Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in UK amid ‘wild west’ industry, MPs say
Brazilian butt lifts should be banned in the UK, MPs have said, as a report found a lack of regulation had led to a “wild west” of cosmetic procedures being carried out in garden sheds, hotel rooms and public toilets.The women and equalities committee (WEC) said high risk procedures such as non-surgical buttock augmentation should be outlawed immediately, and a licensing system for lower risk treatments was urgently needed.People with no training can carry out potentially harmful procedures, putting the public at risk, the group of MPs added.A nine-month inquiry by the committee also found ministers were not moving quickly enough to tackle the risks posed to Britons and recommended they “accelerate regulatory action”.The lack of timely action was “fostering complacency in self-regulation” within the industry, they cautioned.
“High-harm procedures such as the liquid Brazilian butt lift (BBL), which has resulted in fatalities, should be banned immediately without further consultation,” the report said.“A licensing system for lower-risk procedures, in which only those suitably qualified can perform them, should be introduced within this parliament.”The MPs added: “The government is not moving quickly enough in introducing such a system.At present, individuals without any formal training can carry out potentially harmful interventions, placing the public at risk.”Currently, there is no regulation as to who can perform non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as injectables, including fillers or botulinum toxin injections – often referred to as Botox – laser therapy or chemical peels.
“This has led to a ‘wild west’ in which procedures have reportedly taken place in Airbnbs, hotel rooms, garden sheds and public toilets, leading to many individuals experiencing serious harm,” the report said,During the inquiry, one woman, Sasha Dean, told how she was admitted to intensive care with sepsis and kept in hospital for five weeks after a BBL went wrong,A BBL is a non-surgical buttock augmentation where dermal fillers are injected to increase volume and shape the buttocks,The committee also heard how Alice Webb, 33, a mother-of-five from Gloucestershire, died after a liquid BBL in September 2024,MPs on the committee suggested that more people were turning to cosmetic procedures because of body image issues driven by social media and face-editing technologies.
They raised concerns over the impact of influencers “normalising” high-risk procedures.The WEC chair, Sarah Owen, said: “Procedures that are deemed high risk such as liquid BBLs and liquid breast augmentations, which have already been shown to pose a serious threat to patient safety, should be banned immediately.There is no need for further consultation and delay.“A licensing system for non-surgical cosmetic procedures should be introduced within this parliament.“The government is not moving quickly enough in introducing a licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures and should accelerate regulatory action.
“Currently, individuals without any formal training can carry out potentially very harmful interventions and often do so in unsafe environments.This ‘wild west’ of procedures is placing the public at risk.”Owen added: “Regulation has not kept pace with the sector’s expansion.In 2013, the head of the NHS warned that a person having a non-surgical cosmetic intervention has no more protection than someone buying a toothbrush.“Over a decade later the only thing that has changed is the number of people suffering life-changing and life-threatening injuries.
”The Department of Health and Social Care said it would consider the report and “respond fully in due course”.A spokesperson said: “This government is taking action to crack down on cosmetic cowboys and root out dangerous treatments.Our tough new measures will ensure only qualified healthcare professionals will be able to perform the highest-risk procedures.For anyone considering a cosmetic procedure, please check the provider’s qualifications and insurance - and avoid treatments that appear suspiciously cheap.”
Palantir moves headquarters to Miami amid tech’s growing retreat to Florida
Palantir announced on Tuesday that it has moved its headquarters to Miami from Denver. The data analytics company, criticized for its role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, joins a host of other businesses and billionaires that recently moved to Florida in search of a more business-friendly climate.Palantir’s move across state lines comes after its chair, Peter Thiel, announced on 31 December that he opened a Miami office for his private investment firm. Thiel already has a mansion in Miami Beach. The company, previously headquartered in Palo Alto, announced the move on X but did not provide further details or respond to a request for comment
AI’s workplace revolution is here – and anxiety is rising with it
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, The Guardian’s US tech editor, writing to you while cheering on Team USA in the Winter Olympics.Throughout 2026, The Guardian will publish a series of stories about how artificial intelligence is affecting modern labor. We’re calling it Reworked: A series about what’s at stake as AI disrupts our jobs.Our first story published this morning
Claims that AI can help fix climate dismissed as greenwashing
Tech companies are conflating traditional artificial intelligence with generative AI when claiming the energy-hungry technology could help avert climate breakdown, according to a report.Most claims that AI can help avert climate breakdown refer to machine learning and not the energy-hungry chatbots and image generation tools driving the sector’s explosive growth of gas-guzzling datacentres, the analysis of 154 statements found.The research, commissioned by nonprofits including Beyond Fossil Fuels and Climate Action Against Disinformation, did not find a single example where popular tools such as Google’s Gemini or Microsoft’s Copilot were leading to a “material, verifiable, and substantial” reduction in planet-heating emissions.Ketan Joshi, an energy analyst and author of the report, said the industry’s tactics were “diversionary” and relied on tried and tested methods that amount to “greenwashing”.He likened it to fossil fuel companies advertising their modest investments in solar panels and overstating the potential of carbon capture
TikTok creator ByteDance vows to curb AI video tool after Disney threat
ByteDance, the Chinese technology company behind TikTok, has said it will restrain its AI video-making tool, after threats of legal action from Disney and a backlash from other media businesses, according to reports.The AI video generator Seedance 2.0, released last week, has spooked Hollywood as users create realistic clips of movie stars and superheroes with just a short text prompt.Several big Hollywood studios have accused the tool of copyright infringement.On Friday, Walt Disney reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance which accused it of supplying Seedance with a “pirated library” of the studio’s characters, including those from Marvel and Star Wars, according to the US news outlet Axios
Google puts users at risk by downplaying health disclaimers under AI Overviews
Google is putting people at risk of harm by downplaying safety warnings that its AI-generated medical advice may be wrong.When answering queries about sensitive topics such as health, the company says its AI Overviews, which appear above search results, prompt users to seek professional help, rather than relying solely on its summaries. “AI Overviews will inform people when it’s important to seek out expert advice or to verify the information presented,” Google has said.But the Guardian found the company does not include any such disclaimers when users are first presented with medical advice.Google only issues a warning if users choose to request additional health information and click on a button called “Show more”
Starmer to extend online safety rules to AI chatbots after Grok scandal
Makers of AI chatbots that put children at risk will face massive fines or even see their services blocked in the UK under law changes to be announced by Keir Starmer on Monday.Emboldened by Elon Musk’s X stopping its Grok AI tool from creating sexualised images of real people in the UK after public outrage last month, ministers are planning a “crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI”.With more and more children using chatbots for everything from help with their homework to mental health support, the government said it would “move fast to shut a legal loophole and force all AI chatbot providers to abide by illegal content duties in the Online Safety Act or face the consequences of breaking the law”.Starmer is also planning to accelerate new restrictions on social media use by children if they are agreed by MPs after a public consultation into a possible under-16 ban. It means that any changes to children’s use of social media, which may include other measures such as restricting infinite scrolling, could happen as soon as this summer
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UK interest rate cut likely in March as unemployment rate rises; youth joblessness to ‘increase significantly’ in coming months – as it happened
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