Sky News Today with Gareth Barlow

Hundreds of prisoners across England and Wales began being released early as part of the government’s early release scheme, which will see some inmates freed after serving a third of their sentence instead of half and more serious offenders at the halfway point instead of two-thirds. About 700 were expected to be freed today, with roughly 5,000 over the next year and further tranches over about 10 months, as the measure becomes a permanent part of the criminal justice system. Murder, manslaughter, rape and serious child sexual offences are exempt. Correspondents reported concerns from victims’ groups, probation inspectors and police about monitoring, timely tagging and capacity, while the government said it inherited a prison system on the brink of collapse and was rolling out tougher controls, including restriction zones, expanded electronic tagging and a say for victims in licence conditions. A Treasury minister told Sky News that 14,000 prison spaces would be added by 2031 but did not give a net figure when pressed.

In the US, Christa Pike, a death row inmate in Tennessee, survived after two lethal injections, according to reporters, having been due to become the first woman executed in the state in 200 years. The Supreme Court had overturned an earlier reprieve. She had been on death row for 30 years for the 1995 killing of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. Separately, a Fly Dubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after Israel said the co-pilot, an Omani national, stabbed the pilot and sent the plane plunging 14,000 feet in less than 30 seconds with 170 people on board. Israel described it as a jihadist terror attack; passengers said they helped restrain the attacker and restore control, and the UK government said it was looking at how to keep Britain safe on flights to Israel. England striker Ivan Toney denied assaulting a man at a Soho nightclub and pleaded not guilty at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

In Yemen, more than 150,000 people have fled their homes amid clashes between Iran-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed government forces, with hundreds of civilians killed as the Houthis expand territory around the Bab al-Mandab Strait. A report from the area said the Houthis now controlled the waterway, affecting global shipping and energy supplies. The UK later announced 31 new sanctions targeting Russia’s war chest, propagandists, perpetrators of torture against Ukrainian civilians, the shadow fleet, disinformation networks and child indoctrination, saying Russia fired more than 3,100 jet-powered drones into Ukraine in September alone. The measures targeted 23 individuals and eight ships.