Marks & Spencer launches ‘nutrient dense’ range for people on weight-loss jabs
Marks & Spencer is targeting weight-loss jab users with a new range of “nutrient dense” food that it claims will satisfy customers who are eating less.The retailer said the range, which launches on 5 January and includes salads, breads, yoghurt bowls and chicken dinners, was “perfectly portioned to contain high amounts of nutrients per calorie”.People across the UK who are trying to lose weight are increasingly turning to jabs such as Wegovy, Zepbound and Saxenda, which suppress users’ appetites.The trend poses new challenges for food retailers such as M&S, which are trying to maintain sales as some customers eat less.The head of food innovation at M&S, Annette Peters, said the new range was “great if customers are reducing their food intake, such as people using the GLP-1 medications.
We have challenged ourselves to make products that are denser in nutrients than calories, so every single mouthful is packed full of more of the nutrients we all need,”M&S’s effort to target the weight-loss jab market follows similar moves by Morrisons, which earlier this month announced that it was partnering with the health and wellness brand Applied Nutrition to offer a range of “GLP-1 friendly ready meals”,From early January, 53 “high protein” products including ready meals, sandwiches, breads and cheeses will hit the shelves at about 400 Morrisons supermarkets,The pressure to remain relevant to weight-loss jab users could ramp up if pharmaceutical companies succeed in bringing an anti-obesity pill to market,While weight-loss jabs, which mimic the gut hormone GLP-1, have exploded in popularity in recent years, they remain expensive for most users.
Pharmaceutical companies are racing to be the first provider of weight-loss pills, which would be easier to store, distribute and administer and would ultimately be cheaper than their injectable counterparts.Questions are still being raised about the side-effects of GLP-1 medicines, which are also used to treat diabetes.These include pancreas-linked problems, which prompted health officials to launch fresh research into the drugs’ side-effects earlier this year.There are also growing concerns that people are buying illegal weight-loss drugs peddled on social media sites.The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency issued a fresh warning to people planning to use such medications, stressing the importance of buying them from registered UK pharmacies or legitimate retailers.
So far, weight-loss jabs have given a financial boost to large pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly, which became the first drugmaker to reach a $1tn (£740bn) market value in the US last month.The company has developed tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity.It has been competing with rivals including the Danish company Novo Nordisk, which is behind the weight-loss brands Wegovy and Ozempic.The company ousted its chief executive, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, in May over concerns it was losing ground in the market.Its share price rose in September after research showed promising results from its weight-loss pill, which is still in development.
Facebook slow to act on posts celebrating Bondi beach massacre, anti-hate group says
Facebook hosted terrorist propaganda that celebrated the murder of Jews and praised Islamic State, a leading anti-hate group has alleged.The posts included celebrations of the Bondi beach massacre that the Community Security Trust says Facebook has been too slow to take down. The posts were still on Facebook on 16 December, two days after the attack, and received shares and likes.Some accounts are Britain-based and those have been reported to counter-terrorism police in the UK as a matter of urgency.One post shows video of the aftermath of the Bondi beach attack, which was allegedly carried out by a father and son who were IS supporters, and says: “Allah is the greatest and praise to Allah
We must take control of AI now, before it’s too late | Letters
“When the AI bubble bursts, humans will finally have their chance to take back control”, says the headline on Rafael Behr’s article (23 December). I think it’s more likely that when the AI bubble bursts, the creators of the crisis, along with other wealthy economic actors, will be in the rooms with the politicians telling them how to “rescue” us all by transferring wealth in some way from average citizens to the already extremely wealthy. Just like they did during the financial crisis of 2008.We need to be ready with alternative plans. For example, world governments could coordinate to buy, for suitably low prices, majority shares in any crashing tech company that actually produces something useful, ensuring that those shares come with full voting rights
When swiping up doesn’t get you far | Letters
Speaking of odd habits as a result of using technology (Letters, 25 December), I once passed a bus shelter where a mother was waiting with her young child. The shelter had a huge poster of a new mobile phone and the toddler was leaning out of its buggy and desperately swiping the screen of the phone, presumably in the hope of getting cartoons.Ron BaileyNewcastle upon Tyne I read Joanna Rimmer’s letter on this subject and tried to “like” it.Heather BradfordWinchester Which tablet/ebook user hasn’t absentmindedly put their finger on a printed word they don’t know expecting to see the dictionary definition pop up?Tim MartineauWirral, Merseyside I don’t understand why, when reading a physical copy of the Guardian, the page doesn’t scroll when I swipe up. Can this be corrected, please?Geoff Skinner Kensal Green, London I once picked up a pencil to underline something on Wikipedia
Cryptocurrency slump erases 2025 financial gains and Trump-inspired optimism
As 2025 comes to a close, Donald Trump’s favorable approach to cryptocurrency has not proven to be enough to sustain the industry’s gains, once the source of market-wide optimism and enthusiasm. The last few months of the year have seen $1tn in value wiped from the digital asset market, despite bitcoin hitting an all-time-high price of $126,000 on 6 October.The October price peak was short-lived. Bitcoin’s price tumbled just days later after Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on China sent shockwaves across the market on 12 October. The crypto market saw $19bn liquidated in 24 hours – the largest liquidation event on record
‘This will be a stressful job’: Sam Altman offers $555k salary to fill most daunting role in AI
The maker of ChatGPT has advertised a $555,000-a-year vacancy with a daunting job description that would cause Superman to take a sharp intake of breath.In what may be close to the impossible job, the “head of preparedness” at OpenAI will be directly responsible for defending against risks from ever more powerful AIs to human mental health, cybersecurity and biological weapons.That is before the successful candidate has to start worrying about the possibility that AIs may soon begin training themselves amid fears from some experts they could “turn against us”.“This will be a stressful job, and you’ll jump into the deep end pretty much immediately,” said Sam Altman, the chief executive of the San Francisco-based organisation, as he launched the hunt to fill “a critical role” to “help the world”.The successful candidate will be responsible for evaluating and mitigating emerging threats and “tracking and preparing for frontier capabilities that create new risks of severe harm”
‘Why should we pay these criminals?’: the hidden world of ransomware negotiations
They call it “stopping the bleeding”: the vital window to prevent an entire database from being ransacked by criminals or a production line grinding to a halt.When a call comes into the cybersecurity firm S-RM, headquartered on Whitechapel High Street in east London, a hacked business or institution may have just minutes to protect themselves.S-RM, which helped a high-profile retail client recover from a Scattered Spider cyber-attack has become a quiet, often word-of-mouth, success.Many of the company’s senior workers are multilingual and have a minimal online footprint, which reveals scant but impressive CVs suggestive of corporate or government intelligence-based careers.S-RM now claims the UK’s largest cyber-incident response team
Patriots’ Stefon Diggs faces strangulation and assault charges in Massachusetts
Travball emerges, athletics surges, Brisbane basks in success: Australia’s biggest sporting moments of 2025
Cameron Green remains Australia’s golden child but the blessing has become a curse | Brendan Foster
The Breakdown | ‘There is no ceiling for these players’: Jamaica targeting 2031 Rugby World Cup
Online school and junior tennis: freedom, focus – and a quiet cost
Five things England must do to make it two Ashes Test wins in a row in Sydney