English in Madrid

Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial A Los Angeles jury has handed down an unprecedented win for a young woman who sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media. Jurors found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the 20-year old's mental health. The woman, known as Kaley, was awarded $6m (£4.5m) in damages , a result likely to have implications for hundreds of similar cases now winding their way through US courts. Meta and Google said separately that they disagreed with the verdict and would both appeal . Meta said: "Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app. "We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online." A spokesperson for Google said: "This case misunde...

'Why I queued for almost 24 hours for a jacket potato' On a grey and wet November morning, a queue of more than 150 people - which will later swell to over 400 - is stretching down Fargate in Sheffield city centre. Amelia Sorby, 33, stands proudly at the front of the queue after arriving at 18:30 the previous evening, armed only with a camping chair and a thick winter coat. The hordes of people have braved the weather for the official opening of Spud Bros – a jacket potato business started in Preston which has grown to become a TikTok sensation. Ms Sorby is one of about 4.8 million social media followers of the company's founders , brothers Jacob and Harley Nelson, but, for her, being part of the queue in rainy Sheffield is less about the spuds and more about the "great vibes ". "I didn't sleep last night. I was so excited, I just walked around," she explains. She describes the Nelson brothers as "great people" who " give some...