White House counsel Don McGahn wrote a memo to dissuade Trump, noting that potential consequences could include impeachment

Donald Trump wanted to prosecute former election rival Hillary Clinton and ex-FBI director James Comey but was talked out of it, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The US president told then White House counsel Don McGahn in the spring that he wanted to order the justice department to bring charges against the pair, the Times said, citing two unnamed people familiar with the conversation.

Row engulfs LGBT festival after organisers said some participants felt unsafe marching alongside police in uniform

The New Zealand police, New Zealand Defence Force and numerous major sponsors have pulled out of the country’s largest pride parade after organisers banned police and corrections staff from marching in uniform.

Auckland pride parade organiser Cissy Rock said uniformed officers would not be welcome at the February parade, as the organisation had a long way to go in terms of respecting LGBT rights, and some march participants felt unsafe marching alongside uniformed police and corrections staff.

Quadrupling of figure in two years branded ‘generational scandal’ and blamed on TV ads and smartphone apps

The quadrupling of child problem gamblers to more than 50,000 in two years has been branded a “generational scandal”.

A Gambling Commission audit due for release on Wednesday reveals that the number of problem gamblers aged 11 to 16 rose to 55,000 over two years. It also found that 70,000 youngsters were at risk and that 450,000 children bet regularly, the equivalent of one in seven children aged 11 to 16.

Ireland’s jump racing flag-bearer hope Samcro will face dual Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air in the Fighting Fifth next month

Rain arrived in the north-east on Tuesday afternoon and the timing could not have been better, as Newcastle remains on course to stage one of the best jump races in its long history. Samcro, Buveur D’Air and Summerville Boy, who were all Grade One winners at Cheltenham in March, are among the potential runners in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle on 1 December and with the ground starting to ease after one of the driest summers for years, all three could now line up at Gosforth Park next month.

A first meeting between Buveur D’Air, the dual Champion Hurdle winner, and Samcro, who took last season’s Ballymore Novice Hurdle, certainly seems more likely after Nicky Henderson, Buveur D’Air’s trainer, said on Tuesday that the possibility of “good or good-to-firm” was his main concern ahead of the Fighting Fifth. “There is a problem looming,” Henderson said, “and while this wind is in the east, you aren’t going to see much rain.”

Joint head of National Education Union joined by Jeremy Corbyn and Angela Rayner for announcement

The prospect of a nationwide teachers’ strike is looming larger after a leader of the country’s largest teaching union, backed by the Labour leadership, called on members to vote for a walkout in protest at the government’s funding plans.

Flanked by Jeremy Corbyn and the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, the joint head of the National Education Union (NEU) told campaigners the government would listen to nothing short of a strike and implored them to vote for one in the union’s indicative ballot.