5 News with Dan Walker

Two police officers, PC Stephen Smith and PC Rachel Komoto, were sacked after a misconduct hearing found they used unjustified and excessive force on Donald Burgess, a 92-year-old wheelchair user with dementia and one leg, at a care home in East Sussex in 2022. The hearing heard that they pepper-sprayed him, used a baton and discharged a taser after staff called 999 about a resident threatening them with a knife; the officers had been acquitted of assault in a criminal trial. The panel found Mr Burgess posed no risk and that the officers harmed public confidence, while his family said his treatment was disgusting and hoped lessons would be learned. He was taken to hospital and died three weeks later after contracting Covid-19, and the officers were not held responsible for his death. At the Conservative Party conference, Kemi Badenoch set out a £10bn anti-missile system called Britannia Shield, saying it would protect critical national infrastructure from hostile countries such as Iran and Russia rather than the whole population like Israel's Iron Dome. She discussed social care, saying she wanted cross-party work but opposed more taxes or borrowing, and said she would not take the UK back into the EU. Andy Bell reported expectations she would reduce inheritance tax or raise its threshold in her speech.

Other headlines included a seventh man arrested in the investigation into a suspected terror plot at RAF Fairford, a 22-year-old British national held on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, and a murder investigation after Dr Hannah Terry was found dead near the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, with a man in his 40s arrested. Russell Brand appeared in court ahead of his rape and sexual assault trial next week; he denies charges from six women relating to incidents between 1999 and 2009. Thousands of ASOS customers received a pop-up message appearing to come from hackers saying the company had been hacked and threatening to leak details unless it engaged. ASOS said it was investigating unauthorized activity involving third-party platforms used to communicate with customers, that basic personal details may have been accessed, and that it did not believe payment card information or account passwords were impacted; advice included changing passwords and being cautious of communications, and the programme noted it was possible the claim was a spoof. More than 80,000 people protested in France over conditions in schools and universities, with police using tear gas, fires breaking out, more than 6,000 arrests and hundreds of schools closed; the prime minister ordered ministers to address students' core demands, including reviewing the length of the school day, as injuries were reported among police and teenagers. A woman in Russia was widely reported to have died from pneumonic plague after working at a plague research centre in Siberia; UK health officials said the risk was very low, Russia quarantined a hospital and monitored contacts, and a microbiologist told the programme there was nothing to concern the public at present.

Further headlines included 25 dinghies seized at East Midlands airport that the National Crime Agency said could have moved up to 1,700 migrants, and ONS figures showing more than a million people who had never smoked now vape daily, with 25- to 34-year-olds most likely to vape. Prince William joined Ross Kemp in Somerset to launch a community emergency initiative with the National Emergencies Trust. The broadcast reported the death of Jeffrey Archer at 86, noting his career as an MP, author and peer, his imprisonment for perjury, tributes including from Queen Camilla, and that his final novel was published that day. It also covered Elfyn Evans becoming world rally champion after a dramatic final-stage turn, and international stories including a Russian drone attack on a bridge in Kyiv, protests at Cornell University over the handling of sexual assault allegations, and a suspected gas explosion at a shoe shop in Surabaya, Indonesia. A later feature looked at government advice to keep a three-day emergency supply, speaking to a prepper in Liverpool and asking viewers what they would include; a government figure joked about mascara, concealer, Sauvignon Blanc, baked beans and custard.