Starmer’s threat to resident doctors is a grave mistake | Letters

While I totally disapprove, as I did last time, of the doctors’ strike but completely support their demands and grievances, it is the prime minister’s response which has made me write this letter (Keir Starmer gives resident doctors 48 hours to call off strike or lose training offer, 31 March). His threat of not creating extra training posts is shocking, inappropriate and impulsive. Though on the face of it it sounds like an innocuous response showing irritation, it is probably the most convincing evidence so far of his unfitness to govern among the litany of his other missteps.It has laid bare his government’s lack of strategy and lack of sincerity. Does he understand that, by not creating training posts, he is not only going to harm doctors’ careers, spoil thousands of young doctors’ lives and deter others from adopting this noble and vital profession, but also harm the NHS, and thus patient care? The NHS is desperately understaffed

High times or low blows? Experts fail to clear air over German drug legalisation

It was a landmark piece of legislation passed by Germany’s previous, centre-left-led government: a measure that legalised the personal recreational use of cannabis for over-18s despite warnings from critics it would cause a steep rise in the drug’s use, including by teenagers, and boost criminal gangs.Two years on, controversy over the move has still not been stubbed out, with critics and proponents at odds over its impact on consumption, youth welfare and organised crime.Preliminary results from an ongoing study into the policy’s consequences, released on Wednesday, provided a mixed picture, with enough ammunition for each side to claim vindication.The MPs Carmen Wegge and Christos Pantazis of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) said the analysis to date showed that partial legalisation was the right approach.“The dramatic negative effects on consumption patterns or public health feared by critics have not materialised

‘The manosphere is dead and no one cares about Andrew Tate any more’: the poet taking on toxic masculinity

Sam Browne’s blend of brutal honesty and droll observation has made him a viral sensation. He talks about growing up in Southend, mental health and the healing power of poetryOn a cold night in east London, 21-year-old performance poet Sam Browne is telling a packed room of strangers about his second bout of psychosis. “I was in Morocco at 18, completely alone, and I started to feel that things weren’t real,” he says. “It got so bad that one day I turned to a random person and told him I was thinking of killing myself. He just said back to me: ‘Don’t do that – you’ll miss the sunset

Finally, the clitoris is getting the attention it deserves

There’s no excuse for being icliterate any more. It was a long time coming, but, almost 30 years after the web of nerves inside the penis was charted, we’ve finally got a similar 3D map of the nerves within the glans of the clitoris. You can’t see all of the nerve branches of the clitoris via dissection or clinical imaging methods, which is why this sort of visualisation is so important.Ju Young Lee, one of the researchers behind the scan, has said she’s amazed it has taken so long for a project like this to materialise. But the clitoris has long been understudied and misunderstood

Revealed: the vast illegal casino network targeting UK gamblers

Calls for tougher laws as network stretching from Caribbean to Georgia generates riches for offshore tycoons by appearing to prey on the vulnerableImmaculately groomed and beaming from ear to ear, Andres Markou looks every inch the golden boy of the gambling sector. The youthful boss of MyStake, a fast-growing digital casino, has been pictured shaking hands with the Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho over a lucrative branding partnership.Elsewhere, he can be seen collecting industry awards, or offering “visionary” insights to interviewers. There is only one hurdle blocking Markou’s ascent to the very top of his trade: he does not exist.The photos seem to be AI-generated fakes and Markou, it appears, is a decoy, deflecting attention from the true faces behind a sophisticated network of illegal online casinos

A ‘dress rehearsal’ for life: inside the Manchester project helping homeless men rebuild

It costs a lot to live by the canal in central Manchester, with even the pokiest of studios renting for £1,000. But in Embassy Village, the city’s newest waterside community, residents do not need to be rich. Quite the opposite, in fact. To live there, you have to be male, homeless and ready to get your life back on track.Nestled between the River Irwell and the Bridgewater canal, just across from the fashionable Castlefield district, Embassy’s 40 studio flats have been built under two Victorian viaducts carrying the city’s trams and trains