3+ mon, 1+ week ago (695+ words) This newspaper's victory in court underlines the courage of the women who spoke up and how in TV power shielded abuseThe high court's dismissal of the actor Noel Clarke's case against the Guardian is about more than one actor's failed libel claim. Mrs Justice Steyn's judgment is about power and complicity as well as the failure to protect vulnerable people. In her verdict,sheagreed with the Guardian that there were "strong grounds to believe that [Clarke] is a serial abuser of women.The court heard testimony from 26 witnesses before concluding that Clarke had engaged in harassment, bullying and abuse of power over many years. The judge accepted some of his evidence, but found him to be neither credible or reliable. The Guardian's journalists, by contrast, were meticulous and gave Clarke reasonable opportunity to respond as well as fairly presenting his…...

7+ mon, 3+ week ago (952+ words) Dispatches, presented by Cathy Newman, talks to 16 survivors or witnesses of the ex-Harrods boss's abuse, as well as tracking down his alleged enabler. The result is a raw, horrifying and invaluable watchIt is disturbingly easy to respond with little more than fatigue to reports of powerful men sexually exploiting women, because there have been so many. The part of us that should emit shock, disgust and righteous outrage becomes dulled through overuse. And so, when Mohamed Al Fayed, the billionaire former owner of Harrods, died in 2023 and was then credibly accused of being one of Britain's worst sex offenders, the collective reaction felt like a shrug.The new Dispatches investigation, Delivered to a Predator: Al Fayed's Fixer, however, ought to sharpen our revulsion and our resolve to fight for change. Building on the 2017 Dispatches documentary Behind Closed Doors and the…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago (159+ words) Norman and Joe Shrapnel | Proficiency in English | How to Stay Married | Jilly Cooper's Riders | What next for Venezuela? The government plans to require migrants coming to the UK to learn English to an A-level standard (Politics live with Andrew Sparrow, 14 October). How many current UK residents can demonstrate this level?Liz ThompsonOxford Jean Holmes says she was given three copies of Jilly Cooper's How to Stay Married (Letters, 10 October). I'wonder if they were secondhand.Pete BibbySheffield I remember lending my sister Riders by Jilly Cooper. She became so engrossed that she almost failed to collect her son from nursery. When I passed the book on to Mum, my sister said she would never be able to look her in the eye again.Penny SnookCollingham, Nottinghamshire What next for Venezuela: 1,000% tariffs or a Riviera-style resort (Venezuelan politician Maria Corina Machado wins…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (786+ words) Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence has been accompanied by new ways to harass women online Gaatha Sarvaiya would like to post on social media and share her work online. An Indian law graduate in her early 20s, she is in the earliest stages of her career and trying to build a public profile. The problem is, with AI-powered deepfakes on the rise, there is no longer any guarantee that the images she posts will not be distorted into something violating or grotesque. "The thought immediately pops in that, "OK, maybe it's not safe. Maybe people can take our pictures and just do stuff with them," says Sarvaiya, who lives in Mumbai. In recent years, India has become one of the most important testing grounds for AI tools. It is the world's second-largest market for OpenAI, with the technology widely adopted across…...

2+ week, 1+ day ago (207+ words) Readers aren't convinced by the wholesome family message peddled by John Lewis in its latest Christmas ad The issues you highlighted in your editorial are real, but please don't think that advertisers care about them (The Guardian view on the John Lewis Christmas ad: a modern story of fathers and sons, 7 November). This ad is a shameless attempt to make consumers think they are doing something worthwhile in buying overpriced gifts in a failing store that used to share its profits with staff but hasn't paid them any bonus in the past few years. If anything, the relentless pressure of advertising (where the Christmas season starts earlier each year) only serves to pile more pressure on people who are struggling. The cynicism of these ads " pretending to care while desperately trying to trigger the Pavlovian Christmas shopping response " is truly…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (253+ words) Christine and Francis Saunders, who lost their beloved daughter Juliet, respond to the news that advice on maternal deaths in England and Wales has been routinely ignored Thank you for your article on how coroners" prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports are being routinely ignored (Coroners" advice on maternal deaths in England and Wales routinely ignored, study finds, 19 November). Experience has shown us that a coroner"s PFD report is issued in response to serious systemic failings and a trust"s inaction to prevent future tragedies. Tolerating poor care and refusing to learn seem to be shared features of health scandals, including the treatment of people with learning disabilities, such as our own beloved daughter, Juliet Saunders, who died aged 25. The trust resisted, claiming that, being non-verbal, Juliet was hard to treat. Would there have been any improvements without the…...

9+ mon, 4+ day ago (86+ words) The fashion community stormed the capital's streets last weekend for the autumn/winter 25 collections. We caught up with some of the individuals revelling in the creative chaos Continue reading... Sex shops, hairy legs and McDonald's merch: street style at London fashion week " in pictures Harris Reed, fashion designer Lauren Hope, talent manager Abigale Masters, digital creator Reece Davey, content creator and architectural researcher Magda Kaczmarska, art director and stylist Katie Ruensumran, creative consultant Emma van Engelen, fashion designer Ve'ronique Tristram, stylist and fashion consultant...

10+ mon, 2+ week ago (604+ words) More women are using apps instead of the pill, but while some find them "freeing, others had unwanted pregnanciesAfter 15 years on the contraceptive pill Francesca* decided that she wanted to know how her body felt without additional hormones. She started using a fertility tracking app " which tracks menstrual cycles or symptoms of ovulation to help estimate a womans fertile window " after learning about them on social media.I had been taking hormones since my teens, and had no real conception of my menstrual cycle in my adult life," said the Londoner, now in her early 30s. She had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at 18 and told to continue taking the pill to help with symptoms. Remarkably, pretty much all of my hormonal imbalance symptoms started to subside after stopping taking the pill," she said. Continue reading... UK women share…...

4+ mon, 3+ week ago (563+ words) Banning the silencing of employees subjected to harassment and abuse has been talked about since advent of #MeToo UK bosses to be banned from using NDAs to cover up misconduct at work The ban on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence employees subjected to harassment and abuse is a significant and long-awaited moment " one that has been talked about since the advent of the #MeToo movement. Such contracts, where employers usually agree to pay an employee in return for keeping information confidential, have been around for decades but entered the lexicon as a result of the appalling revelations of sexual abuse and discrimination faced by women in the workplace. NDAs had originally been used for the understandable reason of protecting trade secrets when staff were moving jobs but have since become associated with a much darker purpose. Their…...

5+ mon, 3+ week ago (1107+ words) Oluwaseun Babalola's film Fighting Giants is an exploration of the misogyny and racism encountered by her family as they attempted to uncover the truth behind her sibling's disappearance seven years ago Oluwaseun Babalola remembers the exact moment she started to worry about her sister. It was 14 August 2018 and she was sitting on a sofa in a friend's flat in Queens, New York. She had spent 10 days trying to get hold of Massah KaiKai, who had been due to travel from Sierra Leone, where she lived, to visit her in the US. The sisters messaged or called each other every day, often multiple times. "We talked about everything and nothing. I would come home to a bunch of voice notes. She would vent or have something very funny to say " she was a very funny person," says Babalola. KaiKai's silence had…...