Starmer urged to scrap ‘outdated’ law limiting power to stop new gambling premises

Keir Starmer has been urged to abolish an “outdated” rule that limits the power of communities to prevent bookmakers and 24-hour slot machine shops from opening on high streets.In a letter to the prime minister, nearly 300 politicians and campaigners called for an end to the “aim to permit” policy, introduced when Tony Blair’s Labour government liberalised gambling laws in 2005.The rule places a legal obligation on licensing authorities such as councils or the Gambling Commission to err on the side of allowing new gambling premises.“Our high streets are being hollowed out by a surge of betting shops and 24/7 slot-machine venues, while local people are left powerless,” said the Labour MP Dawn Butler, who coordinated the letter.She said the aim to permit rule had left councils powerless to refuse licence applications, even in the face of local opposition

Guardian Hope appeal raises more than £800,000 for charities tackling division

Donations to the Guardian’s Hope appeal have passed the £800,000 mark as generous readers continue to support inspirational grassroots charities that promote tolerance and tackle division, racism and hatred.The 2025 Guardian appeal is raising funds for five charities: Citizens UK, the Linking Network, Locality, Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust and Who is Your Neighbour?The Hope appeal, which is entering its final few days, supports charities offering positivity and common purpose against an backdrop of extremist violence and harassment, anti-migrant rhetoric, and the re-emergence of “1970s-style racism”.One donor told us by email: “I support all efforts to rebuild community links and cohesion. With lived experience of racism (current and past), I never want it to stain our country again.“Hate and division are making our communities less safe for all of us

US to slash routine vaccine recommendations for children in major change experts say creates doubt

The Trump administration will slash routine vaccine recommendations during childhood from 17 to 11 jabs – the biggest change to vaccines yet under the purview of longtime vaccine critic Robert F Kennedy Jr.The changes, which US health officials announced on Monday afternoon and are effective immediately, will erode trust and reduce access to vaccines while allowing infectious diseases to spread, experts said.“The goal of this administration is to basically make vaccines optional,” said Paul Offit, an infectious diseases physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a former member of the advisory committee on vaccines for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “And we’re paying the price.”The CDC will now recommend one dose of the HPV vaccine instead of two

Shortage of NHS stroke specialists resulting in thousands dead or disabled, say doctors

Thousands of people who have had a stroke are ending up severely disabled or dying because the NHS has too few specialists to treat them quickly enough, senior doctors are warning.A chronic shortage of stroke consultants across the NHS means that patients are suffering horrendous consequences because of delays in getting clot-busting drugs and surgery, they said.“People are either dying or living with disability unnecessarily because they’re not getting the correct evaluation and treatment by the right expert at the right time,” Prof David Werring, the past president of the British and Irish Association of Stroke Physicians (BIASP), told the Guardian.Many hospitals cannot urgently diagnose stroke patients and give them time-critical treatment to maximise their chances of a full recovery “because we haven’t got enough consultants”, Werring said. “The shortage means that when people have an acute stroke, they cannot be sure of receiving an expert consultant opinion to get the right diagnosis and the right treatment at the right time

US traders make big profits betting on Maduro’s capture in January

Gamblers appear to have made large profits after successfully betting on the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro.Ahead of Donald Trump’s shock announcement on Saturday morning, traders seemed to have anticipated Maduro’s political demise by placing timely wagers on so-called “prediction markets”.Prediction markets are online gambling platforms that allow individuals to bet against each other on a range of markets that have been created by the host website.They are typically binary bets – for example, punting on yes/no or higher/lower outcomes – with the markets ranging from the identity of the next Republican US presidential nominee (JD Vance/Marco Rubio) to wagers on whether the S&P 500 index will rise or fall on a particular trading day on Wall Street.Last Friday, an apparent new trader on Polymarket

UK arts groups offer therapeutic support to performers as they challenge myth of tortured artist

From Vincent van Gogh to Virginia Woolf, from Nina Simone to Amy Winehouse, the tortured-artist archetype looms large: private torment fuelling public brilliance.But across opera, theatre, film and television, a growing movement is pushing back against what many now insist is a corrosive myth – the romanticised necessity of creative martyrdom.“Artists don’t need help because they’re weak; they need it because they’re strong,” said Annilese Miskimmon, the artistic director at English National Opera. “They’re strong enough to rehearse deeply traumatic parts multiple times a day and then perform those roles to order in front of thousands of people.”Miskimmon recently directed Dead Man Walking, a true story that opens with the rape and murder of two teenagers – and closes with the state-sanctioned killing of the murderer, scrutinised by the grieving parents and the teenagers’ ghosts