Category Archives: Society

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen calls for urgent external regulation

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Ex-employee tells UK MPs Mark Zuckerberg ‘has unilateral control over 3bn people’ due to his position

Mark Zuckerberg “has unilateral control over 3 billion people” due to his unassailable position at the top of Facebook, the whistleblower Frances Haugen told MPs as she called for urgent external regulation to rein in the tech company’s management and reduce the harm being done to society.

Haugen, a former Facebook employee who released tens of thousands of damaging documents about its inner workings, travelled to London from the US for a parliamentary hearing and gave qualified backing to UK government proposals to regulate social media platforms and make them take some responsibility for content on their sites.

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Experts frustrated as German footballer says he has not had Covid jab

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Immunologists say Bayern Munich’s Joshua Kimmich is mistaken and vaccine misunderstandings persist

German immunologists have warned that fundamental misunderstandings about the way vaccines work persist among the population, after the Bayern Munich and Germany footballer Joshua Kimmich confirmed over the weekend that he had declined to receive a Covid jab due to concerns over long-term side-effects.

“I have concerns about the lack of long-term studies,” the 26-year-old told Sky Sport. “I am of course aware of my responsibility. I follow all hygiene measures and get tested every two to three days. Everyone should make the decision for themselves.”

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Boomerang boomers: the over-50s moving back in with their parents

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Financial and relationship woes caused by Covid in the UK are driving a rise in older people returning to live with family

The Covid pandemic has led to growing numbers of baby boomers in Britain moving back in with their elderly parents, experts have said.

The reasons are varied, from the positive – grown-up children ensuring their parents had care and company during lockdowns – to the negative, including financial and relationship breakdowns.

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Frances Haugen to testify to MPs about Facebook and online harm

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Whistleblower and critic of Mark Zuckerberg will give evidence to MPs scrutinising online safety bill

The Facebook whistleblower is to give evidence to MPs and peers scrutinising the online safety bill, amid calls for a toughening up of the landmark legislation.

Frances Haugen has triggered a deep crisis at Mark Zuckerberg’s social media empire after she released tens of thousands of internal documents detailing the company’s failure to keep its users safe from harmful content. On Monday Haugen, 37, will testify in person at the joint committee scrutinising the draft online safety bill, a piece of legislation that places a duty of care on social media companies to protect users – with the threat of substantial fines if they fail to do so.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.

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Ed Sheeran self-isolates after testing positive for Covid-19

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Singer, whose new album = is out on Friday, says he is cancelling in-person commitments

Ed Sheeran has announced on his Instagram page that he has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating.

In the post he said: “It means that I’m now unable to plough ahead with any in-person commitments for now, so I’ll be doing as many of my planned interviews/performances I can from my house.”

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Poorest countries to gain from new climate funding plan to break Cop26 impasse

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Climate finance plan needed to gain backing of developing nations for any deal at Glasgow talks

The world’s poorest countries are set to benefit from a new climate funding plan to help them cope with the impacts of climate breakdown, in an effort to break the impasse between developed and developing countries at the UN Cop26 climate summit

The UK government, as Cop26 host, will unveil the proposals on Monday along with ministers from Germany and Canada, who have been charged with drawing up a plan for climate finance, needed to gain the backing of scores of developing countries for any deal at the talks, which open in Glasgow next Sunday.

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Colombia’s president hails capture of cartel boss Dairo Antonio Úsuga

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Úsuga, one of South America’s most wanted men, arrested at rainforest hideout after massive manhunt

Colombia’s president, Iván Duque, has celebrated the downfall of “the most feared drug trafficker on Earth” after one of South America’s most wanted men was captured at his rainforest hideout following a massive manhunt involving hundreds of troops as well as US and British intelligence agencies.

Dairo Antonio Úsuga, the 50-year-old head of the Clan del Golfo drug cartel, was arrested on Saturday afternoon after heavily armed operatives laid siege to the criminal’s jungle stomping ground in north-west Colombia.

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Which protects you more against Covid – vaccination or prior infection? | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

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For the Delta variant at least, the latest analysis suggests they are roughly equivalent

In the United States, the issue of whether “natural immunity” from prior infection is as good as vaccination is becoming politicised.

Fortunately, the Office for National Statistics has released results from a sophisticated analysis of its Covid-19 infection survey that address this issue. Helped by test-and-trace data, it identified respondents’ “infection episodes” and used other data to infer whether participants were previously vaccinated, had a previous infection or neither.

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Michael Gove ‘open’ to keeping Grenfell Tower as a memorial

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Housing secretary’s intervention follows speculation that the building would be demolished because of structural fears

Michael Gove has signalled he will explore “retention” options to preserve Grenfell Tower as a memorial to the 72 people killed in the 2017 fire, a move that has been welcomed by relatives of the dead.

The new housing secretary’s intervention, weeks into his latest post, follows speculation that Grenfell would be demolished because of safety concerns. It is understood his predecessor, Robert Jenrick, had been briefed that the tower posed a risk to the local west London community with government-appointed structural engineers indicating it should be razed.

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UK government paves way to bring in tough ‘plan B’ Covid rules

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Councils consulted over support for measures such as vaccine passports amid warnings by senior doctors that NHS faces winter illness ‘triple whammy’

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New evidence has emerged that the government is paving the way to implement “plan B” measures in England to combat the spread of Covid-19, amid warnings from health chiefs that a “vortex of pressures” is encircling the NHS.

In the clearest sign to date that Whitehall is actively considering additional measures, the Observer has learnt that the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) contacted local authorities on Friday to canvass their level of support for the “immediate rollout of the winter plan – plan B”.

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The unclaimed: the ashes left waiting in Sydney’s Wayside Chapel

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In the charity’s storeroom sit the cremated remains of seven former visitors – unclaimed, contested or forgotten. This is the story of three of them

Mark was a member of an online witches and vampire community and liked to wear a bit of blingy jewellery. He really liked his friend Joe’s cooking. Gordon always had a can of Jim Beam in his hand and a flaring temper but, until he was evicted for anger management-related issues, he kept his public housing flat spotless. Marianne loved it when the volunteers did her hands and nails.

Jon Owen talks to them sometimes, Mark, Gordon and Marianne, sitting as they do in their urns on a purple-fabric-swathed table in the store room just off his office. “I often find myself chatting to them,” says the pastor of the Wayside Chapel in Sydney’s Potts Point. If the day’s particularly bad, Mark, Gordon and Marianne remind Owen that we all only live for, like, five minutes and, whatever it is that’s troubling him, he should just “let it go”.

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Owners offload dogs bought in lockdown by pretending they are strays

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Rescue centres say they are seeing more and more pets their owners are now too busy to look after

People are pretending that dogs they acquired during lockdown are strays so that rescue centres take them in, after failing to sell them online, animal rescue charities and shelters have warned.

Figures from March revealed that more than 3.2m pets were bought by UK households during lockdown. Since Covid restrictions were lifted and people have started to return to the office, charities have reported a growing trend of people abandoning their pandemic pets as they no longer have as much time for them.

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Covid testing failures at UK lab ‘should have been flagged within days’

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Senior scientists say problems at Immensa site show private firms should not be carrying out PCR tests

Health officials should have known about major failings at a private Covid testing lab within days of the problem arising, rather than taking weeks to shut down operations at the site, senior scientists say.

About 43,000 people, mostly in south-west England, are believed to have wrongly been told they did not have the virus by Immensa Health Clinic’s laboratory in Wolverhampton in a debacle described as one of the worst scandals in the UK’s Covid crisis.

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English schools struggle to cope as Covid wreaks havoc

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Despite government narrative of a return to normality, schools in areas with high Covid rates lack support

Schools in England hit by high numbers of Covid-19 cases among staff and pupils have been forced to reinstate mask wearing, send whole year groups home to study online and in some cases close early for half-term as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc in education.

Despite the government narrative of a return to normality in classrooms, schools in areas with high coronavirus rates say they have struggled to function, with many staff off sick and problems securing supply teachers because of high demand.

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Zimbabwe’s older people: the pandemic’s silent victims

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Care facilities for older people used to be thought ‘un-African’. But destitution caused by Covid has seen demand for care homes soar

Lunch is Angelica Chibiku’s favourite time. At 12pm she sits on her neatly made bed waiting for her meal at the Society of the Destitute Aged (Soda) home for older people in Highfield, a township in south-west Harare.

Chibiku welcomes a helper into her room and cracks a few jokes. She loves to interact with those who bring her food and supplies.

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‘I need to work’: Italy’s green pass rule triggers rise in Covid jab uptake

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Rule that pass must be presented to access workplaces forces hand of many vaccine-hesitant Italians

At the vaccination hub outside Termini train station in Rome, a steady flow of people have been turning up for their first Covid vaccine dose in recent days. The mood is begrudging. “If I didn’t have to do it, I wouldn’t,” said Rosanna Barbuto, a supermarket worker. Catalin, 41, who works in a factory, said: “I’m taking it because I need to work.”

They are among the vaccine-hesitant who caved in after Italy made it mandatory for all workers to present a so-called green pass to access their workplaces. The rules are the strictest in Europe and require workers to present proof of vaccination, immunity or of a negative test taken within the previous 48 hours. Some see Italy’s cautious approach as the key to its current low infection rate.

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Countdown to ecstasy: how music is being used in healing psychedelic trips

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Jon Hopkins timed his upcoming album to the length of a ketamine high, while apps are using AI music to tailor drug experiences. Welcome to a techno-chemical new frontier

Two hundred psychedelic enthusiasts have converged in Austin, Texas for a “ceremonial concert” on the autumn equinox. People sprawl on yoga mats around a circular stage as staffers pace the candlelit warehouse, jingling bells and spritzing essential oils. While psychedelic drugs are prohibited, some attenders seem in an altered state, lying on their backs and breathing heavily as rumbles of bass from Jon Hopkins’ upcoming album, Music for Psychedelic Therapy, shakes the hushed space.

This is the first time Hopkins – known for acclaimed solo electronic albums as well as production for Coldplay and Brian Eno – has played his new record in public, and the crowd is visibly moved. As recordings of spiritual guru Ram Dass’s teachings fill the room on the final song, the woman next to me begins silently weeping.

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Assad regime ‘siphons millions in aid’ by manipulating Syria’s currency

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Government pocketed half of donations in 2020 as central bank forced UN agencies to use lower exchange rate


The Syrian government is siphoning off millions of dollars of foreign aid by forcing UN agencies to use a lower exchange rate, according to new research.

The Central Bank of Syria, which is sanctioned by the UK, US and EU, in effect made $60m (£44m) in 2020 by pocketing $0.51 of every aid dollar sent to Syria, making UN contracts one of the biggest money-making avenues for President Bashar al-Assad and his government, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Operations & Policy Center thinktank and the Center for Operational Analysis and Research found.

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GPs in England threaten industrial action over in-person appointments

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Family doctors reject plan to force them to see any patient who wants face-to-face appointment

GPs in England are threatening to take industrial action in protest at the government’s bid to force them to see any patient who wants a face-to-face appointment.

The British Medical Association’s GPs committee voted unanimously to reject the plan by the health secretary, Sajid Javid, that included “naming and shaming” surgeries that see too few patients in person.

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Life after loneliness: ‘I was homeless, hungry, skint and isolated. Then I found the secret of reconnection’

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I had to choose between heating and eating – and ended up going to the library for warmth. There I was drawn into other worlds, bringing me much closer to other people


I have dealt with ostracism since early childhood. ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and ODD (oppositional defiant disorder) do not benefit from confinement in a classroom, where bouncing off the walls is frowned upon. In other words, I was expelled from almost every school I attended. I even got kicked out of a special school, which I look back on as an achievement of sorts. Surely being expelled from a school for naughty kids for being a naughty kid deserves some kind of recognition?

But I was also excluded from home and bounced around foster placements and children’s homes like I was trapped in the world’s most depressing game of pinball. Inevitably, exclusion tends to make one feel excluded. Lonely may as well be my last name.

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