Ninety-seven per cent of international students leave the UK after finishing their studies, new border checks have reportedly found, suggesting levels of immigration in the UK are much lower than previously thought. It has been claimed that tens of thousands of international students remain in the country illegally after completing their studies but exit checks introduced last year found evidence to the contrary, the Telegraph reported.

Citing Whitehall sources, the newspaper said the overall net migration figure, which stands at 248,000 in the most recent estimate, could be tens of thousands lower after taking into account the new exit checks. The figures, published on Thursday, come as the Home Office unveils separate plans to ask migration experts to examine the impact of international students on the UK job market. The migration advisory committee (MAC) will be asked to examine the effect that both EU and non-EU students have on the labour market and economy while in the UK and will report back next September.

Announcing the report, Amber Rudd, the home secretary, said the government wanted to keep the door open to genuine students but would crack down on abuse of visas by poor-quality institutions.(theguardian)…[+]

Russia is preparing to mount what could be one of its biggest military exercises since the cold war, a display of power that will be watched warily by Nato against a backdrop of east-west tensions. Western officials and analysts estimate up to 100,000 military personnel and logistical support could participate in the Zapad (West) 17 exercise, which will take place next month in Belarus, Kaliningrad and Russia itself. Moscow puts the number significantly lower.The exercise, to be held from 14-20 September, comes against a backdrop of strained relations between Russia and the US. Congress recently imposed a fresh round of sanctions on Moscow in response to allegations of interference in the 2016 US election.The first of the Russian troops are scheduled to arrive in Belarus in mid-August. Moscow has portrayed Zapad 17 as a regular exercise, held every four years, planned long ago and not a reaction to the latest round of sanctions.  Nato headquarters in Brussels said it had no plans to respond to the manoeuvres by deploying more troops along the Russian border.(theguardian)…[+]

The terror cell that killed 15 people and injured more than 130 in north-east Spain last week had created a suicide vest packed with viable explosives and were in the process of making several more when a blast ripped through their bomb factory, police have said. A search of the rubble at the factory in a disused house in Alcanar in southern Catalonia resulted in the discovery of the vest, which had gone unnoticed on Thursday last week when the blast was initially dismissed as an accidental gas explosion.

Questions are being asked about the Catalan police response to the blast, with sources close to the judicial investigation in Madrid suggesting they may have missed an opportunity to uncover the plot before the terrorists struck later that day in Barcelona.Quoting two sources close to the investigation in Madrid, Reuters news agency said an opportunity to uncover the plot may have been missed as a result of procedural errors and a lack of communication. No immediate decision was made to call explosives experts to the scene of the blast, and nor was information about it passed to the national police or Civil Guard headquarters in Madrid, according to the sources.(theguardian)…[+]

Theresa May admitted the Home Office made an “unfortunate error” when it mistakenly sent up to 100 letters to EU nationals living in the UK ordering them to leave the country or face deportation. The prime minister was forced into the statement after it emerged that a Finnish academic working in London had highlighted the warning letter she had received, which told her to leave the UK or risk being detained. Although Eva Johanna Holmberg has lived in the UK with her British husband for most of the last decade, the correspondence from the Home Office said that if she did not leave the country of her own accord the department would give “directions for [her] removal”. It added that she was “a person liable to be detained under the Immigration Act”.Holmberg, a visiting academic fellow from the University of Helsinki at Queen Mary University of London, was told that she had a month to leave, a demand that left her baffled. “It seems so surreal and absurd that I should be deported on the grounds that I’m not legal. I’ve been coming and going to this country for as long as I remember,” she said. “I don’t know what kind of image they have of me but it’s clearly quite sinister based on the small amount of info they actually have on me.”(theguardian)…[+]

Hillary Clinton considered telling Donald Trump “Back up, you creep!” during one of the presidential debates, adding, in the first extract from her new book, that “my skin crawled” when he invaded her personal space. In the comments, broadcast by MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday, Clinton recounts how uncomfortable she felt being on stage with Trump just two days after his infamous “pussy-grabbing” tape had been made public.

“This is not OK, I thought,” Clinton writes. “It was the second presidential debate, and Donald Trump was looming behind me. Two days before, the world heard him brag about groping women. Now we were on a small stage and no matter where I walked, he followed me closely, staring at me, making faces. It was incredibly uncomfortable. He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled.”

Clinton continues: “It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching: ‘Well, what would you do?’ Do you stay calm, keep smiling and carry on as if he weren’t repeatedly invading your space? Or do you turn, look him in the eye, and say loudly and clearly: ‘Back up, you creep, get away from me! I know you love to intimidate women, but you can’t intimidate me, so back up.’”(theguardian)…[+]

An 800-year old coffin on display in a museum was damaged when a child was placed inside it to pose for a photograph. The ancient artefact, which is housed at Prittlewell Priory Museum in Southend, Essex, was accidentally knocked off its stand and broken after the child was lifted over a protective barrier. The family left the busy museum on 4 August without reporting the damage, leaving staff to discover it for themselves. The incident was caught on CCTV. “The care of our collections is of paramount importance to us and this isolated incident has been upsetting for the museums service, whose staff strive to protect Southend’s heritage within our historic sites,” said Claire Reed, the conservator responsible for repairing the sarcophagus.

“My priority is to carefully carry out the treatment needed to restore this significant artefact so it can continue to be part of the fascinating story of Prittlewell Priory.” The coffin was found in the grounds of the priory in 1921 complete with a skeleton that could have been a senior monk. The priory was founded by Cluniac monks in the 13th century and at its peak had as many as 100 monks living there. The sandstone casket that was damaged is the last of its kind. “It’s a very important artefact and historically unique to us as we don’t have much archaeology from the priory,” said Reed. Luckily for all, the council predict the repairs will cost well under £100. The coffin will now be completely enclosed so to prevent future damage while the curatorial team assess how best to carry out the repairs.(theguardian)…[+]

An Islamic practice permitting men to instantly divorce their wives has been declared unconstitutional by India’s supreme court after decades of campaigning by women’s groups and victims.

The “triple talaq” has allowed Muslim men to dissolve marriages by pronouncing the word “divorce” three times. The supreme court in Delhi took up the issue last year in response to a petition from seven victims and women’s groups. A majority of the bench declared on Wednesday that triple talaq was “not integral to religious practice and violates constitutional morality”.

Campaigners hailed the supreme court’s 3-2 decision as a huge victory for India’s 90 million Muslim women. “It’s a very happy day for us. It’s a historic day,” said Zakia Soman, the co-founder of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA), an activist group that was party to the legal battle. “We, the Muslim women, are entitled to justice from the courts as well as the legislature.”The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, also welcomed the verdict: A national survey conducted in 2015 by the BMMA found roughly 1 in 11 Muslim women were survivors of triple talaq, the vast majority receiving no alimony or compensation. Clerics had also started recognising instant divorces where the word “talaq” had been texted or emailed.(theguardian)…[+]

Russian investigators have arrested one of the country’s most prominent theatre directors for fraud, in a case that many in the arts world fear is part of a crackdown on dissenting voices.

Kirill Serebrennikov stands accused of embezzling 68m roubles (£900,000) of government funds. He was questioned by investigators on Tuesday and denied the allegations, Russian agencies reported. The director will spend the night in prison and a court will decide on Wednesday whether he should be remanded in custody or put under house arrest. Serebrennikov, known for his work on stage and screen, is the director of Gogol Centre, a progressive, experimental theatre frequented by liberal Muscovites. The theatre is known for contemporary productions that often deal directly with political or sexual themes rarely seen on stage in Moscow.

Serebrennikov was first detained by investigators in May and questioned as a witness in the fraud case. That led to an outpouring of support for him from the Moscow theatre world and protestations that the pressure was political. However, the investigators did not stop there. A number of Serebrennikov’s former colleagues were detained and, according to Russian media outlets, some have given evidence against him.(Telegraaf)…[+]

The fatal stabbing of a hairstylist in Chicago was part of a sexual fantasy hatched in an online chatroom between an American professor and an employee of Oxford University, whose plan included killing someone and then themselves, prosecutors have said. The disturbing details about the 27 July killing revealed how Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, the boyfriend of Northwestern University microbiology professor Wyndham Lathem, was stabbed 70 times at Lathem’s Chicago condo and with such brutality that he was nearly decapitated. His throat was slit and pulmonary artery torn, the bond hearing in Chicago on Sunday was told.

Lathem, 46, had communicated for months before with Andrew Warren, 56, a senior treasury assistant at Somerville College, about “carrying out their sexual fantasies of killing others and then themselves”, Natosha Toller, an assistant state’s attorney told the court. Judge Adam Bourgeois said both men were potentially dangerous and flight risks, ordering them to remain in jail pending trial on first-degree murder charges. “The heinous facts speak for themselves,” he said. Lathem and Warren were dressed in their own clothes in court. They stood with their hands behind their backs as the prosecutor and judge spoke.  Lathem paid for Warren’s ticket to travel to the United States and he picked him up at Chicago’s O’Hare airport a few days before the killing, the prosecutor said. On 26 July, one day before the killing, Lathem booked a room for Warren near the condo, Toller said.(theguardian)…[+]

Pope Francis has issued a 20-point action plan to governments on refugees and migrants to try to galvanise their response to an issue seen by the Vatican as one of the biggest global challenges of the 21st century.

His intention is to lay the ground for the drafting of two global compacts on refugees and migration, which are expected to be adopted at the UN general assembly in September 2018. The roadmap was published on Monday by the Vatican’s migrants and refugees section, which was set up by Francis last year and operates under his direction. The action points were personally approved by the pontiff. In a message issued before publication, Francis said he had “repeatedly expressed my particular concern for the lamentable situation of many migrants and refugees fleeing from war, persecution, natural disasters and poverty”. The situation was “undoubtedly a ‘sign of the times’,” he said. The document, Responding to Refugees and Migrants: Twenty Action Points, says the world is facing “the largest movement of displaced people in recent memory”.It says: “While massive numbers of people have been forced to leave their homes due to persecution, violence, natural disasters and the scourge of poverty, migration should nevertheless be recognised, not as a new phenomenon, but rather as a natural human response to crisis and a testament to the innate desire of every human being for happiness and a better life.(theguardian)…[+]