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‘His honesty gave courage to survivors’: domestic abuse charities praise Patrick Stewart’s legacy

Actor first shared his childhood experiences as part of Amnesty International campaign and became Refuge ambassador

When Patrick Stewart was growing up in the 1940s, he witnessed how, after his father beat his mother, home doctors and ambulance workers would tell her: “You must have done something to provoke him.”

Stewart knew the violence was never warranted, a conviction that became the spark for a lasting commitment to campaigning for greater understanding of domestic abuse.

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© Photograph: Ian West/PA

© Photograph: Ian West/PA

© Photograph: Ian West/PA

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‘His honesty gave courage to survivors’: domestic abuse charities praise Patrick Stewart’s legacy

Actor first shared his childhood experiences as part of Amnesty International campaign and became Refuge ambassador

When Patrick Stewart was growing up in the 1940s, he witnessed how, after his father beat his mother, home doctors and ambulance workers would tell her: “You must have done something to provoke him.”

Stewart knew the violence was never warranted, a conviction that became the spark for a lasting commitment to campaigning for greater understanding of domestic abuse.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Ian West/PA

© Photograph: Ian West/PA

© Photograph: Ian West/PA

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Public sector an ‘afterthought’ to North Sea oil jobs, says Unison leader

Andrea Egan calls for same political focus on teachers, care sector and NHS and says Jackdaw decision ‘a serious misstep’

The leader of the UK’s biggest trade union has called for the same political focus to be given to NHS, education and care sector workers as there has been on those employed in North Sea oil and gas.

Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, said too often public sector workers were treated as an “afterthought” by the government compared with the “massive political focus” on protecting jobs in the North Sea.

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© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer

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Everyone is thin and we’re not allowed to say so: the toxic legacy of body positivity

In the late 2010s, a movement argued that no one body type is superior than another. Now in the GLP-1 age, people are still pursuing thinness - and just not talking about it

Vogue World Milano was held beneath the vaulted glass domes of Italy’s oldest shopping arcade, featuring Gigi Hadid in archival Valentino couture and robots dancing on the catwalk while Miuccia Prada scowled at them. A splashy event staged in the midst of a month of fashion shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris, in which 97.5% of models were a US size four or under, what ticked people off most was the presence of trillion-dollar pharma company Eli Lilly on the list of sponsors.

Eating disorder advocates spoke out against the association between an aspirational fashion show and the manufacturer of the weight-loss drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

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Britain’s blighted high streets will improve by next election, says Rayner

Housing secretary says Labour wants to reverse fortunes of towns plagued by boarded-up shops and rogue businesses

Angela Rayner has said voters will begin to see a difference in their high street before the next general election as Labour prioritises investment in struggling local communities.

The housing secretary said the government had made it a top priority before the country goes to the polls to begin turning around the fortunes of places blighted by boarded-up shops and rogue businesses.

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© Photograph: Manor Photography/Alamy

© Photograph: Manor Photography/Alamy

© Photograph: Manor Photography/Alamy

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‘It’s been a whirlwind’: the Essex lawyer who quit her job and became voice of Netflix’s hit show Spike

Emily McGonagle was watching cartoons with her sons when she decided to embark on a career change. A decade on, she is a star of a globally popular children’s series

Emily McGonagle was on maternity leave from her job as a lawyer, juggling the care of her new baby and her toddler son, when the daily diet of TV cartoons made her think about an unlikely career change.

Watching Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol, her older son’s favourites, “it occurred to me: who does this job?”, says the 42-year-old from Essex. “How do you get into it? Even when I was watching TV commercials, I’d think: well, how do you do that?”

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© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

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‘Ignorance towards immigration is horrible. It’s not British’: Skepta on his long-awaited return – and his anger at the racist right

Thirty-three months after it was announced, the grime legend’s new album is coming out. He explains how skinheads, fatherhood and rap history came to bear on its socially conscious contents

‘I can’t be perfect,” Skepta says, pulling a black Arc’tyrex beanie down over a furrowed brow with both hands. “But I can be conscious.” The self-proclaimed king of grime has always been a serious person, wary of fools and time-wasters. Focus is important to him, perhaps because he’s often multitasking: balancing his music career, his fashion label Mains, film-making and acting (his debut short, Tribal Mark, came out in 2024), his Big Smoke festival and a house music project, Más Tiempo.

He coordinates them all from the scruffy but functional studio in London’s West End where we meet. At one point, he picks up a Rubik’s Cube from the cluttered coffee table, and, over the course of five minutes of conversation, solves it. “This album has been winding me up,” he admits, referring to The Fork and Knife, which is out next week, 33 months after it was first announced. “But I think I’ve actually made something here that is what the people want from me.”

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© Photograph: Jordan Hemingway

© Photograph: Jordan Hemingway

© Photograph: Jordan Hemingway

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Manosphere and online misogyny should be treated as public health issues, say UK experts

Report calls for an effort to tackle harms in similar way to obesity and smoking, and stresses need to ‘offer boys something better’

The manosphere and online misogyny should be treated by the government as a public health issue, in the same way as obesity or smoking, experts have said.

Writing in the Lancet, the authors of a new report argue that a coordinated response is needed, involving governments, schools, health services and community organisations, similar to the public-health response to tobacco use and ultra-processed food.

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© Photograph: miniseries/Getty Images

© Photograph: miniseries/Getty Images

© Photograph: miniseries/Getty Images

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