When you hear scabies, you may think of a “Victorian-era” disease, caused by “dirty conditions” and “bad housing”, said The i Paper. “If so, you’d be wrong”: it can affect anyone, irrespective of housing conditions and hygiene habits. And it’s suddenly on the rise.

In the second week of January, GPs reported just under 900 cases of scabies across England: nearly 20% higher than the same period last year. And as doctors are only required to report cases of scabies in communal settings, like nursing homes, the total number of cases in England right now is undoubtedly much, much higher.

What is scabies?
Scabies is an itchy rash, caused by microscopic mites that burrow into your skin and lay eggs there. The telltale itchy bumps and raised lines with a dot at one end are an allergic reaction to the mites, their eggs and their faeces. While not serious, scabies can be very irritating, and can exacerbate conditions like eczema, or cause secondary bacterial and skin infections. Only 10 female scabies mites are needed to cause a significant outbreak, which can linger for months, if not treated correctly.

Why is it spreading so quickly?
While there is “no definitive reason”, the back-to-school rush in September can kick-start transmission, as can the Christmas season, where “close contact in shared spaces is common”, Donald Grant, a senior clinical adviser at The Independent Pharmacy, told Women’s Health.

Other factors include the current “strain on NHS GP waiting lists” and “lack of guidance and redirection to pharmacies”, said Michael Marks, a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

How to prevent and treat it?
The most common treatment is permethrin cream – often sold as Lyclear – which “paralyses and kills the mites”, Hanna Yusuf, a pharmacist at Chemist4U, told Cosmopolitan. The online pharmacy saw “year-on-year sales almost double” in January.

In addition to applying the cream, you should wash your bedding, towels and clothing at 60C or higher, followed, if possible, by hot tumble drying. Clothing that can’t be washed “should be sealed in a plastic bag for at least 72 hours”, said the NHS, and you should vacuum mattresses, sofas and carpets. Do not share towels or bedding with anyone who has scabies.

Syria is home to the largest population of Islamic State prisoners in the world – but its fledgling government is struggling to contain the tens of thousands of militants and their relatives, including British-born Shamima Begum.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-dominated militia that runs many of the prisons in northeast Syria, had to abandon the notoriously volatile al-Hol camp this week. Syrian government forces moved in to secure the camp a day later, but dozens of prisoners had already escaped. The SDF also lost control of the al-Shaddadi camp, from which about 120 prisoners escaped. 

‘Unresolved security dilemma’
IS members and their families have been held in more than two dozen camps and detention facilities in Syria since 2019, when a US-backed coalition of mostly SDF-led forces seized back the last of the territory the group had captured. Most in the camps haven’t been charged, and many foreign-born detainees have been stripped of their citizenship.

US military commanders and analysts have “warned that the detainee population is an unresolved security dilemma” that threatens the stability of post-Assad Syria, said The Wall Street Journal. Islamic State has been targeting the camps with “propaganda and messages to stir unrest”, and it has active “sleeper cells” inside them. Routine searches have found weapons. And yet SDF guards are often “pulled away” from their duties “to deal with instability elsewhere”.

In 2022, IS militants detonated a truck carrying explosives at the gate of the al-Sina’a prison, leading to a “week-long battle” against US and Kurdish forces. More than 500 died and, during the “chaos”, hundreds escaped. Little has been done to increase security at detention sites since.

Prison control dispute
A dispute between the SDF and the Syrian government is exacerbating the situation. After “weeks of deadly clashes”, the SDF agreed to merge fully into the Syrian military and “hand over control of security infrastructure”, including the prison camps, to the government, said The New York Times.

The ensuing chaos around the al-Hol and al-Shaddadi camps merely “underscored the fragility of that deal”. The government is accusing the SDF of releasing IS detainees and “exploiting the security threat” for “political gains”.

The US said it was moving to relocate detained IS fighters to a “secure location” in Iraq, “but the fate of the tens of thousands” of their family members “remained unclear”, said NPR.

A model shows off a creation by Juun.J during the 2026 fall/winter showcase of Paris Men’s Fashion Week. Trends on the runway included statement outerwear, sharp tailoring and weatherproof practicality.

Alain Jocard / AFP / Getty Images

Argyll and Bute: Caolas, Isle of Coll
A modern house in a spectacular coastal setting overlooking the Treshnish Islands and Mull, with direct beach access. 6 beds, 3 baths, open-plan kitchen/dining room, recep, garden, parking. OIEO £595,000; Knight Frank.

Angus: Old Manse, Kirkton of Kingoldrum
An attractive B-listed former manse dating to 1792; situated at the foot of Glenisla, close to the Cairngorms National Park. 5 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, studio, garden, parking. OIEO £480,000; Savills.

Perth and Kinross: Tigh An Tuir, Strathtay
A stately Victorian villa set in mature gardens and woodland of more than six acres. 6 beds, 4 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 4 receps, 6-bed annexe, 1-bed stone cottage, studio, tennis court, garden, parking. OIEO £2.2m; Galbraith.

Perth and Kinross: Blackwood Lodge, Rannoch
A secluded house, on the south shore of Loch Rannoch, with 10m of loch frontage and riparian rights. 4 beds, family bath, kitchen/dining room, recep, 1-bed bothy, stables, paddocks, garden, parking. OIEO £650,000; Savills.

Am I a libertarian after all?
Douglas Murray in The Spectator
I’ve always viewed libertarians as “the bisexuals of politics”, writes Douglas Murray. “They want a bit of everything.” Yet “even I felt” a libertarian “twinge” when I heard that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants to use AI to keep the “eyes of the state” on us “at all times”. Then I remembered the “incompetence and indolence of the state”. So “dream on”, Mahmood, because “the state is having a siesta”.

If the assisted dying bill is killed off by the Lords, let that be the end for this unelected chamber
Polly Toynbee in The Guardian
A “small coterie of peers” is about to vote “against the will” of MPs and voters who support the right to die, writes Polly Toynbee. If they “block this, it should be their last gasp”. Their “behaviour illuminates everything grotesque about the upper house”. The “gleeful” plotters are a “reunion of the old Brexit gang”, replaying “the same dirty tricks”. There’s “strong support” for “an end to the Lords”: “expect the killing of this bill to stoke” it.

Claudia Winkleman is what women want to be
Pippa Bailey in The New Statesman
“If anyone has emerged victorious” from “The Traitors”, it’s host Claudia Winkleman, writes Pippa Bailey. The show’s “High Priestess” understands both “how seriously to take it” and “when to break the tension with a joke”. The “most beloved woman on British television”, she’s “confident, drily funny, gloriously offbeat”, defying “expectations” that “women should be precise, inoffensive and agreeable”. And, “by extension”, she “gives other women permission to be so, too”.