Research from the NEU suggests only 1.5% of school staff unaffected by stress at work

Stress is taking an “immense toll” on the lives of teachers in England, with only 1.5% of those working in schools unaffected by the high levels of strain that plagues their colleagues.

The findings from research by the National Education Union (NEU) reveal that one in three state school teachers in England are stressed at work for at least four fifths of the time, while only a tiny fraction said they are never overstretched.

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Lured by promises of an education but allegedly trapped in servitude and self-mortification, the former members are suing the ultra-conservative organisation over their ‘exploitation and abuse’

The first item Opus Dei gave 12-year-old Andrea Martínez was a pink dress. The second was a schedule that detailed every task for every minute of her day. Then, when she was 16, she was given a cilice – a spiked metal chain to wear around her thigh – and a whip.

In the late 1980s, Opus Dei, a secretive and ultra-conservative Catholic organisation, promised Martínez an escape from a life of poverty in rural Argentina. By attending one of their schools, they said, she would receive an education and opportunities.

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Giant giraffes, Alice in Wonderland, fondant faces, dragons and a sweet Ned Kelly were all on display as the Australian Cake Artists and Decorators Association hosted competitors vying for honours across a range of categories.

The three-day event in Brisbane also included classes where aspiring sugar artists could learn the craft from experts, as well as appearances from international celebrity chefs and artists

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New data shows cabinet ministers among MPs at risk as campaign to pressure government over proposed benefit cuts to step up

At least 80 Labour MPs are at risk of losing their majorities over proposed welfare cuts , according to data shared between Labour MPs who are warning the government that the changes “pose a real electoral risk”.

The analysis suggests almost 200 Labour MPs have a majority smaller than the number of recipients of personal independent payments in their constituencies – a significant number in northern England “red wall” seats.

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Police response to disorder after Southport attack was ‘entirely appropriate’, says home affairs committee

The way police responded to the riots that swept the country last summer was “entirely appropriate”, a parliamentary report has found.

MPs considered accusations that the riots were policed more strongly than previous protests, but said that claims of “two-tier policing” were “baseless”.

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Fifty years ago, the Black Country legends made Slade in Flame, about a band screwed by the music business. It tanked and almost finished them. Now, as it’s re-released, the film is being seen as a prescient gem

Daryl Easlea was eight years old when he got the 4A bus with his mate Graham down to the Odeon in Southend-on-Sea to see his favourite rock band make the leap from vinyl to celluloid. After 12 consecutive top 10 singles – including six No 1s – Slade had finally made their first movie, Slade in Flame. It has just turned 50.

What young Easlea saw in 1975 was not the fun-packed adventures of a happy-go-lucky glam rock foursome, but a dour, downbeat film about being chewed up and spat out by the music industry. Easlea, who would grow up to be Slade’s biographer, didn’t care.

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The controversial amendment also recognises only two sexes, providing a basis for denying other gender identities

Hungarian lawmakers are expected to vote in a controversial constitutional amendment on Monday that rights campaigners have described as a “significant escalation” in the government’s efforts to crackdown on dissent and chip away at human rights.

Backed by the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his rightwing populist party, Fidesz, the amendment seeks to codify the government’s recent ban on Pride events , paving the way for authorities to use facial recognition software to identify attenders and potentially fine them.

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The press loved her – but also hated her. Her band was huge – and then it fractured. She started two tours – and had to abandon them. The singer talks about 30 years of heaven and hell

The new album by Garbage, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, has the kind of sound that makes you think you have always known it. You somehow know the words as they land; you have the tune in your head on a single listen. But try saying that to the Edinburgh-born singer Shirley Manson, who – although she has lived mainly in the US for almost 30 years – is incredibly Scottish about flattery, which is to say she doesn’t like it. “I think possibly you just relate deeply to the lyrics of Chinese Fire Horse,” she says wryly, down the line from Los Angeles. That track is about life chewing you up and spitting you out because you are too old. No, I say firmly, one fiftysomething to another (she is 58), I don’t relate to that at all.

Let All That We Imagine has its roots in 2016, when Manson fell off stage on the first day of the tour for Strange Little Birds, the last album but one. “I’m not blaming myself for my physical exuberance,” she says. “I was thinking about lyrics, I was thinking about my body, and I tumbled into the security barrier. I smashed my hip pretty badly, but it took five years for it to disintegrate.”

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She spent her life in northern France doing exhausting, back-breaking work – and yet she turned her anger against people who had done no wrongs to her. But as much as I couldn’t stand her rants, I was forced to accept her as she was

By Didier Eribon. Read by Mark Noble

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