Category Archives: Society

Mother of autistic boy left with £10,000 debt after breaching DWP rules by £1.92 a week

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Over five-year period Oksana Shahar – who cares for her son – was paid a small amount more than carer’s allowance earnings limits allow

It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.

They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.

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World may be ‘post-herd immunity’ to measles, top US scientist says

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As infections pummel communities in the US, Mexico and Canada, fear of ‘the most contagious human disease’ grows

A leading immunologist warned of a “post-herd-immunity world”, as measles outbreaks affect communities with low vaccination rates in the American south-west, Mexico and Canada.

The US is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma.

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LGBTQ+ charities warn of ‘genuine crisis’ for trans people after UK ruling

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Charities say the judgment creates ‘a legal framework that simply cannot uphold the dignity’ of trans people

Fourteen national LGBTQ+ charities have written to Keir Starmer seeking an urgent meeting to discuss what they describe as “a genuine crisis for the rights, dignity and inclusion of trans people in the UK” after the supreme court’s ruling on biological sex.

The UK supreme court ruled last month that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 referred only to “a biological woman” and to “biological sex”, with subsequent advice from the equality watchdog amounting to a blanket ban on trans people using toilets and other services of the gender they identify as.

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Dozens of homeless people living in national forest evicted by US Forest Service

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Service closing area in Oregon for wildfire prevention plan months after Trump order to increase timber production

Dozens of homeless people who have been living in a national forest in central Oregon for years were being evicted on Thursday by the US Forest Service, as it closed the area for a wildfire prevention project that will involve removing smaller trees, clearing debris and setting controlled burns over thousands of acres.

The project has been on the books for years, and the decision to remove the encampment in the Deschutes national forest comes two months after the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal agencies to increase timber production and forest management projects aimed at reducing wildfire risk. It wasn’t immediately clear if the evictions were a result of that order, but homeless advocates seized on the timing on Thursday, as US Forest Service officers blocked the access road.

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Daily endometriosis pill approved for NHS could help 1,000 women a year

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Linzagolix hailed as a possible ‘gamechanger’ in tackling the painful condition for some patients in England

More than 1,000 women a year in England could benefit from a new pill for endometriosis.

The condition occurs when tissue similar to the womb lining grows elsewhere in the body, such as the pelvis, bladder and bowel. It can cause chronic pain, heavy periods, extreme tiredness and fertility problems.

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Cancer patients in England to be first in Europe to be offered immunotherapy jab

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Up to 15,000 could be given nivolumab in injectable form to treat 15 cancers including lung, bowel and skin cancer

Up to 15,000 cancer patients a year could be treated with a quick injection, NHS England has announced.

It is the first health service in Europe to offer patients the injectable form of the immunotherapy drug nivolumab.

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‘Still some fuel in the tank’: the perks and perils of launching a business after 60

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Growing numbers of older people are creating enterprises in everything from baking to biodiversity – but does the freedom make up for the graft?

Kari Johnston felt ready to retire after 45 years in nursing when, at 63 years old, she decided to launch her own business – a professional decluttering and organising service.

She had read about decluttering and, fascinated, quickly created a website and advertised. Her first clients were friends. Three-and-a-half years later, Johnston, from St Monans in Fife, is now fully retired from nursing, and feels delighted with the success of her new venture.

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Fly-tippers’ vehicles to be crushed in bid to save England from ‘avalanche of rubbish’

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The scheme, part of policy blitz for local elections, will encourage councils and police forces to work together

Councils will be encouraged to work with police forces to seize and crush vehicles used by fly-tippers, in the latest phase of a government policy blitz before Thursday’s local elections.

Under a scheme being led by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), new legislation will impose jail sentences of up to five years for people who illicitly transport waste in England.

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Drinking champagne could reduce risk of sudden cardiac arrest, study suggests

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Maintaining a positive mood and eating more fruit may also help lower risk, researchers find

Drinking champagne, eating more fruit, staying slim and maintaining a positive outlook on life could help reduce the risk of a sudden cardiac arrest, the world’s first study of its kind suggests.

Millions of people worldwide die every year after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), when the heart stops pumping blood around the body without warning. They are caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, when the electrical system in the heart is not working properly. Without immediate treatment such as CPR, those affected will die.

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Trump’s first 100 days supercharged a global ‘freefall of rights’, says Amnesty

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World now in era of repressive regimes’ impunity, climate inaction and unchecked corporate power, says report

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.

In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.

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Leading baby food brands making high-sugar meals, study finds

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Food from brands such as Ella’s Kitchen and Heinz are often nutritionally poor, researchers say

Top brands such as Ella’s Kitchen and Heinz are making sugar-heavy, nutritionally poor baby food that fails to meet the needs of infants, a study has found.

The discovery has spurred groups to call for ministers to strengthen regulation in the market, saying that the current state of affairs will negatively affect child growth and development.

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Ultra-processed food increases risk of early death, international study finds

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About 14% of premature deaths in England attributable to unhealthy food, the most among surveyed countries

Consuming large amounts of ultra-processed food (UPF) increases the risk of an early death, according to a international study that has reignited calls for a crackdown on UPF.

Each 10% extra intake of UPF, such as bread, cakes and ready meals, increases someone’s risk of dying before they reach 75 by 3%, according to research in countries including the US and England.

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Being shouted at by parents can alter child’s brain, experts tell UK MPs

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Meeting will hear how exposure to verbal abuse leads to biological changes and can make mental ill-health likelier

Being shouted at by their parents reshapes children’s brains and makes them more likely to have mental ill-health and struggle to maintain friendships, MPs will hear on Monday.

Verbal abuse by adults can leave children unable to enjoy pleasure and seeing the world as threatening, experts in child development and mental health will tell a meeting at Westminster.

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Reform UK challenged to give details on donations after £2m mailshot campaign

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Exclusive: Liberal Democrats say voters need to know sources of funding for Nigel Farage’s party before local elections

The Liberal Democrats have publicly challenged Nigel Farage to give details of his party’s donations after calculating that Reform UK spent more than £2m on personalised letters to postal voters before the local elections.

In a letter to Farage, Daisy Cooper, the Lib Dem deputy leader, said people needed to know the source of the money before Thursday’s elections, given that Reform received only £281,000 in donations in the last set of publicly available figures, for the final quarter of 2024.

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Trans people banned from toilets of gender they identify with, says UK minister

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Pat McFadden says ‘there isn’t going to be toilet police’ amid warnings about ‘incredibly dangerous’ consequences

A UK government minister has said trans people are now banned from using toilets of the gender they identify as, amid warnings about the “incredibly dangerous” consequences of such a blanket prohibition.

The UK supreme court ruled earlier this month that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act referred only to a biological woman and to biological sex.

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Shabana Mahmood warned of risk to pregnant women in halting Sentencing Council guidelines

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Exclusive: Stopping pre-sentencing reports could put more pregnant people behind bars, groups tell justice minister

Shabana Mahmood risks putting more pregnant women behind bars through her bill to prevent new guidelines which highlighted the need for pre-sentencing reports based on “different personal characteristics” including age, sex and ethnicity, charities have warned.

The justice secretary introduced the bill as emergency legislation after the Sentencing Council’s guidelines provoked claims of a “two-tier” justice system, with Mahmood saying she “would not stand for differential treatment before the law like this”. The council suspended the guidance hours before it was due to take effect in response to the backlash.

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Black ex-prison officer says he has flashbacks after extreme racist abuse at Kent jail

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Exclusive: Uzo Mbonu describes being targeted and ‘completely isolated’ by colleagues at HMP Swaleside

A black former prison officer has said he suffers flashbacks and nightmares after colleagues in a high-security jail subjected him to extreme racist abuse and managers failed to support him.

Nigerian-born Uzo Mbonu said he felt he was picked on and ostracised by other officers at HMP Swaleside in Kent because he did not have a British accent, did not understand the jokes his colleagues made, and challenged things he felt were going wrong.

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‘Tories are not listening’: Ed Davey sure Lib Dems can woo more disgruntled voters

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Leader hopes local elections in many traditionally Conservative areas will help party build on recent success

Days before the local elections, with Kemi Badenoch demanding apologies over gender identity and Nigel Farage complaining about mental illness diagnoses, Ed Davey was quietly getting on with what he perhaps does best: having fun.

In a converted shed near Stratford-upon-Avon, the Liberal Democrat leader was joking with photographers as he made chocolate truffles alongside Manuela Perteghella, his party’s MP for the formerly true-blue constituency.

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David Tennant wishes JK Rowling no ‘ill will’ but says trans people ‘demonised’

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Actor who appeared in film of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire hopes ‘we can all as a society just let people be’

David Tennant has criticised the “demonisation” of the trans community, saying that while he wishes JK Rowling “no ill will”, he hopes that “we can all as a society just let people be”.

The Scottish actor, who appeared in the 2005 film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, likened the treatment of transgender people to the Thatcher government’s introduction of section 28 – a 1988 law that prohibited local authorities from “promoting” homosexuality.

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London councils yet to spend £130m in local climate funds

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Exclusive: Local authorities have spent less than £40m out of £170m collected since offsetting scheme began in 2016

London councils are sitting on more than £130m that should be funding local climate action, the Guardian can reveal.

More than £170m has been collected through the mayor of London’s carbon offset fund, which developers are required to pay into to mitigate emissions from new projects, since it was introduced in 2016. However, the capital’s 33 local authorities have spent less than £40m between them. Some have said they do not have the resources, expertise or time to decide how to spend it.

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