Data published by the Office for National Statistics in November 2025 revealed 5.4 million over-16s in the UK were using e-cigarettes either daily or occasionally, eclipsing the 4.9 million tobacco smokers.

Advertisement

Vaping has surged in popularity in Scotland and across the UK in recent years. Last year it was reported the number of people using e-cigarettes in the UK exceeded those smoking traditional cigarettes for the first time.

Data published by the Office for National Statistics in November 2025 revealed 5.4 million over-16s in the UK were using e-cigarettes either daily or occasionally, eclipsing the 4.9 million tobacco smokers. The most dramatic decline in smoking was among young adults, plummeting from 25.7 per cent in 2011 to just 8.1 per cent in 2024.

Whilst vaping poses fewer dangers than traditional cigarettes, it’s not without health concerns. Research published last year indicated that e-cigarette users face up to a third higher risk of experiencing a stroke.

American TV psychiatrist Dr Daniel Amen has shared his approach to helping patients quit vaping permanently. Speaking in a TikTok video to his audience of more than 3.5 million followers, he explained: “One: you have to know it’s a problem. Two: just start noticing how often you’re doing it.

“Like, count, and if you want a soft withdrawal, just decrease it by like five per cent every day. It can be super simple.

“Or there’s a supplement I like called N-acetyl cysteine, 1200mg twice a day has been found to decrease cravings for a lot of different addictions. Many of my patients find that helpful.”

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can be purchased without prescription from chemists and wellness retailers”, reports the Mirror. It’s chiefly employed to tackle paracetamol poisoning, alongside treating conditions such as pneumonia and bronchitis.

The NHS has warned that, while vaping may assist smokers in kicking the habit, the dangers linked to prolonged usage remain uncertain due to insufficient long-term research. “While vaping is less harmful than smoking, it is unlikely to be totally harmless,” it said.

“Children and non-smokers should never vape. The healthiest option is not to smoke or vape. So, if you are vaping to quit smoking, you should aim to eventually stop vaping too.”

It adds: “Evidence shows that vaping is less harmful than smoking. Vaping exposes users to fewer toxins and at lower levels than smoking cigarettes.

“Switching to vaping reduces your exposure to toxins that can cause cancer, lung disease, and diseases of the heart and circulation like heart attack and stroke. However, vaping is not risk-free. Non-smokers and young people under 18 should not take up vaping.”

However, researchers have voiced significant worries regarding the possible hazards of electronic cigarettes, particularly for younger people. At a conference in Madrid last year, Prof Maja-Lisa Løchen, cardiology expert at the University Hospital of North Norway, warned: “We’re worried about e-cigarettes becoming a new tobacco epidemic.

“I worry that vaping may be causing irreversible harm to children’s brains and hearts. Of course we have to wait for long-term data, but I am absolutely concerned. Vaping increases your blood pressure, your heart rate, and we know that the arteries become more stiff. It could be even more harmful in children.”

Since 2015, Scottish law has prohibited the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18, and it’s also illegal for adults to buy them on behalf of youngsters. Smoking remains the biggest preventable killer in Britain, claiming more than 70,000 lives annually.

On the Mandelson scandal, Mr Streeting told Sky News: “I suspect that not just my colleagues in this Government, but people down the generations, whether in Labour governments, Conservative governments, coalition governments, have all experienced that same sensation of our jaws hitting the floor.

Darren Pattie, from Poppleton, shared his story with poet Simon Armitage who said he was “very moved” by the experience.

Simon, who was appointed poet laureate by Queen Elizabeth in 2019, was asked to pen the poem by Yorkshire Cancer Research for World Cancer Day on Tuesday (February 4).

The poem, titled The Campaign, uses the stories of 17 people affected by cancer from Yorkshire to highlight a century of progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment, while acknowledging the work still needed to create a cancer-free future in the county.

Its release comes after people from across Yorkshire united for the cancer charity’s White Rose campaign, calling on the government to address the region’s long-standing cancer inequalities in its upcoming National Cancer Plan.

Darren was among the more than 2,700 people across Yorkshire to sign up to the campaign and send a white rose, the region’s emblem, to London last summer.

The 59-year-old underwent chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds for a rare blood cancer.

His wife, Sarah, travelled to Manchester for treatment for her own rare neuroendocrine tumours.

“There are serious imbalances in access to cancer treatment across our region,” Darren said. “I feel lucky I was able to travel for mine, but because Yorkshire has many large remote areas, not everyone is able to benefit from the treatment they need.”

Recommended reading:

Simon said it was “saddening to hear experiences of illness and bereavement” when he met with the people who shaped the poem at the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre in Harrogate.

“I felt very moved by their experiences,” the poet said. “It was also a privilege to listen to testimonies of determination, resilience and hope, and to learn about how Yorkshire Cancer Research has given people a positive focus in their lives.” 

He said the poem “ran with the idea of cancer as an ‘enemy’ that must be tackled through ingenuity, decades of research and painstaking discovery”. “Cancer is also a dragon in the mind, demanding a certain bloody-mindedness – a true Yorkshire characteristic – to overcome this shadow and threat to our daily lives,” said Simon, from Huddersfield.

Poet laureate Simon Armitage with Kathryn Scott, chief executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research (Image: Yorkshire Cancer Research)

Kathryn Scott, chief executive at Yorkshire Cancer Research, said it was a “privilege” to work with the poet laureate.

“Simon’s words capture the spirit of Yorkshire – its resilience, generosity and determination – and gives voice to a century of breakthroughs driven by people in our region, whose efforts have saved countless lives around the world,” Kathryn said. 

“As we look to the future, the poem serves as a powerful reminder of why the charity began this mission and why we must keep moving forward to bring more cancer cures to Yorkshire. Together, we will continue to make great progress toward a Yorkshire free from cancer.”

For more information about poet laureate Simon Armitage’s The Campaign, visit: https://www.ycr.org.uk/TheCampaign 

The world is warming. This fact is most often discussed for the Earth’s surface, where we live. But the climate is also changing from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean. And there is a clear fingerprint of humanity’s role in causing these changes through greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels.

Over the last several decades, satellites have monitored the Earth and measured how much heat enters and leaves the atmosphere. Over that time, as greenhouse gas concentrations have increased in the atmosphere, there has been less heat escaping to space, causing an imbalance with more heat being retained.

The consequence is a rapidly heating planet.

The “warming stripes” are one striking and simple way of visually highlighting the resulting variations in Earth’s surface temperature using shades of blue and red for cool and warm, with one stripe per year.

One billion individual measurements of a thermometer combine to produce the clearest picture of our warming planet from 1850 to 2025. The last 11 years have been the warmest 11 years on record and this sequence is unlikely to end anytime soon.

We recently extended this concept upwards through the atmosphere and downwards into the ocean, although the available datasets are shorter.

Satellites have monitored the temperature of different layers of the atmosphere since 1979. The warming stripes for the troposphere (the lowest layers of the atmosphere, within which commercial flights operate) are very similar to the warming stripes of the surface, with the warmest years predominantly occurring over the last decade. Instead of using surface temperature measurements from thermometers, the atmospheric temperature is measured by instruments on satellites called radiometers that detect how much infrared radiation is emitted from air molecules. These satellite-based estimates help corroborate the surface warming that we have already observed.

Higher up in the atmosphere, the picture changes.

The warming stripes over the upper atmosphere (the part called the stratosphere that’s above typical airline cruising height) reveal a cooling trend, with the warmest years around 1980 and the coolest years over the past decade. This feature may appear surprising. If the atmosphere is gaining heat, shouldn’t the stratosphere be warming too?

Actually, this feature is a clear fingerprint of how human activities are the direct cause of our changing climate.

Why is there this pattern of temperature change? The concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased throughout the atmosphere, making the atmosphere more efficient at absorbing and giving off heat. In the lower atmosphere, this effect acts as a blanket, retaining more heat and warming the surface.

Higher up, where the air is thin and very little heat arrives from below, extra carbon dioxide allows the stratosphere to lose more heat to space than it gains, so the stratosphere cools. Another factor is the destruction of stratospheric ozone by substances known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which produces cooling in the lower stratosphere.

This human-caused fingerprint of a warming troposphere and cooling stratosphere was first suggested by scientists as a consequence of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels in the 1960s, long before the cooling stratosphere was observed. Importantly, this pattern would not be seen if, for example, changes in the sun’s brightness were the primary cause of global warming, which instead would lead to warming throughout the atmosphere.

Beneath the surface

Warming stripes for different depth levels in the ocean reveal a broadly similar warming trend as at the surface, with the warmest years occurring over the past decade. The timing of the warming also suggests the heat moves downwards into the ocean from the surface, again consistent with a human influence.

This uptake of heat by the ocean is important, as otherwise there would be a much greater rise in surface air temperature. Globally, the ocean accounts for around 90% of the extra heat stored by the planet. We also see sea levels rising due to sea water getting warmer and expanding, and because land ice is melting and entering the ocean as extra water.

All these observations tell a very clear story. The burning of fossil fuels increases the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The physics of why such an increase should warm the surface was understood in the 1850s, before the warming was observed. And the pattern of change observed from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean indicates that greenhouse gas emissions are the dominant cause.

But, what happens next? Because our emissions are causing the climate to change, our collective global choices about future emissions matter.

Rapid action to reduce emissions will stabilise global surface temperatures but delayed action means worse consequences. Which choice will we make?

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 47,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

Melania, the documentary about the US first lady, might have generated a media firestorm, but it has failed to dent the UK box office in its first weekend of release, opening at just No 29.

Brett Ratner’s film amassed £32,974 from 155 cinemas in total, a screen average of £212.80. While the takings are a far cry from the reported $75m (£54.6m) paid by Amazon to distribute and promote the film, it’s not the disaster that was projected.

Ahead of its premiere, UK ticket sales were described as “soft”, according to Tim Richards, the chief executive of Vue, and on the day of release, many screenings across the UK were sparsely attended, with the film even playing to empty rooms in several locations over the weekend. However, some screening rooms, namely in Vue Islington, were booked up and filled with journalists.

Reporters rushed to see the film on Friday (30 January) after Amazon decided not to preview it ahead of time. The Independent attended a near-empty screening at Vue Westfield in Stratford where four other audience members were present, two of whom were reporters.

In the US, the film exceeded predictions on its opening day, grossing $2.9m (£2.1m) from 1,778 cinemas, but was still a flop. It was ultimately beaten at the box office by Iron Lung, an independently financed horror film made by YouTuber Mark Fischbach.

Inspired by the 2022 horror game created by David Szymanski, Iron Lung was made for $3m (£2.1m) and has made $21m (£15.3m) to date – seven times its budget. In the UK, the film reached No 4 at the box office, with takings of £948,731, beating the week’s big release, Jason Statham action film Shelter (£946,903).

Melania follows the 20 days leading up to her husband Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025.

Since its release, reviews have been largely negative, with the film sitting at a measly 10 per cent on the platform. However, viewers on the site have given the documentary a 99 percent score, in an apparent demonstration of support for Trump.

In a one-star review for The Independent, Nick Hilton wrote: “Perhaps Melania is merely a piece of post-modern post-entertainment. After all, it is transparently not a documentary.”

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day

New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.

Try for free

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day

Advertisement

New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.

Try for free

ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Hilton continues: “Melania spends most scenes playing a staged version of herself, and shots of the first lady are composed with all the deliberateness Ratner brought to his work on X-Men: The Last Stand. This is somewhere between reality TV and pure fiction.”

Councillors in Stokesley have this week renewed their call for a banking hub in the town, warning that residents and businesses are being left behind as bank branch closures continue across the region.

Liberal Democrat councillors Bryn Griffiths and Chris Johnson spoke out after Santander announced its Northallerton branch would close on May 6.

The Santander branch in Northallerton will close on May 6. Photo: LDRS.

The closure is one of 44 announced by the company.

With Santander’s branch in Stokesley closing last year, its customers will be directed to Darlington or Stockton in future.

The councillors say the situation regarding bank closures has worsened sharply since a banking hub proposal for Stokesley was previously explored and rejected in March 2025.

At this point, the town still had an operating Santander branch and a 24-hour cash machine on the High Street.

Both have since gone.

Cllr Griffiths said: “The closure in Northallerton is shocking news — yet another nail in the coffin for high streets in market towns.

“Yet again, both the public and businesses are being let down by the banks. Banks should not be allowed to close without having a banking hub already in place, to deal with non-cash and face-to-face transactions.”

Banking Hubs are shared facilities funded by major high street banks and delivered through Cash Access UK.

They allow customers of multiple banks to access essential services, including cash withdrawals and deposits and in-person support.

Cllr Johnson raised the need for a banking hub at North Yorkshire Council in December, securing the support of councillors at the Richmond area committee.

He has also visited the Richmond Banking Hub, speaking directly to staff and customers to see how the model works in practice.

He said: “My visit to the Richmond Banking Hub confirmed exactly what we already know — this is the solution Stokesley needs.

Market towns must retain essential services like banking if they are to remain viable.

“We need this Banking Hub and we need it fast. We are working with Stokesley Town Council to drive this forward.”

Picture quality is what Philips is aiming for, and this is one of the best-looking OLED TVs that you can buy. It has an advantage over Samsung, Sony and LG in that it supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats for great HDR results, regardless of the source. Philips has put extra effort into making scenes come to life with bright highlights and vibrant colours.

There’s support for Filmmaker Mode, which is comfortably watchable on this TV. This can be too dark on some models and I’ve needed the “Movie” Motion Style to remove judder, but the Philips OLED+950 presents this content as the director intended.

The picture processing can push things to be brighter, sharper and, in some cases, ultra-real, through the HDR Crystal Clear mode, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Crystal Clear offers a cooler picture with brighter highlights and more contrast. I watched Guardians of the Galaxy in this mode and the action jumped off the screen.

Watching sci-fi series The Expanse, highlights were distractingly bright, with details like a white shirt losing all texture. In short, choose the picture mode with care and be prepared to switch, and take advantage of the settings to control how you want the picture to look.

There’s loads of contrast with great handling of dark scenes. It’s great for daytime viewing, with an effective anti-reflective finish to the screen, just not quite as good as Samsung’s glare-killing matte finish on its top TVs.

Both HDR and SDR (like broadcast TV) look excellent, with skilled upscaling of lower quality content.

Sound

Score: 8/10

Standard tickets closer to the stage have appeared on resale sites like StubHub and Viagogo for up to £850 each for the SSE Arena event at the end of February

Tickets for the sellout BetMGM Premier League Darts event at the SSE Arena in Belfast later this month are being sold for up to £850 each on resale platforms online.

World champion Luke Littler will aim to take the Premier League title from Luke Humphries this year, with the Belfast leg of the tournament to be held on February 26th.

Tickets for the event sold out during the pre-sale period three months ago, and fans wishing to either purchase or re-sell tickets can do so via official Ticketmaster resale.

Standard tickets were originally sold for between £50-£83 for the event but were snapped up fast. At the time of publication, no tickets for the Belfast event are available on the official Ticketmaster resale platform. The only tickets left officially are hospitality tickets which start at £299. That includes pre-show hospitality, dining, and meet and greet with players at Titanic Belfast.

Advertisement

However, regular tickets are now available on resale platforms like StubHub and Viagogo for eye-watering prices.

Stageside tickets can be bought on StubHub for £847, that is at a table in row four. There are also tickets available in the same site elsewhere in the arena for £489 each.

The prices on Viagogo are slightly cheaper but still up to 10 times over their face value. Viagogo have ‘front row’ tickets priced at £647, with only a handful remaining. Tickets dotted all around the arena on their site are priced anywhere from £174 to £313 each.

Late last year, the UK government began implementing legislation to make it illegal to resell tickets for live events for more than their original face value, including capping service fees on resale platforms. According to GOV.UK, tickets can only be sold for their original cost plus unavoidable fees.

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) don’t make any comment around specific tickets but they do have a policy of cancelling tickets that can be identified if they are being resold above face value. Those are then placed back on general sale.

That happened extensively around the World Championship and recent World Masters. However, the process of identifying tickets is difficult and not helped by the resale platforms.

“The PDC only sells tickets directly through its official outlets and warns against purchasing from other sources, however official they claim to be,” say the PDC. “Tickets are sold subject to terms and conditions, which include agreement by buyers that tickets will not be re-sold whether at face value or otherwise.

“The PDC shall be entitled to cancel any tickets that have been re-sold or offered for re-sale. The PDC therefore cautions purchasers of re-sold tickets that they may be denied entry into events.

“The PDC shall be entitled to blacklist any ticket holders found to have re-sold tickets or to have offered tickets for re-sale. The relevant individual’s details may be circulated to all PDC official ticket offices. In appropriate circumstances, details may be passed to the Police.

“We welcome reports of tickets that are being offered for sale through third-parties so that we can ensure that tickets are sold through the correct channels and that tickets on re-sale are removed from sale immediately.”

The PDC added: “Receipts from tickets which are re-sold by the PDC through official channels will be donated to charities and good causes through the Matchroom Sport Foundation.”