Some shortages are so serious they are imperilling the health and even lives of patients with serious illnesses, pharmacy bosses say

Drug shortages are a anew normala in the UK and are being exacerbated by Brexit, a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank has warned. A dramatic recent spike in the number of drugs that are unavailable has created serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, the NHS and patients, it found.

The number of warnings drug companies have issued about impending supply problems for certain products has more than doubled from 648 in 2020 to 1,634 last year.

Mark Menzies allegedly spent APS14,000 of campaign funds on medical costs and demanded APS6,500 from aide to escape captors

A Conservative MP has lost the party whip after an investigation was launched following claims that he misused campaign funds.

Mark Menzies, 52, also faced allegations that he made a late-night call to a 78-year-old aide asking for help because he had been locked up by abad peoplea demanding thousands of pounds for his release.

IDF confirms buying thousands of tents for evacuation, raising fears over long-threatened attack

Israel has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armoured personnel carriers to the Gaza Strip periphery, suggesting that the military is preparing for its long-threatened ground offensive on Rafah, the only place of relative safety for at least 1.4 million displaced Palestinian civilians.

Israeli daily Maaariv also said on Wednesday that troops had been put on alert and athe governing principle of the operationa had been approved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff and Yoav Gallant, the defence minister. The IDF declined to comment on the reports.

Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of athreatening and cruela tactics over repayment orders

• Woman with dementia, 92, told to repay APS7,000 in disability allowance

Government officials have been accused of using athreatening and cruela tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against avindictivea benefit fines.

This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay back huge sums after being chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over ahonest mistakesa that officials could have spotted years earlier.

LabHost enabled users to set up websites designed to trick victims into revealing personal information a with 70,000 allegedly duped in the UK

University students have turned to cyber fraud to boost their income, police have said, as they revealed they have infiltrated a huge phishing site on the dark web responsible for scamming tens of thousands of people.

The site called LabHost was active since 2021 and was a cyber fraud superstore, allowing users to produce realistic-looking websites from household names such as the big banks, ensnaring victims around the world including 70,000 in the UK.

Exclusive: Man whose uncle died in 2017 disaster describes ad for pain relief gel Voltarol as ainsultinga

Grenfell Tower has been edited out of a TV advert in a move described as ainsultinga by a family bereaved by the June 2017 disaster.

Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman was among 72 people who died as a result of the fire, noticed the edit while watching the Channel 4 streaming service on Monday when an advert for the pain relief gel Voltarol showed people playing football on the Westway football pitches close to the council block.

There were 83,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% have been forced to relocate

Unwanted home moves cost renters over half a billion pounds a year, with tenants coughing up an average of APS669 every time they are forced by landlords to leave their home, a survey has revealed.

Analysis by the homelessness charity Shelter estimated that there had been 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% of renters who move house are doing so because they have been compelled to look for other accommodation.

Use of powerful medications linked to elevated risk of serious adverse outcomes including heart failure

Doctors are being urged to reduce prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to dementia patients after the largest study of its kind found they were linked to more harmful side-effects than previously thought.

The powerful medications are widely prescribed for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia such as apathy, depression, aggression, anxiety, irritability, delirium and psychosis. Tens of thousands of dementia patients in England are prescribed them every year.

Experts believe remains belong to a type of ichthyosaur that roamed the seas about 202m years ago

Fossils discovered by an 11-year-old girl on a beach in Somerset may have come from the largest marine reptile ever to have lived, according to experts.

The fossils are thought to be from a type of ichthyosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that lived in the time of dinosaurs. The newly discovered species is believed to have roamed the seas towards the end of the Triassic, about 202m years ago.

People in routine and repetitive jobs found to have 31% greater risk of disease in later life, and 66% higher risk of mild cognitive problems

If work is a constant flurry of mind-straining challenges, bursts of creativity and delicate negotiations to keep the troops happy, consider yourself lucky.

Researchers have found that the more people use their brains at work, the better they seem to be protected against thinking and memory problems that come with older age.

The 61-year-old director, who says he will retire after his 10th film, has abandoned The Movie Critic, according to industry reports

Quentin Tarantino has reportedly abandoned his plans for The Movie Critic, the film that was to be his 10th and final project.

Deadline reported on Thursday that an anonymous source close to Tarantino had confirmed the news, reporting that Tarantino had asimply changed his minda about making The Movie Critic and would be agoing back to the drawing board to figure out what that final movie will bea.

Olaf Scholz tells EU to send more Patriot batteries as Nato chief urges members to prioritise Ukraineas air defences; airstrikes on Chernihiv kill 17. What we know on day 785

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Calls to support Ukraineas defence against Russian air strikes have grown after at least 17 people died when three missiles hit the centre of Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine near the border with Russia.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Wednesday urged his fellow EU leaders to follow Germanyas lead and send Ukraine more Patriot air defence systems. Germany on Saturday announced it was sending an additional Patriot battery. aThis is immediately useful, we want to encourage others to do the same,a said Scholz as he arrived for an EU summit in Brussels. aNow it is about doing it quickly and not at some point in the future.a

Natoas chief, Jens Stoltenberg, told member countries that they should further strain their stockpiles to help support Ukraine. aIf allies face a choice between meeting Nato capability targets and providing more aid to Ukraine, my message is clear: send more to Ukraine,a he said on Wednesday.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeated the urgent appeal for more assistance via video address to the EU leaders. aThank you, Olaf, for your efficiency. However, we have a bigger need. Systems that you have, they are needed in Ukraine right now a needed to stop Putin from relying on terrorist methods.a Officials say Ukraine is seeking seven more Patriot systems from western stocks since they are the only ones capable of downing Russiaas hypersonic missiles.

Joe Biden has said he strongly supports a proposal from the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, to at last navigate $61bn in aid for Ukraine through the US Congress. aThe House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,a said the US president. aI will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: we stand with our friends, and we wonat let Iran or Russia succeed.a An additional proposal is expected to include measures to redirect seized Russian assets toward Ukraine.

Zelenskiy confirmed the Ukrainian military had attacked the Russian airfield of Dzhankoi in occupied Crimea. Unofficial sources in both Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday reported a series of explosions at the base. aThank you, warriors. Thank you for your accuracy. Thank you to commander-in-chief [Oleksandr] Syrskyi for organising this operation,a said Zelenskiy. The president expressed thanks to servicemen staging aspecial operations, especially important operations, extremely significant ones that destroy the equipment of the Russian army, their combat infrastructurea.

The Ukrainian military says Russia has ramped up its illegal use of riot control agents on the front to try to clear trenches as it begins to make bigger advances in the east. Riot control agents such as teargas are banned on the battlefield by the international Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia and Ukraine are signatories.

MP Richard Holden, who is behind re-opening of inquiry into Labour deputy leader, also sparked Covid-era beer and curry furore involving the leader

One of the most senior politicians in the Labour party is facing persistent questions about her personal affairs. The police are investigating after pressure from a Tory MP, despite initially saying there was no case to answer. The story has been relentlessly pursued by the rightwing press.

If the playbook sounds familiar, thatas because the Conservative MP pulling the strings behind the Angela Rayner living arrangements saga is the same one who consistently led the charge over the aBeergatea controversy involving Keir Starmer.

The actor said he wanted to fight on a but the size of an offer from News Group made it financially risky to continue

The actor has accepted an aenormousa settlement from the Sun in return for dropping his claim that he was illegally targeted by the newspaperas journalists.

The American Diabetes Association takes millions from companies that stand to profit from our reliance on drugs. Is that affecting their guidance?

For a glimpse into how big business influences the $4tn US healthcare system, look no further than the worldas most powerful diabetes advocacy and research non-profit, the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Diabetes afflicts 38 million Americans, with another 90 million considered pre-diabetic. Every year the disease claims the lives of over 100,000 Americans and disproportionately affects people of color. It is also ruinously expensive, as doctors visits, hospital stays, insulin, blood test strips, leg amputations, continuous glucose monitors and numerous glucose-lowering drugs add up to about $400bn a year. To put it bluntly, we are losing the war on diabetes.