Two hundred lawyers have come together to challenge a wave of discriminatory exclusions

When he started secondary school in Hackney, east London, at the age of 11, Sam* had high attainment levels and loved learning. At the end of the introductory week, he was given an award for being a “star”. Less than two weeks later, a courier delivered a letter to his home saying that he had been ­permanently excluded.

Government data released this summer showed there were a record 9,400 permanent exclusions in 2022-23 , up 45% from 6,500 in 2021-22. Sam, who lives on a council estate with his Cameroonian mother and has been diagnosed with ADHD and autism, is among the most likely ­children in the country to be thrown out of school.

Some celebrate them, others despise them. Yet this mimicking, competitive and acrobatic songbird still exerts a powerful fascination

A stream of people heads steadily down the path, towards the viewpoint over the reedbed. As I walk alongside them, I’m reminded of a crowd ­heading to a football match, or a ­gathering of medieval pilgrims hoping for a miracle.

There is usually a moment, about 20 minutes before sunset, when the gathering falls strangely silent, anticipating what we are about to witness. Then, just as some are ­wondering if they’ve come to the wrong place, or on the wrong day, the first birds appear in the far ­distance. A small flock of starlings, flying determinedly in our ­direction. A collective sigh of relief ripples through the crowd. We can relax.

The researcher spent 10 years studying how attitude affects mood and behaviour, and her new book shares ways in which we can learn to value the colder months

Kari Leibowitz holds a PhD in social psychology from Stanford University, where she studied the role of our mindsets on our health and wellbeing. For the past 10 years, Leibowitz has been investigating people’s attitudes to winter and the ways they can powerfully affect our mood and behaviour – research that has culminated in her debut book , How to Winter: Harnessing Your Mindset to Thrive in Cold, Dark Or Difficult Times .

As a Fulbright scholar , you moved from Atlanta to the University of Tromsø in Norway . The polar night there lasts for almost two months . How did that experience inform your views of winter?
I was looking for a research project, and I began writing to Joar Vittersø, who is one of the world’s leading experts on human happiness and wellbeing. He told me that he was at the world’s northernmost university, and I thought: how does the world expert on human happiness live in this place where the sun doesn’t rise for two months each winter?

The chef and broadcaster on peeling prawns by the kilo, his bicultural pride and being ‘addicted’ to fish and chips

Ducks don’t like me when they look at me . I’ve cooked countless peking ducks, probably several thousand. On my first TV series [ Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery on BBC Two, first broadcast on 29 October 1984 ] we did peking duck in the first programme and there was a run on ducks the next day in all the supermarkets. I’m their nemesis.

My father died when I was eight months old , he had a heart attack. So I grew up in Chicago with a single mum who, because she came from China, never spoke English. I had to speak Cantonese to her and it’s been a blessing in disguise. Because of that, I became bicultural. I spoke English in a western world, but at the same time, I kept my Chinese-ness, which I pride just as much. And it makes me proud too to do Chinese cooking and to have my books translated into Chinese. I mean, wow!

A gripping audio series about a killer-for-hire scam on the dark web is a reminder of how technology holds up a mirror to human nature

This column comes to you as a break from listening to a riveting podcast series called Kill List . It’s about a secret website that journalist and author Carl Miller discovered on the dark web, the slimy underbelly of the internet. The site essentially runs what one might call an “assassination market” or a murder-for-hire service. Customers identify and profile someone whom they wish to have killed and pay (in bitcoin, natch) for the service they require. Hence the title of the podcast series.

The story starts in 2020 in the early days of the pandemic lockdown when a gifted IT expert and hacker, Chris Monteiro, was browsing the site and found a security vulnerability that, once exploited, gave him complete access to it. Inside, he found a “kill list”, rather like an Excel spreadsheet, of 175 people all over the world whom clients wanted murdered. For each target, there was usually lots of detailed information – address, photographs, habits, routes regularly travelled etc. It looked, I guess, superficially mundane – until you read the “instructions” attached for each one. “How much bitcoin should I pay?” “Tell me the execution time in advance – I can’t be there.” “I would just like this person to be shot and killed. Where, how and what with does not bother me at all.” You get the idea.

The chancellor rightly wants to stimulate the economy by boosting growth. But she would be unwise to do it at the expense of the poorest

There is a danger that Labour will suffer the Macron effect when the budget is unveiled at the end of the month. Emmanuel Macron, who was first elected president of France in 2017, put business investment and building a culture of entrepreneurialism at the top of his to-do list – only to be condemned later as a friend of the rich.

Rachel Reeves speaks a similar language when she says economic growth is her priority and that business people should be offered more support than even the Tories were prepared to countenance.

Forecast of high winds and rain leads to cancellation of event that was due to take place in Portsmouth on Sunday

High winds and rain expected from Storm Ashley have caused organisers to cancel the Great South Run, which was due to take place on Sunday.

Great Run, which organises the annual 10-mile race in Portsmouth, said it had been monitoring weather conditions and they “haven’t improved to a point where we can safely stage Sunday’s event”.

Supporters offer advice to get the favourite over the line, gambling she can unite the party and restore Tory fortunes

Supporters of Kemi Badenoch have urged her to rein in her confrontational style to clinch the Tory leadership, with some Conservative MPs concluding they need to take “a big gamble” to restore their party’s fortunes as they replace Rishi Sunak.

The shadow communities secretary emerged from the only scheduled televised debate on GB News last week with most MPs believing she is still the favourite in what remains a close contest with Robert Jenrick. Party members have until the end of the month to cast their vote.

Richard Baxter was key figure in gang smuggling hundreds of kilos of drugs and laundering proceeds, say police

A man with a £1.5m property empire has pleaded guilty to supplying drugs and money laundering, the Metropolitan police said.

Richard Baxter, 50, of no fixed address, admitted conspiracy to supply heroin, conspiracy to supply cocaine and conspiracy to transfer criminal property at Kingston crown court on Friday.