Criminals exploit ‘stigma and embarrassment’ to sell fake erectile dysfunction drugs

Men have been warned against buying illegal erectile dysfunction pills online after nearly 20m pills – enough to fill two doubledecker buses – were seized in the last five years.The “stigma and embarrassment” of erectile dysfunction is being “exploited by criminals”, according to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).Between 2021 and 2025, the MHRA’s criminal enforcement unit, working closely with Border Force to intercept shipments, seized about 19.5m doses of erectile dysfunction medicines, equivalent to a single dose for three in every four adult men in the UK. Many of the pills seized contained no active ingredient, the wrong dose, hidden drugs or toxic ingredients, the MHRA said

NHS deal with AI firm Palantir called into question after officials’ concerns revealed

Health officials fear Palantir’s reputation will hinder the delivery of a “vital” £330m NHS contract, according to briefings seen by the Guardian, sparking fresh calls for the deal to be scrapped.In 2023, ministers selected Palantir, a US surveillance technology company that also works for the Israeli military and Donald Trump’s ICE operation, to build an AI-enabled data platform to connect disparate health information across the NHS.Now it has emerged that after Keir Starmer demanded faster deployment, Whitehall officials privately warned that the public perception of Palantir would limit its rollout, meaning the contract would not offer value for money.By last summer fewer than half of health authorities in England had started using the technology amid opposition from the public and doctors. The British Medical Association (BMA) has said its members could refuse to use parts of the system citing Palantir’s role in targeting ICE raids in the US

Health unions call 3.3% pay rise for 1.4m NHS staff in England ‘an insult’

Health unions have criticised the 3.3% pay rise imposed on 1.4 million NHS staff in England as “an insult”, with one threatening to strike over the below-inflation award.They described the increase announced by Wes Streeting, the health secretary, as a “betrayal” of the frontline workers – including nurses, midwives and porters – who will receive it for 2026-27. The 3

‘Deeply illogical’: this man’s life work could end homelessness – and Trump is doing all he can to stop it

Now in his fourth decade of spreading the word across most of the world’s continents about “Housing First”, an approach to helping homeless people that has convinced governments and non-profits alike to see housing as a human right, Sam Tsemberis experienced a first.He was censored by the US government.In the 1990s, Tsemberis began developing a simple idea: people living on the street want, and should have, safe housing with no strings attached. When you add accessible mental health and addiction services and caring, consistent case management, most stay housed. His research would bear out the idea, showing that Housing First results in at least 85% of people staying housed 12 or 24 months later, depending on the study

Children’s vocabulary shrinking as reading loses out to screen time, says Susie Dent

Children’s vocabulary is shrinking as reading loses out to screen time, according to the lexicographer Susie Dent, who is urging families to read, talk and play word games to boost language development.The Countdown star’s warning comes as the government prepares to issue its first advice to parents on how to manage screen use in under-fives, amid concerns that excessive screen time is damaging children’s language development.“So many children are now falling behind,” Dent said. “The vocabulary gap is getting bigger and there is a real perception that vocabulary development is suffering and that impacts on learning.”Citing a 2023 Oxford University Press report that found that two in five pupils had fallen behind in vocabulary development, she said: “There is a huge perception that screen time is having a negative impact on vocabulary, and I think that’s because it is taking away from reading time

Youth work ‘black holes’ in half of all council areas in England, study finds

Almost half of all council areas in England have youth work “black holes” with few or no services despite high levels of deprivation and antisocial behaviour, analysis shows.The first mapping in decades of youth centres across the country has revealed a nationwide crisis in youth support and significant inequality. Poorer areas in the north of England are shown to have been the worst affected by cuts to youth services since 2010.The research, produced by the charity funder Social Investment Business (SIB) and the University of Leeds, plotted youth services against the needs of the local population for the first time and found “a consistent picture of youth work black holes” across the country.Bethia McNeil, the director of quality and impact at the YMCA, the country’s largest youth charity, said: “Having this data is critical – we haven’t had anything like this in a very long time, probably since 2010, and youth provision has changed dramatically since then