Economic abuse plays a part in 51% of domestic abuse-related deaths in England and Wales, according to new research. Every 19 days, a victim of economic abuse loses their life.

The findings about this form of coercive control are a “wake-up call”, said Surviving Economic Abuse, the charity behind the research. “Long overlooked” in standard risk assessments and “misunderstood by agencies that could have intervened”, economic abuse must now be “recognised as a serious and potentially fatal form of domestic abuse”.

What is economic abuse?
It’s a legally recognised form of domestic abuse, where one person – usually a partner or ex-partner – has control over another person’s access to money. This can include taking over the victim’s earnings, spending, bank accounts and credit cards, and often results in the build-up of debts in the victim’s name. It can also include controlling access to transport, property, food, clothing or technology. One in six women in the UK has experienced economic abuse by a current or former partner, according to the new research, but many victims do not recognise it as abuse. 

The reality of economic abuse can make it even more difficult for women to leave an abusive relationship, MSP Pam Gosal told Holyrood magazine. Abused women are often unaware of what is in their name financially, what they could lose or what liabilities they could be left with. “You don’t know anything because you never, ever controlled the finances in a relationship,” said Gosal.

How does it contribute to deaths?
Although it is not a physical form of abuse, economic abuse can trap victims in dangerous situations, and “be an indication of escalating risk from a perpetrator”, said the SEA report. Yet agencies often miss opportunities to spot dangers linked to economic abuse, according to the report. In the cases analysed, women who had experienced economic abuse from an intimate partner were significantly more likely to commit suicide than other abused women.

What can be done?
The charity is calling for economic abuse to be integrated into the government’s new guidance on best practice for domestic abuse risk management. It also recommends specialist training on economic abuse for professionals involved in combating violence against women and girls.

Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet is facing the wrath of the ballet and opera communities after suggesting that “no one cares” about the genres. “I don’t want to be working in ballet, or opera, or things where it’s like, ‘Hey, keep this thing alive, even though like no one cares about this anymore,’” Chalamet (pictured above) said during an interview alongside his “Interstellar” co-star Matthew McConaughey. “All respect to all the ballet and opera people out there.”

‘Disappointing take’
Ballet and opera fans “seem pretty pissed off about Chalamet’s tongue-in-cheek comments”, said William Hughes on The A.V. Club. He’s “facing some fairly stiff punishments”, including “the possibility of actually having to go see an opera himself”, after the English National Opera “gave him an open offer of tickets” to “help change his mind on the artform”. 

Some ballet and opera folk were “a little less live-and-let-live”, with “many reminding” Chalamet that “their craft is insanely hard work” and that it “doesn’t get any easier when film actors start punching down”. Responding to what she described as Chalamet’s “disappointing take”, Canadian opera star Deepa Johnny said: “We should be trying to uplift these art forms, these artists and come together across disciplines to do that.”

‘Clear-sighted’ and ‘practical’
Chalamet “isn’t the person you would expect to put down ballet and opera – especially ballet”, said Gia Kourlas in The New York Times. His mother and his sister both studied at the School of American Ballet and “he wore a New York City Ballet baseball cap in Paris”. The actor’s point “wasn’t that ballet and opera don’t matter”, but rather that they aren’t “really part of mainstream culture”. Their “value” and “people’s perception around their value” are “two different things”. What he said “wasn’t untrue” – it was “clear-sighted” and “practical”.

Chalamet is “100% right”, said Sasha Stone on Awards Daily. And what he meant was that “he doesn’t want to see movies become a niche cultural event” like ballet and opera, which “are a luxury few can afford”. 

Firefighters battle a blaze engulfing the domed roof of a building beside Glasgow Central Station. Scotland’s busiest railway station is expected to remain closed for at least two days after the neighbouring premises collapsed during last night’s fire, believed to have started in a vape shop.

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

“It doesn’t matter how old you are,” said Luxury London, “everyone loves an Easter egg.” And for an added treat this year, why not go down the luxury route?

Audrey’s White English Spring Garden Hand-Decorated Easter Egg
This egg (pictured above) is as delightful to look at as it is to eat. Hand-decorated with intricate flower and butterfly motifs, it captures the essence of spring, and the creamy white chocolate melts on the tongue.

Cox&Co.’s Aleppo Chilli & Cherry Easter Egg
Alliteration aside, chilli, cherry and chocolate might not sound like a natural combination. But they perfectly complement each other in this Cox and Co. creation. The dark chocolate is smooth and indulgent, with sharp pops of sour cherry cutting through the richness, while the Aleppo chilli adds a pleasant lingering warmth.

Melt’s Coconut Easter Egg
This luxurious Easter egg immediately stands out thanks to the beautiful packaging. And the chocolatiers at Melt have also leaned into whimsy by creating an egg designed to resemble a real coconut, complete with creamy white centre.

This woman tried to fix childbirth. Instead she accidentally tortured millions
Isabel Hardman in The i Paper
“Chances are that the way you came into this world was affected by” Prunella Briance, writes Isabel Hardman. “And not in a good way.” The National Childbirth Trust founder campaigned against “the over-medicalisation of childbirth”, and her “hugely successful” advocacy “led to an obsessive focus in NHS midwifery” on “normal birth”. But the “mistaken belief that most women should just get on and deliver a baby without pain relief” has “led to lasting trauma” for many mothers.

Assassinating the Ayatollah was uncivilised
David Lloyd Dusenbury on UnHerd
America and Israel bombed “a head of state (and his family) in his own residence without first declaring the commencement of hostilities”, writes philosopher David Lloyd Dusenbury. Killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “was ‘contrary to the laws of war’” adopted by “civilised nations”. International law is “especially reliant upon trust between states”. If we “degrade” that, “we sow chaos. And chaos is a war of all against all; a war in which no one is, in principle, off limits.”

Our coastline is slipping away – we need to act fast
Helen Millman in The Times
UK sea levels have “risen by almost 20cm since 1901”, writes climate scientist Helen Millman, and global warming has “locked in” further rises. “Large sections of the UK coastline will become difficult to defend”, especially while responsibility lies with “cash-strapped local authorities”. Instead of their “reactive repairs”, we need a “national framework for coastal adaptation”. Otherwise, “the sea will continue to dictate terms”, with results that “are more abrupt, more expensive and more socially damaging than any planned response”.