Afghan woman can’t be deported because she has back pain, judge rules

An Afghan woman and her husband have won the right to stay in the UK after a judge found she would not be adequately treated for her back pain under Taliban rule.

Lailuma Bahadri, 63, was unable to walk or stand owing to back problems and required assistance washing and dressing.

She claimed asylum with her husband Mian Rahim Shah Bahadri, 64, but this was rejected by the Home Office and a judge who said her symptoms would “improve with time.”

The couple appealed the decision and claimed that under Taliban rule, a female stranger is “not allowed” to provide care facilities at somebody’s house when a man is living there to whom they are not related. For cultural reasons, Mrs Bahadri would “not accept” personal care from a male stranger, the court was told.

Now, their appeal has been successfully upheld after an upper tier tribunal judge found the “healthcare collapse and deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan” means Mrs Bahadri would not receive suitable care in the country.

The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example exposed by The Telegraph where failed asylum seekers or convicted foreign criminals have attempted to halt their deportations, often by claiming breaches of their human rights.

There are a record 41,987 outstanding immigration appeals, largely on human rights grounds, which threaten to hamper Labour’s efforts to fast-track removal of illegal migrants.

The couple claimed asylum as adult dependent relatives of their son, a British citizen, but this was rejected by the Home Office in 2023. The couple appealed the decision, taking it to the first-tier tribunal, but this was dismissed.
Deterioration in care

Mr and Mrs Bahadri further appealed the claim, claiming the judge had given “inadequate consideration” to the evidence regarding the “deterioration in the availability of suitable care and treatment” in Afghanistan, after the Taliban took over in August 2021.

The appeal, which was heard by Upper Tribunal Judge Ruddick and Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Murray, was told Mrs Bahadri suffered “longstanding” health issues including depression, type two diabetes, hypertension and lower back pain.


Her doctor told the panel Mrs Bahadri has mobility problems as a result of her lower back pain and she could not stand for long.

The mother was said to need help with “washing and dressing because of her back pain,” care which has been provided by her husband.

Mr Bahadri also has health conditions – including stable angina, hypertension, and type two diabetes – and had previously been advised not to lift heavy weights. The lower appeal judge ruled the couple would have access to medical care in Kabul and her husband was able to meet her needs.

However, lawyers representing the couple argued that due to the effects of the Taliban, Mrs Bahadri’s medication was not available which would cause a “further decline in her health.”

The couple said they were “helpless” and were also financially reliant on their sponsor, their son. The judge upheld their appeal and allowed them to remain in the UK.

Brits going on holiday hit with £94.50 charge from Thursday

 

Brits going on holiday abroad face a £94.50 charge from Thursday as new passport fees are introduced.


The UK government is hiking the cost of applying for a new passport from April 10, 2025, with the standard online fee set to rise by £6. So British holidaymakers that need to renew their passport will have to pay £94.50 from Thursday onwards under the new rates, up from the current £88.50. Standard online application fees for children are also going up, rising from £57.50 to £61.50 - an increase of £4.

If you apply for a new passport via post then the costs will be even higher, with fees for adults rising from the current rate of £100 up to £7, while for children it will cost £74, up from £69.

The One Day Premium Service, which is available if you need to get your passport renewed quickly, is rising from £207.50 to £222 for adults, while for children the fee will go up from £176.50 to £189.

Additionally, overseas applications for a UK passport will also be going up from Thursday, with standard online applications for adults rising from £101 to £108, and from £65.50 to £70 for children.

Adults who apply from overseas via paper application will pay £120.50, up from £112.50, while costs for children will be £82.50, up from £77.

The new fees are subject to approval by Parliament and will be used to contribute to the cost of processing passport applications, consular support overseas, including for lost or stolen passports, and the cost of processing British citizens at UK borders, according to the Home Office.

Nigerian boxer suddenly dies after collapsing mid-fight: ‘Unpredictable nature of the sport’

Gabriel Oluwasegun Olanrewaju, a professional boxer from Nigeria, died suddenly over the weekend after he collapsed in the third round of a light-heavyweight fight in Ghana, according to officials.

Oluwasegun tragically died Saturday at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, located in the capital of Accra, after he collapsed less than halfway through his eight-round bout against Ghana’s Jon Mbanugu, the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) said in a statement.

Oluwasegun was dominating the fight, but began to falter in the third, according to officials. 

Just under three minutes into the round, Oluwasegun stepped back from his opponent and fell backward onto the ropes.

The GBA said Mbanugu did not hit Oluwasegun directly before he collapsed in the ring. Video of the fight shared on social media supported this

UK ETA: Visitors to Britain will be charged £10 from Wednesday as new system rolled out

Visitors coming into the UK must pay £10 starting Wednesday as the new Electronic Travel Authorisation system is rolled out. The fee, which will rise to £16 from April 9, mirrors the ESTA system used in the United States and is mandatory for all European visitors from April 2.

The UK government began rolling out the ETA system in January for US, Canadian, and other visa-exempt nationals and expanded it to European travellers this month. The scheme is part of the UK's push to digitise its immigration system and create a more streamlined border experience.

"By digitising the immigration system, we are paving the way for a contactless UK border," said Migration Minister Seema Malhotra. Expanding ETA worldwide cements our commitment to enhance security through technology and innovation."

The ETA allows visits of up to six months and remains valid for two years. All travellers, including minors and infants, will need to apply.

The application process, which can be completed via a smartphone app or the UK Government website, requires a passport photo and a facial scan and takes about 10 minutes to complete.

While most applications are approved within minutes, the Home Office advises allowing up to three working days for processing. If approved, the ETA is digitally linked to the traveller's passport.

From April 2, nationals of around 30 European countries, including all European Union nations except Ireland, must obtain an ETA before travelling to the UK.

Those simply transiting airside without crossing the UK border are exempt from the requirement.

This exemption was introduced following lobbying from Heathrow Airport, which feared a drop in international transit passengers.

Currently, only Heathrow and Manchester airports provide airside transit facilities in the UK. The UK first introduced the ETA scheme in 2023 for Qatari nationals and later extended it to five other Gulf nations.

Sickle Cell and Africa

Sickle Cell anaemia truly came as a result of nature's fight against Malaria about 7500 years ago, and it took place first in the rainforest of today's Cameroon before spreading across West Africa through Bantu migration.




The worrying aspect about Sicke Cell disease is that we should have eradicated it like 30 years ago through artificial selection of mates.




Animals, even animals have evolved their intelligence enough to know who to avoid during mating to protect their future offspring.




When it comes to mating, animals do not have any sentiments or emotional attachments to these things. They only mate with those whose genes would complement their own to give birth to very healthy offspring.

The knowledge of sickle cell has been in the public domain in the last 40 years, yet we never deployed that knowledge to our advantage in eradicating the disease.

Like Sickle Cell disease, same also with the prevalence of Kidney disease which was another nature fight mutation through the  protein called APOL1, mostly carried by Blacks of West African ancestry, which researchers believe is responsible for the higher rate of kidney failure in Black Americans, more than three times higher than that for those of European ancestry.

While studying APOL1, researchers found that having just one copy of a G1 or G2 variant protects against a deadly form of African sleeping sickness. The global distribution of these APOL1 variants indicates that they probably originated and quickly spread in West Africa, where sleeping sickness is endemic.

With surveys showing that G1 and G2 account for around half of all APOL1 genes in Ghana and Nigeria, the current hypothesis is that roughly 5,000 to 10,000 years ago, the mutations leading to G1 and G2 occurred in West Africa — and spread rapidly in the region, though not so much elsewhere in the African continent, because they conferred immunity to sleeping sickness.

This is similar to the type of evolution that happened with the Sickle Cell to give carriers advantage over Malaria as having one disease-related version of a gene (for the blood protein beta-hemoglobin) protects against malaria but having two causes sickle cell disease. 

Unfortunately, the huge price for overall protection against Malaria parasite, a fraction of a population gets two sickle cell variants and develops serious disease. 

Thus in trying to solve one problem, nature disrupts the system and leaves it with another problem. The question now is, to what extent does nature denatures, breaking its own laws, and leaving us vulnerable?

We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses," Rubio said.

We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses," Rubio said.

US revoked around 300 visas in crackdown on students — Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration has revoked the visas of "maybe more than 300" people allegedly tied to pro-Palestine university protests.

"We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas," Rubio said during an official visit to Guyana.

"At some point, I hope we've run out because we've gotten rid of them."

The spree of arrests and attempted deportations come as the Trump administration seeks to punish those who disagree with United States policies, primarily towards Israel and Palestine.

"We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses," Rubio said.

"If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa."

The US government claims the First Amendment — the founding principle of the constitution which guarantees freedom of speech — does not apply to non-US citizens in deportation cases. The argument has been highly disputed by experts.

King Charles observed in hospital after suffering side effects from cancer treatment

The King “required a short period of observation in hospital” on Thursday after experiencing side effects from his cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace has said.

Charles, 76, cancelled his engagements in Birmingham on Friday on medical advice to prioritise his recovery and is now back at Clarence House.

Palace sources emphasised that there is “no drama” and the move was described as a precaution to “protect and prioritize his continued very positive recovery.”

One described it as a "most minor bump in a road that is very much heading in the right direction".

Buckingham Palace said in a statement: "Following scheduled and ongoing medical treatment for cancer this morning, the King experienced temporary side effects that required a short period of observation in hospital.

"His Majesty's afternoon engagements were therefore postponed.

"His Majesty has now returned to Clarence House and as a precautionary measure, acting on medical advice, tomorrow's diary programme will also be rescheduled.

"His Majesty would like to send his apologies to all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed as a result".

The palace did not provide further information over what his side effects were.

The King was taken to the London Clinic on Thursday morning that has cared for him previously and he travelled to and from the hospital by car in the usual way.

The Queen did not join The King during his brief visit to hospital.

Trump admin halts green card applications in new vetting system

The Trump administration has quietly begun halting some green card applications as part of a rigorous new vetting system.

US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) has implemented new restrictions in compliance with Trump's executive orders to suspend processing of requests for legal permanent residency for immigrants granted refugee or asylum status, CBS News reports.

The Department of Homeland Security said the green card processing pause was necessary to comply with two executive actions issued by the president.

'USCIS is placing a temporary pause on finalizing certain Adjustment of Status applications pending the completion of additional screening and vetting to identify potential fraud, public safety, or national security concerns, in alignment with Mr. Trump's executive actions,' the statement said.

According to a presidential proclamation cited by officials, Donald Trump has instructed federal agencies to 'vet and screen to the maximum degree possible all aliens who intend to be admitted, enter, or are already inside the United States.'

The administration's tightening of restrictions on immigration policies and procedures are the latest attempts to tackle concerns of national security and fraud.

Maternity unit at Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead to close due to declining birth rate

The maternity unit at the Royal Free Hospital in north London is to close due to falling birth rates.

The decision to close the unit at one of the capital’s biggest hospitals was confirmed at a meeting of the North Central London Integrated Care Board on Tuesday.

Officials cited figures showing that births fell by 14 per cent in the area in the past five years.

According to the Resolution Foundation, birth rates have been falling faster in London than in the rest of the country since the 2000s.

Under a restructuring four of the five maternity units serving Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington will remain open.

They include the Whittington Hospital that had been under threat.

But the unit at the Royal Free, in Camden, will close, despite a long-running campaign to save it.

The remaining units will serve the five boroughs as well as those in neighbouring boroughs who choose to use North Central London services.

The trust said that the hospital’s neonatal unit cared for fewer babies than other units in the area and does not accept babies born under 34 weeks’ gestation.

Admissions to the unit have reportedly been falling by four per cent a year since 2018-19. Last year about half its cots were empty on any given day, the Times reported.

Dead baby found in bag next to bin at Notting Hill church as police launch urgent hunt for mother

Police have launched an investigation following the discovery of the body of a newborn baby in west London.

Officers were called to the scene following a report that the remains had been found in a bag left near a bin outside All Saints’ Church in Talbot Road, Notting Hill.

London Ambulance Service also attended and sadly the infant was declared dead at the scene around 12.46pm on Tuesday.

The Metropolitan Police said officers remain in the area and urgent enquiries are ongoing to locate the baby’s mother, who may need medical assistance.

At this stage, a spokesman added they have have not established the child’s gender or exact age.

Neighbours said they were told the baby was found in a plastic bag by a bin man sweeping up leaves.

One said: “I was told a binman who was sweeping up leaves and putting them in the bin found the body next to it.

“The guy picked up the plastic bag near the bin and realised it was too heavy.

“It’s horrible. But you don’t know what situation the mother was in.”

A police cordon has been placed around the church, where a blue police tent has been erected. Forensic officers are on the scene.

Police officers are guarding a taped cordon which blocks access to the church from Clydesdale Road, Colville Gardens, and Powys Square.

Superintendent Owen Renowden said: “This is an extremely sad and shocking matter and officers are working hard to establish the circumstances around what has taken place.

“This investigation is in the early stages and our immediate priority is to locate the baby’s mother, who we believe may have very recently given birth.

“If you are the baby’s mother and are reading this, please come forward to police or medical professionals.

“You must feel very frightened but please let us help – we are really worried about you and it is vitally important you get medical assistance and support.