Commenting on new figures released by the Ministry of Justice showing 225 kg of drugs were recovered across the prison estate in England and Wales in 2016, Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon said:

“It’s clear that we have a crisis in our prisons system, with drugs use and violence continuing to be all too common.

“The Chief Inspector of Prisons recently said that our prisons are dangerous for prisoners and staff alike and are failing in their duty to rehabilitate and reform prisoners.

“These new drugs figures are yet another example of how drastic Tory cuts to prison budgets and staff numbers are driving this prisons crisis.

“Labour would begin to solve this by recruiting 3,000 new prisons officers and improving staff retention by improving terms and conditions for prison officers”

Ends

A lightning-induced fire engulfing 1,500 hectares of forest in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China has been put out, local authorities said.

The fire broke out Thursday. About 4,000 firefighters from Inner Mongolia and neighboring Heilongjiang Province, together with a dozen helicopters were dispatched to extinguish the blaze.

All open fire had been put out by 8 p.m. Saturday. The firefighters continue to search for smoke points.

The forest is part of the Greater Hinggan Mountains in north and northeast China.

According to firefighters, the Greater Hinggan Mountains have seen a longer period with high temperatures and severe drought this year, which has made it difficult for preventing and putting out fires.

A senior cultural official said Sunday that China should shoulder more responsibility for world heritage protection and promoting international cooperation.

With more inscriptions, comes greater responsibility and more duties, said Liu Yuzhu, head of China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage.

Liu’s remark came after the country’s Gulangyu historic international settlement was put on the UNESCO’s world heritage list Saturday.

China will work closely with international organizations, promote the protection of world heritage and share its experiences, according to Liu.

In the meantime, China will continue its participation in the practices of world heritage protection, including international protection of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat and helping Nepal restore a temple in Kathmandu’s Durbar Square.

Liu also pledged further coordination and cooperation in protecting heritage sites with countries along the ancient Silk Road, the south Asia silk road and the ancient Maritime Silk Road.

In addition, Liu called for calm among Chinese regarding successful inscriptions, as the country still faces many problems in supervising, protecting and managing the heritage.

We should focus on improving our management, protection and preservation work, Liu said.

Gulangyu is the 52nd Chinese site inscribed on the list.

Last night the BBC summit report was bizarre. It was anti UK, anti Mrs May and anti the USA. It was from the Merkel fan club. So here’s some balance, reporting on Mrs Merkel as the BBC do on Mrs May and Mr Trump.

“Mrs Merkel chaired the summit badly hampered by her lack of authority at home. She failed to win a majority at the last election and has to govern in coalition with her main political enemies, the SPD, the German Labour party equivalent. She soon faces another election when she is widely expected to fail again to win a majority. She visibly lost control of the streets of Hamburg, the city hosting the summit, and had to break off from chairing the sessions to deal with the problem of many injured police and civil disturbance on a worrying scale.
Aiming for a diplomatic triumph, she had lectured the USA on the need to reach an agreement with the others and set the whole summit up as a device to tame Mr Trump. Instead she failed to get his buy in to her wishes.
Her main policy of promoting the end of carbon fuels was seen as burdening the world with dear energy. As a result China has insisted on being able to expand her carbon energy use and the USA has refused to join the Treaty to limit it.
It emerged from detailed questioning that the EU/Japan trade deal is far from agreed, with continuing rows over the enforcement mechanisms and limited progress on tariff reductions.
Meanwhile Mr Trump confirmed the work now underway to create a US/UK trade deal and expressed enthusiasm to get it through quickly.”