvard University has agreed to pay a $53m settlement to resolve civil lawsuits stemming from the illegal theft and sale of human remains that had been donated to its medical school for scientific research.

A former Harvard medical school morgue manager, Cedric Lodge, 58, was sentenced in December last year to eight years in prison after he had pleaded guilty in May to stealing and selling human body parts in a nationwide scheme. Prosecutors said this had involved the theft and sale of organs, skin, brains and dissected heads from cadavers donated to Harvard from 2018 through at least March 2020.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/aug/18/harvard-human-remains-lawsuit

Melbourne’s Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year

Previous winners of the award have included Saint Peter, Attica, Orana by the late Jock Zonfrillo, and Quay

Armenian-Lebanese eatery Zareh has been named Gourmet Traveller’s restaurant of the year, in a category of the annual industry awards that has historically been dominated by European-leaning cuisine and fine-dining establishments.

The restaurant’s menu pulls from the Armenian, Egyptian and Lebanese backgrounds of co-owners Tom Sarafian and Jinane Bou-Assi: aish baladi (Egyptian flatbread) is made with a flour milled in the Mornington Peninsula; kafta nayyah comprises raw minced lamb from Tasmania and Victoria; hummus is crowned with spanner crab.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/aug/18/melbournes-armenian-lebanese-eatery-zareh-named-gourmet-travellers-restaurant-of-the-year

Burnham scraps restrictions on disabled people’s bus passes in England

Move means holders will be able to travel free on local services at any time of day or night from April next year

Disabled people across England will be able to use their free bus passes at any time of day from next April, as Andy Burnham expands a policy he introduced as mayor of Greater Manchester.

The prime minister has said the current weekday restrictions on when disabled people can use their bus passes will be removed from 1 April 2027. Their passes are valid only between 9.30am and 11pm on weekdays, although some councils pay to allow people free travel outside those hours.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/17/burnham-scraps-restrictions-disabled-people-bus-passes-england

Lindsay Clancy had ‘thoughts of harming the children’, mother testifies at trial

Paula Musgrove stated her daughter had said medications were ‘destroying’ her mind and she was becoming ‘paranoid’

The defense in the Lindsay Clancy filicide case called the defendant’s mother as one of its first witnesses Monday, after three weeks of prosecution evidence laid out, in often harrowing detail, events surrounding Clancy’s killing of her three children.

Under questioning from defense attorney David Reddington, Clancy’s mother, Paula Musgrove, testified that her daughter’s statements and actions had unsettled her in the months leading up to 24 January 2023.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/lindsay-clancy-trial-mother-witness-testimony

Election denier Tina Peters to be hired as elections consultant in conservative California county

Shasta county, hotbed of US election denialism movement, set to appoint ex-Colorado clerk who served prison term

A northern California county that has become a hotbed of activism for those who sow doubts about the reliability of voting machines plans to hire Tina Peters, the prominent Colorado election denier recently released from prison, to work on elections.

Clint Curtis, the top election official in Shasta county, told the Guardian he plans to hire Peters as a consultant to replace Brent Turner, his top deputy, who has been on medical leave. He said Peters would not have access to the county’s voting system. Plans to hire Peters were first reported by Action News Now.

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source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/17/election-denier-tina-peters-shasta-county