How we’re going to raise standards in ‘stuck’ schools

Exam season is almost upon us. Across the country, hundreds of thousands of children are nearing the end of Year 11 and getting ready to take their GCSEs.

Five years pass between joining secondary school in Year 7 and leaving at the end of Year 11. And those five years are some of the most important in life. They certainly were for me.

I was also incredibly lucky to have a family who valued education – a grandad who read with me and insisted on helping with my times tables.

But life shouldn’t come down to luck. Every child, in every school, in every corner of the country should have a brilliant education, regardless of their circumstances or background.

And there are fantastic schools all over our country, transforming lives.

But not for every child. Indeed, there are still more than 600 schools that have not improved quickly enough in recent years. And so, every morning, more than 300,000 children get up and go to schools that, to put it simply, are stuck.

These are schools that receive one poor Ofsted judgement after another, struggling to shake off stagnation and provide the quality of education every child deserves. And the average time those schools are stuck? Nearly six years. Children can join in Year 7 and leave in Year 11 – all while their school remains stuck in the mud.

There are thousands of brilliant, dedicated teachers in these schools, but they have been let down by a system that simply didn’t think they were a priority.

And, of course, it’s the children who suffer the consequences. Pupils in stuck schools are less likely to meet the expected standard in reading, writing and maths; less likely to achieve good GCSEs.

Children only get one chance at school. They can’t come back again in six years for another go. So, this is urgent: we need to get these schools moving – and I am impatient for progress. Where children’s life chances are concerned, there is no time to lose.

So, this week, as part of this government’s Plan for Change, our drive to raise standards in schools goes up a gear.

In February, our brand-new improvement programme – Rise – began in an initial 32 stuck schools. Today, less than three months later, that number is increasing to more than 200.

These schools can receive up to £100,000 each and will get bespoke, targeted support from the best of the best in school improvement: our new Rise teams. A crack team of school experts made up of proven leaders with a track record of getting schools moving and delivering for children.

And, from this week, I’m tripling the number of these advisers so they can get into as many schools as possible, as quickly as possible.

Many are top-trust CEOs. Academy trusts have been instrumental in driving standards in our schools – and they will remain the cornerstone of school improvement in this country.

We are cementing those ambitions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will reach its second reading in the House of Lords on Thursday.

The bill is a charter of common sense: strengthened protections to keep vulnerable children safe, money back into parents’ pockets through cheaper school uniforms and free breakfast clubs, and steps to bring every school up to the level of the best – a core guarantee of quality education in every school, no matter where you live.

Those who oppose it, clinging to the comfort blanket of past successes, seem intent only on looking backwards.

If we want to modernise education and drive up standards, we must accept that the problems we face now, and the problems we will face in the future, require the solutions of tomorrow, not those of yesterday.

As education secretary, I’m here to create an education system that’s fit for the 2030s, not to preserve the system of the 2010s. So while I celebrate the lasting progress made in our schools in the last two decades, I’m determined to build on those strong foundations and go further, raising standards even higher, with our Rise teams leading that charge.

Because great schools and great teachers truly shape children’s lives.

I know, because it’s my story. I remember being called into the office of my school’s deputy headmaster, Mr Hurst. Expecting the worst, I was greeted not with a scalding for my behaviour or my performance, but for my ambition. Why isn’t your name on the list for the open day at Oxford, he asked? So on it went.

Those inspirational moments, the brilliance of our teachers, it can’t just be for most children.

It must be for all our children. That’s what I got into politics to do, and that’s the change this government will bring.

Bridget Phillipson is education secretary

Family speaks out after Air Force veteran, 62, was ‘left to die by American Airlines crew’

The family of an Air Force veteran who died of a heart attack after an American Airlines crew allegedly delayed calling for help until the entire plane had deboarded have spoken out about the “mind-boggling” hold-up that continues to haunt them.

In an exclusive interview with The Independent, relatives of John William Cannon said they are still struggling to process the unthinkable tragedy.

“He was treated like an object,” Cannon’s son Kyle said. “They never even gave him a chance.”

The 62-year-old was traveling on connecting flights from his home in Louisville, Kentucky to Durango, a small city in southwest Colorado for a funeral when he suffered a “medical crisis” on the last leg of the journey from Dallas Fort-Worth on April 28, 2023.

According to a wrongful death lawsuit brought against American Airlines by Kyle, who is also the executor of his father’s estate, Cannon had passed out on the jetway while getting off his first flight but was still allowed to get on his connection to Durango. At points during the two-hour-and-twenty-minute trip, he was in visible distress, struggling to breathe and falling in and out of consciousness.

The crew, however, waited until the plane had landed in Colorado, taxied to the gate and all other passengers got off before calling for help, alleges the lawsuit, which was reported first by The Independent.

The father of one – described by his family as a “very loving person” and an avid outdoorsman who loved tinkering with cars and motorcycles and had no history of heart problems – went into cardiac arrest in the back of the ambulance and died a few hours later at the hospital.

Kyle Cannon, 28, said he simply cannot fathom the delay in summoning assistance – a decision he described as “mind-boggling.”

“I’ll be out in the field, thinking, and I just can’t wrap my head around it,” said Kyle, a Kentucky farmer. “When you have somebody on board who is in critical shape, you should do all that you have in your power to get that person the help they need. He should have been the first person off the plane, but he was the last person. It’s hard to believe that that could actually happen. But it did.”

In the two years since Cannon’s death, his family has been left trying to piece together exactly what happened on that flight. They say American Airlines has been less than forthcoming and what they have learned has brought them little comfort.

“Trying to piece it together, and trying to make it make sense, and hoping that they tried to save him, and then with each piece of information that we would uncover, it just got worse and worse and worse and worse and worse,” said Kyle.

Kyle’s aunt, Cannon’s sister Kate, said this has been one of the most excruciating parts of bouncing back.

“We were hoping to find answers and get some solace and it has just been one misstep after another,” she told The Independent. “It just tears you up, reliving it again and again.”

The situation constituted “just epic fails” from start to finish, said Cannon’s other sister, Molly.

She had seen him off at the Louisville airport on the morning of his death, and recalled her brother’s final wave to her as he went through security.

“I was the last person that saw him alive – he turned around when he was going through security and waved. I didn’t know that would be the last time I would see him. I can’t get that out of my mind,” she told The Independent.

Her brother had “a sense of humor like no other,” Molly said.

“He loved people, he always worked with people, and was a very loving person,” she went on. “He cared a lot. Had a big heart. As a teenager, he was really into motorcycles, both dirt bikes and street bikes. He was incredibly coordinated, he could do wheelies down the whole street. I couldn’t understand how he did all the things he could do.”

The three lost their mother at the age of 89, a year before Cannon’s death. But, Molly said, losing a sibling “is a different feeling. It just blows you out of the water.”

It was Molly who initially became concerned about Cannon’s whereabouts after he failed to contact her when he got to Durango, where he was heading for the funeral of his best friend’s partner. She began calling her brother’s phone continuously, to no avail. So, at around 10pm she tried calling the friend who was supposed to pick him up at the airport. But, he, too, failed to pick up, Molly said.

Then, around midnight, a woman finally answered Cannon’s phone. It was an ICU nurse at Mercy Medical Center, who said Cannon was in dire shape. Molly immediately contacted Kate, who said neither of them “had any idea what to do.” The two began booking flights to get to Durango the next morning, so they could be by their brother’s side as he recuperated. Then, shortly after they had their tickets in hand, the phone rang.

“The hospital called us back and they said, ‘If you want to say goodbye to your brother, we’re going to hold the phone up to his ear,’” Kate recalled, describing the moment as, alternately, “very surreal” and “unimaginable.”

She had tears in her eyes as she shared those final moments: “Those last few minutes when he was dying, we were saying, ‘I love you, John, I’m going to miss you, John. More even than I love you, I’m going to miss you so much’.”

Kate said she relives the situation over and over in her mind. She hates thinking about her brother suffering, and finds holidays without him especially tough.

“I just have to be grateful for the time we had with him, but I definitely feel robbed for the time we didn’t,” she said.

The weekend after Cannon’s death, Molly spoke to a nurse at the hospital who told her the medics who brought her brother in seemed “traumatized” by the way the situation had been handled.

“They see a lot of really, really horrific stuff, and for them to say that, it really speaks to how bad this was,” Kyle said, adding that the first responders encouraged the family to sue.

Kyle believes his father should have been sent to the hospital rather than having been allowed to board his connecting flight after blacking out in Dallas. This, Kyle contended, “would have probably saved his life.”

“We would like American to show some accountability so this doesn’t happen to somebody else,” he said. “We can’t bring him back, but if this could save somebody else’s life, that’s what he would want.”

The family’s lawsuit slams American for failing to provide Cannon with first aid while onboard, failing to turn him over to a physician in a timely manner, and “failing to prioritize… Cannon in the deboarding process once he exhibited signs of extreme physical distress onboard the aircraft.”

Cabin crews are trained in CPR, and all commercial airliners have been required since 2004 to carry defibrillators onboard, family attorney Joseph LoRusso told The Independent.

“Nobody’s expecting a flight attendant to be a doctor, but you have to at least attempt a recovery,” he said.

In an email, an American Airlines spokesperson told The Independent, “We are reviewing the complaint.”

Obsession with tough borders creating ‘booming £2bn industry for companies’

Private companies are benefiting from a multibillion-pound industry created by government ministers’ “obsession with tough borders”, The Independent can reveal – as charities, academics and campaigners urge ministers to “turn off this tap of taxpayer cash”.

Data collected by academics at the Universities of Sheffield, Liverpool, York and Nottingham on 200 contracts for border management shows around £2bn worth of contracts have been issued by governments since 2017.

They include contracts for escorting migrants to detention centres, refurbishment of deportation sites, the costs of removing small boats once they get to Dover, and costs bussing Border Force staff to and from France.

While government contracts show the estimated value of the work, they do not show the amount of money the company actually receives, making actual revenue from border security harder to map.

Researchers predict that the UK industry is expanding, with an additional £1bn in open tenders as of December 2024. Globally, the border security market is projected to grow from $377bn (£280bn) in 2023 to $679bn by 2032.

The academics have slammed the lack of public accountability over the amounts of money spent on Channel security.

They used a combination of the government’s contact finder service, ContractFinderPro, the EU tendering portal, and data from think tank Tussell to identify relevant contracts. They included contracts that are solely for the management of the Channel, contracts that relate to the processing of asylum seekers who arrive by small boats, and contracts for Border Force surveillance more generally.

Small boat crossings in the Channel started to emerge as a means of reaching the UK around 2018, when 299 people made the journey, according to data from the Migration Observatory.

This then increased to 1,843 in 2019, and 8,466 in 2020. By 2022, which was the peak year for crossings, over 45,000 people were detected crossing the Channel in small boats. Last year, more than 35,000 people were recorded.

Some of the largest value contracts identified included an award of up to £514m to Mitie Care and Custody for managing short-term holding facilities for migrants and escorting them in the UK and abroad from 2018 to 2028.

Serco were awarded a £276m contract to run two detention centres in Gatwick. They also have a £52m contract running till 2027 to search lorries and escort people in northern France.

Construction firm Galliford Try was awarded a £170m contract for redeveloping detention facilities, Haslar immigration centre and Campsfield removal facility. Labour has decided to continue with plans originally drawn up under the Conservatives to refurbish the sites in Oxfordshire and Hampshire to provide 290 beds in the first phase.

American defence tech company Leidos has a contract for helping develop biometrics, and finger-printing capabilities to support UK law enforcement and immigration, which is worth over £96m.

Management consultants Deloitte and Accenture have also won contracts worth millions connected to border security and small boats. Deloitte had a £3.9m contract in 2023-24 for supporting the Home Office’s small boats arrivals team, as well as a £9.5m deal for helping to “digitise the border”.

Accenture helped with IT platforms for Border Force, and immigration enforcement programmes.

Tamzen Isacsson, chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association, said it was cost-effective for the government to use “these experts for short-term projects that enhance the efficiency and delivery of essential national services, such as border security”.

Mr Isacsson added: “We have provided surge capacity for the government and also negotiated better commercial strategies and contracts for them with other suppliers. One award-winning project enabled the government to find additional housing capacity for destitute asylum seekers.

“We are fully committed to working with the government to maximise the value of our work, which is heavily scrutinised by government commercial officers and our member firms are procured through competitively tendered Crown Commercial Service frameworks, which evaluate bidding firms against quality and cost criteria.”

Smaller contracts identified also include £4,000 for life raft concept development, £7,000 for the collection, unloading and transportation of small craft seized by Border Force, and £10,000 on the maintenance of inflatable rafts.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: “Successive governments’ obsession with tough borders has created a boom for private contractors while record numbers of people drown off our south coast.

“Perversely, some of these companies making profit from this border misery also work in industries such as defence that displace people in the first place.

“At Refugee Action, we see this play out in the accommodation system, where firms make eyewatering profits while people languish in segregated and unhealthy housing.

“The government must turn off this taxpayer cash and start to invest in solutions that will make positive changes to the lives of refugees and communities that welcome them.”

A spokesperson from research and training organisation Corporate Watch said: “Many companies that appear on this list are not only gaining massive profits from Border Force contracts but also collectively reap billions from work across multiple sectors, including the NHS, defence, education and social services.

“People continue to seek safety and asylum as a direct result of wars, climate-driven chaos and political unrest that many of these same companies also profit from.”

Dr Joe Turner, from the University of York, said: “Keir Starmer, in his mission to ‘smash the gangs’, stated in January 2025 that ‘if you’re going to smash a gang that is driven by money, follow the money’. That is precisely what we have done. We have followed the money – and uncovered how the UK government is routinely awarding vast sums to a network of private firms.”

A Home Office spokesperson said:“We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which is why this government has put together a serious plan to tackle people-smuggling gangs, dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.

“Through international intelligence sharing under our Border Security Command, enhanced enforcement operations in Northern France and tougher legislation in the Border Security and Asylum Bill, we are strengthening international partnerships and boosting our ability to identify, disrupt, and dismantle criminal gangs whilst strengthening the security of our borders.

“This Government has ended the Rwanda partnership to save the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pound and to invest in boosting our border security.”

Reeves warned employment rights law has already led to hiring freeze

Rachel Reeves is facing another major warning over her hopes to spark economic growth as the organisation which represents Britain’s retailers lashed out at the impact of Labour’s Employment Rights Bill.

According to a survey by the British Retail Consortium, more than half of retail HR directors say the Employment Rights Bill will reduce hiring and job flexibility.

And 70 per cent claim the bill will have a negative impact on their businesses.

The row comes as the House of Lords debates the bill on Tuesday.

The chancellor has found herself under siege over a flatlining economy, with overnight warnings from business groups and major think tanks on the government’s policies and its record after nine months in office.

With anger over hikes to national insurance and cuts to welfare payments for the disabled as well as winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners, Ms Reeves has found herself with a near impossible task.

Added to that, the chancellor spent most of last week in Washington DC trying to improve relations with the US and get a trade deal with Donald Trump while talking up the UK economy to investors.

There will be hope that the arrival of the EU’s trade negotiator, commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, for Brexit reset talks will help spark a turnaround when a deal is announced on 19 May.

But despite also promising massive planning reforms to spur a building bonanza, Ms Reeves is facing an onslaught over the impact of her policies so far.

Leading the way, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned that private sector firms once again expect activity to fall in the three months to July (weighted balance of -21%).

According to the CBI’s latest Growth Indicator Survey, business volumes in the services sector are anticipated to decline (-26 per cent), with expectations at their weakest since November 2022.

The anticipated fall is driven by predictions of declines in both business and professional services (-22 per cent – also the weakest since November 2022) and consumer services (-41 per cent) volumes.

Distribution sales are also expected to fall markedly in the three months to July (-23 per cent), but manufacturers anticipate output to fall only slightly (-5 per cent).

Alpesh Paleja, deputy chief economist at the CBI, warned: “Global volatility is another drag on business sentiment, already hit by the rise in National Insurance Contributions and the National Living Wage, and continued concern over the Employment Rights Bill.”

The employment rights legislation was also picked up by the BRC in its survey.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive at the BRC, said: “Those in charge of retail hiring are clear – unless amended, the bill will make it even harder to keep and create jobs and reduce the flexibility that defines many existing retail roles.”

But heaping on the pressure, Labour’s traditional backers, the trade unions, have made it clear that there must be no backing down or dilution of the promised legislation.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Stronger workers’ rights means a happier, healthier and more productive workforce.

“The government has been at pains to engage unions and employers – large and small – in designing these new reforms.

“Most businesses already do the right thing, and this will level the playing field for those good employers.”

Meanwhile, a report from the Resolution Foundation has suggested that the government should focus spending from its “limited pot” in areas such as health and housing if it wants to increase living standards.

The analysis by the think tank also urges ministers to examine investment at June’s spending review in the prisons system and public transport, but describes them as “secondary priorities”.

The Treasury is currently undertaking the review, which will set the budgets for government departments for the next three years in terms of day-to-day spending.

The process will set the budgets for so-called unprotected departments, including local government, justice, transport and culture. Protected departments include defence, the NHS (health), and schools as part of the education envelope.

“The chancellor must now decide how to allocate a limited pot of capital spending in a way that both addresses the UK’s legacy of frayed infrastructure and supports future ambitions for growth and higher living standards,” the report stated.

At the budget in October 2024, Ms Reeves announced more money for capital spending, but also said that there would be “four key guardrails” introduced to ensure good value for money.

“Ultimately, if the government wants to avoid dramatic cuts to departmental budgets, then it will likely have around £20-50bn of capital spending to allocate over the next five years,” the Resolution Foundation report said.

Rachel Reeves told the BBC in March that “we can’t just carry on like we have been, spending on the same things that the previous government spent on”.

The Treasury and Department for Business and Trade have been contacted for comment.

Canada heads to the polls in election turned on its head by Trump

Canada is voting in a crucial election dominated by Donald Trump’s trade war and in the aftermath of a deadly car-ramming attack in Vancouver.

Voters will pick either current prime minister Mark Carney, head of a Liberal party that has had a decade in power, or leader of the opposition Conservatives, Pierre Poilievre.

A poll by Abacus Data published on Sunday, found that the Liberals were on 41 per cent of the vote compared with 39 per cent for Conservatives.

Mr Poilievre, a populist firebrand who campaigned with Trump-like bravado, had hoped to make the election a referendum on former prime minister Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined before his resignation earlier this year as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged. But then Mr Trump became the dominant issue as he slapped 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and has repeatedly called for the country to become “the 51st state”.

The first results from the election will likely come in late on Monday night or early on Tuesday morning. However, the election may be called earlier depending on the results in the east – in Ontario and Quebec – which have the biggest tranches of polls.

If either candidate wins big there it could provide a good indicator of who the overall winner will be.

How online schools can help children form friendships as they learn

When thinking about the best education for your child, it’s naturally not just academic success that comes to mind. A good quality school experience is made up of many parts and one key element is the socialising opportunities that school can provide. Socialisation is crucial for building social skills, growing emotional intelligence and helping children form their own individual identity, as well as giving them an additional incentive to attend a place where they have fun and feel part of a community.

While it might be assumed that the social options are reduced when children attend online school, this is not the case. In fact, there are a number of advantages in terms of the structures, support and diverse social opportunities offered to children who join online schools.

Online schools give students the opportunity to form connections with a much more diverse community of students. The online model allows schools to welcome young people from around the world and this gives pupils a chance to make friends with students from differing backgrounds and cultures. Furthermore, this means they can meet more like-minded individuals and form stronger bonds and more meaningful friendships. This access to such a big and vibrant community also ensures that students can really find ‘their people’ and avoids situations where students are stuck in small circles or forced to engage with classmates that don’t share the same interests or passions.

This is something that Grace, who is now in year 13, has experienced since moving to online school. At her previous school, she was struggling with socialisation and felt that she didn’t really have a self-identity. At an online school, she has found she can be more herself. “A lot of people think that online school is about being alone, but I’ve found that without the physical element, I can express myself better,” Grace explains.  Subsequently, the majority of her closest friends are from her online school and many she has met offline too. “I feel like I’ve met my people,” she says.

Isabella, who is in year 10, has also found that her experience of socialising at an online school has suited her much more than previous bricks and mortar schools. With her father’s job meaning the family moves country every three years, she has always previously struggled forming new friendships at the schools she joins. “I’m always the ‘new’ student, and it’s tough,” she says. After experiences with bullying, she found that online school is an environment she can thrive in. “You don’t have to turn on your camera or use your microphones if you’re not feeling comfortable. I’m not really a ‘social’ person, but I have made some friends here because we have these breakout rooms where we can talk to each other,” she adds.

While young people might not be meeting their fellow students physically every day, online schools put in place extensive measures to ensure that socialising is available for those who want to. This can be seen clearly at King’s InterHigh, the UK’s leading global online school which welcomes children aged 7 to 19 from across the world. Here, students join a warm and welcoming community with a huge range of opportunities for socialising. There’s dozens of clubs and societies for students across all year groups, representing a vast range of interests from chess to technology, sculpture to debate. Throughout the yearly student calendar, there are a number of events, showcases, and competitions of all kinds that provide a chance to socialise in different settings. Some happen internally, like the King’s InterHigh Arts Festival, while others allow students to interact with peers from outside their school when attending events like the International Robotics Competition.

Assemblies bring students together on a weekly basis and give them the chance to celebrate each other’s achievements, hear from their Student Council representatives, and find out what’s coming up at school. Each student is also assigned to one of the school’s eight houses and these smaller, tight-knit communities bring students a sense of belonging and camaraderie. Additionally, inter-house competitions are a fun and friendly way for students to engage and bond.

Although much socialising can come as a result of activities organised by the school, students at King’s InterHigh who are aged over 13 can continue building these relationships in a more informal setting thanks to the in-house, monitored, social media platform. Restricted solely to school students, the platform is safe, secure, and monitored to ensure a positive socialising environment for all those who choose to use it.

Online schools don’t just offer opportunities to socialise online but also offer ample opportunities to cement these connections in offline settings. At King’s InterHigh, there are global meet-ups throughout the year which bring together families allowing both children and parents and guardians to connect in real life. Regular educational school trips, from Geography excursions to science practical exams at other Inspired schools (the group of premium schools of which King’s InterHigh is part of) also allow children to socialise and have fun together in different settings.

Meanwhile, the annual summer camps, themed around a variety of interests and passions, including adventure sports, fashion, football, and tennis, are open to students across all Inspired schools and are held at spectacular Inspired campuses worldwide. Furthermore, the Inspired Global Exchange Programme offers a range of school exchange opportunities, lasting from one week to a full academic year.

Choosing where to educate your children is a big decision for any parent or guardian that involves many factors. However, when it comes to the social benefits, for the right child, online schools offer something truly transformative. To find out more about King’s InterHigh and whether it might be the right learning choice for your family, visit King’s InterHigh

Gene Hackman autopsy results shine light on actor’s challenging medical history

The final autopsy results for Gene Hackman have been revealed more than two months after the actor was found dead at home with his wife in Santa Fe.

The bodies of the Oscar-winning actor, 95, and his wife of 30 years Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found along with their dog on 27 February. They had been dead for some time before they were discovered by a maintenance worker.

Early investigations ruled out death by carbon monoxide poisoning, while a necropsy report confirmed that Arakawa had died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare rodent-borne disease.

Hackman’s autopsy has revealed new details about the health of the star of The French Connection and Unforgiven, with the results stating he had a “history of congestive heart failure” as well as “severe chronic hypertensive changes, kidneys” and “neurodegenerative features consistent with Alzheimer’s Disease”.

Arakawa died one week before Hackman, who may not have been aware his wife was dead due to the advanced condition of his Alzheimer’s.

“Autopsy showed severe atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease with placement of coronary artery stents and a bypass graft, as well as a previous aortic valve replacement,” the results, which were obtained by Fox News Digital, revealed.

“Remote myocardial infarctions were present involving the left ventricular free wall and the septum, which were significantly large. Examination of the brain showed microscopic findings of advanced stage Alzheimer’s disease.”

According to the autopsy, Hackman had been fitted with a “bi-ventricular pacemaker” since April 2019. He was also clear of hantavirus, which was the cause of Arakawa’s death after their home became a possible “breeding ground” for the rodent-spread disease.

The hantavirus disease is spread through the urine, faeces and saliva of infected rodents and is most commonly transmitted in the US by the harmless-looking deer mouse. The severe and potentially deadly illness affects the lungs, presenting flu-like symptoms before progressing.

A subsequent environmental risk assessment conducted by the New Mexico Public Health Department found signs of rodents across multiple buildings on the couple’s estate, according to documents seen by TMZ.

Rodent faeces were found in three garages, two casitas (guest houses) and three sheds on the couple’s property. Two rodents (one dead) and a rodent nest were found in three detached garages. Two vehicles on the property also showed signs of rodent presence, with nests, droppings and sights of the animals.

The infestation appeared to have been ongoing as live traps had been set up in the outbuildings, according to the report.

However, the primary residence was deemed low-risk, with no signs of rodent activity inside the couple’s home. The investigation had been conducted to determine the risk to first responders and family members who had visited the property following the deaths.

It was also required in order to determine its risk of spreading. Three more people have been killed by the virus in a small Californian town, unrelated to Arakawa’s death.

Hantavirus pulmonary disease is fatal in nearly four out of 10 people who are infected. Just under 730 cases were identified in the US between 1993 and 2017. Nearly all cases were west of the Mississippi River.

Farage is on the brink of another election breakthrough. At what cost?

Probably the worst thing that could happen to Nigel Farage this week would be that Reform UK wins all the six regional mayoralties and 37 local and county councils that are up for grabs in Thursday’s elections.

It would force his policy-free populist party of protest into a party of power – and would show this bunch of “fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists”, as someone once called them, to be as clueless as they actually are. They don’t have a clue about how to help the people who vote for them – often as not as a fairly desperate protest – and they need to be exposed as the charlatans they really are.

That won’t happen – but Reform will do well, if the polls are to be believed.

The local elections are helpful to them because they can concentrate their still-modest resources on key wards, in a way they can’t so easily in larger, parliamentary constituencies. Such is the fragmentation of voting now that some of their candidates could be in charge of entire cities and counties, on little more than a quarter of possible votes cast, taking into account the traditionally low turnouts – not much more than one in seven of the adult residents in the area.

The first-past-the-post system, which the Tories brought in for the mayoralties, may not do them any favours. Andrea Jenkyns in Lincolnshire and Luke Campbell in Hull and East Yorkshire look to have the best shouts, with Arron Banks having an outside chance of coming through the middle of a split progressive vote in the West of England. They might get into some kind of power-sharing arrangement with the Tories in the counties, too – but Doncaster is Reform’s best bet to overturn Labour control.

And then what?

Reform has no local election manifesto, and the mayors and councillors can’t do anything to “stop the boats” or reduce regular migration. Farage says that they’ll set up Elon Musk-inspired “Doge” operations that will cut waste and, no doubt, sack anyone connected with diversity, equality and inclusivity in local government. Which won’t save much money and will, though the Reform politicians won’t care, make local authorities less open and accessible to minorities of all kinds, not just ethnic groups.

They’ll try and get rid of programmes without knowing what they are, Musk-style, and cause enormous damage in doing so – not least to themselves, because no one is voting Reform UK to make their local services even worse than they currently are.

Do Farage’s ignorant remarks about people with mental health problems and children with special educational needs being “over-diagnosed” mean they’ll try to cut them off – despite a statutory obligation to care for them? And a series of expensive court challenges? One must fear the worst.

Will, in other words, Reform UK be able to balance the books and run services miraculously better than their Labour, Liberal Democrat, Conservative and Green counterparts? Of course not.

The central fact about British local government is that it is skint and being asked to do too much with too little by central government – and, as a result, is utterly demoralised. The Reform politicians – and, by definition, they are politicians, not outsiders – now seeking power don’t have access to secret funding to transform social care, to save libraries, to house people, reduce council debts or revitalise town centres. But nor is there any sign that they have the experience, ideas and policies to make what little money there is go that much further.

If they’re sensible – which tends not to be the case – the Reform lot will just get on with the job and stick to the local agenda. If they run rather closer to the form book, they’ll spend their time and energy on stirring up trouble, running campaigns against “migrant hotels”, dividing relatively harmonious populations, creating grievances where there aren’t any handy ones to exploit, and making dangerous fools of themselves.

Contrary to what some Conservatives, such as Robert Jenrick and Ben Houchen would like, the worst thing the Tories could do is to usher Reform into power anywhere, because from that, there is only going to be a downside – financial and administrative chaos, shameful cruelty to the homeless and people with disabilities, and a large dollop of ill-concealed racial hatred, especially Islamophobia, propagated in the name of “free speech”. No self-respecting Conservative should be associated with that, no matter what the balance of power in the council chamber is. Reform should be quarantined, not facilitated.

Reform rule will solve nothing.

If they get in – and no less an authority as Professor John Curtice told The Independent that Reform had “already won” the Thursday elections, and will end up winning “probably a few hundred” seats across the country – Reform politicians will bring themselves and, sadly, their communities into disrepute, and then, if we’re lucky, split on the question of which residents in their area that they’d like to “deport”.

What, for those purposes, is an “illegal immigrant”? Does it include people born here? Does it include refugees who’ve been allowed to settle? To become British citizens? Do these new councillors and mayors agree with Reform’s former MP Rupert Lowe about deporting relatives of those involved in the rape gangs? Do they think incitement to riot or racial hatred should be legalised?

Do they think the NHS should be turned into a safety net for people who can’t afford private treatment or health insurance? How will they afford to take everyone on less than £20,000 out of income tax? Do they want Britain to do what Donald Trump wants? Betray Ukraine to Putin? More Brexit?

Reform UK talks a lot about “broken Britain”. Well, we might ask ourselves what broke Britain. The answer isn’t “illegal” migration – the numbers are too small – or even the much larger flows of people entering on perfectly legitimate work and student visas, keeping the economy going. What has really broken Britain is Brexit, because it permanently depresses investment and economic growth. It has thus reduced wages and the taxes needed to pay for good public services, including local government.

Farage broke Britain – and now tells us he knows how to fix it. Maybe we should just remind ourselves about what happened the last time Farage and his followers said they had all the answers.