Good evening. More than 100 schools have been told to shut down buildings and classrooms at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete.

Elsewhere, the former head of the British Army has said Grant Shapps “knows very little about defence”.

 

More than 100 schools have been told to shut down buildings and classrooms at risk of collapse because of crumbling concrete. Read more about how schools will be affected and the scale of the risk.

Former head of the British Army Lord Dannatt has said it will take Grant Shapps “quite some time to get up to speed” as Defence Secretary. It also emerged earlier that last year Mr Shapps publicly called for defence spending to be increased, a position rejected by Rishi Sunak while Prime Minister.

Read more about why the Prime Minister has appointed Mr Shapps and the new Energy and Net Zero Secretary.

Sam Newey, 22, a student from Birmingham with no previous military experience, was a member of a foreign volunteer unit fighting for Kyiv known as the Dark Angels. Since the early days of the Russian invasion, the unit has been involved in fierce fighting on the front lines of the war – from Zaporizhzhia to eastern Ukraine.