Beware buy now, pay later temptation on Black Friday, debt charities warn 22. November 2025 (10:00) Billions will be spent on credit over the discount weekend but experts say the payment option is ‘not risk-free’Black Friday bargain-hunters should be wary of the flood of “buy now, pay later” offers at the checkout, money experts have warned, amid record numbers of people seeking help with shopping debts.Billions of pounds will be spent online and in shops over the coming weeks, with more than one in three Britons said to be planning to use this form of credit to help stagger their Black Friday spending. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
‘Who’s screenshotting our messages?’: how a WhatsApp saga spiralled into two parents’ wrongful arrest 22. November 2025 (09:00) When Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine posted complaints about their local primary school, they never expected six uniformed police officers to turn up at their doorBefore it catapulted a small school community in London’s commuter belt into the centre of a global news story, the year-four class WhatsApp group at Cowley Hill school in Borehamwood was unremarkable – a place of snide comments, reminders about non-uniform day and flustered messages about being late for the school run.“It was mum gossip, you know?” said one member, Sarah. “A bit juicy, but it wasn’t anything nasty.” Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Two UK clinical trials to assess impact of puberty blockers in young people 22. November 2025 (08:00) Multi-year studies announced after Cass review found ‘insufficient evidence’ about effects on children with gender dysphoriaTwo studies to investigate the impact of puberty blockers in young people with gender incongruence have been announced by researchers in the UK after an expert view said gender medicine was “built on shaky foundations”.Puberty blockers were originally used to treat early onset puberty in children but have also been used off-label in children with gender dysphoria or incongruence. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
A make-or-break budget: inside the Treasury before Labour’s crucial day 22. November 2025 (07:00) From the outside, the run-up to Rachel Reeves’s announcement has looked chaotic, and many see the future of the chancellor and PM in the balanceEvery budget could be described, to a greater or lesser extent, as a high-stakes moment. Things can easily go badly wrong, as Gordon Brown discovered when he abolished the 10p tax rate in 2007, or George Osborne when his 2012 ‘omnishambles’ budget fell apart over pasties, and especially Kwasi Kwarteng, whose disastrous mini-budget of 2022 sent the Conservatives spiralling towards electoral defeat.Rachel Reeves appears to have come perilously close to the turmoil of previous budgets, and that’s before she has even delivered it. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Sycamore Gap tree saplings to be planted across UK 22. November 2025 (06:00) National Trust begins planting the 49 ‘trees of hope’ so the illegally felled tree can live on in a positive waySaplings from the felled Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including at a pit disaster site, a town still healing from the Troubles and a place which became an international symbol of peace, protest and feminism.The National Trust said planting of 49 saplings, known as “trees of hope”, would begin on Saturday. It is hoped that the sycamore will live on in a positive, inspirational way. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
