Pamela Duncan

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Patrick Butler |Pamela Duncan |Matthew Pearce |Raphael Boyd

Nearly 20 councils have warned publicly that they are at risk of insolvency because of multibillion pound debts caused by years of overspends on special educational needs support, the Guardian can reveal. Overspending on special educational needs and disability (Send) services in England is forecast to grow by nearly £2bn over the next 12 months, a Guardian investigation shows.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Esther Addley |Matthew Pearce |Tural Ahmedzade |Pamela Duncan

In the strange, scary days of early 2020, with the world suddenly upended by the outbreak of a terrifying new virus, there were times when it seemed certain every aspect of society would be hugely altered by the experience. Five years on, the physical impact has been profound. More than 220,000 people have died in the UK, out of 7 million worldwide. Many more have been left with a devastating post-viral illness. But how did it change the way we think?

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Harriet Sherwood |Matthew Pearce |Tural Ahmedzade |Pamela Duncan

When Marlene Viggers was told her newly diagnosed cancer was untreatable, she said she wanted to go home to die. “She was the matriarch of the family, she held everything together, and she wanted to have her family all around her,” said Neil Andrews, her son-in-law. For the next few weeks, until Marlene died in January 2022 at the age of 73, she was given round-the-clock care by her closest relatives supported by Marie Curie, the end of life charity.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Zoe Wood |Pamela Duncan |Michael Goodier

An organised network operating from the former Soviet state of Georgia has scammed thousands of savers from the UK, Europe and Canada out of $35m (£27m) after they fell for fake celebrity adverts on Facebook and Google that the government . Deepfake videos and fictional news reports featuring the money expert Martin Lewis, the radio DJ Zoe Ball and the adventurer Ben Fogle were used to promote fraudulent cryptocurrency and other investment schemes.

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Zoe Wood |Pamela Duncan |Michael Goodier

Ben Fogle was not a happy man. “Not sure I need to highlight this,” the broadcaster posted on Instagram during the spring of 2024, “but the deepfake of me from [ITV’s] This Morning … circulating on Facebook [and] advertising crypto is a scam.”Fogle’s warning showed a fictional news article, linking to a digitally doctored video, but not everybody noticed. One of those taken in was Mark*, a franchise manager in his 30s from East Anglia, who in one click lurched towards losing his life savings.