All men have a responsibility to challenge misogyny | Letter

The Buckingham Palace statement (King Charles ‘ready to support’ police over claims about Andrew, 9 February) should be welcomed, but should have come sooner, acknowledging as it does the responsibility we have for the acts of others, not only for our own.Male violence against women and girls is not the preserve of the rich and powerful. It is evident in every strata of society: behind closed doors in domestic abuse, in the spiked drinks in clubs and pubs, in the trafficking and rape of girls by grooming gangs of every ethnicity, in the offices of the Metropolitan police, in the genital mutilation of hundreds of thousands of women across the globe. I could go on.In every iteration, it is an expression of power: of power over women, of power over other men, or of power created and shored up between men

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

One in 14 children who die in England have closely related parents, study finds

One in 14 children who died in England in a four-year period had parents who were close relatives, according to “stark” figures revealed by the first study of its kind.The figures, published by the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), based at the University of Bristol, analysed all 13,045 child deaths in England between 2019 and 2023. Of these, 926 (7%) were found to be of children born to consanguineous parents, meaning the mother and father are close blood relatives, such as first cousins.Although the exact number of children with consanguineous parents across England is unclear, the data clearly shows their overrepresentation within mortality statistics and requires “urgent action”, according to researchers.The largest geographical estimate of consanguinity currently available is from a large study following the lives of 13,000 babies born in Bradford