Joe Duggan, senior reporter at The i Paper, has won the News Media Association’s “Making a Difference” award for his “powerful and determined” reporting on the deadly lung disease silicosis, as part of our Killer Kitchens campaign.
The award, voted for by the public, celebrates local and national media campaigns that drive real-world change and hold decision-makers to account.
Killer Kitchens, spearheaded by Duggan, investigated cases of workers who fell ill and died from silicosis after inhaling dust while cutting quartz kitchen worktops without sufficient protection.
The reporting contributed to the introduction of new safety rules that will save lives; a criminal investigation into one worker’s death; and the tabling of a parliamentary bill to outlaw unsafe cutting of engineered stone.
From mogging to friendslop – words of the year revealed
Collins English Dictionary has unveiled its hotly debated top words of 2026, with Gen Z slang, influenced by social media and the manosphere, coming through into the mainstream.
Uses of mogging increased 210 per cent this year.
Mogging the other words
Anything can be mogged now.
Mary O’Neill, who works at Collins, told the term was “adopted by ‘looksmaxxers’, basically to say they were better and more handsome and more muscular than anyone else”.
It means “the act of outshining or outperforming someone or something” and was partly popularised by manosphere figures like Clavicular.
What else was on the shortlist?
- Aside from word of the year mogging, the other shortlisted words included bixie, carspreading, p(doom) and Manchesterism.
- Manchesterism refers to the political philosophy opined by Andy Burnham.
- And, depressingly, p(doom) is the estimate of how likely it is that AI will bring about the collapse of civilisation.
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Hair gets shorter, cars get bigger
- Bixie refers to the popular haircut between a bob and a pixie.
- Carspreading means “the tendency of manufacturers to build cars that are longer, wider and heavier”.
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Why job satisfaction across UK is at a record low
Analysis by the Resolution Foundation think-tank found that pay and flexibility have become key issues employees have with their working arrangements.
The key findings
The study found a significant decline in satisfaction at work among the UK population.
Job satisfaction fell from 81 per cent in 2015 to just 74 per cent a decade later, the lowest figure ever recorded in the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey.
The number of people who reported being interested in their job or having the sense that they had opportunity for progression was also down.
Sir John Curtice, co-editor of the BSA report, suggested it has become more important for employers “to provide jobs that are both financial rewarding and have flexible work hours” in order to produce happier workers.
What does this mean?
Hannah Slaughter, of the Resolution Foundation, said: “This ‘dissatisfaction drain’ is self-evidently bad for workers, but it also doesn’t bode well for productivity and labour supply.”
Tenerife footballer dies aged 30 after on-pitch collision
Jesús de Miguel suffered a serious injury after colliding with the opposition goalkeeper in a match on Monday.
What happened?
The 30-year-old CD Tenerife forward was playing in a second-division match against Andorra, when he was struck in the chest by their goalie, Jesús Owono.
De Miguel suffered a cardiac arrest and was rushed to hospital. He died at 8am on Tuesday, according to his club.
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The sequence of events
- Owono’s knee appeared to collide with De Miguel while challenging in the midfield, according to reports.
- It occurred in the final minutes of the game, which at that point was drawn 2-2.
- The forward reportedly lay motionless on the pitch and distressed players called for medical aid. He was treated for more than five minutes on the pitch before being rushed to hospital by ambulance.
What the club has said
There are no words of comfort – there is absolutely nothing that can lessen this overwhelming sadness. We stand with his grieving family, with his loved ones, with all of Tenerife who mourn this cruel loss today.
CD tenerife, in a statement today
When the BBC licence fee could be axed
Ministers are set to announce proposals to reform the £180-a-year charge in a White Paper setting out the terms of a new BBC charter next month.
A few of the options
New charter by 2028
Insiders believe the licence fee could gradually transition to something new over several years.
Streaming tax
The Government is considering extending the charge to streaming services – which could cost £6.25 a month.
Broadband levy
This would cost £11 per month, £4 a month cheaper than the current licence fee.
What else is on the table?
- BBC director-general Matt Brittin has suggested that the BBC could use a German-style funding model.
All households in Germany pay €18.36 per month (£15.70) to fund all public TV and radio broadcasters across different states.
Brittin predicted the scheme would enable the current fee to be reduced by 20 per cent from its current level.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has looked at whether the BBC should be allowed to take advertising around some of its services.
A final option could be to let the licence fee continue its decline and give the BBC the commercial freedom to raise more funds itself.
A BBC spokesman said: “The current funding model is outdated and needs reform. We will continue to engage with government to secure a new charter.”
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Watch more from The i Paper
How rapid delivery services are ‘fuelling’ alcohol harm
A group of MPs, health leaders and charities have argued the availability of strong and cheap alcohol should be tackled via minimum unit pricing (MUP) in England.
What does the letter say?
- In a letter to Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, 55 experts said that the evidence from Scotland and Wales, where MUP has already been introduced, is “clear and compelling”.
- The letter reads: “Very strong, very cheap alcohol is available everywhere in this country, from our supermarkets to our corner shops and increasingly via online rapid delivery services.”
- They argued the current conditions allow for “escalating alcohol harm”.
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The story in numbers
Between 2019 and 2023, deaths in England increased by a “staggering”
42%
and have not returned to pre-pandemic levels since.
The authors said that alcohol harm is estimated to cost
£27.4bn
a year, with £4.9bn of this “shouldered by the NHS”.
Human and economic costs
Labour MP Cat Smith said: “The human and economic costs are now far too high to ignore.”
Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, warned England “is in danger of becoming the UK’s alcohol harm outlier”.
5 min read
Mahmood announces new immigration rules – what we know
The Home Secretary was forced to back down over proposals to make care workers wait 15 years to qualify for permanent residence.
What you need to know
Shabana Mahmood revised plans to force many low-paid workers, including carers, to wait up to 15 years before being granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
On Monday, she scrapped these plans for care workers. But other professions have not seen the same reversal.
3 min read
Why the change of heart?
Mahmood introduced the carve out for care workers after intense backlash from Labour MPs. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner called the retrospective plan “un-British”.
Workers in a set list of public service jobs – such as doctors, nurses and teachers – will also be able to qualify for ILR after five years, even if they do not meet the new salary threshold of £50,271.
Routes to settlement
Under the new system, legal migrants will be able to settle on the following timelines:
- 3 years: additional rate taxpayers earning over £125,141, as well as highly skilled individuals on Global Talent and Innovator Founder visas.
- 5 years: higher rate taxpayers earning over £50,271, as well as skilled public service workers.
- 10 years: the new standard route for everyone else.
- 20 years: anyone who claims certain benefits while in the UK or commits a visa offence.
Watch more from The i Paper
Theo Bamber, CEO of the News Media Association (NMA), said: “Joe’s reporting is a brilliant example of journalism making a real difference. His investigation shone a light on the devastating impact engineered stone is having on workers’ lives, exposing an issue that urgently needed greater attention and helping to drive meaningful action to protect people.
“It was powerful, determined public-interest journalism and a hugely deserving winner of this year’s Making a Difference award.”
In 2024, Duggan revealed the UK’s first silicosis cases in young stonemasons who were cutting high-silica quartz worktops that have become hugely popular in kitchen renovations – a condition not many had heard of.
His two-year investigation has since prompted the most significant safety changes yet in the sector, implemented by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the kitchen stone industry – measures that will save lives. HSE issued regulatory guidance banning the “dry cutting” of quartz.
The campaign also pressured the HSE into a nationwide inspection blitz on 1,000 workplaces over 12 months to clamp down on firms exposing workers to lethal stone particles. As a result, almost 400 enforcement notices have been served against companies for breaching health and safety law.
The Government has considered changing benefits rules for seriously ill workers after Duggan exposed how sick and dying tradesmen were threatened with financial sanctions and eviction.
Ministers have praised the campaign for driving reform, and the Government has announced that families of workers who died from silicosis will now receive higher compensation payouts.
Legislation is currently going through Parliament that mirrors The i Paper’s calls for an outright ban on dry cutting high-silica engineered stone; a screening programme to identify cases of silicosis; and the monitoring of other diseases caused by exposure to the dust.
In another campaign victory, Duggan’s reporting has prompted a new Kitemark scheme from the stone worktop industry to inform consumers that quartz had been cut without exposing workers to deadly dust. Retailers Wren and Howdens – the two biggest names in the UK kitchen market – have both joined it.
The Kitemark scheme was hailed as “important” and “significant” by the HSE and the UK’s leading doctor treating quartz silicosis patients. The British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) praised Duggan’s reporting for bringing change that will “save lives”.
Many sufferers of silicosis are men in their twenties and thirties who have described being denied adequate protective equipment to prevent them from inhaling dust while at work.
Around 60 cases and four deaths have been detected in the UK, but doctors warn the true toll could be significantly higher, with action needed to prevent silicosis epidemics that have been seen in other countries.
Duggan revealed that Marek Marzec, a father of two dying of silicosis, spent months battling for benefits and government compensation, only to be informed on the day he died that he was eligible.
Marzec, who spoke to The i Paper from hospital weeks before he died, was asked by the Department for Work and Pensions to attend assessments despite receiving palliative care.
As a result of the article, the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council recommended that cases of rapid-progression silicosis from quartz should be fast-tracked for the industrial injuries disablement benefit.
Kevin Bampton, head of BOHS, said: “I can’t imagine the level of interest in Parliament, Government, [the] HSE and industry would have been anywhere near what it is without The i Paper campaign.”
Duggan’s colleague Steve Robson won the “Making a Difference” award last year for uncovering the second Post Office IT scandal.