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UK military strength falls for ninth year

New figures suggest the size of the UK military has fallen for the ninth consecutive year. While all branches of the armed forces have seen a decline a numbers, it is the Army which has seen the biggest fall. The latest figures showed the Army was more than 7,000 troops short of the government's target of 82,000. Labour has accused the government of "running down" the forces, but the Ministry of Defence said it was continuing to meet its operational requirements.

The latest news comes despite the Army launching a high-profile - but controversial - recruitment campaign targeting "snowflake" millennials.

North Korea dismisses talks with South amid missile tests

North Korea has rejected further talks with the South, after accusing its president of being a "shameless man". Pyongyang's angry rhetoric follows a speech by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, in which he spoke of reuniting the peninsula by 2045. But the North said Mr Moon had no right to talk of peace and prosperity in Korea while he was "playing out war scenarios that plan to destroy most of our armies in 90 days". The North, meanwhile, test-fired a missile on Friday - the sixth such test in a month.

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Lawyer fatally stabbed after 'chance encounter'

Police say a man who was stabbed to death with a screwdriver in Newcastle city centre was the victim of an unprovoked chance "coming together" with a group of youths. Peter Duncan, 52, was attacked on Wednesday evening and died later in hospital. His family have described him as a "devoted father and husband". Seven teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of his murder.

Six things that affect your chance of a pay rise

By Nye Cominetti, Resolution Foundation

How easy is it to get a pay rise?

You could try to wrangle more money out of your employer with hard work or canny negotiating tactics.

But in practice, other factors are likely to be more important. Some of these are in our control, but more often they come down to luck.

Read the full story here.

What the papers say

Several papers lead for a second day on Jeremy Corbyn's idea of being a caretaker prime minister to stop a no-deal Brexit. The Times and the Daily Telegraph say rebel Conservative MPs have suggested they could support such a move, while the Guardian reports that the Liberal Democrats are under pressure to support the Labour leader's plan - despite rejecting it when it was first floated on Thursday. Other papers report on a stabbing outside the Home Office in central London, while the Daily Mail reports that the grandfather of London teenager Nora Quoirin says there are unanswered questions about her death in Malaysia.

Read our full paper review here.

Daily Digest

Food Patients who cannot eat 'fear for their lives'

Chat US TV show fined $395,000 over presidential alert skit

Bowie Beckenham bandstand gets Grade II listing

Quiz Seven days, seven questions about the news

If you see one thing today

Cookery class brings young asylum seekers together

If you listen to one thing today

Crowd Science: Global infertility - could The Handmaid’s Tale become reality?

If you read one thing today

Image copyright Dr Meghan Davis

The island fighting its monkeys

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Lookahead

Today Ofgem deadline for National Grid to provide it with an urgent interim report into the power failures that affected large areas of the UK on 9 August.

Today Two hundredth anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre, the violent quelling of a peaceful protest for parliamentary reform at St Peter's Field, Manchester, in which an estimated 18 people were killed.

On this day

2004 Flash floods devastate a north Cornwall coastal village after the area's average August rainfall fell in just two hours.

From elsewhere

America’s elderly seem more screen-obsessed than the young (The Economist)

Have you tried overnight oats? (New Yorker)

The 'Selfie Factory' Is Not the End of the World (Vice)

Pumpkin Spice Lattes may be back at Starbucks earlier than ever (Mashable)