Exclusive: Lawsuit is the first UK case of its kind, with Ros and Mark Dowey accusing Meta of ‘putting profit before our young people’ The parents of a 16-year-old who took his own life after he fell victim to a sextortion gang on Instagram are suing Meta for the alleged wrongful death of their son, in the first UK case of its kind. Murray Dowey died in December 2023 at his family home in Dunblane, after being tricked into sending intimate pictures to an Instagram contact. He thought it was a girl his own age, but it turned out to be overseas criminals involved in financially motivated sexual extortion. Continue reading...

The Guardian gained rare access to Royal Stoke university hospital to see how staff free up beds for patients in a gridlocked system Acas offers to help break deadlock in resident doctors’ strike Thirteen ambulances are lined up at the rear of the Emergency Department (ED) of the Royal Stoke university hospital, Staffordshire, as Ann-Marie Morris, the hospital trust’s deputy medical director, walks towards the entrance, squinting in the low afternoon sun. Behind the closed door of each vehicle is a sick patient, some of whom have been waiting for four hours or more, backed up in the car park, just to get in the door. The reason they are stuck out here is that there are no beds in the ED – and there is not much corridor space, either. In the tight foyer, a cluster of ambulance staff and a senior nurse in hi-vis are huddled around a computer station. Behind them, a corridor stretches into the ward, where at least six or seven beds are lined up head to toe along one side, each occupied by a patient. Leading off to the left are three more beds and three more strained, watchful patients. Another patient and another bed is to the right. Continue reading...

Exclusive: UK government’s ‘naive belief’ that Trump is a good faith actor ‘could cost UK taxpayer billions’, says health select committee chair Ministers and senior MPs have warned that the UK’s agreements with Donald Trump are “built on sand” after the Guardian established that the deal to avoid drug tariffs has no underlying text beyond limited headline terms. The “milestone” US-UK deal announced this month on pharmaceuticals, which will see the NHS pay more for medicines in exchange for a promise of zero tariffs on the industry, still lacks a legal footing beyond top lines contained in two government press releases. Continue reading...

Manchester, Bradford and outer London boroughs among those to receive increases that ministers hope will ‘restore pride’ Which councils are the winners and losers – and will tax bills go up? Some of England’s most-deprived councils will receive a funding boost under a new three-year local government deal which prioritises urban areas with high social needs at the expense of affluent places in the leafy south-east. Manchester, Birmingham, Luton, Bradford, Coventry, Derby and outer London boroughs such as Haringey and Enfield will receive big spending power increases under what ministers have described as a fairer system that will “restore pride and opportunity in left-behind places”. Continue reading...

Ex-special counsel tells House panel US president’s actions alone underpinned now-dropped prosecutions Jack Smith, the former US justice department special counsel who brought two now-dropped criminal cases against Donald Trump, defended his investigation before a House of Representatives panel on Wednesday, telling lawmakers that the basis for the prosecutions “rests entirely with President Trump and his actions”. Smith gave private testimony to the Republican-controlled House judiciary committee following months of disclosures from Trump appointees at the justice department, and Republican lawmakers intended to discredit Smith’s investigation and bolster Trump’s claims that the cases were an abuse of the legal system. Continue reading...

Population fell by 0.2% in third quarter – and the only other quarterly decline on record was attributed to Covid limits Canada experienced one of its largest drops in population in the most recent quarter, the result of a crackdown on international students. The drop marks dramatic turnaround for a country that has long pegged its economic growth to immigration. New estimates released on Wednesday by Statistics Canada showed that Canada’s population fell by 0.2% in the third quarter to stand at 41.6 million, down from 41.65 million on 1 July. Continue reading...

Argument for ensuring ethylene production at Grangemouth is strong, yet policy-making on deindustrialisation is disjointed “Our commitment is clear: to back British industry, to stand by hardworking families, and to ensure places like Grangemouth can thrive for years to come,” said Keir Starmer as the Ineos ethylene plant on the Firth of Forth was saved for the nation with the help of £120m of public money. Is the commitment clear, though? What, precisely, does the prime minister mean by “places like Grangemouth”? Which heavy industries and plants is the government pledging to shield from the forces of sky-high energy prices and carbon taxes? Is there a strategy here? Or does intervention happen only at the 11th hour when an important plant is threatened with imminent closure and ministers panic about knock-on consequences? Continue reading...

The ring’s standout problem-solver steps away from ‘competition’ on his own terms and with an unblemished record across five divisions Terence “Bud” Crawford has always fought like a man who wanted to leave no room for argument. Not simply to win, but to win so cleanly that dissent collapses on contact. So his retirement announcement on Tuesday didn’t feel like a sudden fade-out so much as the closing of a file: tidy, decisive, signed in his own hand. Three months after scaling two weight divisions to outclass Canelo Álvarez in Las Vegas and become the undisputed super-middleweight champion, Crawford says he is stepping away “on his own terms”. In the cruellest sport, that is rarer than a perfect record. Boxing is purpose-built to keep you in. To lure you back with one more payday, one more belt, one more chance to settle a score that only exists because the promoters or the public insist it should. The hurt business has never been conducive to happy endings. The preferred vernacular is violent or sad or compromised: a stoppage you don’t see coming, a dubious decision, a diminished version of yourself preserved forever in high definition. Continue reading...

The European Commission’s proposals to water down a 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars will store up major problems for the future Two years ago, the European Union’s adoption of a 2035 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars was hailed as an act of global leadership, and a declaration of faith in the journey to net zero. That the home of BMW, Renault and Fiat should decisively reverse away from the internal combustion engine was seen as a symbolic moment. This week, Brussels proposals to water down that ban have sent a very different kind of message. Electric vehicles might be the future. But after intensive lobbying by German and Italian manufacturers, the European Commission has proposed a reprieve for new CO2-emitting cars that would allow them to be sold after the former cut-off date. According to the EU’s industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, this U-turn offers a “lifeline” to an ailing car industry that has struggled to cope with Donald Trump’s trade wars and Chinese competition. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

Children under the age of 16 needed protecting and the moral argument wasn’t winning. Government regulation can change the terms of debate On 10 December, the world watched as Australia enacted the first social media ban for under-16s. Whether it will have the desired effect of improving young people’s lives we are yet to find out. But what the ban has achieved already is clear. Many politicians, along with academics and philosophers, have noted that self-regulation has not been an effective safeguard against the harms of social media – especially when the bottom line for people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk depends on keeping eyes on screens. For too long, these companies resisted, decrying censorship and prioritising “free speech” over moderation. The Australian government decided waiting was no longer an option. The social media ban and similar regulation across the world is now dragging tech companies kicking and screaming toward change. That it has taken the force of the law to ensure basic standards – such as robust age verification, teen-friendly user accounts and deactivation where appropriate – are met shows the moral argument alone was not enough. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

⚽ Carabao Cup updates, 7.30pm/8.15pm GMT kick-offs ⚽ Live scoreboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Email Scott Manchester City name the same League Cup team they selected at Swansea City in the previous round, with the exceptions of the injured Jeremy Doku and the Afcon-bound pair of Rayan Ait-Nouri and Omar Marmoush. Still plenty of attacking power in the shape of Rayan Cherki and Savinho, but just in case things go belly up, Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden are on the bench. Manchester City: Trafford, Lewis, Khusanov, Ake, O’Reilly, Gonzalez, Reijnders, Bobb, Cherki, Savinho, Mukasa. Subs: Donnarumma, Dias, Haaland, Silva, Gvardiol, Nunes, Foden, Gray, Mfuni. Continue reading...

⚽ Women’s Champions League updates, 8pm GMT starts ⚽ Live scoreboard | Follow us on Bluesky | And email Yara It is all to play for in the last games of the Women’s Champions League league stage. Teams who finish in the top four after today’s games will book their spot straight into the quarter-finals, teams that fall from fifth to twelfth place will enter a two-leg knockout playoff and teams in 13th to 18th are eliminated. All of the nine fixtures will kick-off simultaneously at 8pm GMT. Continue reading...

Exclusive global rights to the year’s biggest night in film will move to the video platform for a four year period The Oscars will be moving from broadcast to online as part of a multi-year new deal with YouTube. From 2019, the video platform will have exclusive global rights to Hollywood’s biggest night, including the ceremony but also red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball access. The deal will run until 2033. Continue reading...

Big tech, retailers and compliance firms are hiring people to ‘own the narrative’. But what do they actually mean by that? Name: Storyteller Age: Since Once Upon a Time, in a land far, far away. Continue reading...

Allowing entry on the basis of self-identification of gender is unlawful, high court is told Rules permitting trans women to share female changing facilities and swim in a women-only pond are discriminatory and unlawful, the high court has heard. The City of London Corporation is breaching equality legislation by allowing trans people to use the single-sex ponds on Hampstead Heath, according to a claim brought by the rights group Sex Matters. It is seeking permission to challenge the admission regulations. Continue reading...

Protesters had gathered outside prison to demand 20-year-old, who is on day 46, receive urgent medical attention A 20-year-old woman taking part in the hunger strike by Palestine Action-affiliated prisoners has been taken to hospital after protesters gathered outside the jail where she was being held to demand she receive urgent medical attention. Qesser Zuhrah, who is being held at HMP Bronzefield, Kent, while awaiting trial, is on day 46 of her hunger strike. Continue reading...

The great maverick image-maker, who was praised for inventing ‘result-wear’ yet only staged six shows, was adored by stars and Queen Camilla – and cut Mick Jagger’s Gimme Shelter trousers in his first job Antony Price, the maverick British designer and theatrical “image maker” has died aged 80. He was among the first to combine music, theatre and fashion, helping to craft Roxy Music’s glam rock aesthetic and designing Duran Duran’s yacht rock tailoring a decade later. More recently, he became Queen Camilla’s go-to designer. Often described as the greatest designer you’ve never heard of, Price only ever staged six shows – or “fashion extravaganzas” – in his 55-year career but just last month returned to the London catwalk for the first time in more than 30 years with a show in collaboration with 16Arlington. There, Lily Allen created headlines by modelling a black velvet “revenge dress”. Continue reading...

Commons committee monitoring revolving door that gave jobs to George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Tony Blair When the billionaire chief executive of AI chipmaker Nvidia threw a party in central London for Donald Trump’s state visit in September, the power imbalance between Silicon Valley and British politicians was vividly exposed. Jensen Huang hastened to the stage after meetings at Chequers and rallied his hundreds of guests to cheer on the power of AI. In front of a huge Nvidia logo, he urged the venture capitalists before him to herald “a new industrial revolution”, announced billions of pounds in AI investments and, like Willy Wonka handing out golden tickets, singled out some lucky recipients in the room. Continue reading...

Karen Ford says strike action is set to continue because of political posturing, while an NHS consultant worries about the deteriorating relationship among colleagues. Plus letters from John Sowerby, Dr Mussaddaq Iqbal, Gill Kelly and a final-year medical student “Striking resident doctors are digging in. History suggests this will go on and on” says the headline on Denis Campbell’s analysis piece (16 December). As a retired public health research and policy adviser and the parent of a doctor currently in core training, I agree that it is likely to go on and on – but not because doctors are stubborn. It will persist because the numbers do not add up and too much of the response has been political posturing rather than workforce planning. This year, around 30,000 doctors competed for just 10,000 specialty training posts, leaving thousands unable to progress. Promised increases of around 1,000 posts from 2026 may help at the margins, but will leave large numbers with no route into registrar training. Continue reading...

Robin Maynard reponds to an article by George Monbiot George Monbiot labels anyone raising concerns about ongoing global human population, currently growing by 70 million per year, as “obsessives” (The facts are stark: Europe must open the door to migrants, or face its own extinction, 12 December). Deploying familiar tropes and the loaded phrase “population control” (not used by the organisations or institutions working on the issue), he insinuates that anyone raising population concern is at best hypocritical, at worst racist, by blaming “poorer Black and Brown people in the global south” while ignoring excessive individual consumption in rich, developed countries like the UK. His crusade to scare off any liberal, progressive person from daring to posit that growth in population as well as consumption might be an issue sinks to new lows when he claims that only “mass murder on an unprecedented scale” could slow and stabilise population growth. Continue reading...

Mark Cottle, who has metastatic prostate cancer, responds to an article by Carolin Würfel It’s not just Germans like Carolin Würfel (16 December) who face a challenge with the question “How are you?” When I was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, that question went from being a routine conversation-opener to something much trickier. The convention, in Britain at least, is to answer something like “Oh, not bad…” Frankly, things are very bad, so I’m stuck between the dishonesty of the ritual reply and the full truth, which is a lot to fling back at someone offering an innocent greeting. I’ve developed the more nuanced response “All right today”, which I use if I really am doing all right in the general context of things. Continue reading...

The company says it is protecting nursing home residents by curbing unnecessary hospital transfers. Whistleblowers allege cost-cutting tactics have endangered the elderly Three nursing home residents died because employees of the American healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group helped delay or deny them critical hospital care, two pending lawsuits and a complaint to state authorities have alleged. The three cases involve a UnitedHealth partnership initiative that places medical staff from the company’s direct care unit, Optum, inside nursing homes to care for residents insured by the company’s insurance arm. Continue reading...

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Exclusive: Key figures at frozen assets depository among targets of intimidation campaign, say European intelligence agencies Belgian politicians and senior finance executives have been subject to a campaign of intimidation orchestrated by Russian intelligence aimed at persuading the country to block the use of €185bn assets for Ukraine, according to European intelligence agencies. Security officials indicated to the Guardian that there had been deliberate targeting of key figures at Euroclear, the securities depository holding the majority of Russia’s frozen assets, and leaders of the country. Continue reading...

In an era of rising nationalism, this move represents a brief flicker of hope for the internationalist ideal ‘I am a citizen of the world,” so the great Renaissance thinker Desiderius Erasmus is reputed to have said. It is because of his cosmopolitanism that 521 years after his birth, the EU named its exchange programme for students after him. It was part of a project aiming to create citizens of Europe, not just of its member states. Britain’s post-Brexit withdrawal from the scheme was a setback for a cosmopolitan project that has suffered bigger blows since. Nationalism has been ascendant across the continent, and Euroscepticism ceased to be a peculiarly British phenomenon years ago. Could the announcement that British students are to be readmitted to Erasmus+ provide some hope that the internationalist dream is not dead yet? Julian Baggini is a writer and philosopher; his latest book is How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...