More than 21 million people have suffered broadband outages of three hours or more over the last year, according to new research.
The number has almost doubled compared to what was reported in Uswitch’s previous annual study into Britain’s internet services, with people said to be becoming increasingly aggrieved by disconnections.
With more employees relying on their broadband to work from home since the pandemic, the company said such outages have overtaken roadworks and public transport delays as one of our biggest collective frustrations.
Uswitch’s report found 15% of people have been prevented from working due to disconnections, and a quarter have been left without internet for almost a full week or more.
The top issues were supplier outages, router problems, and maintenance to external cables.
Uswitch said the number of people affected by outages had risen from around 12 million the previous year to 21.7 million over the last 12 months.
People’s woes were particularly pronounced outside London, with Southampton the worst affected city.
Cities with the worst average internet downtime:
• Southampton – 63 hours
• Newcastle – 57 hours
• Birmingham – 47 hours
• Liverpool – 44 hours
• Nottingham – 33 hours
London’s average broadband outage was less than 14 hours.
The damning findings back up recent research by consumer watchdog Which?, which found more than half of broadband customers continued to face difficulties despite providers hiking prices.
Image: You might need to try turning it off and on again…
‘This is not acceptable’
Ernest Doku, a telecoms expert at Uswitch, said: “This is not acceptable in a cost of living crisis, especially considering the ongoing reliance on home internet for many UK workers.
“It’s also concerning that there seems to be a significant disparity in customer experience between customers in London and those around the country, who have to settle for less.
“The good news is that there is a lot of competition in the broadband market, including smaller, disruptive providers offering faster speeds at competitive prices.”
It comes after a charity warned the poorest in society are having to go without internet, despite it becoming an increasingly essential service.
Among Uswitch’s suggested providers for cheaper deals are Hyperoptic, Gigaclear, and Community Fibre.
But the company’s survey found despite experiencing problems, most people plan to stick with their provider.
Some of the most popular are BT, Virgin Media, EE, and Sky (the owner of Sky News).
Read more science and tech news: UK COVID rate estimated as cases rise Rare opportunity to see comet with naked eye How heartbreak damages our brain and our body
What to do if your internet goes down
For those not keen on changing provider, Uswitch’s report offered advice on what to do if your internet goes down.
• Check your router – sometimes a quick reset (the old turn it off and on again routine) really does work, especially if you’ve not done it for a while.
• Status updates – most major providers have a dedicated page where you can input your postcode to see if your outage might be connected to a wider issue or something on your end.
• Backup plan – if you’re going to be without internet for a while and need it, consider using your smartphone as a mobile hotspot (but make sure your contract supports it).
• Compensation – Uswitch’s survey found most of us don’t bother seeking compensation, but if disconnections are your provider’s fault then you should seek it out if they don’t fix the issue after two working days.
• Speed monitoring – outages are the worst, but slow speeds are super frustrating too. Your provider should be guaranteeing you a minimum so make sure you’re getting it.
For Mollie Evans, gaming is a community and a lifeline, but one that’s getting harder and harder to hold on to.
“I physically cannot leave the house everyday, so it’s a huge hobby for me,” she says.
“I’ve made my best friend through gaming, and we hang out everyday online.”
Mollie, a content creator, suffers from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a disorder that affects a person’s connective tissues; such as skin, joints and blood vessel walls.
That means the hobby she loves so much, can pose huge physical challenges.
For one thing, she struggles with motion sickness: “If a game makes me motion sick, I just cannot play it.”
Then there’s the pain in her hands, worsened by the physical act of gaming.
As she demonstrates on Sniper Elite 5, in Rebellion Studios in Oxford, she prefers to use a mouse and keyboard rather than a traditional joystick to play.
But, as she gets older, and the EDS progresses, she knows she’ll have to move to adaptive controllers.
Image: Mollie Evans thinks part of the problem is down to a lack of representation of disabled people
Mollie is one of an estimated 429 million disabled gamers around the world.
They make up a huge proportion of the gaming community.
In the UK and US, nearly a third of gamers identify as being disabled – nearly double the 16% of disabled people in the general population.
But despite this, developers have historically struggled to prioritise the various accessibility needs of their users.
‘See us in this gaming space’
Mollie thinks part of this is down to a lack of representation.
“If games companies brought on more disabled people in their marketing and content creation, or even as characters in their games, it would help people understand it,” she says.
“And maybe it would help them understand the need for accessibility a bit better as well, because they’ll be able to see us in this gaming space.”
It’s something Cari Watterton, senior accessibility designer at Rebellion Studios, is determined to change.
Her role is to make sure that no matter what the disability or accessibility needs – her company’s games can cater to them.
Image: Gamers who are disabled need more accessibility
That can range from increased mobility functions, audio description, to more support for people who are neurodiverse.
But, she says, other developers are still missing “easy wins”.
“It’s definitely frustrating when you see some of the really basic things missing – for instance so many games just don’t have big subtitles,” she says.
“There is no competitive advantage with accessibility. We just want more people to play.”
SpecialEffect is a charity that helps provide equipment to individuals who would otherwise struggle playing games.
Liam Lawler, their partnerships coordinator, demonstrates a version of Minecraft that’s entirely controlled by eye movement.
It’s been downloaded more than 3,500 times, and would allow someone with nothing more than eye movement to be able to play the famous game.
Image: A version of Minecraft can be entirely controlled by eye movement
‘Gaming opens up a world of experiences’
He says it can be transformative for individuals’ mental health.
“A fully able-bodied person can play games with their children, with their brothers and sisters, they can go out and kick a football and pretend to be David Beckham.
“But, people who have accessibility needs aren’t always able to have these shared experiences with families and friends – so gaming opens up a world of experiences.”
Brannon Zahand, senior gaming accessibility technical programme manager at Xbox, is excited by the way technology like AI could be used not just to help disabled gamers – but everyone.
“If done properly, AI can open up whole new methods by which games can be made accessible. You know, imagine a video game that could automatically adapt its mechanics and adapt its difficulty to a player’s individual abilities and skill, no matter what the disability.
“And that’s actually a perfect example of why accessibility is so important.
“Because that technology just doesn’t benefit people with disabilities, it benefits everyone.”
During the post-war building boom of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, reinforced aerated autoclaved concrete (RAAC) was something of a wonder material.
Filled with bubbles of air, the material is about a quarter of the weight of normal reinforced concrete.
RAAC was seen as ideal for shaping into lighter, pre-formed concrete components used in the modern lego-like construction of many public buildings of the time.
Given its light weight, planks of RAAC were widely used to make the flat roofs – a key reason why the current situation is so dangerous.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:19
School buildings forced to close
In the 1990s, when the material was still being used, structural engineers discovered that the strength of RAAC wasn’t standing the test of time.
The porous, sponge-like concrete – especially when used on roofs – could easily absorb moisture, weakening the material and also corroding steel reinforcement within.
As it weakened, it sagged, leading to water pooling on roofs, exacerbating the problem.
RAAC made in the 1950s was at risk of failure by the 1980s, the report concluded.
About 30 years ago, it became known that the lifespan of RAAC in many of public buildings, including hospitals and schools was no greater than 30 years.
Yet it seems, not much happened.
Read more: School buildings forced to close over concrete safety fears School building collapse that causes death or injury ‘very likely’
Image: A cross-section of RAAC
Until 2018 when the roof of a primary school in Gravesend, Kent suddenly collapsed. Thankfully, it happened on a weekend and no one was injured.
The investigation into the collapse revealed the RAAC planks used in the roof had weakened with age. But also steel reinforcement inside it didn’t extend all the way to the ends where it was supported by the walls.
Not only was there a problem with the material, there were problems with construction too.
In government, work began to find out which schools (and separately, hospitals) were at structural risk due to RAAC.
Thankfully, the 104 schools we now know are at the greatest risk is only a small fraction of the 22,000 state-owned nurseries, primaries, secondaries and colleges in England.
It’s going to be a chaotic start to the academic year for teachers and pupils in those schools.
And it’s no surprise that many are wondering about chaos in the Department for Education.
This is a problem for which urgent action has been long overdue, yet the decision to take it has come at possibly the most disruptive time possible.
Copyrighted music, literature and art must be protected by law that prevents them from being freely used to train artificial intelligence, MPs have warned.
The creative industries have been among the most vocal in their opposition to how powerful AI models like ChatGPT are being developed to generate new work.
By training them on huge amounts of existing media, including text and images, they can produce fresh content on demand that imitates what already exists.
Concerns around their use by film and TV studios to write scripts or even replace actors are a key driver of ongoing Hollywood strikes, while music labels are seeking to prevent pop stars’ vocals from being freely cloned and photographers have spoken out against online art generators.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:06
Music industry calls for AI protection
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee said the UK government must take into account such issues when determining how to regulate the technology.
It said an original plan to exempt data mining by AI from copyright protection law risked undermining the value of Britain’s artistic and cultural industries.
Committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage, a Conservative, said ministers must “sit up and take notice”.
“The government must now start to rebuild trust by showing it really understands where the creative industries are coming from and develop a copyright and regulatory regime that properly protects them as AI continues to disrupt traditional cultural production,” she added.
Read more: How AI could transform future of crime The author embracing AI to help write novels
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:40
Hollywood stars rally in London
Ministers have indicated they will reconsider the initial proposals, and any exemption for AI data mining could be restricted to non-commercial research purposes and works that creators have licenced for a further purpose.
It comes ahead of the UK hosting a global summit on AI regulation, the first of its kind, in the autumn.
It will be hosted at Bletchley Park, where codebreakers like Alan Turing worked during the Second World War. The site was crucial in the development of technology, as Turing and others used the Colossus computers to help break Nazi codes.
UK ‘hampered by skills shortage’
Despite the concerns around AI, the committee has said the government must also do more to help the creative industries “push the boundaries” of technology.
In a new report, it cites West End stage show ABBA Voyage – which utilises avatars of the Swedish pop group – and digital exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum – as examples of how the creative and tech industries can be effectively brought together.
Ms Dinenage said the UK’s adoption of creative technology was being “hampered by a shortage in technical skills”.
She said the government should address the gap in its upcoming cultural education plan, encouraging more people into industries like visual effects.
“When the time comes, disconnect the main flex cable.”
Besides being a short guy named Tom, I never felt I had any sort of Mission: Impossible credentials until I donned safety googles and got handed a screwdriver and plastic scalpel at what’s thought to be the UK’s biggest phone recycling factory.
Fixing the screen on a Samsung handset isn’t quite cutting wires on a nuclear bomb, admittedly, but for someone whose DIY experience doesn’t go far beyond putting toppled Lego back together, it was quite the thrill.
Image: A strong look, I’m sure you’ll agree
Having already used a screwdriver no fewer than 18 times to get into the device’s complex interior components, the next step was removing that aforementioned flex cable.
These are what connect up some of the phone’s most important features, like the touchscreen, to the motherboard – and this phone needed a new one.
It was a relatively basic task, though not one I was trusted with enough to perform on a real customer’s device.
In the time it took me to remove those screws, the technician sat in front of me had likely fixed a few of the more than 900 devices processed at the Ingram Micro Lifecycle hub in Norwich each day.
The 34-year-old facility, with a floor big enough to hold 20 tennis courts, has around 800 employees.
Many are highly-trained technicians, deployed at stations with dedicated equipment for everything from realigning a phone’s broken camera system to replacing those all-important flex cables.
Image: A technician at work disassembling a phone. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
Facility ‘purpose built’ to recycle phones
Kevin Coleman, the facility’s fourth employee back in 1989 and now one of its most senior leaders, says there are “hundreds of technical functions” going on at all times.
“The facility is purpose built to industrialise high-volume processing of tech devices,” he says.
“Predominantly mobile, but also wearables, tablets, earbuds, and laptops.”
I even spotted a Nintendo Switch games console at one station – and it wasn’t for staff to sneak in a cheeky race on Mario Kart between jobs.
Of course, phones are the focus – and the range of those alone is quite extraordinary.
There are shelves and trolleys stacked with iPhones, Samsung Galaxies and Google Pixels of all colours and sizes; damaged or broken in their own way; with every technician trained to handle whichever one might come to them.
Image: Phones being repaired for various screen repairs
Old phones ‘should never go to landfill’
They end up with Ingram’s workers via Virgin Media O2‘s recycle scheme, which lets people, regardless of network, submit their phone for repair or recycling.
Last year, it paid out £36m to people who sold their phones – and plenty are choosing to buy second-hand.
Gina Mutonono, who works on the network’s sustainability initiatives, said the cost of living crisis was one of the reasons there was a “growing acceptance from customers for refurbished devices”.
It helps that many of the phones that go through the facility come out looking good as new – and if they’re too old or just not sellable, there are likely still useful parts within.
“Consumers who are sending us smashed phones don’t always realise even if we cannot sell them, that they’re still worth something,” says Mutonono.
“We can always reuse some parts, like metals or batteries – they should never go to landfill.”
Image: The factory employs 800 people. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
The huge number of phones going to waste
Five billion phones are estimated to have been thrown away worldwide last year, but less than 20% of e-waste is recycled and ends up part of Mutonono’s cherished “circular economy”.
There are also thought to be tens of millions of unused electronics sitting in Britons’ drawers and cupboards.
A study last year revealed the estimated worth of spare smartphones alone was £1bn.
To make the most of everything that ends up at the Norwich facility, new recruits go through its classroom-like training centre. Given the nature of the tech world, veterans need to return regularly as new handsets are released.
They’re taught how to disassemble phones and put them back together, just as I got to try – albeit with the help of a Jedi-like engineering sage at my side and a detailed set of instructions.
Image: All manner of phones make their way through the facility. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
Hot wires and phone freezers
Resembling some kind of futuristic city for Borrowers, these phones might be small, but the interiors are packed with quite incredible amounts of component parts.
The screen alone is made up of a display module inside the device, the LCD or OLED panel, and a sheet of glass you likely tap and swipe hundreds or thousands of times a day. The degree of damage, whether it’s minor scratches or a complete smash, determines just how multistaged a screen repair job might be.
I watched on completely transfixed as a woman removed the pane of glass from a display using a hot wire, which looked like the way a pretentious Michelin-starred chef might slice cheese.
Another lady was looking after a broken curved screen, which first needs to be frozen in a super low temperature freezing oven to separate the glass from the display.
It speaks to how adaptable and intricate these technicians have to be. Just don’t ask them about foldable phones, they’re still working out just how to fix those notoriously fragile contraptions.
Image: This technician is removing a sheet of glass from a screen using a hot wire
The fact that hundreds are processed at this factory alone each day, adding up to four million a year, reflects the great speed at which these technicians work.
Not that they skimp on care and attention, hammered home by the fact even visitors like myself had to dress up in specialist protective gear that prevents me from passing any electrostatic discharge on to the devices – potentially ruining the repair process.
Read more: 50 moments in 50 years since first mobile phone call
Image: One of the few bits of kit I needed to wear to stop transmitting an electrostatic discharge
They’re also helped by one of my favourite parts of the entire facility.
A web of pipes under the ceiling funnels replacement parts, packed inside cylindrical containers, to each work station as needed, like a hyperefficient Santa’s workshop.
I could have listened to the satisfying “woosh” as they take off for hours.
Image: Phone parts are funnelled across the factory floor using this network of pipes
The ultimate factory reset
And the work doesn’t stop there, with data wiping also a key part of the job. After all, you definitely don’t want those WhatsApps and photos being seen by anyone else.
Coleman explains: “The technicians do the repair, but also the documentation.
“We’re approved by the major manufacturers, like Apple and Samsung, which gives us access to parts we need, but also the software tools to make 100% sure there’s no data on the device.”
A factory reset in the truest sense.
Image: A range of equipment is utilised. Pic: Ingram/Virgin Media O2
As was clear during my visit, this facility is always busy. But just as Santa’s workshop would perk up in December, it can expect plenty of old phones to play with come September when Apple unveils this year’s iPhone line-up.
Coleman confidently predicts his team will be handling traded-in iPhone 15s within weeks of release, such are some people’s obsession with always having the next best thing.
The idea of an annual upgrade is likely becoming increasingly alien to most of us, given how iterative and uninspiring new releases have long felt. Tim Cook is no doubt looking forward to telling us about “the fastest iPhone Apple has ever made”, but one imagines your old one will still cycle through funny TikTok videos just fine.
In fairness, manufacturers like Apple and Samsung clearly recognise how much longer we’re tending to keep hold of our phones, given both now let UK customers order their own self-repair kits if they feel confident enough to try.
Still, if you do fancy a new phone next month, it’s not for anyone to tell you it would be a waste of money.
Just remember you probably don’t have to let the old one go to waste.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can “safely” read breast cancer screening images, a preliminary study suggests.
Researchers found computer-aided detection could spot cancer in mammograms – X-ray pictures of the breast – at a “similar rate” to two radiologists.
The NHS is already looking at how it can implement such technology in its breast screening programme.
However, the authors of the study said the results are “not enough on their own to confirm that AI is ready to be implemented in mammography screening”.
Previous studies into whether AI can accurately diagnose breast cancer in mammograms have been carried out retrospectively – where the technology assesses scans already examined by doctors.
But the new interim study pit AI-supported screening against standard care.
The randomised control trial, published in the journal Lancet Oncology, involved more than 80,000 women from Sweden with an average age of 54.
Half of the scans were assessed by two radiologists, known as standard care, while the other half were assessed by the AI-supported screening tool, followed by interpretation by one or two radiologists.
In total 244 women from AI-supported screening were found to have cancer compared with 203 women recalled from standard screening.
Also, the use of AI did not generate more “false positives” – where a scan is incorrectly diagnosed as abnormal. The false-positive rate was 1.5% in both the AI group and the group assessed by radiologists.
Read more: Most early-stage patients will become long-term survivors Smartphone camera lens technology to be used to diagnose skin cancer patients
AI could halve screening workload
Researchers said the use of AI could potentially almost halve the screening workload.
There were 36,886 fewer screen readings by radiologists in the AI-supported group compared with the group who received standard care, resulting in a 44% reduction in the screen-reading workload of radiologists, the authors said.
The study is continuing to assess whether AI tools can reduce cancers diagnosed between screenings, with the results not expected for a few years.
But the authors’ interim analysis concludes: “AI-supported mammography screening resulted in a similar cancer detection rate compared with standard double reading, with a substantially lower screen-reading workload, indicating that the use of AI in mammography screening is safe.”
Radiologists could be ‘less burdened by excessive amount of reading’
Lead author Dr Kristina Lang, from Lund University in Sweden, said: “These promising interim safety results should be used to inform new trials and programme-based evaluations to address the pronounced radiologist shortage in many countries, but they are not enough on their own to confirm that AI is ready to be implemented in mammography screening.
“We still need to understand the implications on patients’ outcomes, especially whether combining radiologists’ expertise with AI can help detect interval cancers that are often missed by traditional screening, as well as the cost-effectiveness of the technology.”
She added: “The greatest potential of AI right now is that it could allow radiologists to be less burdened by the excessive amount of reading.
“While our AI-supported screening system requires at least one radiologist in charge of detection, it could potentially do away with the need for double reading of the majority of mammograms, easing the pressure on workloads and enabling radiologists to focus on more advanced diagnostics while shortening waiting times for patients.”
NHS exploring implementing AI
Commenting on the study, an NHS spokesperson said: “The NHS is already exploring how AI could help in breast screening by enabling complicated image analysis very quickly and at scale, which, if proven effective, could in future help speed up diagnosis for many women, detect cancers at an earlier stage, and ultimately save more lives.
“This research is very encouraging, and plans are underway to assess the best ways of implementing this technology into the NHS Breast Screening Programme.”
Daffodils could provide the key to more sustainable livestock farming, according to scientists who say lab tests have proven promising.
Adding an extract from the flowers to livestock feed reduced methane in artificial cow stomachs by 96%.
A team of researchers at Scotland’s Rural College hope that when trialled in real cows, it could reduce methane emissions by at least 30%.
A four-year programme of trials is now beginning at farms around the UK.
On his farm in Powys, Kevin Stephens breeds cattle and grows daffodils.
Image: Farmer Kevin Stephens said it could make a ‘huge difference’ to the livestock industry
He has been part of the team developing the science behind the new animal feed.
“We started growing daffodils originally to produce an Alzheimer’s drug, but we discovered that the daffodils also produce a compound that prevents ruminants from producing methane,” he said.
“So the chance to combine the two things was too good an opportunity to miss.”
Read more: Dairy cows could be fed methane suppressants Icelandic company turning CO2 to stone
For farmers like him, finding a way to farm more sustainably could be a game changer.
“This could make a huge difference to the livestock industry,” he said.
Image: Extracts from daffodils reduced methane in artificial cow stomachs by 96%
“There are governments across the world currently trying to meet net-zero by either taxing livestock farmers or putting quotas on the number of livestock you can have because of this methane by product.
“This gives us a very real opportunity to change that story.”
It is estimated that half of the country’s methane emissions come from cows.
And globally, livestock produce around 14% of the world’s greenhouse gasses.
Image: Professor Jamie Newbold hopes the project will be part of a solution to methane emissions
Professor Jamie Newbold, professor of animal science at Scotland’s Rural College, said: “Our new project has three main stages.
“First developing a supply chain of daffodils and extracting the chemicals from daffodils. Secondly, testing that the additive is safe to both animals and humans, and finally, working with our farmer partners across England and Wales to prove the additive is effective in reducing methane production and feed costs for dairy cattle.
“This is vital because greenhouse gases and global warming is a major global challenge, and we hope our project will be part of the solution of reducing the role of ruminants in methane production.”
Helped by celebrity collaborations, social media, and one-of-a-kind special editions that get fans queuing up outside stores on launch day, they have perhaps never been as desirable a fashion item as they are today.
I treat myself to the odd fresh pair, usually bought online with a cursory glance at the size. I just assume they will fit and if they don’t, well, I can break them in – cue hobbling around with painful blisters for several weeks.
But that could all soon be a distant, painful memory. Asher Clark, scion of the Clarks shoe dynasty, has a grand plan for the “future of footwear” and in order to investigate it, I had to get my feet physically measured.
Forget the tape measure and those weird shoe shop devices, Clark instead had me step on what looked like a set of futuristic scales in the back of his Vivobarefoot store in central London, equipped with a monitor that displayed the soles of my feet in real time.
From where I was placing all my weight (too much on the heels, not enough on the toes), to measurements for everything from “instep girth” to “arch height”, it was a far cry from “looks like a seven-and-a-half to me”.
Image: I put too much weight on my heels, it seems
Not long after, this scales-like machine had transformed a scan of my feet into a 3D model and sent it to my phone, ready to form the basis of a bespoke pair of shoes.
This, says Clark, is how we’ll all want to get our new trainers one day.
“Ten thousand years ago, humans made shoes out of local materials,” he says.
“Now, we have no choice but to do the same thing.”
Asher and brother Galahad are the seventh generation of the Clark family and, 187 years on from the dawn of a footwear dynasty, they launched Vivobarefoot in 2012 with the goal of creating shoes that make you feel as close to being bare-foot as possible.
They’re almost plimsoll-like when it comes to weight and thinness. It takes time to get used to them if you’re used to pounding the pavement in normal trainers. But the Clarks are unapologetic in their belief that they are better for our feet, keeping them closer to the ground in a wider, more natural, position.
The next step is to make them better for the planet – and that’s where my video game-looking feet come in.
Image: Look mum, my feet are in the metaverse!
Made to order
Clark says: “We are effectively using modern technology to make the shoes we did millennia ago.
“All feet are different, so we can only do so well in terms of putting the perfect shoe on your feet.
“The shoe industry has a long, human-intensive chain of development. It takes a long time, it’s inefficient and slow because you’re ordering for stock. You’re making a huge bet as a business – ‘is this the right shoe, will people want it’ – well before you have them in stores.
“We’re trying to move towards an efficient, digital model that is made person by person, locally.”
Image: The Vivobiome shoes have the same plimsoll-like weight and feel as as the company’s standard sneakers
The first step for a “Vivobiome” customer would be to scan their feet at home with a smartphone app. It would use gaming engine Unreal to create their new shoes in 3D, let them customise them and even virtually try them on.
If they choose to order, the shoes would be made using 3D printing with local, sustainable materials. Clark says it would be less than a month from scanning your feet to wearing the perfectly sized shoes.
It’s an ambitious idea, first pitched to attendees at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, and one that seeks to disrupt an industry that shows no sign of slowing down.
Image: The company first showed off the concept at COP26 in 2021
Winning over the ‘sneakerheads’
Encompassing mega brands like Nike, Adidas, Converse, and Vans, the global trainer market was worth more than $70bn (£54bn) last year and is projected to exceed $100bn (£78bn) by 2026.
Given the seemingly unstoppable demand, whether it be to replace your old All Stars or grab those “limited edition” Stranger Things Vans, it should come as no surprise that an astonishing 20 billion pairs of shoes are made every year – many of them trainers.
And perhaps even more astonishingly, 90% of them are destined to end up in landfill.
Clark is unapologetic in his assessment that the planet simply can’t take any more of it – and his firm’s ambitious Vivobiome initiative should be up and running in full by the middle of next year.
Powering it will be “Tesla-like speed factories”, where – like Elon Musk‘s electric car firm – the entire shoe-making process goes under one roof. The first one will be in Ireland in 2024, with more to follow in Germany and the US.
Image: Tesla’s factories have been cited as a point of inspiration for Vivobarefoot’s proposed shoe plants
The price catch
Vivobarefoot’s goal of helping the planet will only go far if the shoes are affordable – and you could certainly pick up a few pairs of sneakers for the price of what the company thinks it will charge for theirs.
“It’s expensive to do things differently,” admits Clark, who’s targeting a £260 launch price.
In the meantime, the company’s launched a “pioneer programme” to put the initiative through its paces. People who successfully apply will get three pairs and will be asked to give feedback.
Foot scans will begin next month, with the pairs rolled out between August and February.
Word of mouth will likely be crucial to whether Vivobiome makes a fast start come launch, as there’s no sign of a Michael Jordan waiting in the wings to power the brand to glory by himself.
“A company like Nike has built an emotional legacy with amazing athletes and cool products,” says Clark.
“But I challenge that’s the past. This is looking to the next phase.”
You can’t doubt the ambition – but for now, Vivobiome’s success is up in the Air.
Bereaved parents of children who took their own lives want authorities to take online histories into account when determining their cause of death.
The mother of Archie Battersbee, who died in August 2022 after a “prank or experiment” that went wrong, joined other families to demand more access to content their children were exposed to online.
“I think it should be available and be part of the whole investigation,” Hollie Dance told Sky News.
“When it comes to a child’s death, everything should be looked into.
“Obviously they look into the parents, the home life, school life. Why not look into social media?”
Ms Dance’s 12-year-old son Archie died after being found unconscious at home four months earlier.
She believes he may have been taking part in an online challenge, but a coroner ruled his death an accident.
“We’ve got his phone now, so let’s go back and see what this child was into,” she said.
“What did he watch? Did he look at a lot of social media? Didn’t he?”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:27
August 2022: ‘I’m broken’
Molly Russell ruling ‘opened our eyes’
Ian Russell campaigned to get access to his daughter Molly‘s social media history after she was found dead in her bedroom in November 2017.
It emerged Molly, 14, had viewed masses of content related to suicide, depression, and anxiety online.
In a landmark ruling at an inquest in September, a coroner ruled she died not from suicide, but “an act of self-harm while suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content.”
Ms Dance, who was joined by Mr Russell at a meeting of bereaved families this week, said: “Having Molly’s dad here has given us knowledge that we didn’t know.
“It opened our eyes to things that we can potentially do and use moving forward.”
Read more: ‘It was shocking to see material was that bad’
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:09
‘Losing friend at that age was scarring’
‘What has happened to you?’
Liam Walsh’s daughter Maia died just weeks before her 14th birthday.
An inquest into her death opened in October, but a hearing date is yet to be set.
Mr Walsh the coroner will have access to Maia’s full social media history before determining what caused her death.
“The question I asked as I ran my fingers through her hair, and I held her belly, was what has happened,” he said.
“What has happened to you? I’m still asking that question today.”
Read more: Prince William calls for greater online safety
Image: Maia Walsh
‘We have this mission’
In her first interview since her son Isaac’s death, Lisa Kenevan told Sky News she is on a mission to bring change.
“He was a typical 13-year-old boy with a good group of friends,” she said.
“He was very loving. We’d hold him every day, and he’d hold us every day.”
She thinks social media might hold clues to what drove Isaac to his death.
“Our world has just been awful, but we have this mission, this need, this want to get out there for every other parent that’s been going through this, to either come forward or know they’ve got support,” she said.
“And to really push forward to get some awareness about the social platforms – that things need to be stepped up.”
Read more: Online Safety Bill is certainly too late
Image: The parents of Molly Russell, Archie Battersbee, Isaac Kevevan, Maia Walsh, and Christoforos Nicolaou are campaigning for greater access to their children’s social media history
‘Threats were made to hurt us’
The families met at the home of George and Areti Nicolaou, whose son Christoforos, 15, took his own life in 2022 after joining an online forum where he was encouraged to do dangerous challenges.
His parents described him as “the heart of the house”, who was “bringing joy and happiness in our home”, but the challenges he did escalated and made him miserable.
“There were challenges like he’s got to not go to sleep at all, then go to school in the morning,” his parents said.
“Then there were challenges like you’ve got to chat with us through the night. Then there were challenges where they made him get his phone and record the whole house.
“Then threats were made to hurt us, his parents, should he not complete the challenges he’s been asked to do.”
George and Areti have launched the Christoforos Charity Foundation in their son’s memory.
They hope their work with other families to raise awareness of online harms ensure his legacy reaches even further.
The families’ meeting came as the government’s Online Safety Bill makes its way through parliament.
The proposed law – which aims to regulate internet content to help keep users safe, and also to make companies responsible for the material – has been repeatedly held up over concerns about its impact on freedom of expression.
Surveys suggest it has the backing of a majority of UK adults and charities like the NSPCC and Barnardo’s.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Hundreds of thousands of Britons are taking antidepressants for chronic pain without enough evidence they work, according to a large study.
Researchers looked at drugs commonly prescribed by the NHS including amitriptyline, duloxetine, fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram, paroxetine (Seroxat) and sertraline.
They concluded only duloxetine had robust evidence for pain relief.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommends them as an option where the root cause is unknown, including for some cancer pain, and conditions that can cause neuropathic pain, such as stroke.
It said it had reviewed the study in detail but decided an update to guidelines was currently unnecessary.
The research looked at 176 trials and almost 30,000 patients, and included institutions such as University College London, and the universities of Bath, Bristol and Southampton.
It also raised concerns about a lack of long-term data on the drugs’ safety.
Lead author Professor Tamar Pincus said the findings raised a “global public health concern”, with people prescribed the drugs without “sufficient scientific proof they help, nor an understanding of the long-term impact on health”.
“Our review found no reliable evidence for the long-term efficacy of any antidepressant, and no reliable evidence for their safety for chronic pain at any point,” she said.
“Though we did find that duloxetine provided short-term pain relief for patients we studied, we remain concerned about its possible long-term harm due to the gaps in current evidence.”
Read more from Sky News UK’s first ‘three-parent baby’ born after IVF procedure COVID no longer health emergency, says WHO
Professor Pincus said there were around 15 million low-dose amitriptyline prescriptions in England in 2020 to 2021 – and hundreds of thousands likely taking it for pain – but the drug is “probably not very healthy”.
“The fact that we don’t find evidence whether it works or not is not the same as finding evidence that it doesn’t work,” she added.
“We don’t know – the studies simply are not good enough and, similarly, we don’t know whether it harms or not.”
Patients ‘shouldn’t panic’
The authors are urging people to continue drugs they have been prescribed and to raise any concerns with their GP.
Dr Ryan Patel, from King’s College London, explained that antidepressants are prescribed for pain because “the systems that regulate mood and pain overlap considerably”.
He said the study showed “when clinical trials are designed poorly under the assumption that everyone’s experience of pain is uniform, most antidepressants appear to have limited use for treating chronic pain”.
The chair of the Royal College of GPs said doctors aim to treat chronic pain with a mix of psychological, pharmacological and physical treatments – and to prescribe “the lowest dose of medicines, for the shortest time”.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne said patients “shouldn’t panic” and reiterated they should continue with their medication until they’ve discussed things with their GP.
Nice said its recommendation for antidepressants as a treatment option came after a thorough look at the benefits and harms.
It said evidence showed they can help with “quality of life, pain, sleep and psychological distress, even in the absence of a diagnosis of depression”.
