Hong Kong shopping news 2025: latest drops, offers, and collabs
From last night's dinner party to forgotten gym shoes, unwanted smells can linger in our homes. Malin+Goetz expands its beloved home spray collection with two new scents: Sage and Otto. These alcohol-free sprays can eliminate up to 95 percent of unwanted smells while infusing your space with sophisticated fragrances.
The Otto blend mixes cardamom, rose, and woody notes for an edgy yet refined vibe, while Sage combines eucalyptus and cedarwood for a calming escape. The original Tomato spray remains a bestseller with its fresh herbal notes. All three use innovative technology to neutralise odours safely around fabrics, pets, and sensitive skin.
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The Independent
22-05-2025
- The Independent
Johnson favoured ‘authoritarian approach' to pandemic punishments, inquiry told
Former prime minister Boris Johnson favoured an 'authoritarian approach' to punishing people who failed to isolate during the pandemic, the Covid-19 Inquiry has heard. Policymakers also preferred punishment over incentive, despite scientists arguing that 'support and engagement' were 'very important to get adherence up'. Diary entries written by the then chief scientific adviser Lord Patrick Vallance revealed that those making decisions 'always want to go for stick, not carrot'. On Thursday, Lord Vallance, now science minister, gave evidence to the seventh module of the inquiry which is examining the approach to testing, tracing and isolating. A series of extracts were shown from his so-called evening notes, which Lord Vallance described as 'spontaneous ways to sort of decompress at the end of the day'. The inquiry heard that members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) 'suggested more carrot and incentives required to make people take a test, self-isolate, etc, but they always want to go for stick, not carrot'. Asked by inquiry counsel Sophie Cartwright who 'they' referred to, Lord Vallance replied: 'I think in this case, it would have been the decision makers for policy.' One entry from September 25 2020 shows Mr Johnson suggesting 'more punishment' for those not following rules. It said: 'PM: punish people who won't self-isolate. Punish people who aren't doing the right thing. 'Close some pubs and bars. We need a lot more punishment and a lot more closing down.' Lord Vallance wrote: 'I put a message in chat that support and engagement very important to get adherence up. PM ends with: 'massive fines, massive fines'.' An entry from January 7 2021 gave details of a meeting on testing which included Mr Johnson. It said: 'Testing performance looks much better. Now the challenge is self isolation.' It added that Dido Harding, who ran the test and trace programme in England at the time, called for better schemes to help people isolate. Lord Vallance wrote: 'PM says: 'We haven't been ruthless enough. We need to force more isolation. I favour a more authoritarian approach'. 'Rather late in the day, the PM is understanding that incentives (or removal of disincentives) need to be in place to help people. 'Those instincts are punishment, not help. Sounds like a good testing system is gradually coming together and will be ready when lockdown released.' Former health secretary Matt Hancock raised concerns that the country's ability to scale up testing and tracing has been 'dismantled' and will be hard to achieve again in a future pandemic. He wrote in his witness statement that 'the key lesson for the future is that a rapidly scalable testing and tracing infrastructure should be maintained ready for urgent expansion'. Reading the statement aloud, Ms Cartwright said: 'You say this: 'I'm concerned at present, our current capacity has been dismantled, and we'll find it much harder to scale again in the future as a result'.' Mr Hancock said it would be 'hard to make the case' for large and permanent factory-scale testing in preparation for the next pandemic. 'That would be, in a perfect world, what you'd have, in the same way that you have a standing army,' he added. 'There is a case for it, but there's also a case against because it's expensive. 'What, in my view, there is absolutely no case against is having a plan and a system ready to go to build those factories; to take the units, to bring in the PCR testing machines, or whatever the latest technology is, and to be ready to go.' Mr Hancock was asked about ex-MP Owen Paterson's involvement with a company awarded a contract to supply millions of Covid tests. Mr Paterson quit as an MP in 2021 after he was found to have breached rules on paid advocacy when he lobbied ministers on behalf of Randox. Ms Cartwright asked: 'Do you accept, Mr Hancock, that, at the very least, to maintain public confidence, a contract of that scale should have been handled with maximum transparency as part of the creation of the test, trace, isolate system?' He replied: 'In a utopia? Yes, but we weren't living in a utopia. People were dying every day, and Randox had the capacity to radically increase the number of tests available, along with the other testing companies.' Mr Hancock praised the company which 'did an amazing job during this period'. Mentioning Mr Paterson, Ms Cartwright went on: 'There were plainly ministerial meetings that were not recorded, that have also been commented about. Were you at the time aware that those meetings had not been properly recorded?' 'No, not that I can recall,' he replied. Former health minister Lord James Bethell was asked if there was 'sufficient consideration given to working with universities as laboratories'. He said 'a huge amount of effort went into not just universities, but hospital pathology labs, animal pathology labs, all manner of private, public and university testing laboratories', and that he was 'lobbied on an hourly basis by just about everyone who had a PCR machine'. He told the inquiry he 'spent a huge amount of effort to try to figure out a way of creating an Uber for diagnostics' but 'it was a total disaster'. 'It just didn't work. They were regularly late. They regularly lost tests. The turnaround times weren't quick enough. The data got in a mess. It was very, very expensive. 'And I would have loved for that effort to have worked.'
Time Out
12-05-2025
- Time Out
Hong Kong shopping news 2025: latest drops, offers, and collabs
From last night's dinner party to forgotten gym shoes, unwanted smells can linger in our homes. Malin+Goetz expands its beloved home spray collection with two new scents: Sage and Otto. These alcohol-free sprays can eliminate up to 95 percent of unwanted smells while infusing your space with sophisticated fragrances. The Otto blend mixes cardamom, rose, and woody notes for an edgy yet refined vibe, while Sage combines eucalyptus and cedarwood for a calming escape. The original Tomato spray remains a bestseller with its fresh herbal notes. All three use innovative technology to neutralise odours safely around fabrics, pets, and sensitive skin.
Metro
11-05-2025
- Metro
I wish I had put my anxious dog down sooner
Last May I sat on the floor of my kitchen with my husband and our vet, sobbing and holding onto the now-peaceful body of my first dog, Jess. After months managing the symptoms of a brain tumour we had made the difficult decision to put her to sleep. We'd planned a weekend doing her favourite things, feeding her seafood and cuddling on the sofa but in the end she was suffering too much so we brought forward her euthanasia. Watching her fall asleep for the last time was a relief. The stress and pain left her body and we were able to share a moment of calm with our sleeping girl before she left us. Little did I know that, just three weeks later, I'd be making the same decision for my other dog, Otto. Knowing when to let your dog go is notoriously difficult and was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make. And yet the fact that 91% of dog deaths in the UK involve euthanasia means it's a decision most of us will have to face. Talking with my Instagram followers in the months since our dogs passed, I discovered that it's rare to find someone who feels they got the timing right. I know I certainly have regrets – the main one being that, in both my dogs' cases, I wish we'd done it sooner. Otto, an Italian Greyhound, was 18 months old when he came to live with us after a frightening fall-out with another dog in his household. While we'd been told that he was scared of being touched or approached, within a few days of bringing him home we realised that Otto's problems were far more extreme than we suspected. In fact, it soon became clear he was terrified of us. If he sensed our attention on him he'd often be so frightened that his body would tremble and his knees would knock together. He was also too scared to let us take his collar on and off or attach his lead. To try and establish trust, we took it in turns to sleep on an airbed in our kitchen with him for the first two weeks. But all he'd do was eye us warily from the other side of the room. On a couple of occasions he crept into bed with me at night, only to scream and bolt if I moved unexpectedly in my sleep. Desperate to help him any way we could, we took him to our vet but it was quickly apparent that physical exams, scans and tests would only traumatise him further. Luckily, our vet helped us to start Otto on a course of anti-anxiety medications. They seemed to take the edge off slightly – enough to make us want to explore more. Then, with the help of a clinical behaviourist from the Royal Veterinary College, we tried and tested treatment options to see what he would respond to. From what we could tell, Otto's brain appeared to be malfunctioning, flooding him with stress hormones. It explained why he was spending hours each day in fight or flight mode, skidding around the house and screaming at sudden movements. For a year we experimented with different medications, developing a complicated routine to make sure he got what he needed at the right times of day. There were times we thought it might be working but they were always short-lived and followed by dramatic regressions. The shrieking would worsen, he would barely eat and the only times we saw him were when he skidded out of a room, panicked, as we walked in. Finally, as we hadn't seen much improvement with Otto, our vet raised euthanasia as an option. To help us make the decision our behaviourist encouraged us to try to measure Otto's quality of life on a scale from 'a life worth living' to 'a life worth avoiding'. And when we did, the balance between positive and negative experiences in his life was strongly weighted towards the negative. The reality was that, some days, we still weren't able to get close enough to attach his lead to his collar so he couldn't even leave the house – and what life is that for a dog? Still, we had fallen in love with Otto and our hearts broke at the thought of euthanising him at only two years old. Rather than put him out of his misery we decided to keep trying. But then, when Jess died, everything changed. Otto lost the only uncomplicated relationship in his life overnight. He went off his food and spent long periods without eating, which meant we couldn't administer his medication. We bought steaks, sausages, cheese, fish and tried everything to get his pills down him, often unsuccessfully. And without food and water he soon became physically ill, gradually spending more and more time in a state of unmedicated panic. Now we were forced to confront that every day he spent in that state was a cruelty that we could save him from. As we grappled with the decision our behaviourist told us something that has stuck in my mind ever since: 'it's better to euthanise your pet a day too soon than a moment too late'. I wish I'd been brave enough to do that, instead, we were still trying to reconcile ourselves with the decision when, on a particularly bad day, our vet told us firmly, but gently, that it was time to say goodbye. If we'd let him go sooner he would have suffered less. So many of us wait for our dogs' suffering to become untenable before we put them to sleep. More Trending I think it helps to reassure us that we made the right decision when we chose euthanasia. But as owners we have a responsibility to make our pets' lives as happy as possible, and that includes humanely ending their lives with as little suffering as possible. I know it's hard to play an active role in the death of someone you love and it's far too tempting to wait for absolute certainty that it's the right time but by the time that moment comes it's often too late. Letting them go even a day sooner can be the difference between a good death and a bad death or a good last day and a bad last day. I just hope my story helps other people avoid my mistakes and put their pet's quality of life above their own fears or comforts. Don't extend your pet's life just for them to suffer. Be brave enough to let them go on a good day. It's the biggest gift you can give them. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: Emmerdale villain John Sugden is easily 2025's most fascinating soap character MORE: My son didn't respond to texts – I knew something terrible had happened MORE: We ran an ultramarathon together – but within months my friend was dead
