NHS waiting lists have soared to another record high, grim data revealed today.

Around 7.68million patients in England — or one in seven people — were in the queue in July for procedures such hip and knee replacements, official figures show. 

This includes almost 390,000 patients who have waited at least one year for treatment, often in pain.

NHS bosses blamed medic strikes for heaping extra pressure onto already struggling hospitals — with 400,000 appointments rescheduled this summer due to walkouts.

Health leaders warned that the service is ‘heading for even more extremely troubled times’ as winter approaches. 

NHS England monthly performance data released today that the waiting list grew by more than 100,000 between June and July. 

The 7.68million toll marks the highest figures logged since NHS records began in August 2007 and a rise of nearly three quarters of a million (742,000) on July 2022. 

For comparison, around 4.4million were stuck in the system when the pandemic reached the UK. 

Rishi Sunak made cutting waiting lists one of his 2023 priorities, pledging in January that ‘lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly’.

However, he claimed that strikes across the health service were making the task ‘more challenging’.

And the NHS said today that industrial action had piled pressure on the health service, with around 900,000 appointments cancelled since strikes began in December. 

It said the true impact of walkouts is much higher, as many hospitals avoid scheduling operations for strike dates.

Junior doctors have already staged 19 days of action since March and will undertake four days of joint strike action this autumn with coordinated walkouts in England over separate days next week and into October. 

Radiographers will walk out for 24 hours from 8am on October 3, joining medics on the picket lines. The strike days also coincide with Rishi Sunak’s first Tory party conference as leader and prime minister.

Emergency care – through A&E departments and 999 – is still available but patients have been told to contact NHS 111 or their local pharmacy for minor health worries. 

Professor Julian Redhead, NHS England’s national clinical director for urgent and emergency care, said: ‘Today’s figures show that despite ongoing pressures across the NHS, including record demand for emergency care this summer, and an increase in Covid cases during July and August, NHS staff are continuing to deliver for patients.’

He added: ‘But even as we talk about a summer of record demand we have already been preparing for winter, and the improvements seen in today’s data show the hard work of staff is already paying off.

‘Alongside expanding the use of out-of-hospital care – such as more virtual ward beds – and the rollout of our winter vaccination programme, we are doing all we can to prepare ahead of what has the potential to be another challenging winter with Covid and flu.

‘As ever, the public can also play their part by getting your winter vaccines when invited and use services in the usual way – 999 in an emergency and NHS111 online for other health conditions.’

Miriam Deakin, director of policy and strategy at NHS Providers, said: ‘Challenges including severe staff shortages, capacity constraints – including of beds and equipment – and ongoing strikes are hindering vital progress on performance targets.’

She added: ‘With more strikes on the horizon, including coordinated action between junior doctors and consultants for the first time, even greater disruption looms.’

Summer months usually offer hospitals a break ahead of the usual busy spell, when seasonal pressures like flu and norovirus typically kick in. But NHS England said this summer is ‘on trajectory to be the busiest in NHS history’. 

Separate data for A&E shows that patient care plummeted in August as emergency departments faced their busiest summer yet. 

Just under three-quarters of emergency department attendees (73 per cent) were seen within four hours in August, down from 74 per cent in July. 

NHS standards set out 95 per cent should be admitted, transferred or discharged within the four-hour window.

Meanwhile, 28,859 patients who sought help in emergency departments were forced to wait more than 12 hours, up from 23,934 in July.

There were more than 6.5million attendances in A&Es across June, July and August — 20,000 more than the previous record in 2019. 

Dr Tim Cooksley, president of the Society for Acute Medicine, said the figures show that there is ”a trajectory towards a winter equally as bad as last year’s ‘worst ever’.’

He said: ‘A small wave only is needed to deepen the crisis in urgent and emergency care; well-illustrated by the hot weather last week which caused many hospitals great challenges.’

Dr Cooksley pointed to the case of a 90-year-old Harold Pedley in Blackpool, who died waiting to be seen by a doctor in a chair in an overcrowded emergency unit.

He said: ‘His case not isolated and many more will sadly have similar experiences over the next few months.

‘There is a tacit acceptance and almost normalisation of poor urgent and emergency care heading in to this winter.

‘Corridor care, overcrowded and understaffed emergency departments and acute medical units, ongoing industrial action and a target that only one in four people wait more four hours. 

‘This is an environment perfectly designed to ensure there are more patients like Mr Pedley this winter.’

He warned the NHS was ‘inevitably’ heading for ‘more extremely troubled times’, but said ‘mitigation is possible’.

He added: ‘Resolving industrial action, a stronger commitment to funding the workforce plan and a significant emergency package to support social care are essential – but the window of opportunity to do so is getting increasingly narrow.’

Separate NHS data on ambulance figures for August however show response times improved — but patients were still left waiting too long.

Heart attack and stroke patients in England, known as category two callers, had to wait an average of 31 minutes and 30 seconds for paramedics to arrive, shaving 20 seconds off the previous month. 

However, this is still nearly double the NHS 18-minute target.

Ambulances took an average of eight minutes and 17 seconds to attend the most life-threatening category one calls, such as cardiac arrests. The NHS target stands at seven minutes.

Separate data shows 2.2million tests and checks were delivered in August, contributing to the busiest summer ever for diagnostics — a total 6.6million across June, July and August.

However, NHS figures on cancer waiting times showed that just six in ten cancer patients (62.6 per cent) were seen within the two-month target in July. 

NHS guidelines state 85 per cent of cancer patients should be seen within this time-frame. However, this target has not been met nationally since December 2015. 

Meanwhile, almost a quarter (74.1 per cent) of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer were diagnosed or had cancer ruled out within 28 days, up from 73.5 per cent the previous month. The target is 75 per cent.

The proportion of cancer patients who saw a specialist within two weeks of being referred urgently by their GP fell from 80.5 per cent in June to 77.5 per cent in July, missing the 93 per cent target.

The figure is one of several cancer targets that are being discontinued from October, after the NHS vowed last month to diagnose and treat cancer patients quicker, with  ministers accepting its request to streamline performance targets.

The controversial reforms will see the number of cancer waiting time indicators that hospitals are measured against slashed from ten to three.

Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, Michelle Mitchell, said: ‘Today’s data is yet another snapshot of the challenges facing England’s cancer services and a message to the UK Government that things need to change. 

‘These figures are amongst the worst on record and represent anxious delays faced by patients and the immense pressure on NHS staff.

‘People affected by cancer deserve more. With strong leadership and proper funding, the UK Government has the power to put an end to these unacceptable delays for tests and treatment in England.’

It comes as data published on Tuesday also showed the number of Brits paying for private medical treatment has now hit a record high. 

Around 227,000 people in the UK sought private treatment in the first three months of 2023. 

It marks a four per cent jump on the previous record of 219,000 set in the final quarter of 2022. 

The rise in demand for paid-for care is being driven by continuing growth in insured treatments — 156,000, up from 149,000 in the fourth quarter of 2022 — as more businesses and households turn to private healthcare plans to safeguard the health of employees due to the growing difficulties in getting treatment on the NHS. 

Republicans want to IMPEACH Biden if they retake the House: GOP want to try President for ‘high crimes’ over the border and the Afghanistan withdrawal

• Some Republican lawmakers are signaling that they’ll make impeaching President Joe Biden a priority if their party wins control of the House
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s office told DailyMail.com that she intends to file for impeachment against Biden next year
• She and other Republicans have called to impeach Biden multiple times
• It had virtually no chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled House
• House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy previously vowed not to impeach Biden for ‘political purposes’ but did not rule it out altogether 

By Elizabeth Elkind, Politics Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 11:22 EDT, 30 August 2022 | Updated: 13:49 EDT, 30 August 2022

Even controversial leaders like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin were once innocent babies – and artificial intelligence has created images of them before becoming war-mongering dictators.

The young rulers were created by Midjourney, an AI-powered imaging software that churns out photos based on simple text prompts. 

The results shows each baby image sporting a suit and donning the tyrants’ iconic hairstyles. 

These images follow one of baby Elon Musk that made waves on the internet this month, showing the billionaire as a toddler with a white button-up shirt, brown overalls and signature haircut.

AI-generated images have taken over the internet in recent months, some sparking joy and others causing terror.

In March, a photo of Pope Francis donning a huge white puffer jacket immediately fooled the internet.

The image was outrageous enough to prompt Chrissy Teigen, 37, to address her 12.9 million Twitter followers.

The model and TV personality wrote: ‘I thought the pope’s puffer jacket was real and didn’t give it a second thought. No way am I surviving the future of technology.’

And in the same month, a gallery of snaps showing shocking scenes of Donald Trump being tackled to the ground by police officers.

This was around the same time the former president was due to be indicted over allegations he paid hush money to a porn star. However, the public knew something was off with the images.

While these were for entertainment, other AI-generated images, like one claiming an explosion occurred at the Pentagon last month, showed how the tech can have real world impact. That fake image sent stock markets crashing.

Midjourney, created by scientists in Silicon Valley, was made available last summer, allowing a host of people to get the AI to generate an image for any of their prompts. 

DailyMail.com asked Midjourney to create what world leaders would look like as babies after seeing a viral post on Instagram showing these same men reimagined by AI. 

Kim, Putin and Bashar al-Assad, who served as the 19th president of Syria since 2000, have been accused of human rights violations.

According to the US Department of State, Kim has tortured and unlawfully killed his people, used political prison camps, restricted religion and censored media and the internet.

‘Defectors and media also reported cases of infanticide and forced abortion, particularly involving mothers who were political prisoners, persons with disabilities, victims of rape by government officials or prison guards, or escapees forcibly repatriated from the People’s Republic of China (PRC),’ reads the report.

Putin is currently in the midst of a war of aggression against Ukraine after invading the sovereign country in February 2022.

In March, the International Criminal Court said it had issued a warrant for the Russian president, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children in Ukraine. 

Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, has said that based on data from the country’s National Information Bureau, 16,226 children were deported. 

And Assad launched a sarin gas attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus in 2019, which killed at least 300 people.

Many of the victims were children who died in agony, gagging and suffocating as the gas caused muscle spasms that made breathing impossible.

China’s Xi Jinping was also reimagined as a baby by Midjourney.

He is a politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2012.

In 2018, Xi engineered a constitutional reform that eliminated the previous two-term limit on the Presidency, allowing him to stay in power without needing an election.

‘People in China cannot practice the religion or belief of their choice. They cannot express their opinions openly or form or join groups of their choosing without fear of harassment, arrest, or retribution. Members of minority groups are subject to arbitrary mass detention, Orwellian-style surveillance, political indoctrination, torture, forced abortions and sterilization, and state-sponsored forced labor,’ according to the US Department of State.

The 118th Congress is set to begin at noon on Tuesday but as of Monday evening, the House of Representatives‘ majority party is still divided over who will lead the chamber for the next two years.

House Republicans’ public divisions over current Leader Kevin McCarthy‘s bid for the House Speakership has already set their newfound power off to a bumpy start.

The GOP have 222 seats in the new Congress and McCarthy needs 218 votes, so he can only afford to lose four members to win the gavel. 

So far there are a total of 14 members of his caucus who have at least strongly suggested they’re voting against him.

The disarray culminated in a late afternoon meeting between McCarthy, his allies and some of his critics including Reps. Matt Gaetz and Scott Perry.

At around 5pm ET, Republican lawmakers were seen entering the House Speaker’s chamber. McCarthy’s staff moved furniture into that office earlier in the day in an apparent show of confidence – though it’s reportedly standard protocol to make the move so early.

Gaetz told reporters the meeting was ‘brief and productive’ but insisted he was still opposing McCarthy, according to a video taken by NBC News’ Haley Talbot.

He’s one of five House Republicans who vowed to vote against the GOP Leader under any circumstance.

McCarthy’s allies however, like incoming House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, expressed confidence after leaving the meeting. 

‘He’s going to be speaker,’ Emmer told reporters, according to CBS News.

McCarthy and his supporters have spent weeks trying to convince his critics, mainly conservatives to his right, to fall in line behind the California Republican. But they want concessions that moderates in the party – and until recently, McCarthy himself – have been unwilling to give. 

In a Sunday letter to colleagues, McCarthy announced several key concessions including a motion to vacate the chair with a five-vote threshold in exchange for conference-wide support.

Under the current proposed rules, it would allow any five House Republicans to call for a vote for a new Speaker. Moderates argued that it would fuel instability within the conference, comparing it to hanging a sword of Damocles over the party leader’s head.

But later that night, a group of nine additional current and incoming House Republicans signed onto a letter calling McCarthy’s announcement of concessions ‘almost impossibly late.’ 

Multiple reports have indicated that conservatives will prop up McCarthy’s No. 2, Rep. Steve Scalise, in the California Republican’s place.

Promising to further fuel the chaos, however, moderate Republican Rep. Don Bacon suggested on Monday night that such a mutiny would not go over easy.

According to CBS, Bacon told reporters that he’s considering nominating an outgoing member of the current Congress for Speaker if the five ‘Never Kevin’ Republicans put up Scalise to McCarthy.

Bacon wrote an op-ed in the Daily Caller on Monday calling McCarthy’s leadership ‘superb’ but reasserting that he was willing to work with Democrats for an alternative should the anti-McCarthy rebellion succeed. 

‘Much has been made of me saying I would work with moderate Democrats to elect a more moderate speaker,’ Bacon wrote.

‘But my actual words were that if the five refused to coalesce around what the vast majority of the conference wants, I’m willing to work across the aisle to find an agreeable Republican.’

McCarthy has had a wide spectrum of surrogates trying to persuade the holdouts over the last several weeks, from traditional conservatives like Gingrich to Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene – allies of many of McCarthy’s biggest detractors. 

But their strategy to pressure detractors to conform and warning that a worse alternative was on the horizon appeared to do little to move the needle. 

Greene wrote on Twitter after reportedly also meeting with McCarthy on Monday night, ‘Unreal that people claiming to be America First are negotiating for ‘Me First’ positions when it comes to the Speaker’s gavel.’

‘The base deserves the truth. They would be as sickened as I am,’ the far-right Georgia lawmaker said.

But Rep. Andy Biggs, one of the five original ‘Never Kevin’ Republicans, tweeted after 8pm ET on Monday, ‘Even after the McCarthy Machine’s attempts to whip votes and smear my name for several weeks, McCarthy is still well short of the 218 threshold.

‘Our party still requires new leadership and I will continue to oppose McCarthy for House Speaker,’ Biggs said.

A GOP leader’s school-aged son has been caught on camera giving a Nazi salute while standing next to a vintage German fighter plane, sparking backlash and calls for her resignation.

Elected as representative in the state of Oregon in 2019, Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson has since issued an apology, along with a photo of a handwritten note from high schooler Alex Iverson – in which the teen insisted the gesture was merely a joke.

A fifth-generation Oregonian, Breese-Iverson, 48, currently serves as the House of Representatives’ minority leader – a position achieved just two years into her political career.

Among those calling for her resignation is The Oregon Diversity Project – a ‘Black femme led group dedicated to providing mutual aid, connection, solidarity, and opportunity to black and indigenous people of color’ in the the state.

The group, like hundreds of others over the weekend, expressed outrage toward the widely seen snap – taken last week at the Erickson Aircraft Collection – insisting the teen was not being punished accordingly due to his high-powered parent.

In the photo in question, Alex, one of the fifth-generation Oregonian rancher’s two sons, is seen proudly mimicking the Third Reich’s notorious greeting  -while posing next to a vintage German fighter plane used in WWII.

‘This week, my son was on a field trip at the Erickson Aircraft Collection which hosts a retired Nazi airplane,’ the Prineville rep wrote Saturday as the photo continued to circulate online.

‘Out of extremely poor judgement and without considering the impact this photo would have, he posed in front of the aircraft,’ she went on to explain.

‘My husband and I have been in contact with the school administration about enforcing adequate consequences for his actions, both at school and at home.’

She added: ‘In no way do my husband or I condone these actions, and we apologize to anyone impacted by this image. Attached is an image of his formal apology.’

 Her son’s correspondence, meanwhile, expressed a similar sentiment – while sporting questionable grammar and penmanship. 

‘When I was a on a feild[sic] trip with World War 2 planes, I walked past a plane with a Nazi symbol on it,’ Alex explained of his actions at the air craft exhibit in Madras.  

He added: ‘[I] posed for a photo that my friend took and posted. It was a dumb mistake. I really get that now.’

In terms of an apology, the teen remarked: ‘Doing something bad in the moment without thinking can cause harm. I apologize to anyone that was offended.’

Apart from the joint apologies, Breese-Iverson’s post did not address what sort of disciplinary action her son might face from his school, Crook County High School, which has yet to publicly comment on the controversy.

Reports from The Central Oregonian indicate that as recently as last year, Alex played on the school’s golf team. DailyMail.com has reached out to the school, also in Prineville, for comment.

As for the city representative, it remains unclear what her next course of action will be as backlash continues to be felt over her son’s actions – which comes as the US and other countries have recorded a rise in instances of antisemitism in recent years.

In a Saturday Facebook post, the aforementioned Diversity Project – a nonprofit org started in 2020 – said it was demanding Breese-Iverson´s immediate resignation over the photo, which was posted to Snapchat.

The group -which is dedicated to providing solidarity and opportunity to clack, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and all people of color in Central Oregon, according to its website – also sensationally claimed that officials in Crook County ‘avoided handing down discipline’ toward the youngster. 

While not specifying how they came to that conclusion, the group said they ‘have reason to believe that the student wasn’t disciplined because of his mother and “who” she is.’

Touted as ‘a small business owner, fifth generation rancher, community leader and mom’ by predecessor Carl Wilson, Breese-Iverson for decades has been a fixture in the Central Oregon area.

She is wed to Bryan Iverson, and prior to becoming a politician was a realtor for the more than 19 years – an occupation she has yet to forfeit despite her meteoric political rise over the past two years.

The couple still own and operate own several businesses in Breese-Iverson’s native Prineville – including Windermere Real Estate, where she still serves as managing principal broker realtor.

The couple live on Breese-Iverson’s family ranch, where she grew up, along with their two sons – Alex and younger brother Brit.

Back in 2019, after being elected to represent the city where she grew up, House Republican Wilson – then the House Leader – welcomed Breese-Iverson with songs of praise.

‘Vikki’s roots in Central Oregon are deep and wide,’ the elected official said in a statement in August of that year. ‘As a small business owner, fifth generation rancher, community leader and mom, she brings a wealth of valuable experience to Salem. 

‘House Republicans are delighted to welcome Vikki to our caucus and look forward to serving with her.’

Just over two years later,  Breese-Iverson found herself the House’s minority leader – during which time the amount of campaign money flowing to the political strategy firm her husband owns increased dramatically.

Collectively, political action committees have donated $193,000 with Iverson Media Group this year alone, with friends of Breese-Iverson offering a further $47,000 over the past two years – making the total spending with her husband’s firm at $250,000.

Much of that comes from committees that Breese-Iverson controls directly –  or indirectly because she also funds House campaigns as caucus leader.

Oregon ethics laws prohibit elected officials from using their positions for private benefit – ‘if the financial gain or avoidance of financial detriment would not otherwise be available but for the public official’s holding of the official position or office.’

‘That sure doesn’t smell right,’ Kate Titus, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause of Oregon, told the Williamette Weekly late last year of the arrangement that has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars worth funds would from Breese-Iverson funneled into her husband’s firm, which buys ads and performs other campaign services. 

Breese-Iverson, however, has maintained she has done nothing illegal, telling the paper in an email: ‘I do not believe ethics laws were violated.’