Category Archives: Society

US anti-vax stance to blame for continent-wide surge in measles, say experts

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The disease was eliminated across the Americas in 2024, but urgent vaccination drives are now under way as cases rise from Mexico to Bolivia after outbreaks farther north

Governments across Latin America are stepping up efforts to vaccinate their populations against measles, as outbreaks in North America drive a 34-fold increase in the number of cases reported in the region this year.

Measles cases have surged worldwide to a 25-year high, due to low vaccine coverage and the spread of misinformation about vaccine safety. However, there is added concern in parts of Latin America over unequal access to healthcare and the worrying situation in the US, which is facing its worst measles outbreak in decades following a reversal of vaccine policy led by Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

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Trump moves to push employers on IVF coverage and lower fertility drug costs

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President says plans will lead to ‘many more beautiful American children’ but unclear if companies will sign up

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization (IVF) and other infertility treatments.

In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx.

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Xi directs quashing of Chinese feminists even as he praises advances at women’s conference

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Chinese president is behind patriarchal turn in politics with activists silenced for ‘promoting gender antagonism’

Addressing dignitaries gathered in Beijing on Monday, Xi Jinping praised the “historic achievements” of women’s rights in China. In the past 30 years, the Chinese president said, maternal mortality rates had dropped by nearly 80%, and women were now participating in the project of national governance with “unprecedented confidence and vigour”.

Xi was speaking at the global women’s summit, an event on Monday and Tuesday to mark the 30th anniversary of the historic UN’s world conference on women, which took place in Beijing. It was there in 1995 that Hillary Clinton, the then US first lady, delivered her “women’s rights are human rights” speech, lines now often quoted by people in China advocating for women’s rights.

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Woman, 53, becomes UK’s longest survivor of heart and lung transplant

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Katie Mitchell had procedure at 15 after being diagnosed with Eisenmenger syndrome, a rare congenital disease

At the age of 15, medics feared Katie Mitchell was coming to the end of her life after suffering irreversible lung damage and heart failure from a rare congenital disease.

But she defied the odds thanks to a heart and lung transplant, and at the age of 53 she has become the UK’s longest-surviving recipient of such a procedure.

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‘Brummies united against racism’: poster campaign takes on the far right

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A message of neighbourly solidarity is thriving in Birmingham against a backdrop of racist intimidation

When Mus unfurled the leaflet lying on her driveway, she was left shocked, angry and upset. “White Britons are already a minority in London … it is clear that if these trends continue white people will become a minority in Britain,” it read.

The leaflet, written by a far-right group, was distributed along her street three years ago in Moseley, a leafy suburb of Birmingham. It went on to blame NHS waiting lists, a shortage of social housing and even traffic on “the rising population”.

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NHS trust’s facilities staff vote to strike over pay discrimination claim

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Union accuses hospital group of ‘institutional racism’ as cleaners and porters get lower pay than colleagues

Hundreds of NHS hospital workers have voted for strike action after claims that they have lost more than £36m in pay and pension contributions over the last four years.

More than 330 low-paid workers, mainly cleaners, caterers and porters, known as facilities staff, at St George’s, Epsom and St Helier hospital group (GESH) are preparing to go on strike.

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Guardian prison columnist Erwin James drowned in Devon marina, inquest finds

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Journalist who wrote column A Life Inside while jailed for murder fell into the sea in January 2024

A journalist and author who wrote much-admired columns from prison drowned in a Devon marina after spending an evening in a harbourside pub, an inquest has concluded.

Erwin James Monahan, who used the pen name Erwin James and wrote a regular column for the Guardian – the first of its kind in British journalism – fell into the sea at Brixham in Devon, close to where the boat he was staying in was moored, the inquest in Exeter heard.

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One in three UK workers have called in sick after work drinks, survey finds

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IPPR report warns of ‘productivity crisis’ and says many firms out of step with gen Z shift away from alcohol

One in three UK workers have called in sick after drinking at a work event or after hours with colleagues, research has found.

Many staff feel under pressure to drink in work-related settings against their wishes, despite a big shift among younger adults away from consuming as much alcohol as their predecessors.

32% of workers had called in sick the next day after drinking at a work event or with workmates in the last year.

41% of 18- to 24-year-olds had been too hungover to work, and 47% of 25- to 34-year-olds.

22% of staff in education and 24% in health and social care had cried off work the next day after drinking at or after work in the past six months, and a fifth in both sectors had turned up late the next day.

28% think drinking at work events excludes non-drinkers or creates cliques.

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Denmark plans social media ban for under-15s as PM warns phones ‘stealing childhood’

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Mette Frederiksen links social media use to anxiety, depression and lack of concentration

The Danish prime minister says the country will ban social media for under-15s, as she accused mobile phones and social networks of “stealing our children’s childhood”.

Mette Frederiksen used her speech on Tuesday at the opening of Folketing, the Danish parliament, to announce the proposal, in which she said: “We have unleashed a monster.” She added: “Never before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression.”

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Tories say people denied benefits in UK can return to home countries

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Mel Stride outlines plans to slash £47bn a year from public spending, including £23bn welfare cut

Overseas nationals denied benefits under a Conservative plan to limit social security to UK citizens would have the option to return to their own countries, the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, has said.

Before his speech to the Conservative conference on Monday, Stride set out Tory proposals to cut £47bn a year from public spending, with the biggest chunk, £23bn coming from reductions in welfare.

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Costco to sell weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy at half-price

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The move comes as GLP-1 drug prices have soared as supply continues to be increasingly limited

Costco has struck an agreement with drugmaker Novo Nordisk to make anti-obesity GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy available to its members at roughly half the usual cost.

Through the store’s prescription program, members with a valid prescription can buy a four-week supply of the injectables for $499. The offer is available only to those paying out of pocket, since many insurers still do not cover these medications.

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Sunbeds should be banned in UK, skin cancer experts say

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Campaigners urge ministers to close tanning salons across country over dangers posed by UV radiation

Sunbeds are so dangerous they should be banned in the UK, cancer experts and campaigners say.

They have urged ministers to order the closure of the thousands of tanning salons operating across Britain, using public funds to compensate owners if necessary.

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Hundreds of US women charged with pregnancy-related crimes since fall of Roe

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Study finds prosecutors targeting low-income women mainly in US south – and figure likely to be an undercount

In the first two years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, prosecutors in 16 states charged more than 400 people with pregnancy-related crimes, new research released on Tuesday found.

Of the 412 cases tracked by Pregnancy Justice, the vast majority took place in the US south, targeted low-income women and involved allegations that women broke laws against child abuse, endangerment or neglect, according to the research, which was compiled by the reproductive justice group. About 300 prosecutions took place in Alabama and Oklahoma. In 16 cases, law enforcement charged women with homicide.

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UK graduates and healthcare workers worst hit as jobs market ‘cools’

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Recruitment report identifies sharp rise in vacancies for warehouse staff and cleaners but large fall in graduate opportunities

Graduates fresh from university will find it difficult to find a job after a 35% drop in hiring by employers over the last year, according to analysis by a leading recruitment data provider.

Hiring freezes at many employers have taken the biggest toll on graduates and meant there is fierce competition for the few jobs left for younger workers.

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UK graduates and healthcare workers worst hit as jobs market ‘cools’

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Recruitment report identifies sharp rise in vacancies for warehouse staff and cleaners but large fall in graduate opportunities

Graduates fresh from university will find it difficult to find a job after a 35% drop in hiring by employers over the last year, according to analysis by a leading recruitment data provider.

Hiring freezes at many employers have taken the biggest toll on graduates and meant there is fierce competition for the few jobs left for younger workers.

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Rachel Reeves pledges a library in every primary school in England

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Exclusive: Chancellor also set to unveil plans to get young people back into work in party conference speech

Rachel Reeves will deliver a library in every primary school in England as part of Labour’s plans to give all children the best start in life regardless of their background.

The scheme, which will create libraries in the 1,700 primaries currently without them, will be funded from £132.5m of dormant assets that will be unlocked to give young people access to cultural opportunities.

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Farage endangering women by failing to condemn paracetamol claims, says Bridget Phillipson

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Labour deputy leader candidate criticises ‘scaremongering’ on autism and says party must be firmer in tackling Reform

Nigel Farage is “endangering women’s health” by failing to condemn Donald Trump’s claims that using paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism, Bridget Phillipson has said.

The education secretary and minister for women said she had used the painkiller throughout her second pregnancy, and she warned that Reform’s connections with medical conspiracy theories including anti-vaccine rhetoric made the party a danger to public health.

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Keir Starmer says digital ID cards an ‘enormous opportunity’ for the UK

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PM to set out plans for compulsory ‘Brit card’ but faces opposition from civil liberty groups over privacy concerns

Digital ID cards present “an enormous opportunity” for the UK, Keir Starmer has said, as the government braces for a civil liberties row over the proposals.

The prime minister will set out the measures on Friday morning at a conference on how progressive politicians can tackle the problems facing the UK, including addressing voter concerns around immigration.

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Low birthrates in England could lead to ‘closure of 800 primary schools by 2029’

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Primary pupil numbers could fall by 4% over next five years leading to reduction of 162,000 pupils, study finds

Declining numbers of children across England could lead to the equivalent of 800 primary schools falling empty or being closed by the end of the decade, according to research by a thinktank.

The national decline in pupils at state primary schools is mainly driven by low birthrates but is magnified in London by increasing numbers of people moving out of the capital or leaving the state system to move abroad or send their children to private schools, according to the Education Policy Institute.

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Social media and weight loss drugs drive UK rise in facelifts in men and people in their 40s

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Number of procedures on men up by 26% as experts say cosmetic surgery has become normalised despite risks

Growing numbers of men and younger people are getting facelifts, a trend driven by social media, advances in surgical techniques and the rise of weight loss drugs.

Figures from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps) show facelifts are on the rise in the UK. In 2024 there were 1,882 procedures, up 8% from the previous year. Women accounted for the majority, with numbers rising by 7% to 1,742. But the steepest increase came from men: procedures grew by 26%, from 111 in 2023 to 140 in 2024.

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