ASA cracks down on online pharmacies advertising weight loss injections

Watchdog releases nine new rulings setting clear precedents for online selling

Online pharmacies are no longer allowed to run adverts for weight loss injections, the advertising watchdog has ruled, as part of a crackdown on what has been described as a “wild west” culture of online selling.

In the UK, advertising prescription-only medications (POMs) – which includes all weight loss jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – to the public is illegal. However, a Guardian investigation previously found some online pharmacies either breaking these rules outright, or exploiting grey areas to peddle the medications to the public.

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João Pedro leaves it to Chelsea fans to celebrate after double against old side | Sid Lowe

The £60m Brazilian scored both goals but showed no emotion as Fluminense were his first club in his homeland

This time last week, João Pedro was on a Brazilian beach; now he’s in the Club World Cup final, handed a standing ovation by old fans and new. The 23-year-old forward had been on holiday in Rio de Janeiro when they called to say his £60m transfer to Chelsea had been completed and could he come straight here.

Two days and a single training session later, he made his debut in Philadelphia, more than 4,000 miles north of home, a promising glimpse of a future. Four days after that, he was given his first start in New Jersey. It took 18 minutes to get a glorious goal. By the time he headed off, an hour in, he had another.

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Continue ReadingJoão Pedro leaves it to Chelsea fans to celebrate after double against old side | Sid Lowe

Transaction review – ITV’s anarchic new sitcom dives right into the most taboo parts of trans life

At its core, comedian Jordan Gray’s series is a broad comic caper about supermarket hi-jinx – but it also offers a refreshing rebellion against the status quo

It’s a long time since ITV set the comedy world alight. The 1990s threw up some random highlights – Jeeves and Wooster, the ubiquitous Mr Bean – but the next decade was something of a sitcom wasteland until Derren Litten’s outrageously funny Benidorm pitched up. That was followed a mere six years later by Plebs (essentially: if The Inbetweeners were Romans) and job centre-based comedy The Job Lot, whose title’s feel of this-pun-dictated-the-entire-premise still causes me to break out in a cold sweat. Yet despite these shows being the broadcaster’s only notable contributions to the form this century, ITV comedy still feels like a distinctive subgenre, one defined by old-school story beats and all the edge of a bouncy ball.

Into this decidedly unradical template struts Jordan Gray, the singer turned standup who in 2022 became the first transgender person to headline the London Palladium with her Edinburgh-award nominated hit show Is It A Bird? With her new sitcom, the 36-year-old provides the mainstream comedy mould with fresh fodder. We first encounter our hero, Liv, via a parody of one of those cheesy 00s razor adverts: a silky dressing gown is dropped; blades glide along already spotless shins and armpits – but then this classy babe begins shaving her face and urinating in the sink. The punchline? Her longsuffering housemate Tom (Thomas Gray) has been sitting on the toilet the whole time.

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Continue ReadingTransaction review – ITV’s anarchic new sitcom dives right into the most taboo parts of trans life