Daily roundup 29 August: Obesity, transgender charity, and coffee shop ban

Specialist services must be provided to help obese children, an expert has said. The BBC reports that professor Nadim Haboubi, chairman of the Welsh Obesity Society, said that although NHS clinics are available for adults, children have to wait until they are 16 for specialist help. The Welsh Government said it is committed to tackling the problem.


Police in West Yorkshire are investigating after the UK's largest charity supporting transgender children received a stream of abusive messages online. The Guardian reports that Mermaids UK reported a sharp rise in abusive and threatening comments on social media, saying it had been forced to block 20 people a day on Twitter.


A cafe has invoked the fury of parents after banning all children under the age of 12. The Metro reports that Bob Higginson, 61, who opened his ocean liner-themed cafe around a month ago in Brixham, Devon said that that while dogs and older children were welcome, children younger than 12 "would not be catered for". Since then he has faced calls for a boycott from angry residents, who claim it is a form of discrimination.


Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is under mounting pressure to increase child benefit payments to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty. The Daily Record reports that the First Minister is facing demands to top up child benefit by £5 a week. It comes after figures showed there are 70,000 more children in Scotland living in poverty now than there were five years ago.


Police are investigating the death of a four-year-old boy believed to have drowned at the end of a week-long family holiday organised by Narcotics Anonymous. The Guardian reports that officers and paramedics were called to Knapp House activity centre in north Devon on bank holiday Monday after the child was reported missing.