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Hundreds of prisoners freed in UK as early release scheme takes effect

Hundreds of eligible offenders are set to leave prisons in England and Wales as the government’s early-release scheme took effect Thursday. The scheme was introduced after the prison system came close to running out of capacity in the summer of 2024, with fewer than 100 spaces remaining. Under the new rules, eligible offenders serving sentences of up to 19 months can be released after serving a third of their term. The government has faced criticism over the plan, with the main opposition Conservative Party warning that dangerous criminals could be released under the early-release scheme. Read: UK rapper gets 12-year jail term for hit-and-run killing “I think what would make the public less safe is if we had no prison capacity in which to put people who are arrested, suspected of crimes, today,” Treasury minister James Murray told Sky News. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s office said last month that more than 3,200 prison places had already been bui...
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New Zealand top diplomat draws Chinese embassy complaint in racism row

Beijing's embassy in New Zealand said it had raised an official complaint Thursday after top diplomat Winston Peters told a lawmaker of Chinese descent to "go back to your own country". Populist NZ First leader Peters was asked by China-born Green Party member Lawrence Xu-Nan: "Are you vaccinated?" during a heated debate about New Zealand's response to the Covid pandemic on Wednesday. In response, Peters said the lawmaker, who was born in the Chinese city of Tianjin but grew up in New Zealand, had "come here five minutes ago". "Go back to your own country. That's where they lie like a flatfish, but they don't lie like that here," Peters said. "This is called a democracy, unlike what you're used to. Go back to where you've come from, you loudmouth." The comments sparked a rare intervention from the Chinese ambassador to New Zealand, Wang Xiaolong. Wang said on X on Thursday that while he preferred to stay out of domestic politics, "suffice it to say, sometimes, a statement says more about the person that makes it than anything or anybody else". Read: China donates $2m reproductive health supplies Beijing's embassy in Wellington also said it had lodged a complaint with New Zealand's foreign ministry over "negative China-related remarks made by a certain politician". Peters has doubled down on his remarks. "We live in a democracy that includes free speech and rights -- those two values that other certain countries not only limit, but do so with force," he said on X. "If that offends the pearl clutchers and the communist shills labelling it as 'dangerous' -- welcome to New Zealand." New Zealand's Prime Minister Christopher Luxon -- whose National Party governs in a coalition with NZ First -- has condemned Peters' "inappropriate attention-seeking" comments. It's not the first time Peters and his party -- seen as kingmakers in New Zealand's fractured political system -- have received criticism for racist comments. Earlier this year, Peters' deputy Shane Jones criticised New Zealand's free trade deal with India as risking a "butter chicken tsunami". Last year Peters and Jones were forced to back down after the deputy yelled "send the Mexicans home" at MP Francisco Hernandez during a debate. Peters had followed up that comment by telling Hernandez, who was actually born in the Philippines, and Xu-Nan to "show some gratitude" for being in New Zealand.

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At least 32 miners dead after bridge fails at cobalt site in southeast DR Congo

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