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Rishi Sunak has been accused of rehashing old ideas as he prepares to launch a fresh crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

The prime minister has vowed the government’s measures, which include a ban on nitrous oxide and a plan to make offenders repair damage they cause, will “restore people’s confidence” and “stamp out these crimes once and for all”.

But Labour said government cuts had contributed to the problems Mr Sunak is aiming to fix.

Under plans first detailed on Saturday, 16 areas in England and Wales will get funding to trial ideas like “hotspot” enforcement patrols and an “immediate justice” scheme to speed up punishments.

The former will see more police officers and wardens cover areas like parks, high streets and public transport.

Those found to be committing anti-social behaviour will be made to repair any damage, ideally within 48 hours, while working under supervision and wearing high-vis vests.

If successful, the hotspot and justice plans will be rolled out across England and Wales from 2024.

And a new digital reporting tool will be developed over the next 12 months, which will let people report anti-social behaviour incidents and get updates on what action local councils or the police are taking.

Victims will also get a say in how offenders are punished, such as by picking up litter or washing police cars, but the government has not said how this would work.

Litter Picking in her Community stock photo
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Offenders could be forced to pick up litter in high-vis jackets

‘We’ve heard it all before’

Labour said tackling anti-social behaviour was a priority but said the government was rehashing old ideas.

Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell told Sky’s Sophie Ridge on Sunday programme: “We’ve heard it all before from this government, and I think we have to judge them by their record.

“Community sentencing over the last 13 years is down not just by a third, but by two thirds.”

Former victims’ commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove, a Tory peer, also said “there is nothing new” in the government’s crackdown plans.

“It doesn’t really rock my boat, and there is nothing new there that jumps out to actually be effective… to help communities feel safe where they live,” she told BBC Radio 4’s The World this Weekend programme.

It’s difficult to see how the ban on this popular drug will be policed

We’ve been investigating nitrous oxide use for the last few months. In that time we’ve spoken to users, sellers, medics, police, politicians.

Everyone has different ideas about the risks associated with this gas. Users we spoke to last night outside a club said it is harmless, a bit of fun. It gives them a 30-second high, so what’s the big deal? Medics paint a different picture. They see the ugly side of the party drug: young people who have lost feeling in fingers and toes, some with collapsed or burst lungs and one person who ended up in a wheelchair.

The government asked for advice and the body responsible for reviewing it acknowledged those risks but said they weren’t high enough (pun not intended) to warrant a ban.

It recommended that nitrous oxide remain a psychoactive substance – legal to inhale, illegal to supply for recreational use. But the government says the anti-social behaviour associated with it is not a “minor crime”. The levelling up secretary told Sky News today that nitrous oxide will be banned under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.

Michael Gove didn’t specify how it will be classed but it’s important to find this out because that explains how serious an offence it will be to take the drug.

Last night we lost count of how many people were streaming out of the club inhaling balloons. It’s difficult to see how this will be policed.

It’s important to remember there are plenty of legitimate uses for nitrous oxide, which can be used as an anaesthetic in medical and dental contexts and as a gas for whipped cream in cooking.

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Nitrous oxide to be banned

It comes after Michael Gove announced a ban on nitrous oxide would be part of the crackdown.

The levelling up secretary told Sophy Ridge that laughing gas “can have a psychological and neurological effect” on people and resulted in the littering of silver canisters in public spaces.

It is being banned despite a review commissioned by the Home Office advising against it, saying potential punishments would be disproportionate to the amount of harm caused.

David Badcock, chief executive of the Drug Science scientific committee, said: “It won’t stop young people using it, banning any substance just drives it into criminal hands.”

The party drug is now the third most used among 16 to 24-year-olds in England. A Sky News investigation revealed there had been a spike in hospital admissions caused by people using it.

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Other measures in the government’s plans include:

• Increasing fines for graffiti, littering and fly tipping to £500 and £1,000

• More powers for landlords and housing associations to evict unruly tenants

• Allowing councils to quickly take control and sell empty high street buildings

• Making it an offence for criminal gangs to organise begging networks for money

• Giving police new powers to tackle illegal drug use, including testing upon arrest

An anti-social behaviour taskforce, led by Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Mr Gove, will be set up to chart progress and co-ordinate responses.

Meanwhile, 43 more youth centres will get £90m between them to upgrade facilities and offer more activities.

It comes after warnings that the closure of such clubs was “pushing children to violence”.

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Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire – including people trying to access food

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Hamas responds to disarmament reports as health officials say 18 killed in Israeli fire - including people trying to access food

Hamas has said it will not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established with Jerusalem as its capital.

The militant group said it was issuing a statement “in response to media reports quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff, claiming [Hamas] has shown willingness to disarm”.

It continued: “We reaffirm that resistance and its arms are a legitimate national and legal right as long as the occupation continues.

“This right is recognised by international laws and norms, and it cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights – first and foremost, the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Hamas also condemned Mr Witkoff’s visit to an aid distribution centre in Gaza on Friday as “nothing more than a premeditated staged show”.

Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Mr Witkoff and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, visited a centre run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

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Trump envoy Witkoff visits Gaza

Hamas said the trip was “designed to mislead public opinion, polish the image of the occupation, and provide it with political cover for its starvation campaign and continued systematic killing of defenceless children and civilians in the Gaza Strip”.

Mr Witkoff said he spent “over five hours in Gaza”. In a post on X on Friday, he said: “The purpose of the visit was to give [President Trump] a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen, amid a hunger crisis, in Gaza City, August 2, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters

Elidalis Burges, a critical care nurse in Gaza, told Sky News she saw the US visit as a “PR stunt” and that the American officials were “just being shown a small portion of what is actually happening”.

“I think the visit to the GHF site was just a controlled visit dictated by the Israeli military,” she said. “If they really wanted people to see what is happening here, they would allow international journalists from around the world to enter.

“They would allow the leaders of the world to come here and see.”

Hamas releases hostage video

It comes as Hamas released a video showing Israeli man, Evyatar David, being held hostage in what appears to be a tunnel.

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Video released of Israeli hostage

Mr David was taken from the Nova Music Festival on 7 October 2023.

His family have given permission for media outlets to show the video.

More than a dozen killed by Israeli fire

Gaza health officials have said 18 people, including eight who were trying to access food, were killed by Israeli fire on Saturday.

Witness Yahia Youssef told Reuters news agency he helped carry three people wounded by gunshots and saw others lying on the ground near a food distribution centre.

In response to questions about several eyewitness accounts of violence at one of its facilities, GHF said “nothing [happened] at or near our sites”.

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The US and Israel-backed GHF has been marred by controversy and fatal shootings ever since it was set up earlier this year.

According to the United Nations’ human rights office, at least 859 people have been killed “in the vicinity” of GHF aid sites since late May.

Dr Tom Adamkiewicz, who is working at a hospital in Gaza, has said Palestinian children, women and men are “being shot at, basically like rabbits”.

It is a “level of barbarity I don’t think the world has seen”, he told Sky News.

The Israel Defence Forces has repeatedly said it “categorically rejects the claims of intentional harm to civilians” and has blamed Hamas militants for fomenting chaos and endangering civilians.

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Gaza deaths increase when aid sites open

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and abducted 251 others. Of those, they still hold around 50, with 20 believed to be alive, after most of the others were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between militants and civilians in its count.

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North Korea’s opened its doors to Russian tourists. So… how was their holiday?

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North Korea's opened its doors to Russian tourists. So... how was their holiday?

The world’s most secretive state is a mystery for billions of people – but not Anastasiya Samsonova.

She has returned from a week’s holiday in North Korea.

“We saw nothing terrible there, there is no danger there,” the 33-year-old HR manager tells me.

“Frankly speaking, we really liked it.”

She was part of a group of 15 Russian tourists who were the first foreign visitors to a new seaside resort, which was opened to great fanfare by North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un in June.

Her holiday snaps show a white sand beach, shimmering seas and high-rise hotels. But something’s missing – people.

Russian tourist Anastasiya Samsonova at the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort in North Korea. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
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Anastasiya Samsonova at the Wonsan-Kalma beach resort in North Korea. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova

There are rows of sun loungers, but not a soul sitting on them. A glittering banquet hall that’s devoid of diners.

That’s because, when it comes to international tourists, the Wonsan-Kalma resort is currently only open to Russians.

“The hotel was absolutely new,” Anastasiya enthuses, unfussed by the absence of others.

“Everything was done very beautifully, a good interior … very developed infrastructure.”

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae stand on the beach in Wonsan.
Pic: KCNA/Reuters
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Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae on the beach in Wonsan at the resort’s opening. Pic: KCNA/Reuters

Kim Jong Un and his daughter Kim Ju Ae watch a person on a waterslide.
Pic: KCNA/Reuters
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The North Korean watching a slide at the resort. Pic: KCNA/Reuters

But why not Turkey? Or Thailand?

I gently suggest that people in Britain might be shocked at the idea of a summer break in a country better known for famines and forced labour than parasols and pina coladas.

“We were interested in seeing how people live there,” Anastasiya explains.

“There were a lot of prejudices about what you can and can’t do in North Korea, how you can behave. But actually, we felt absolutely free.”

Russian tourist Anastasiya Samsonova enjoying a meal on a train in North Korea. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
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Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova

Anastasiya is one of a growing number of Russians who are choosing to visit their reclusive neighbour as the two allies continue to forge closer ties following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Last year, North Korean troops supplied military support in Russia’s Kursk region, and now there is economic cooperation too.

Russian tourist Anastasiya Samsonova reading a North Korean newspaper. Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova
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Pic: Anastasiya Samsonova

North Korean produce, including apples and beer, has started appearing on supermarket shelves in Russia’s far east.

And last month, Moscow launched direct passenger flights to Pyongyang for the first time in decades.

But can this hermit nation really become a holiday hotspot?

The Moscow office of the Vostok Intur travel agency believes so. The company runs twice-weekly tours there, and I’m being given the hard sell.

North Korean apples on sale in Russia. Pic: Danil Biryukov / DVHAB.RU
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Pic: Danil Biryukov / DVHAB.RU

“North Korea is an amazing country, unlike any other in the world,” director Irina Kobeleva gushes, before listing some unusual highlights.

“It is a country where you will not see any advertising on the streets. And it is very clean – even the asphalt is washed.”

She shows me the brochures, which present a glossy paradise. There are images of towering monuments, pristine golf greens and immaculate ski slopes. But again, no people.

Irina Kobeleva, director of Vostok Intur travel's Moscow office
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‘There is a huge growing demand among young people,’ Irina Kobeleva says

Ms Kobeleva insists the company’s tours are increasingly popular, with 400 bookings a month.

“Our tourists are mostly older people who want to return to the USSR,” she says, “because there is a feeling that the real North Korea is very similar to what was once in the Soviet Union.

“But at the same time, there is a huge growing demand among young people.”

Sure enough, while we’re chatting, two customers walk in to book trips. The first is Pavel, a young blogger who likes to “collect” countries. North Korea will be number 89.

“The country has opened its doors to us, so I’m taking this chance,” he tells me when I ask why he wants to go.

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For pensioner Tatiana, the reason is sentimental.

“My husband wanted to go there, but now he’s gone. So I want his wish to come true,” she says.

It’ll certainly cost them. One week’s trip that takes in Pyongyang, a circus and the new beach resort, costs roughly £1,500 without flights.

At that price, I suspect most tourists will be content for this secretive state to remain hidden.

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US manhunt for ‘dangerous’ murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

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US manhunt for 'dangerous' murder suspect who dropped off baby after four relatives found dead

A car has been found during the search for a man suspected of killing the parents, grandmother and uncle of a baby girl found abandoned in a US state.

Austin Robert Drummond, 28, is suspected of having murdered four relatives in Tennessee – James M Wilson, 21, Adrianna Williams, 20, Cortney Rose, 38, and Braydon Williams, 15, who were identified on Wednesday.

Mr Wilson and Adrianna Williams were the parents of the infant found alive in a car seat in a front yard on Tuesday afternoon.

Police say Drummond then dropped off the baby and made people aware of the child, in an act of “compassion”.

However, officers added Drummond remains on the run and should be considered “armed and dangerous”.

Ms Rose was Adrianna and Braydon Williams’ mother, according to District Attorney Danny Goodman.

No details have been given on how they were murdered.

Vehicles are seen being taken in Lake County, Tennessee on 30 July, near the area where four family members were found dead. Pic: WHBQ/AP
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Vehicles are seen being taken in Lake County, Tennessee on 30 July, near the area where four family members were found dead. Pic: WHBQ/AP

Drummond dropped off the seven-month-old infant and brought attention to people nearby to come get the child, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said during a news conference.

The baby is safe and being cared for, according to Stephen Sutton, a spokesperson for the Lake and Dyer county sheriffs.

“While this was an extremely tragic and violent event… there was a sign of compassion, if you will,” Mr Rausch said.

“That tells us that there’s a possibility that Austin may have a sense that there is hope for him to be able to come in and have a conversation about what happened.”

Mr Rausch said he believes it was a targeted attack by Drummond, who had a relationship with the victims and their family.

A relative of the victims posted on Facebook after the deaths, saying the suspect has “literally been nothing short of amazing to us and our kids”, according to our US partner network NBC News. “We all trusted him,” the relative added.

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The unoccupied car that police said Drummond had been driving was found on Friday in Jackson, Tennessee, about 70 miles from where the bodies were found and some 40 miles from where the baby was left in a car seat in a front yard.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has said it obtained warrants for Drummond. He is wanted on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons offences.

Authorities offered a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

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Drummond was convicted of one count of aggravated robbery in August 2014, according to public records. His sentence ended in September 2024, according to Tennessee Department of Correction records.

He was charged criminally for activities inside the prison, including attempted murder, after he completed the sentence that put him behind bars, District Attorney Mr Goodman said.

Drummond was out on bond on the other charges at the time of the killings, he added.

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