Young people whose debts outweigh their assets are at risk of experiencing blighted earnings, and even poorer health

Gen Z and young millennials are battling a “negative wealth” problem due to growing debt burdens that limit their life chances, according to a new analysis from the Fairness Foundation.

The thinktank says negative wealth, where debts outweigh assets, is linked to lower wages and worse health in later life, and that ministers should reintroduce the Child Trust Fund to give young people a greater stake in society.

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With the city’s refuse collectors still on the picket line after four weeks, residents are pointing the finger of blame at the council

Suhail Sadiq’s car repair business is thriving and he’s furious about it.

The rats are responsible. “The amount of cars we’ve got coming in now with wiring chewed up by rats is unbelievable,” he says. Staff at Heartlands Auto Centre in Birmingham have repaired about 15 cars with chewed battery cables in the past week. The rats are drawn to the warmer cars at night, he says – rats gnaw to keep their teeth a manageable length.

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Livia Tossici-Bolt says she was ‘disappointed’ to be convicted of breaching Bournemouth clinic buffer zone

A woman who was given a conditional discharge after being convicted of breaching a buffer zone outside an abortion clinic in Bournemouth has claimed she was “not there to express my views”.

Livia Tossici-Bolt, an anti-abortion campaigner whose case has been cited by the US state department over “freedom of expression” concerns in the UK, told the BBC’s Today programme she was “really disappointed” with the conviction “because it’s nothing to do with protesting” and said she would “continue my fight for freedom of speech”.

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Between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs to be lost as Labour abolishes NHS England and oversees cuts at care boards and trusts

The bill for NHS redundancy payouts could reach £1bn in the service’s most radical shake-up in a decade.

Between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs are expected to be lost following the announcement last month that NHS England will be abolished .

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Suit seeking $5m based on study finding controversial herbicide and lead in most cookies across 25 US states

Girl Scout cookies contain lead, arsenic, cadmium, aluminum and mercury at levels that often exceed regulators’ recommended limits, as well as concerning amounts of a toxic herbicide, a new class action lawsuit alleges.

The suit bases its allegations on a December 2024 study commissioned by the GMO Science and Moms Across America nonprofits that tested 25 cookies gathered from across several states, and found all contained at least four out of five of the heavy metals.

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Edinburgh University report authors say dietary changes could benefit women living with the disease

Dietary changes could reduce the pain of endometriosis for half of those living with the disease, a new study suggests. The largest international survey ever conducted on diet and endometriosis, involving 2,599 people, found 45% of those who stopped eating gluten and 45% of those who cut out dairy reported experiencing an improvement in their pain.

When women cut down on coffee or other caffeine in their diet, 43% said their pain was reduced, while 53% of women who cut back on alcohol reported the same.

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Alarm over ‘the health of the nation’s children’ follows federal workforce cuts by health secretary RFK Jr

Multiple maternal and child health programs have been eliminated or hollowed out as part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) layoffs, prompting alarm and disbelief among advocates working to make Americans healthier.

The fear and anxiety come as a full accounting of the cuts remains elusive. Federal health officials have released only broad descriptions of changes to be made, rather than a detailed accounting of the programs and departments being eviscerated.

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Mental ill health has been cited as a factor in the welfare overhaul, and experts agree it has worsened since the pandemic

When the health secretary, Wes Streeting, suggested the “overdiagnosis” of some mental health conditions was a factor in the government’s welfare changes, many saw the comments as playing into an unhelpful culture-war stereotype of coddled millennials – and as echoing Rishi Sunak’s claim, a year ago, that there was a “sicknote culture” plaguing Britain’s economy.

But media coverage of Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan’s recent book, The Age of Diagnosis , has amplified and lent credibility to the idea that a diagnosis, in itself, can risk limiting an individual’s life prospects.

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After his dad died at 67, the 12 Years a Slave film-maker knew it was only a matter of time before he would get prostate cancer, too. The disease kills 12,000 men a year in the UK – a disproportionate number of them black. Now, in a bid to save lives, he is speaking out about his own diagnosis, alongside the doctors who successfully treated him

Steve McQueen felt relieved when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had no symptoms, was perfectly fit, at the peak of his game. Yet the Oscar-winning film-maker and artist believed it was inevitable. After all, his father had died from it, and he is a black man. The statistics speak for ­themselves. They are as overwhelming as they are bleak. One in eight men will get prostate c­ancer. They are two and a half times more likely to get it if their father or brother had it. They’re twice as likely to get it if they’re black – and they’re two and a half times more likely to die from it, too.

McQueen is here today with his urology specialist Prof Suks Minhas and surgeon Ben Challacombe to talk about the nitty-gritty of the disease that is killing so many men. But he believes he might easily not have been. If he had known as little as his father had, he may well be dead. McQueen feels grateful and guilty, and is determined to make people more aware. After all, prostate cancer is eminently treatable. And yet more than 12,000 men die from it in the UK every year – well over one an hour. Simply unacceptable, he says.

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