paul: last year, senator richard blumenthal and representative andrea salinas, both democrats, introducedbling recovery, investment and treatment act to fund treatment and also research. five states with some form of legal gambling currently offer no funding at all for treatment. and in september, blumenthal joined democratic representative paul tonko of new york to propose the safe bet act to limit tv ads, restrict the number and the type of bets, ban ai use to track players' habits and create microbets, among other things. >> every other addictive product, the government regulates the advertising, promotion, distribution and consumption. paul: just behind. levant at that hearing in december was the american gaming association's joe maloney. the aga thinks federal regulation not only isn't necessary. it will actually make things worse. >> the advancements in technology are just going to continue to take place. they're just not going to take place in the legal regulated market. >> this is the key to the legal industry's argument, that it's taken the action away from illegal gambling, with

the journalist and communications advisor linda jubilee and the former labour special adviser paul richardsbig show coming up, including all of tomorrow's newspaper front pages on the way. first, though, your news headlines with sam francis. >> ben, thank you very much and good evening to you. it's just after 9:00, the top story tonight. while health minister andrew gwynne has apologised after being sacked by sir keir starmer over what he described as badly misjudged whatsapp messages, the labour mp for gorton and denton is accused of insulting constituents and colleagues in a group chat, reportedly saying he hoped a 72 year old woman would soon be dead. gwynne says he understands the decision and will support labour despite being suspended. the party says it's investigating and will take swift action if it finds rules were breached. the parents of two girls killed in the southport knife attack say they are trying to find light in the dark. speaking publicly for the first time since the tragedy, they've described their daughters bebe and elsie, as confident, happy and affectionate, and said