John Lewis Christmas advert sees a father and son bond over 90s hit

John Lewis has launched its highly anticipated Christmas advert, this year centring on a poignant father-son relationship and a nostalgic ’90s vinyl gift.

For the first time, the department store’s festive advert focuses on a paternal bond, depicting a seemingly surly teenager attempting to connect with his father through a cherished track from his youth.

The soundtrack features a new rendition of Alison Limerick’s iconic ’90s club hit, “Where Love Lives,” performed by British artist Labrinth.

Created by Saatchi & Saatchi, the advert sees the father discover an unwrapped present with a yellow sticky note marked “Dad” and a smiley face.

Upon unwrapping the vinyl, he immediately heads to his record player, triggering a series of flashbacks to his younger days dancing in a ’90s club, interspersed with tender memories of his son as a baby and toddler.

The emotional story culminates with the pair sharing a slightly embarrassed but heartfelt hug and a laugh in their living room, underscoring the power of shared memories and connection.

John Lewis brand director Rosie Hanley said: “This year’s John Lewis Christmas campaign is a celebration of connection, memory and the unspoken emotions that make the season truly magical.

“At John Lewis, we understand the power of a thoughtful gift, and we hope the ad will inspire our customers to find the gift that articulates their feelings, allowing the present itself to speak volumes where words may sometimes fall short.”

Franki Goodwin, chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi, said: “Music is always the beating heart of the John Lewis campaign at Christmas but this year it’s the gift itself.

“The track threads through an integrated campaign that poignantly explores the power of a gift to communicate something we might not be able to put into words.

“A banger on many levels in many channels, I hope it inspires lots of thoughtful, expressive gifting and some family trawls through old playlists on Christmas Day too.”

Limerick said: “I squealed when I heard that Where Loves Lives would be in the advert – literally squealed like an excited child.

“Music has always had the power to bring all kinds of peeps together, but I hope this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert will give those who see it a new, emotional connection with the song – especially with what Labrinth has created. His gentle version is just so beautiful, it’s sure to fill the heart with love.”

Labrinth said: “To think a boy like me from east London, Hackney, who grew up watching this iconic advert, would one day reimagine a classic and compose a piece of music for John Lewis’s forward-thinking direction is a big deal for me.

“This advert is embedded in British Christmas culture and I miss home, so I’m honoured to be a part of it.”

The vinyl will be sold exclusively through Rough Trade at John Lewis, with Limerick’s original version taking side A and Labrinth’s new version the B side.

All profits from the £14.99 record will go to the John Lewis Partnership’s Building Happier Futures programme, which helps people who have grown up in care.

Worker trapped for 11 hours under collapsed tower in Rome dies

A man who was rescued after spending 11 hours underneath the rubble of a partially collapsed medieval tower in Rome has died in hospital, local authorities have said.

Octay Stroici, a 66-year-old Romanian worker, was taken to Umberto I hospital shortly after being pulled from the debris, Italian news agency ANSA reports, citing health sources.

“I express deep sorrow and condolences, on behalf of myself and the government, for the tragic loss of Octay Stroici, the worker who was killed in the collapse of the Torre dei Conti in Rome,” Italy’s Premier Giorgia Meloni said in a statement after midnight. “We are close to his family and colleagues at this time of unspeakable suffering.”

As many as 140 firefighters worked for nearly half a day to rescue Stroici as his wife followed the effort.

Lamberto Giannini, city police chief, said that he had been taken to hospital in a “serious condition”. He reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest in the ambulance.

“The rescue operation took a long time because every time a part of the worker’s body was freed, further collapses occurred, burying him again under the rubble,” Giannini told state television station Rai.

Parts of the 29-metre Torre dei Conti, near the Colosseum, crashed to the ground on Monday morning. A second incident happened while firefighters were working on the structure. None of the firefighters were injured.

The first collapse occurred after 10:30 GMT. Eleven workers were on the site at the time, local media reported. Another then occurred as rescuers were pulling labourers from the rubble, around 90 minutes later.

A second worker, 64, was pulled out almost immediately and hospitalised with serious but not life-threatening head injuries, while two more workers suffered minor injuries and declined hospital treatment.

“It all happened suddenly,” one of the workers on site, who was not named, told ANSA. “Then I only saw the cloud of dust and the rescuers.”

Gaetano La Manna, another worker, told Il Messaggero: “I heard a bang and everything came crashing down, everything collapsed.”

Debris fell from above and cut his face and the back of his head.

Adriano De Acutis, commander of the Rome Fire Brigade, said Stroici was “was conscious when he emerged”.

He was pulled from the rubble at around 10:30 p.m.

The prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for negligent disaster and negligent injury.

The tower, which was due to be converted into a museum and conference space, is located halfway along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the broad avenue that leads from central Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum.

The building was still standing, but showing significant internal damage.

It once hosted city hall offices but has not been in use since 2006 and was being worked on as part of a four-year renovation project due to end next year, according to Rome city authorities.

Due to the EU-funded restoration work, the area around the tower was closed off to pedestrians.

The building was erected by Pope Innocent III for his family in the early 13th century, and was originally twice as high, but was scaled down after damage from earthquakes in the 14th and 17th centuries.

‘National scandal’: Victims of pregnancy drug call for public inquiry

At aged 50, Susie Martin has already undergone her fair share of health procedures. She has endured dozens of surgeries – once going through five procedures in a single year – and will need to have screening for the rest of her life.

She believes it’s all because of a drug her mother was given by medics during pregnancy.

Ms Martin is one of the hundreds of victims of a “silent scandal” involving the pregnancy drug diethylstilbestrol – a synthetic form of the female hormone oestrogen, commonly known as DES, which has been linked to cancer. Like many others, she says the drug, also known as DES, caused her to develop a lifelong gynaecological condition. She now lives in fear for her health, facing tests each year to ensure she hasn’t developed cancer.

A campaign group of more than 300 people, including Ms Martin and her mother Jennifer Bradley, is calling on the government to launch a public inquiry to address what it describes as a national scandal.

With more than 300,000 having been given DES before it was banned in the UK, campaigners have compared the scandal to Thalidomide, which resulted in thousands of children being born with defects.

Clare Fletcher, partner at the Broudie Jackson Canter solicitors, which represents the group, said: “This is the silent scandal, with victims suffering in pain for decades with limited medical support and no government recognition for what they have been through.

“It is one of the most devastating pharmaceutical failures in UK history and the people whose lives have been marred by it deserve answers.”

She called on the government to “take responsibility” for mistakes of the past and set up a statutory public inquiry to into how the scandal happened and how it was able to be covered up.

She added: “It is a national disgrace that victims have been ignored, disbelieved and humiliated when all they wanted was fair treatment. It is crucial that these sufferers are finally given the truth and afforded access to the compensation they deserve.”

DES was prescribed to pregnant women from 1940 to the 1970s to prevent miscarriage, premature labour and complications of pregnancy.

It was also used to suppress breast milk production, for emergency contraception and to treat menopausal symptoms in women.

In 1971, researchers linked DES exposure to a type of cancer of the cervix and vagina called clear cell adenocarcinoma, prompting US regulators to say the drug should not be prescribed to pregnant women.

However, DES, which is also linked to other cancers such as breast, pancreatic, and cervical, continued to be prescribed to pregnant women in Europe until 1978.

Jennifer Bradley, 82, was prescribed DES in 1968 when she was pregnant due to the risks of her having a miscarriage.

After having a miscarriage, she was prescribed the drug again in 1970 when she was pregnant with her daughter, Susie Martin.

In 1974, after watching a TV programme which showed that daughters of women who had taken DES were developing cancer, Ms Bradley asked her GP about the concerns. Her doctor, she says, dismissed them.

“I didn’t take it lightly. I asked questions about it because of the Thalidomide thing in the 50s, and I was assured it was safe. This doctor refused to even look at my medical records. He sent me off.”

Ms Bradley told The Independent about the shock of being asked by her daughter in the 1990s if she had taken the medication after she was diagnosed with adenosis in 2000.

“I was so shocked, and I felt so guilty. She’s always tried to protect me from it, but she’s had to have so many intrusive procedures. It was terrible,” she said.

Since her diagnosis, Ms Martin has had to have between 20 and 30 surgeries. She will have to undergo screening for the rest of her life.

“I’ve had this big weight hanging over me all the time,” she said. “It does have a huge impact; you always worry the diagnosis will come back worse than last time.

“There was physical pain as well as emotional pain. It’s caused sleepless nights, time off work, and time away from my children.”

Hundreds of drug companies made DES around the world, and it was marketed under numerous brand names, which makes holding firms liable difficult. It was never patented and was cheap and easy to produce.

Compensation schemes have been set up for DES victims in the US and the Netherlands, but the UK does not have one.

“There’s been no justice at all. There’s been a lot of support worldwide, but there’s been nothing in the UK,” Ms Martin told The Independent. “It’s a national scandal and it’s very frustrating but I’m hoping [the government] will put it right.”

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) told the PA news agency that correspondence was sent by the Committee on Medicines Safety (CSM) in 1973 to inform UK doctors of a US study into instances of vaginal adenocarcinoma.

This advised that no similar cases had been found in the UK, and the letter did not explicitly contraindicate the use of DES in pregnancy and pre-menopausal women.

A spokesman said: “We apologise for this error and for any distress caused to patients and the public.

“At the time of the communication in 1973, usage in pregnancy in the UK was considered to be much lower than in the US which, coupled with the lack of UK cases of affected children, led to the conclusion that communicating to doctors on the available evidence was sufficient.

“This position was supported by the September 1972 CSM minutes, which show the Committee agreed that no action was necessary beyond continued surveillance, as there was no evidence the US findings applied in the UK.”

Later, in 1981/82, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry datasheets said DES was specifically contraindicated in pregnancy or for women who might become pregnant.

The MHRA said its sympathies lay with those affected by DES, adding: “The committee’s work predates the existence of the MHRA, when medicines vigilance was only in its infancy and there were no electronic records or systematic monitoring of prescriptions.

“There has been a step change in reporting and record keeping since this time and today’s regulatory frameworks are significantly different.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “There are harrowing accounts of harm caused by the historic use of DES, with some women still suffering from the associated risks of this medication which have been passed down a generation, and not feeling adequately listened to or supported.

“The Secretary of State has been clear that he has been looking seriously at this legacy issue and carefully considering what more the government can do to better support women and their families who have been impacted.

“As a result, he has asked NHS England to urgently work closely with local cancer alliances to make sure that GPs are aware of the follow-up guidance for those exposed to DES, so that those who could benefit from additional screening aren’t missing out.”

The new DES Justice UK group has been formed following a year-long ITV News investigation. It is made up of women who took the drug, but also their daughters, sons and granddaughters who have suffered medical issues such as infertility, reproductive abnormalities and increased risk of cancer.

‘Dangerous’ online pornography featuring choking to be banned

Online pornography depicting women being choked is to be banned, following a review that found such images are rife and have helped establish the act as a sexual norm.

The government confirmed the possession and publication of images showing strangulation and suffocation will be criminalised, as part of a crackdown on violent pornography.

While non-fatal strangulation is already an offence, its online depiction is not currently illegal.

This legislative action follows Conservative peer Baroness Bertin’s warning earlier this year of a “total absence of government scrutiny” in the pornography industry.

Her independent review, published in February, cited worrying anecdotal evidence from teachers about students asking how to choke girls during sex.

Baroness Bertin cautioned that people acting out choking in their sex lives “may face devastating consequences”.

Amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill, due before peers in the House of Lords next week for further scrutiny, were confirmed by the government on Monday.

As well as making strangulation or suffocation in pornography illegal, duties will be placed on online platforms to stop the spread of such images, the Ministry of Justice said.

Another amendment will extend the time limit for victims of intimate image abuse, which can include so-called “revenge porn”, to come forward to report such crimes.

Currently, victims have six months to do so, but the Government wants to extend this to three years.

The department said the change will mean criminals who take or share an intimate image without consent can be prosecuted at any time within three years of the offence and within six months of the prosecutor having sufficient evidence to bring a case.

Victims minister Alex Davies-Jones said the Government “will not stand by while women are violated online and victimised by violent pornography which is allowed to normalise harm”.

She added: “We are sending a strong message that dangerous and sexist behaviour will not be tolerated.”

Of strangulation pornography, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “Viewing and sharing this kind of material online is not only deeply distressing, it is vile and dangerous. Those who post or promote such content are contributing to a culture of violence and abuse that has no place in our society.

“We’re also holding tech companies to account and making sure they stop this content before it can spread. We are determined to make sure women and girls can go online without fear of violence or exploitation.”

Bernie Ryan, chief executive of the Institute For Addressing Strangulation, welcomed the proposed ban, saying the “serious risks posed by unregulated online content, especially to children and young people” must be recognised.

She added: “Strangulation is a serious form of violence, often used in domestic abuse to control, silence or terrify.

“When it’s portrayed in pornography, particularly without context, it can send confusing and harmful messages to young people about what is normal or acceptable in intimate relationships. Our research shows there is no safe way to strangle.”

The Government said if the amendments were accepted, possession or publication of strangulation or suffocation in pornography would become a priority offence under the Online Safety Act.

Technology firms would be legally required to take steps to stop such violent content reaching internet users, rather than simply waiting for it to be reported.

The Government suggested this could be done through moderation tools, stricter content policies or automated systems being used to detect and hide images.

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) welcomed the planned changes, but said they must “mark the beginning of broader reform to ensure parity between online and offline content standards”.

Its chief executive David Austin said: “Harmful depictions of non-consensual, violent and abusive activity continue to be readily accessible to UK users.”

The BBFC said it stands ready to take on “the formal role of auditing online pornography”, which would be “a natural extension of the role we have carried out offline for decades”.

Trump weighs in on ‘tragic situation’ as more Andrew revelations emerge

US President Donald Trump said he feels “badly” for the royal family amid the continuing fallout over Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s ties to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes as reports claim that Andrew “refused to sign off” on royal statements that supported the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex abuse.

A source close to the King and Queen said the former prince would veto references to abuse victims in all statements since his disastrous 2019 Newsnight interview, blocking the Palace from acknowledging them, according to The Times.

But in the King’s latest statement, in which he stripped Andrew of his royal titles, he made clear his support for survivors in the line: “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”

When questioned about the King’s decision to remove Andrew’s prince title, the US president said: “It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the (royal) family.”

On Thursday, the King took the dramatic decision to officially remove Andrew’s Prince and Duke of York titles and HRH style, following pressure over his ties with Epstein.

Enriching escapes: find your perfect luxury break

The food Gen X is addicted to – and why it could be killing them

Joe Wicks and Dr Chris Van Tulleken, creating the world’s most harmful protein bar in Channel 4’s Licensed to Kill last month, made headlines. The sweeteners, goo, flavouring and other industrially produced edible substances they poured into an innocent-looking and apparently extremely tasty fake chocolate bar, have been linked to diarrhoea, other gut issues, an increased risk of stroke, cancer, and what Van Tulleken describes with alarming confidence as “early death”.

A nation trembled. But who should have been trembling in a very specific way? Generation X. Snagged silently between the gobby social media hoggers of baby boomers and millennials, those of us who’d been paying attention to US medical journals (a very specific subset, admittedly) would have seen, just one week previously, a paper from the University of Michigan, which discovered that this has all affected Gen X’s health in a very unique way.

It’s only the second piece of research in the US looking at the intersection between older age groups and ultra-processed food (UPF), and it points out that Generation X were the first generation to have UPF feature heavily in their diets from an early age. The results are clear. Twenty-one per cent of women and 10 per cent of men in Generation X meet criteria for addiction to UPFs, outweighing other addictions like alcoholism (1.5 per cent) and smoking (4 per cent ).

The term “ultra-processed foods”, just in case you’ve not come across it, was defined by the Nova food classification system, developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. It defines food in four categories depending on what’s been done to it during its production.

Unprocessed or minimally processed foods include fruit, vegetables, milk, fish, eggs and other foods with no added ingredients. Processed ingredients include salt, sugar and oils used to cook with. Processed foods combining groups one and two in a way you could do at home, like jam, pickles, tinned fruit and vegetables. Ultra-processed foods, however, have more than one ingredient that you’d never find in a kitchen, such as chemical-based preservatives, emulsifiers, sweeteners, artificial colours and flavours.

But that’s only half the story. It doesn’t explain why those Gen Xers got addicted, showing strong cravings, repeated unsuccessful attempts to cut down and withdrawal symptoms. It also doesn’t explain why some of this cohort say they even sometimes avoid social situations because of fear of overeating. Or why they over-index as UPF addicts who are overweight, are isolated and have poor mental health.

Boomers, by the way, not so much. Just 12 per cent of women and 4 per cent of men from the golden generation count as UPF addicts. In case the cheap housing, large pensions and jobs for life weren’t enough of a reward for being born in the 1950s and early 60s, they’d also been taught to cook from scratch – a habit many of them never abandoned.

“Generation X was the first to grow up surrounded by ultra-processed foods,” Dr Karen Mann, medical director for the digital health app Noom. “If you were a child in the 1970s or 1980s like I was, you probably remember being bombarded with ads for brightly packaged snacks, fast food, and ‘convenience’ meals.

“Those foods weren’t just available, they were marketed as normal, fun, and family-friendly. In a sense, Gen X was the first test case for how a diet dominated by engineered, hyperpalatable products affects long-term eating behaviour. And being young when UPF arrived shaped Generation X’s tastes and habits early on, making those foods more difficult to resist later in life.”

This was also a generation when both parents started to work too and a more educated population meant many moved away from extended family as they sought out new work opportunities.

“It created a latchkey generation, with parents leaving us food things like French bread pizzas, Findus Crispy Pancakes and Pop-Tarts to snack on when we got home from school,” adds Rob Hobson, nutritionist and author of Unprocess Your Family Life. “Our teeth have suffered, we have a mouthful of fillings, our diets suffered and now we’re reaching midlife, we have high rates of metabolic issues – weight gain, cardiovascular risk, all that kind of stuff.”

As a card-carrying member of Gen X, I look back on Findus Crispy Pancakes, Vesta Curries, Alphabetti Spaghetti, Mr Kipling Cakes, Dalepak Steaks and Birds Eye Potato Waffles with genuine affection. There were no health warnings for us. We were just told that Mr Kipling baked exceedingly good cakes, Birds Eye Potato Waffles were waffley versatile and Angel Delight was not only delicious, it was also delovely, right?

Ironically, UPF’s high calorie content and semi-industrial structure – which makes it faster to eat and faster to digest – is thanks to the American biologist Paul Ehrlich who, in 1968, predicted that the US would face widespread famines in the 1980s, with millions dying of starvation.

He wrote the then-seminal work The Population Bomb, a grim but entirely incorrect book that saw the post-war surge in the population as unsustainable. There were so many of you, they thought we’d all starve. Instead, between 1980 and 1998, we saw the emergence of Big Food to feed us all, and obesity rates trebled.

“That famine fear gave huge financial incentives for greater food energy creation and technological advances that lead to nutrient-poor industrial food products dense in calories per bite, high in too much saturated fat, high in too much added sugar, high in too much salt, far too low in fibre but very cheap,” explains Sam Dicken, research fellow at the Centre for Obesity Research at UCL

“There were tobacco companies getting into food production, using their marketing tricks and product innovations. It was really hard to avoid. We didn’t even have nutritional standards for food until the 1990s. It was an unregulated market.”

Which, of course, was tragic for a generation of kids being brought up on this stuff in the Seventies and Eighties, and then came a cunning switcheroo, which would make things even worse. Having pumped us full of calories, UPF food companies then sold us diet foods like Diet Coke, low-fat or fat-free versions of cereals, yogurts and non-butter spreads – with sugar replaced by aspartame, which can create sugar cravings and fat replaced with sugar.

This, the University of Michigan research suggests, may account for women’s higher addiction to UPF. “One explanation may be the aggressive marketing of ‘diet’ ultra-processed food to women in the 1980s,” according to Ashley Gearhardt, professor of psychology at the university.

“Low-fat cookies, microwaveable meals and other carbohydrate-heavy products were sold as health foods, which can be especially problematic for those trying to reduce the number of calories they consume. Their engineered nutrient profiles may reinforce addictive eating patterns. This especially affects women, because of the societal pressure around weight.”

And to add a cultural smack in the face to the UPF injury, as poor old Gen X staggered uncertainly into the 1990s, they faced a wave of insane fad diets like the detox diet (consume only water or juice); the cabbage soup diet (seven days on just low calorie cabbage soup); the food combining diet (don’t eat certain foods in the same meal because they digest at different rates) and the Atkins diet (eat as much protein and fat as you like but no carbs).

My friends tried most of these. “I nearly attacked my flatmate for eating toast while I was detoxing, it smelt so good,” one recalls. “While on the cabbage soup diet, I actually passed out using the treadmill at the gym.” Another says; “Honestly, I think I tried everything that came along. They made me angry and so hungry I’d break and just stuff my face. It was the 1990s, so I had unhealthy relationships with everything – pills, coke, food, diets and booze. Weirdly, I look back on it as a fun decade. I guess that’s because the Cold War was over and the war on terror hadn’t arrived. The only person working hard to kill me was me.”

Caroline Buck, a health psychologist, and Dr Abigail Fisher, professor of physical activity and health, work at the Centre for Obesity Research with Sam Dicken. They’re trying to wean healthcare workers off UPF, telling me: “They’re at high risk down to shift work and lots of UPF available in hospitals,” Buck explains. “But we found that the whole diet culture is an older age thing that we just didn’t see with younger participants in our study. They had a very different mentality.”

For all age groups, they found that a combination of regular one-to-one online video calls, monthly support groups, setting goals, having them self-monitor, providing booklets and a website with information… It was a lot, all based on something called a behaviour change wheel, which is way more complicated than cabbage soup. And it’s taken six months so far. This is the power of UPF – it’s addictive, but it’s everywhere, and it still makes up 60 per cent of the average UK diet despite people being more aware of it than ever.

No wonder Mounjaro and Ozempic are so popular among Gen Xers in the UK. Private-market data for Mounjaro indicate that people aged 40-59 make up over half of Mounjaro users, and the average user age was reported as 50.2 years. And older users are also more likely to use it for chronic conditions (diabetes, heart disease) rather than solely for slimming, too.

It makes me feel a little bad about how little we noticed back in the 1980s. There’s plenty of work done on adolescents, but only now are we really understanding how the early diets of those in their fifties today have impacted their health. Gen X came home from school alone, put the UPF into the microwave and chowed down alone, and then were left to wrestle with the twisted diet culture, which came for them as they hit their twenties.

No wonder they call us the forgotten generation. Perhaps it’s time to remind people we’re here, because, if we don’t, the cost of ignoring the mounting health crisis coming down the track will.

Trump claims Moscow carrying out ‘secret’ underground nuclear weapons tests

Donald Trump has said that Russia is carrying out “underground” nuclear weapons tests as he doubled down on his announcement last week that the US would restart their own nuclear testing.

Speaking to Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes, he said that “Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it”, adding they were doing them “underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test.”

When Ms O’Donnell tried to clarify if he meant that Russia and China were definitely testing their nuclear weapons, he said: “Russia’s testing nuclear weapons.

“Russia did make– a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were gonna do certain forms of a different level of testing.”

It comes after he has now backed away from the idea of giving Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for carrying out strikes inside Russia, at least for now. Trump has publicly toyed with the idea of providing the long-range missiles to Ukraine, saying that Volodymyr Zelensky would like him to add Tomahawks to Kyiv‘s arsenal. Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500km, enough to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow.