A 999 call is perhaps the most acute contact with the state a UK citizen can experience. Now it’s broken down – responses are taking too long, or there is no crew available at all. Emergency patients are taking taxis to hospital. Private ambulance firms are cashing in. Strikes are making it worse. Sources at one major ambulance service told me this week they’d only reach half the incidents they usually would. Patients suffer. Dialling 999 moves an inch further from an act of expectation to one of hope. Yet there is a reason this is happening that goes beyond paramedic pay and working conditions. I’ve spoken to paramedics a great deal this year and I know the pain they’re going through, ...

The Taliban has banned women in Afghanistan from accessing higher education. Women who turned up to university on 21 December were turned away. They will not be allowed back, the Taliban’s education ministry says.   Astonishingly, some of the world has reacted to this with surprise. Upset is justified – disgust certainly is. But surprise? That's not even a little merited. These are the Taliban, after all. We have known precisely who they are and what they want for almost 30 years.  They have been back in power for just over a year. In that time they have done much. They have banned teenage girls from school; banned women from visiting funfairs, gyms and sporting events. They have slowly closed a noose around the necks of the country’s female population.   All ...

I used to work in criminal defence, defending young Albanians accused of involvement in cannabis factories. It allowed me to see what goes on behind the scenes with regards to those seeking asylum. Home Office ministers in the past have argued that it's not fit for purpose, but it is the politicians – such as the Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who has talked about housing asylum seekers on cruise ships, and the Labour opposition benches – that create the laws that cause chaos and expense, and who are not talking about why the system doesn’t work. In Germany those seeking asylum are allowed a tourist visa for three months and if they find a job in that time, they are allowed ...

Does Jeremy Clarkson believe all white men his age think like he does? Maybe that’s what gave him the confidence to write in his Sun newspaper column that he “hated” the Duchess of Sussex, along with other disgusting comments that I will not repeat. That article in the Sun has become the Independent Press Standards Organisation’s most complained about article ever with more than 20,000 objections. Until recently I was the government’s independent adviser on tackling violence against women and girls. I saw how the way the media spoke about women and girls had a direct impact on the lives of millions. A woman is killed every three days in the UK, one in four adult women have experienced sexual assault or an ...

Nepotism is having a moment. Obviously you could argue that nepotism is always having a moment – people have never shied away from giving their loved ones a helping boost up the ladder of life. But a New York magazine front cover charting the rise of the “Nepo Baby” (an eternity aflame awaits whoever came up with that hellish abbreviation) has sent the subject to the top of the trends. The piece investigates the merry-go-round of stars on Hollywood’s fast-track, apparently riding on Mummy and Daddy’s influence. From Maya Hawke (daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke) to Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis) to Lily Collins (daughter of Phil) to Harley Quinn Smith (daughter of Kevin), ...

Exactly 300 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky is making his first trip out of the country he is president of. He will meet with the US president Joe Biden in Washington DC today (21 December), then address a joint session of Congress. “The visit will underscore the United States’s steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes, including through the provision of economic, humanitarian, and military assistance,” said the White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement that announced the visit. Jean-Pierre added that a “significant” package of aid from the US would be announced during the visit. The new $2bn package will include Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, intended to help Ukraine ...

Since the late 2000s Silicon Valley has been synonymous with a strange kind of success. Eschewing traditionally ostentatious glamour, the new tech CEOs opted for austere opulence. These billionaires lived restrained lives – abstaining from booze and sugar, keeping the sleep schedule of a toddler, injecting themselves with cocktails of supplements – in the name of optimisation. They were seen as nerds with lots of cash in minimalist outfits, either socially awkward or brimming with inflated arrogance. Though they were widely mocked, their success was undeniable and unstoppable. The “genius” tech bro – peculiar and prosperous – became an infamous persona. In the last 18 months this mythology has been under unprecedented scrutiny. After more than a decade spent cultivating this image, some of ...

Five straight polls, five majorities in favour of Scottish independence. It’s not yet clear whether a definitive shift in public opinion is under way, but it must at least be taken as possible until proved otherwise.  This sudden, sustained lead follows the recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court that Holyrood lacks the authority to hold an independence referendum without the say-so of Westminster. Some Scots react angrily to being told what the devolved parliament can and can’t do by a British institution such as the court, and to limits being set by the parliament in London. Even though the ruling was long predicted – it was really a statement of the obvious, and one delivered by Robert Reed, a Scottish ...