Duchess of Sussex says journalistic ethics breached as dad turns to journalist first to break news of leg amputation

When Thomas Markle received bad news about his health earlier this month, he immediately texted someone close to him to let them know. The 81-year-old had been admitted to hospital after one leg swelled up and turned black. “Going to lose the leg today,” he wrote.

The message was not sent to his son, Thomas, who lives with him in Cebu in the Philippines, nor to his older daughter, Samantha, who is based in Florida. Instead, Markle contacted Caroline Graham, the US editor of the Mail on Sunday, who is based in Los Angeles. It was she who called Markle’s two older children to let them know the news. She wrote later that they were “flabbergasted”.

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© Photograph: Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty Images

Rehearsals for a live broadcast at short notice reduce us to silence then swearing. This does not bode well

On Wednesday afternoon I receive a text that seems to suggest the band I’m in has been invited to play live on national radio. Twenty minutes later, the guitarist rings me.

“Did you get my text?” he says.

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© Illustration: Selman Hosgor/The Guardian

© Illustration: Selman Hosgor/The Guardian

© Illustration: Selman Hosgor/The Guardian

The Free Birth Society (FBS) is a multimillion-dollar business that promotes an extreme version of free birth, meaning women giving birth without medical assistance. The Guardian can now reveal that the organisation has been linked to dozens of cases of maternal harm and baby deaths around the world. After a year-long investigation, Sirin Kale and Lucy Osborne explain why some women they interviewed found FBS’s views so appealing, and why medical professionals say their claims about birth are dangerous

• The Birth Keepers: I choose this – episode one

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© Photograph: The Guardian

© Photograph: The Guardian

© Photograph: The Guardian

Why proposals for a shorter working week are winning over teachers and parents – despite the logistical headaches

“A wonderful idea”, “Bring it on!”, “Yes!”, “Brilliant!”, “Absolutely”. If enthusiasm were all it took to change policy, a four-day week in England’s schools would be all but guaranteed.

A Guardian report this week saying that the 4 Day Week Foundation has urged the government to pilot a four-day working week in schools in England and Wales to boost teacher wellbeing and recruitment attracted hundreds of thousands of readers.

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© Photograph: PA Wire/PA

© Photograph: PA Wire/PA

© Photograph: PA Wire/PA

Soon-to-be parents hired a woman they believed would act as a licensed midwife. But she in fact belonged to a radical society that was linked to baby deaths around the world

• Read more of the Guardian’s investigations into the Free Birth Society

Ernesta Chirwa recalls the jarring moment the woman she presumed was her midwife said something unexpected. Caitlyn Collins was driving her to hospital after 6am, on 15 February 2022. “She said,” says Chirwa, who is 30 and lives in Cape Town, “Please don’t mention to the nurses that we were trying to have a home birth.”

Chirwa was in too much pain to speak – she was in active labour. But she remembers feeling surprised. “Why,” Chirwa recalls, “is she asking us not to mention that we were trying to have a home birth?”

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© Composite: Guardian Design / Laurie Avon / Chris de Beer-Procter

© Composite: Guardian Design / Laurie Avon / Chris de Beer-Procter

© Composite: Guardian Design / Laurie Avon / Chris de Beer-Procter

Under the plan, the company will dissolve and its owners, members of the Sackler family, will pay as much as $7 billion of their personal fortune to states, localities, tribes and others harmed in the opioid crisis.

© George Frey/Reuters