Some shortages are so serious they are imperilling the health and even lives of patients with serious illnesses, pharmacy bosses say

Drug shortages are a anew normala in the UK and are being exacerbated by Brexit, a report by the Nuffield Trust health thinktank has warned. A dramatic recent spike in the number of drugs that are unavailable has created serious problems for doctors, pharmacists, the NHS and patients, it found.

The number of warnings drug companies have issued about impending supply problems for certain products has more than doubled from 648 in 2020 to 1,634 last year.

Mark Menzies allegedly spent APS14,000 of campaign funds on medical costs and demanded APS6,500 from aide to escape captors

A Conservative MP has lost the party whip after an investigation was launched following claims that he misused campaign funds.

Mark Menzies, 52, also faced allegations that he made a late-night call to a 78-year-old aide asking for help because he had been locked up by abad peoplea demanding thousands of pounds for his release.

IDF confirms buying thousands of tents for evacuation, raising fears over long-threatened attack

Israel has reportedly deployed extra artillery and armoured personnel carriers to the Gaza Strip periphery, suggesting that the military is preparing for its long-threatened ground offensive on Rafah, the only place of relative safety for at least 1.4 million displaced Palestinian civilians.

Israeli daily Maaariv also said on Wednesday that troops had been put on alert and athe governing principle of the operationa had been approved by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general staff and Yoav Gallant, the defence minister. The IDF declined to comment on the reports.

Officials at Department for Work and Pensions accused of athreatening and cruela tactics over repayment orders

• Woman with dementia, 92, told to repay APS7,000 in disability allowance

Government officials have been accused of using athreatening and cruela tactics towards unpaid carers by saying they could face even greater financial penalties if they appeal against avindictivea benefit fines.

This month a Guardian investigation revealed that thousands of people who look after disabled, frail or ill relatives have been forced to pay back huge sums after being chased by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over ahonest mistakesa that officials could have spotted years earlier.

LabHost enabled users to set up websites designed to trick victims into revealing personal information a with 70,000 allegedly duped in the UK

University students have turned to cyber fraud to boost their income, police have said, as they revealed they have infiltrated a huge phishing site on the dark web responsible for scamming tens of thousands of people.

The site called LabHost was active since 2021 and was a cyber fraud superstore, allowing users to produce realistic-looking websites from household names such as the big banks, ensnaring victims around the world including 70,000 in the UK.

Exclusive: Man whose uncle died in 2017 disaster describes ad for pain relief gel Voltarol as ainsultinga

Grenfell Tower has been edited out of a TV advert in a move described as ainsultinga by a family bereaved by the June 2017 disaster.

Karim Mussilhy, whose uncle Hesham Rahman was among 72 people who died as a result of the fire, noticed the edit while watching the Channel 4 streaming service on Monday when an advert for the pain relief gel Voltarol showed people playing football on the Westway football pitches close to the council block.

There were 83,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% have been forced to relocate

Unwanted home moves cost renters over half a billion pounds a year, with tenants coughing up an average of APS669 every time they are forced by landlords to leave their home, a survey has revealed.

Analysis by the homelessness charity Shelter estimated that there had been 830,000 unwanted moves in England over the past 12 months, meaning 40% of renters who move house are doing so because they have been compelled to look for other accommodation.

People in routine and repetitive jobs found to have 31% greater risk of disease in later life, and 66% higher risk of mild cognitive problems

If work is a constant flurry of mind-straining challenges, bursts of creativity and delicate negotiations to keep the troops happy, consider yourself lucky.

Researchers have found that the more people use their brains at work, the better they seem to be protected against thinking and memory problems that come with older age.

Legislation to go back to Commons after peers stand up for rights of Afghans and scrutiny of refugeesa treatment

The parliamentary battle over Rishi Sunakas Rwanda deportation bill will spill into next week after the Lords refused to budge over the rights of Afghans and scrutiny of the treatment of refugees in east Africa.

The move prompted an immediate backlash from the home secretary, James Cleverly, who blamed Labour for blocking the bill and being aterrifieda that the Rwanda plan would stop asylum seekers from travelling to the UK in small boats.

Use of powerful medications linked to elevated risk of serious adverse outcomes including heart failure

Doctors are being urged to reduce prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to dementia patients after the largest study of its kind found they were linked to more harmful side-effects than previously thought.

The powerful medications are widely prescribed for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia such as apathy, depression, aggression, anxiety, irritability, delirium and psychosis. Tens of thousands of dementia patients in England are prescribed them every year.

Experts believe remains belong to a type of ichthyosaur that roamed the seas about 202m years ago

Fossils discovered by an 11-year-old girl on a beach in Somerset may have come from the largest marine reptile ever to have lived, according to experts.

The fossils are thought to be from a type of ichthyosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that lived in the time of dinosaurs. The newly discovered species is believed to have roamed the seas towards the end of the Triassic, about 202m years ago.

Olaf Scholz tells EU to send more Patriot batteries as Nato chief urges members to prioritise Ukraineas air defences; airstrikes on Chernihiv kill 17. What we know on day 785

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Calls to support Ukraineas defence against Russian air strikes have grown after at least 17 people died when three missiles hit the centre of Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine near the border with Russia.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Wednesday urged his fellow EU leaders to follow Germanyas lead and send Ukraine more Patriot air defence systems. Germany on Saturday announced it was sending an additional Patriot battery. aThis is immediately useful, we want to encourage others to do the same,a said Scholz as he arrived for an EU summit in Brussels. aNow it is about doing it quickly and not at some point in the future.a

Natoas chief, Jens Stoltenberg, told member countries that they should further strain their stockpiles to help support Ukraine. aIf allies face a choice between meeting Nato capability targets and providing more aid to Ukraine, my message is clear: send more to Ukraine,a he said on Wednesday.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeated the urgent appeal for more assistance via video address to the EU leaders. aThank you, Olaf, for your efficiency. However, we have a bigger need. Systems that you have, they are needed in Ukraine right now a needed to stop Putin from relying on terrorist methods.a Officials say Ukraine is seeking seven more Patriot systems from western stocks since they are the only ones capable of downing Russiaas hypersonic missiles.

Joe Biden has said he strongly supports a proposal from the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, to at last navigate $61bn in aid for Ukraine through the US Congress. aThe House must pass the package this week, and the Senate should quickly follow,a said the US president. aI will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world: we stand with our friends, and we wonat let Iran or Russia succeed.a An additional proposal is expected to include measures to redirect seized Russian assets toward Ukraine.

Zelenskiy confirmed the Ukrainian military had attacked the Russian airfield of Dzhankoi in occupied Crimea. Unofficial sources in both Ukraine and Russia on Wednesday reported a series of explosions at the base. aThank you, warriors. Thank you for your accuracy. Thank you to commander-in-chief [Oleksandr] Syrskyi for organising this operation,a said Zelenskiy. The president expressed thanks to servicemen staging aspecial operations, especially important operations, extremely significant ones that destroy the equipment of the Russian army, their combat infrastructurea.

The Ukrainian military says Russia has ramped up its illegal use of riot control agents on the front to try to clear trenches as it begins to make bigger advances in the east. Riot control agents such as teargas are banned on the battlefield by the international Chemical Weapons Convention, to which Russia and Ukraine are signatories.

MP Richard Holden, who is behind re-opening of inquiry into Labour deputy leader, also sparked Covid-era beer and curry furore involving the leader

One of the most senior politicians in the Labour party is facing persistent questions about her personal affairs. The police are investigating after pressure from a Tory MP, despite initially saying there was no case to answer. The story has been relentlessly pursued by the rightwing press.

If the playbook sounds familiar, thatas because the Conservative MP pulling the strings behind the Angela Rayner living arrangements saga is the same one who consistently led the charge over the aBeergatea controversy involving Keir Starmer.

The actor said he wanted to fight on a but the size of an offer from News Group made it financially risky to continue

The actor has accepted an aenormousa settlement from the Sun in return for dropping his claim that he was illegally targeted by the newspaperas journalists.

The American Diabetes Association takes millions from companies that stand to profit from our reliance on drugs. Is that affecting their guidance?

For a glimpse into how big business influences the $4tn US healthcare system, look no further than the worldas most powerful diabetes advocacy and research non-profit, the American Diabetes Association (ADA).

Diabetes afflicts 38 million Americans, with another 90 million considered pre-diabetic. Every year the disease claims the lives of over 100,000 Americans and disproportionately affects people of color. It is also ruinously expensive, as doctors visits, hospital stays, insulin, blood test strips, leg amputations, continuous glucose monitors and numerous glucose-lowering drugs add up to about $400bn a year. To put it bluntly, we are losing the war on diabetes.

A party resigned to oblivion made for a sulky session that did Rishi Sunak and the Commons no favours

Thereas something to be said for a prolonged death. It means you can get your grieving in when the patient is still alive. All the more important when that patient is you. The Tories have known the game is up for some time now. They can read the polls as well as the rest of us. They are facing electoral wipeout. Itas not totally out the question that they might even be the third largest party after the next election.

None of this comes easy for Tories, born to believe that they are the party of government. So there has been plenty of tears as they process their grief. First the denial. This canat be happening, they told themselves. These things donat happen to people like them. It is against the natural order. So they dictated their own reality. One of their choosing. The methodology of the polls was wrong. Of course it was.

Henry Cavill leads a ragtag group on an unlikely mission in this shaggy, exaggerated account of Operation Postmaster

Guy Ritchieas inevitable graduation from London to Hollywood has had its moments a the rambunctious zip of the first Sherlock Holmes, the stylish homoeroticism of The Man from UNCLE a but it soon felt as if the once electrifying film-maker had been swallowed up by the system. A middling Sherlock sequel, a pointless King Arthur non-starter and a soulless Aladdin remake seemed like enough to push not just fans away but Ritchie himself. Heas since found a happier medium, making films for a broad, commercial audience with easily marketable stars yet on, what seem like, his own terms, wrestling some control back from the money men.

Heas barely stopped ever since, with five films made over five years and two more slotted into the next, and there is an expectedly solid, workmanlike quality to his recent work, never enough for a four-star rating but never risking a two. His latest, the annoyingly titled The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, is another adequate three-star entry, a little better than his breezy spy caper Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and a little less effective than his swaggering revenge thriller Wrath of Man (both three stars, natch).

Meatable hopes its cultivated sausages will satisfy the worldas appetite for meat without harming animals or the planet

Even before I see the sausages, I am greeted by their rich, meaty aroma. Sizzling in a pan of foaming margarine, they look like regular chipolatas being fried up for a Sunday breakfast, their pink-grey exteriors slowly turning a rich caramel brown.

Consisting of 28% pork fat, bulked out with textured pea, chickpea, soy and wheat protein, these mini-bratwursts would happily sit inside a hotdog or next to a plate of mashed potato. But these are no standard bangers.

Mike Bubbins stars as a man who awakes in 2024, having been frozen for 50 years, and wonders why everyone is picking up dog poo in little plastic bags

Mammoth is almost a dad joke writ large. It kicks off with a flashback to a school skiing trip to France in 1979, where medallion-wearing, lady-loving PE teacher Tony Mammoth recklessly launches himself off the side of a mountain. He is soon followed by a catastrophic avalanche. Fifty years later, in a concept that seems to have been concocted just so the in-show newspaper can boast the headline Mammoth No Longer Extinct, Tony is found frozen in the snow and revived. He must now navigate the world of 2024, from the confused perspective of a late-70s unreconstructed male.

Tony walks through modern-day Cardiff noticing modern-day things, such as hoverboards, men carrying babies and people picking up dog poo with little plastic bags. For a fleeting few months, he is world-famous as athe Ice Mana, but then his moment passes and he finds himself right back where he began, teaching PE at secondary school. In a nice nod to a story that every secondary school seems to have had its own version of, the previous teacher is absent, having had a nervous breakdown.

The This Is Going to Hurt author is Very Online a so he has some gems to share, including 7,000 fireworks going off at once and a parody of every comedy heist film ever made

According to my nark of a phone, my screen time exceeds five hours a day, with almost all of that spent on the internet. What a waste of a life. I could write about 10 books a year if I managed to knock that on the head. Iam struggling to think of any major benefits of my very-online life, beyond the fact that this article only took me about three minutes to write. Oh, and I met my husband on Twitter.

Dozens indicated they could not be fair and impartial to the ex-president in his home town a others were even more expressive

As jury selection in Donald Trumpas criminal hush-money case started this week, it seemed like the former president would face a tough crowd. When Judge Juan Merchan asked the first group of 96 prospective jurors whether any thought themselves incapable of being fair and impartial, more than 50 raised their hands.

These prospective jurors were excused from serving on the case, of course, but it still might have smarted for the real estate tycoon turned TV star turned Americaas 45th president. New York is Trumpas home town, but it appears heas so polarizing that his fellow citizens wanted an out.

A guide to Trumpas hush-money trial a so far

The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump

How will Trumpas trial work?

From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players

Would a APS35,000 holiday help you live longer or just leave you bankrupt? A surprising number of people are paying to find out

Name: Longevity vacations.

Age: New, but Iall be older, hopefully.

Rules governing political campaigning on terrestrial television donat apply to streaming or online a and parties are starting to play dirty

One of my favourite jokes in The Simpsons concerns the unhinged nature of US political advertising. aMayor Quimby supports revolving-door prisons,a a growly voice narrates over footage of exactly what you imagine. aMayor Quimby even released Sideshow Bob, a man twice convicted of attempted murder.a And then, a final disclosure at a noticeably faster pace: aVote Sideshow Bob for Mayor.a

This was a great joke a but it wasnat entirely a joke. The real revolving door ad, which featured similar imagery, had been used by the George HW Bush campaign to tar his 1988 opponent, Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, as soft on crime. That in turn was a sort of sequel to the aWillie Hortona ad, in which other Republican operatives had tried to pin the violent crimes of the eponymous African American on Dukakis, governor when Horton was released on furlough. The entire campaign was widely condemned as one long racist dog-whistle intended to terrify white people into voting Republican. It also, upsettingly, worked.

Jonn Elledgeas new book, A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps, is published on 25 April

Daniel KAetAnskA1/2 has failed to answer vital questions a and the company should not slip into private ownership from abroad

• Royal Mail owner received takeover offer from Czech billionaire

aFor multiple reasons a the heritage, the spirit of the company a itas good if every British citizen can invest in the shares,a Daniel KAetAnskA1/2 told the Sunday Times a year ago, seemingly ruling out a takeover bid for International Distributions Services, the group that owns the Royal Mail. Now, from the position of 27% ownership, he has made an offer.

Czech billionaires, like everybody else, are free to change their mind, but this U-turn requires a better explanation than the one KAetAnskA1/2as privately owned EP Group offered on Wednesday. The new line is that Royal Mail awould benefit from being able to take a longer-term viewa and that EP is aprepared to support this iconic business as it transforms and rebuilds into a modern postal operatora.

He fought for more help for those who also suffered, but the battle was long and exhausting a and is still not won

My friend Anthony Williams, a campaigner and survivor of the Windrush Scandal, died last month. I first met him in June 2020 after reading a bone-chilling account in this newspaper of how the Windrush Scandal swallowed his life whole.

Anthony arrived in Birmingham from Jamaica in 1971, aged seven. After school, he served with the Royal Artillery for 13 years. Later, he became a successful fitness instructor. But in 2013, his life suddenly, inexplicably, unravelled. The Home Office had declared him an illegal immigrant. He lost his job and was plunged into extreme poverty. Unable to register for a doctor or dentist, a tooth infection caused him to lose most of his teeth.

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Why is guilt so difficult to shake? I feel regretful to this day about a poor decision I made as a boy

How long must guilt last? When I was a boy, aged about 10, I had a football that I kicked around for years, with my mates, with my brother or all on my own, dribbling aimlessly about or booting it against a wall. This ball conferred upon me some status, for it was what we used to call a caser, which is not a word Iave used for a good 40 years. A caser meant it was a proper football, with a rubber bladder on the inside and leather on the outside. This was as opposed to a very cheap plastic sphere that blew around in the wind, or one made of thicker plastic and fashioned to look like a caser. The latter was more respectable than the former, but it wasnat, you know, a caser.

I had this ball for a long time, progressing from being able to do only five keepy-ups, to as many as perhaps 10. Yes, I was that gifted. This was the 70s, at the dawn of which decade Adidas had come up with its Telstar ball for the 1970 World Cup. It was made of 32 leather panels, consisting of 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons. My caser was modelled on that caser. It was probably a present from my grandad, but I donat remember what it looked like when it was new, only how it looked when it was old, when the panels were neither black nor white, just brown, having had all the colour kicked out of them.

Like many young people, I have no hope of finding an NHS dentist a and this is only deepening class divisions

• This article won the 16-18 age category of the Guardian Foundationas 2024 Hugo Young award, which champions political opinion writing

When I was 12 my childhood dentist went private. It was 2018 and Iad just had a consultation with my orthodontist, and had been told I would need at least two teeth removed before my braces could be fitted. My options were: pay (a minimum of) APS55 for each tooth extraction, or find a new dentist on the NHS. By pure luck, I was accepted at a different practice. I had my teeth out, then one routine exam, before I received a letter saying that my new dentist had also gone private and I would have to start paying for treatment. I havenat seen a dentist since.

As of 2024, no practices in Cornwall, where I live, are taking on new NHS patients above the age of 18. With lengthy NHS waiting lists and my 18th birthday rapidly approaching, itas unlikely that I will ever see an NHS dentist again, unless some serious reform occurs. Iam not alone: thousands of patients in Cornwall are increasingly losing hope of seeing a dentist.

Beth Riding is an A-level student in Cornwall

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The pandemic showed that remote learning is effective. Itas absurd that universities are going back to processes that exclude us

• Rosie Anfilogoff is the winner of the 2024 Hugo Young Award (19-25 age category) recognising young talent in political opinion writing

My route to university was never going to be simple. While my friends were flicking through university brochures and choosing Ucas options, I was signing chemotherapy consent forms in the teenage cancer unit at Addenbrookeas hospital and throwing up in its weirdly tropical island-themed bathrooms. Even before then, my severe chronic illness made attending traditional university unthinkable a until the pandemic happened.

In 2020, for the first time, it became possible to attend a brick-and-mortar university online. Universities became accessible a or at least, more accessible than they had ever been a practically overnight. Accommodations that disabled students had been requesting for years, such as lecture recordings and software that would allow them to take exams from home, were slotted into place so that students could learn remotely. Suddenly, friends at university were having the kind of experience that would have enabled me to join them. But since the aenda of the pandemic, online learning has withered away and thousands of students have been left without sufficient access. By returning to the pre-pandemic state of affairs, universities are failing current and prospective disabled students like me.

Rosie Anfilogoff is a writer and journalist

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The University of Southern California canceled its valedictorianas planned speech after pro-Palestinian posts. Itas no surprise

If you want to get ahead in life then I have some advice: keep your mouth shut about Palestine. Or, if you must say something, then make sure it is nuanced like a Iam just paraphrasing a former Mossad agent here a no Palestinian over the age of four is an innocent civilian and they all deserve to be starved to death. Certainly make sure you donat use controversial words like agenocidea or aoccupationa, even if those are accurate descriptions according to international law and UN human rights experts. Best to avoid considering Palestinians as humans altogether, rather think of them as Israelas defense minister does a ahuman animalsa a if you want to avoid unpleasantness.

Asna Tabassum, a first-generation south Asian American Muslim from near Los Angeles, is the latest person to learn this lesson the hard way. Tabassum, who is graduating from the University of Southern California (USC) with a major in biomedical engineering and a minor in resistance to genocide, was recently named her class valedictorian and due to give a speech at her May graduation. Giving a valedictorian address, in which a student reflects on shared experiences and imparts wisdom about the future, is a major honour. It would have been a high point in Tabassumas academic life.