Category: Blogs

BBC Olimata felt like “a shell of a human”, when she had anorexia, as a teenager Lives are being lost and families torn apart because of “woefully inadequate care” for people with eating disorders, according to a group of MPs. The “alarming” rise in disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, over the past decade, has now become an “emergency”, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders says in a report. And greater awareness about different types of eating disorders and how they affect males and females of all ages and ethnicities is urgently needed. NHS England acknowledged services were under extreme pressure but said all mental-health trusts now offered teenagers and young people early help. ‘Eating nothing’ At 13, Olimata Taal responded to issues at home by denying herself food and over-exercising. It was the only thing she felt she could control. “Eating healthier quickly became eating less, to eating nothing,” Olimata says. “I remember literally feeling like a shell of a human. “I remember having to take multiple baths a day, because my body literally couldn’t keep itself warm.” Some teachers suspected something was wrong but failed to intervene. And when Olimata first saw a GP, she was told to just “eat a muffin”. ‘Survivor’s guilt’ Now 27, Olimata says her mixed Gambian and English heritage added another layer of complexity to her experience. “A huge part of African culture, in my experience, is about being strong, being strong-minded,” she says. “I didn’t see anyone who looked like me going through an eating disorder.” After she was diagnosed with anorexia, Olimata went on to receive consistent support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs), which “saved her life”, although she still feels “survivor’s guilt”. But because she did not want to lose that support, sometimes she felt no incentive to get better. ‘Grossly’ underfunded The MPs spent six months listening to “harrowing” experiences from patients, bereaved families, clinicians and academics. Eating disorders are often misunderstood and seen as a lifestyle choice affecting only white teenage girls, the report says. In reality, they are serious but treatable mental illnesses. The report refers to figures showing a growing number of people affected: The report says services are “grossly” underfunded, there are barriers to accessing treatment and wide variations in care quality across the UK. It calls for: a national strategy to properly support adults, young people, families and healthcare staff mandatory training so front-line workers such as teachers and nurses can spot different illnesses and offer help “That’s a very good idea,” consultant child-and-adolescent psychiatrist Dr Vic Chapman, who works for an eating-disorders service run by London’s Royal Free Hospital, says. “There is a big treatment gap for eating disorders.” MolIie Campbell, 17, fought for years for a diagnosis Mollie Campbell, 17, and her family fought for six years for a diagnosis of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), where an individual avoids specific types of food. Dismissed as a fussy eater, she was repeatedly refused help from eating-disorder services because she did not match the criteria for those more widely understood. “I thought the only way to get help was to eat even less, lose more weight and get sicker,” Mollie says. Without specialist help, her desperate family regularly took Mollie to accident and emergency, with stabbing chest pains, which doctors said could be caused by her eating habits. “I was in such a dark place where I saw no way out,” Mollie says. But now, armed with more information on her condition, she is feeling positive and ready to start a new chapter, at university, in September. ‘Beyond broken’ One of the MPs, Labour’s Richard Quigley, has been through the “nightmare” of watching his own child battle an eating disorder. “To watch someone who is bright and funny and clever just look lost and scared because there’s no treatment coming – you feel like you’re letting your child down,” he says. As part of its long-term plans, NHS England says it has invested additional funding to improve waiting times for eating-disorder services and more than £1bn a year goes into the provision of community mental-health care for adults. But Mr Quigley says services are “beyond broken”, far more investment is needed, which would save the NHS money in the long term, and specific training should be rolled out for GPs, dentists and carers. “We’re not just talking about a half day of training here,” he says. “We’re talking about days over a year to fully understand the nuances of, not just eating disorders, but the different types of eating disorders.” Early interventions NHS England mental-health director Claire Murdoch said there was “no doubt” eating-disorder services were “under extreme pressure” but more than four out of every five children and young people who needed urgent treatment started it within one week. “More work needs to be done, which is why every mental-health trust now offers evidence-based early interventions for 16–25-year-olds with an eating disorder,” she said. The report also warns about the dangers of some clinics discharging patients when their body-mass index (BMI) is very low – less than 15 – indicating a severe eating disorder. Campaigner Hope Virgo worries some people with long-term and complex eating disorders are being viewed as “untreatable” and “being sent home to die”. However, some experts say there may be occasions where such patients could be discharged, as long as an appropriate level of intensive community or day-patient care is available. Source link

US President Donald Trump has said he is considering imposing a 10% tariff on imports of Chinese-made goods as soon as 1 February. Trump said discussions with his administration were “based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada.” It followed threats by Trump to levy import taxes of 25% on Mexico and Canada, accusing them of allowing undocumented migrants and drugs to come into the US. In a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, Trump also vowed to hit the European Union with tariffs. “China is an abuser, but the European Union is is very, very bad to us,” he said. “They treat us very, very badly. So they’re going to be in for tariffs. It’s the only way you’re going to get back. It’s the only way you’re going to get fairness.” Shortly after he was sworn in on Monday, the new president also instructed federal agencies to conduct a review of existing trade deals and identify unfair practices by US trading partners. Meanwhile, a top Chinese official spoke out against protectionism at the World Economic Forum in Davos. China’s Vice Premier, Ding Xuexiang, called for “win-win” solutions to trade disputes without mentioning the US. On the campaign trail Trump had promised to place tariffs as high as 60% on Chinese goods. Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to fight back. “If the [US] president does choose to proceed with tariffs, Canada will respond – and everything is on the table,” Trudeau said. Ottawa is preparing counter-tariffs in response to the threat, reportedly worth billions of dollars. Canada, China and Mexico are the top US trading partners. Tariffs are an important part of Trump’s economic plans. The president believes they can boost growth, protect jobs and raise tax revenue. But many economists say such measures could lead to higher prices for Americans and harm companies hit by foreign retaliation. Source link

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the deep web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold. Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he had called Ulbricht’s mother to inform her that he had granted a pardon to her son. Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013 after police arrested Ulbricht, sold illegal drugs using the virtual currency Bitcoin, as well as hacking equipment and stolen passports. “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me,” Trump said in his post online. “He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!” During his trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht’s website, hosted on the hidden “dark web”, sold more than $200m (£131m) worth of drugs anonymously. The Silk Road took its name from the historic trade routes spanning Europe, Asia and parts of Africa. The site achieved notoriety through media reports and online chatter. But users could only access the site through Tor – a system that lets people use the web without revealing who they are or which country they are in. Court documents from the FBI said the site had just under a million registered users, but investigators said they did not know how many were active. Sentencing Ulbricht – who has two college degrees – District Judge Katherine Forrest said he was “no better a person than any other drug dealer”. She said the site had been his “carefully planned life’s work”. The judge noted the lengthy sentence also acted as a message to copycats that there would be “very serious consequences”. Source link

Ukraine has detained its army’s chief psychiatrist for alleged “illegal enrichment” charges related to earnings of more than $1m (£813,000) accrued since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In a statement, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the man sat on a commission deciding whether individuals were fit for military service. The SBU statement did not name him – however, a man called Oleh Druz was previously identified as the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ chief psychiatrist. The SBU said he owned three apartments in or near Kyiv, one in Odesa, two plots of land and several BMW luxury cars, and investigators searching his home also found $152,000 (£124,000) and €34,000 in cash. The statement said the man did not declare the property, which was registered in the name of his wife, daughter, sons, and other third parties. He now faces ten years in jail for the alleged charges of illegal enrichment and making a false declaration. Druz was implicated in a similar case in 2017 which saw him fail to declare two SUVs and several properties, leading him to be suspended. Ukraine has long battled endemic corruption. In May, a Ukrainian MP was charged with embezzling £220,000, while in 2023 more than 30 conscription officials accused of taking bribes and smuggling people out of the country were sacked in an anti-corruption purge. Last year, the Ukrainian parliament voted to abolish military medical commissions after several officials were accused of accepting bribes in exchange for issuing exemptions from military service. Source link

PA Media The Conservatives have called for the forthcoming public inquiry into the Southport murders to consider why the police, prosecutors and government did not make public more details about the killer last summer before his trial. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer have both said the government could not have risked Axel Radukabana walking free by ignoring advice that publishing information could have jeopardised his trial. But Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said it was likely an “information vacuum” had resulted in misinformation which “fuelled” the riots which followed the Southport attack. He asked why the discovery of ricin and a copy of an al-Qaeda training manual in Radukabana’s house could not have been swiftly revealed. Cooper said the government had wanted to make public that Radukabana had been referred to the counter-extremism programme Prevent, but could not because of legal advice. Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder and 10 of attempted murder on 31 July, shortly after launching his attack which killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine. Within days, in early August, officers searching Rudakubana’s home found ricin and a file entitled “Military Studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants, the Al Qaeda training manual”. The government was kept up-to-date about the discovery. The BBC has been told the ricin was in a Tupperware box in his bedroom. Police rarely give details of an ongoing investigation without what they describe as a “policing purpose”. In this case, false rumours were spreading online about the killer, including that he had migrated to Britain. Senior officers felt under pressure to reassure the public, and dispel some of the rumours about the suspect by making clear he was in fact British. But after discovering the ricin and manual they did not immediately make this public. The investigation continued, with searches taking weeks because of the need for teams to wear hazmat suits and take a break every 40 minutes. As they prepared to announce the outcome to the investigation, senior police officers became frustrated that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was advising them to withhold many details they felt should be made public, due to false claims online. The killer was not charged with production of a biological weapon, and possession of information likely to be useful for terrorism, until 29 October 2024. Sources close to the handling of the case say police wanted to announce these charges and reveal the discovery of the ricin and manual 11 days earlier, on 18 October, but there was a hold-up as the CPS and the police negotiated over what could be said publicly. A source said the CPS “put a load of red pen through the statement”. Rudakubana was finally charged with the additional two offences on 29 October. It was at this point, three months after the Southport attacks, that police made public for the first time that the ricin and manual had been found. He was not charged with preparing for acts of terrorism, because under current laws this would involve finding evidence of a political motivation or ideology, and none had been found. The prime minister suggested on Tuesday the laws defining terrorism might need to change to take account of lone attackers without a clear motivation. Rudakubana has now pleaded guilty to all the charges he faced and will be sentenced on Thursday. Normally the risk of jeopardising the case falls away once all charges have been decided, either by a plea, or a jury reaching a verdict. Crime reporters attended a police and CPS-led briefing setting out the entire case – but on Monday, the CPS again decided the information should not be published, this time until after the sentencing. Despite that, the prime minister and home secretary have both given details about the case in the Commons. Sir Keir Starmer’s deputy official spokesperson told political reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the prime minister had “not strayed” into areas related to sentencing. Yet the CPS insists it needs to protect the sentencing process due to take place on Thursday. Nick Price, CPS director of legal services, said: “The next stage of the process is for the prosecution to present our full case to the court on Thursday – including relevant details of the defendant’s past – so the judge can consider all the evidence when passing sentence. “This will be the point when the full details of this case will be heard by the public. “We recognise the profound interest in these proceedings, and it is important the prosecution case is presented to the court so the facts can be determined which may inform the sentence handed down.” The CPS has taken this position because it believes the judge is entitled to make factual findings about the case and must also determine what weight to attach to different aspects of the evidence. However, the Crime Reporters Association, representing around 50 senior crime and home affairs correspondents, has written to the CPS raising concerns that the service is breaching a long-established principle that there is no legal risk in publishing material about a case after guilty pleas and before sentencing. The CPS said in its response that the “independence of the judge must be respected”. Source link

Watch: Militia leader Stewart Rhodes leaves prison after Trump issues 6 January pardons Former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes have been released from prison, as President Donald Trump sets free more than 1,500 people charged for the US Capitol riot four years ago. Within less than 24 hours of Trump pardoning or commuting sentences of those who tried to violently overturn the 2020 election, the riot’s two most prominent leaders left prison. Trump is also dismissing charges against those charged, but not yet tried, for the riot. “My son, Enrique Tarrio, has been released officially as of now!” Zuny Tarrio posted on X. Rhodes, who was not pardoned but had his sentence commuted, is waiting at the jail for defendants to be freed. Rhodes, a former US Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer, had been charged for leading a contingent of his Oath Keepers members to Washington. Though Rhodes did not enter the Capitol, he directed his members from outside, and was sentenced in 2023 to 18 years in federal prison. Tarrio was found guilty of seditious conspiracy – a rarely used charge of planning to overthrow the government – over the riot. He was not in Washington DC during the riots but directed others involved. He received a sentence of 22 years, one of the longest given. Amid the pardons and commutations, Trump also signed an order directing the Department of Justice to drop all pending cases against suspects accused in the riot. Many of those people have been in jail in Washington DC for more than a year, with Trump often referring to them during his campaign as “hostages” as they awaited trial. A leading advocate for those defendants – Edward R Martin – has also been made the acting US Attorney for Washington DC, showing the depth of Trump’s desire to quickly end the prosecutions. The Washington office was in charge of trying the cases connected to 6 January 2021. But for some families of those inmates, the release process was proving frustrating on Tuesday. Standing outside the DC central jail, Ben Pollock, whose children Jonathan and Olivia were locked inside, said he had spoken to his son and learned they might be moved to another facility. “We have no idea what’s happening,” he said. “Why haven’t they been released?” Democrats have condemned the release of more than 1,000 people as an attempt to rewrite history and sanitise the violence of the riot which led to multiple deaths. Trump has described the day as “peaceful”. Source link

President Donald Trump has criticised a service held at the Washington National Cathedral after he was called out during a sermon. Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde asked Trump for “mercy”, citing feelings of fear among LGBT and immigrant communities. Shortly after being sworn in as US President on Monday, Trump said he would make it “official policy” that there are “only two genders – male and female.” He also vowed to end illegal immigration into the country and said millions of “criminal aliens” would be deported. Speaking to press afterwards, Trump said he “didn’t think it was a good service”. “They could do much better”, he added before walking away. Source link

Getty Images Donald Trump has vowed to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in the US In one of his first acts as the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending “birthright citizenship” – meaning the automatic American citizenship that is granted to anyone born in the country. It’s a policy change he’s long promised – but implementing it won’t be easy. Trump’s order seeks to change the rules to deny the granting of citizenship to the children of migrants who are either in the US illegally or on temporary visas. The document does not suggest that the order would apply retrospectively. But it remains unclear how he intends to achieve this, given that birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution and would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress to change. Indeed, Trump’s attempts could face significant legal hurdles. Eighteen states, along with the city of San Francisco and the District of Columbia, have already sued the federal government and challenged the executive order. What is ‘birthright citizenship’? The first sentence of the 14th Amendment to the US constitution establishes the principle of “birthright citizenship”: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” Immigration hardliners argue that the policy is a “great magnet for illegal immigration” and that it encourages undocumented pregnant women to cross the border in order to give birth, an act that has been pejoratively called “birth tourism” or having an “anchor baby”. How did it start? The 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868, after the close of the Civil War. The 13th Amendment had abolished slavery in 1865, while the 14th settled the question of the citizenship of freed, American-born former slaves. Previous Supreme Court decisions, like Dred Scott v Sandford in 1857, had decided that African Americans could never be US citizens. The 14th Amendment overrode that. In 1898, the US Supreme Court affirmed that birthright citizenship applies to the children of immigrants in the case of Wong Kim Ark v United States. Wong was a 24-year-old child of Chinese immigrants who was born in the US, but denied re-entry when he returned from a visit to China. Wong successfully argued that because he was born in the US, his parents’ immigration status did not affect the application of the 14th Amendment. “Wong Kim Ark vs United States affirmed that regardless of race or the immigration status of one’s parents, all persons born in the United States were entitled to all of the rights that citizenship offered,” writes Erika Lee, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. “The court has not re-examined this issue since then.” Can Trump overturn it? Most legal scholars agree that President Trump cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order. “He’s doing something that’s going to upset a lot of people, but ultimately this will be decided by the courts,” said Saikrishna Prakash, a constitutional expert and University of Virginia Law School professor. “This is not something he can decide on his own.” Mr Prakash said that while the president can order employees of federal agencies to interpret citizenship more narrowly – agents with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for example – that would trigger legal challenges from anyone whose citizenship is denied. That could lead to a lengthy court battle ultimately winding up at the US Supreme Court. A constitutional amendment could do away with birthright citizenship, but that would require a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and approval by three quarters of US states. How many people would it impact? According to Pew Research, about 250,000 babies were born to unauthorised immigrant parents in the United States in 2016, which is a 36% decrease from a peak in 2007. By 2022, the latest year that data is available, there are 1.2m US citizens born to unauthorised immigrant parents, Pew found. But as those children also have children, the cumulative effect of ending birthright citizenship would increase the number of unauthorised immigrants in the country to 4.7m in 2050, the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, found. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump said he thought the children of unauthorised immigrants should be deported alongside their parents – even if they were born in the US. “I don’t want to be breaking up families,” Trump said last December. “So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.” Which countries have birthright citizenship? More than 30 countries – including Canada and Mexico – practise automatic “jus soli”, or “right of the soil” without restriction. Other countries, like the UK and Australia, allow for a modified version where citizenship is automatically granted if one parent is a citizen or permanent resident. Source link

UK Government Marcus Bokkerink has chaired the Competition and Markets Authority since 2022 The chair of the UK’s competition watchdog has been ousted by government ministers who felt that the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had failed to convince them it was sufficiently focused on growth. Government sources said that with the chancellor and business secretary at the World Economic Forum in Davos trying to drum up investment, the government wanted to send a signal that it was serious about growth. The CMA recently held up a merger between Vodafone and Three Mobile Networks which was eventually approved. Marcus Bokkerink, who has chaired the CMA since 2022, will be replaced on an interim basis by Doug Gurr, former boss of Amazon UK. Mr Bokkerink and other regulators met with Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week to deliver their ideas on how to stimulate growth. It is understood that the submission from the CMA was thought to be underwhelming. The CMA’s primary responsibility is to ensure consumers are well served by effective and fair competition. The CMA has been contacted for comment. Source link

The opening day of Prince Harry’s damages battle against the owners of The Sun newspaper has been delayed after it emerged that the two sides are involved in potential settlement talks after years of legal warfare. The duke’s lawyers were due on Tuesday to open an eight-week trial of his allegations that journalists at News Group Newspapers used unlawful techniques to pry into his private live – and executives then allegedly covered it up. Moments before they were to begin presenting their case, they asked for an adjournment. However, after hours of secret discussions, and no sign of a final agreement that could change the nature of the trial, the judge demanded that the two sides begin – leading them both to say they would ask the Court of Appeal to overturn that order. The practical effect of their objection is that the case has been delayed until at least 10am on Wednesday – which means both sides have more time to negotiate. It’s not clear what has been raised in the 11th hour negotiations. Prince Harry has repeatedly said he wants a trial so that he can get “accountability” for other alleged victims of unlawful newsgathering of private information by NGN journalists. NGN has denied there was any wrongdoing at The Sun or that executives across the group covered it up. The Rupert Murdoch-owned empire has long admitted that journalists at the News of the World, closed down in 2011, did use unlawful techniques but has always denied that it was widespread. This morning, lawyers for Prince Harry and former Labour MP Lord Tom Watson, the other remaining claimant, asked Mr Justice Fancourt to delay opening the case twice – meaning the court did not sit until 2pm. David Sherborne, Prince Harry’s barrister, said there was potentially a “good prospect” of an agreement that would save the court time. “We are very close, there is an issue with time and gaining instructions,” he said. “It is not the only factor.” Anthony Hudson KC, for News Group Newspapers, added the parties needed more time because of “time differences” and said that both parties were involved in a “settlement dynamic”. Mr Justice Fancourt – who has repeatedly criticised both sides for long delays and spats over how the case should be conducted – refused to give them more time, saying that the case should start, even if there were still talks behind the scenes that could change the nature of the trial. “I am not persuaded that if there is a real will to settle this that it could not have been done by today,” said the judge. News Group Newspapers’ lawyers then asked for the court to sit in private – without the presence of the media – to hear more about what was going on. The judge refused, saying he was not going to sit in “secret” – and then both Prince Harry’s team and NGN’s lawyers said they would ask senior judges to overturn the order to get underway. Source link