by Kat Lay, Global health correspondent, in Kigali on (#6VJ95)
Focusing foreign aid on infectious diseases has allowed a rise in cancer and diabetes that African governments don't have resources to fight, says Dr Githinji GitahiHealth services in Africa are at risk of collapse in the next few years" due to soaring chronic diseases, a senior public health leader has warned.Foreign aid to Africa has been focused on infectious diseases, leaving conditions such as cancer and diabetes to escalate, said Dr Githinji Gitahi, group CEO of Amref Health Africa. Continue reading...
Being transgender is not compatible with service, court filing says, foreshadowing removal of people from service within 60 daysTransgender service members will be separated from the US military unless they receive an exemption, according to a Pentagon memo filed in court on Wednesday - essentially banning them from joining or serving in the armed forces.Donald Trump signed an executive order in January that took aim at transgender troops in a personal way - at one point saying that a man identifying as a woman was not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member". Continue reading...
Winston Peters says he told Chinese counterpart Wang Yi not enough warning was given about recent navy exercises that forced planes to divertNew Zealand's foreign minister said he had raised concerns over China's recent live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea during meetings with Chinese leaders on Wednesday.The issue was a lack of notice given to New Zealand over the military exercises off its coast, Winston Peters told reporters in Beijing after meetings with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and vice premier Han Zheng. Continue reading...
by Tobi Thomas Health and Inequalities Correspondent on (#6VJ43)
Sutton Trust says underrepresentation of poorer students is outrageous' but number has doubled in 10 years to 2022Students from working class backgrounds still only make up 5% of entrants to medical schools across the UK, a proportion that has doubled over the past decade, analysis has found.The research, conducted by the Sutton Trust and University College London (UCL), looked at almost 94,000 applicants to UK medical schools between 2012 and 2022, which represent almost half of all UK medical applicants. Continue reading...
Relatives of Joel Le Scouarnec, who allegedly sexually assaulted young patients, tell court of split personalityMembers of a French surgeon's family have described discovering the Jekyll and Hyde" character of the man accused of raping or sexually assaulting 299 young patients while they were sedated or recovering from operations.At his trial in the city of Vannes in Brittany, relatives of Joel Le Scouarnec spoke of his split personality.In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International Continue reading...
by Aletha Adu, Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker on (#6VJ1Z)
Ed Miliband thought to have expressed unease at cabinet meeting while MPs across party have condemned ideaCabinet ministers including Ed Miliband have raised concerns over Keir Starmer's decision to slash overseas aid to pay for increased defence spending, as dozens of Labour MPs from all wings of the party expressed alarm at the plan.After aid agencies warned that the decision to cut the UK's aid commitment from 0.5% of GDP annually to 0.3% would have a devastating impact in many areas, several MPs condemned the idea as shortsighted and unjustified. Continue reading...
UK prime minister faces major diplomatic effort to get president on board after he said no plans for US backstop'Keir Starmer has warned that Vladimir Putin could invade Ukraine again unless the US provides security guarantees as he arrived for critical talks with Donald Trump at the most precarious moment for European stability in decades.With the future of Ukrainian security hanging in the balance, he urged the president to commit a US backstop to a British and French-led peacekeeping force, saying it was the only way to avoid Russia plunging Europe back into war. Continue reading...
Milorad Dodik says he will not accept any conviction after his repeated calls for Serb-run part of Bosnia to join SerbiaA court in Bosnia has sentenced the pro-Russia Bosnian Serb president, Milorad Dodik, to one year in prison and banned him from politics for six years over his separatist actions as tensions mount in the fragile Balkan state.Wednesday's landmark ruling in Sarajevo came after a year-long trial on charges that Dodik disobeyed the top international envoy overseeing peace in the country. The judgment becomes final after the expected appeal process. Continue reading...
First US death reported in a decade as outbreak spreads in region where 14% of children are exempt from vaccinationThe unfolding crisis over the spread of measles in the US among communities where skepticism towards vaccines is running high has taken a turn for the worse after a person who was hospitalized with the disease died in west Texas, the first fatality in the outbreak that began late last month.A Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center spokesperson, Melissa Whitfield, confirmed the death on Wednesday. It is the first death from measles in the US since 2015. Continue reading...
Electricity restored to almost all affected regions as investigation under way into how outage occurredPower has been restored to most of Chile's 19 million people after the country's most disruptive blackout in 15 years, the government said, as authorities lifted a strict curfew imposed when the outage left 98% of the population without electricity.Chilean interior minister Carolina Toha said on Wednesday that electricity had largely returned to Chile's 14 afflicted regions, although 220,000 residents remained without power. Continue reading...
The actor was reportedly found at a New York apartment with the cause of death as yet unknownThe actor Michelle Trachtenberg, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harriet the Spy, has died at the age of 39.Police sources confirmed her death to both ABC News and the New York Post. There is no cause of death yet known and it has been reported that it is not being investigated as suspicious. She had recently undergone a liver transplant, according to sources. Continue reading...
by Léonie Chao-Fong (now); Jane Clinton, Martin Bela on (#6VHE5)
Ukrainian president says guarantees of peace and security' were vital ahead of expected talks in Washington on FridayThe Kremlin said on Wednesday that expert level talks between the US and Russia were being prepared. In his daily media briefing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there were no current plans for Vladimir Putin and US president Donald Trump to speak directly on the phone.The Kremlin said it declined to comment on any aspect of a proposed US-Ukraine deal allowing the US to extract rare minerals from Ukraine in lieu of payment for military support until there were official statements. Russia's president on Monday evening offered to sell Russian rare earth minerals to US companies, including minerals from the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine Continue reading...
Dale Vince to receive damages from Guido Fawkes blogger and says he will take Reform UK's Richard Tice to full trialThe Labour donor Dale Vince has claimed victory in a libel case against the political blogger Paul Staines, who has agreed to pay damages and costs over false claims that Vince supported Hamas.However, Vince vowed to go all the way" to a full libel trial against Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, over his claims on X that the businessman was pro the murderous antisemitic Hamas". Continue reading...
US immigrants aged 14 and older who fail to provide fingerprints could face $5,000 fine and six months in prisonThe Trump administration will require undocumented immigrants aged 14 and older to register with the federal government or face possible fines or prosecution.The US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that under the Protecting the American People Against Invasion" executive order signed by Donald Trump last month undocumented immigrants must also provide their fingerprints, while parents must ensure children under 14 are registered. The department will provide evidence" of their registration and those 18 and over must carry that document at all times. Continue reading...
An oral history of the musician's post-Beatles work in the 70s, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, will be published in NovemberAn account of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career at the helm of Wings is to be published later this year.Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, by McCartney and historian Ted Widmer, will hit UK and US bookshops on 4 November. Continue reading...
Guo Qingshan's image of a cliff on the edge of the Yangtze River in Hubei province has been viewed millions of timesA cliff on the edge of the Yangtze River has become an overnight sensation in China after a Shanghai-based designer posted a photo of it earlier this month likening it to a dog.Guo Qingshan took the photo, which he captioned Puppy Mountain", while on a hike near his home town of Yichang, in Hubei province, in late January. Continue reading...
Prime minister's chief of staff says event this year should be taken off streetsHungary's Budapest Pride should be held in a closed venue" this year rather than on a city centre avenue as in previous years, the prime minister, Viktor Orban's, chief of staff has said, citing child protection.The plan, announced on Wednesday, appeared to be part of Orban's restrictions on the activities of the LGBTQ+ community as the nationalist leader prepares for elections in 2026 in which his rightwing Fidesz party faces an unprecedented challenge from a new opponent. Continue reading...
This blog is now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage herePMQs is about to start.Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.The threat from the far right is real, but that leaves me all the more convinced that working together is not only the right choice, but the only choice ...More unites us than divides us. Now is the moment to make that real by uniting behind shared values, shared standards of behaviour and shared political norms, and unite against the rise of the far right.I want us to work together to agree a common approach to asserting the values of our country, to bringing people together and creating a cohesive society where everyone feels at home ...It is time to come together, to draw a line in the sand, to set out who we are and what we believe in, because a politics of fear is a politics of despair ...I want to work with other political parties to set out clearly and boldly to the public what we can agree on as the norms and the values of our society and how we can protect those because I think they are under threat, I think they're under very, very vigorous threat, from the politics of Farage.Farage has been for years leading the argument which has been hostile to migration. And I think it's based on a fundamentally racist view of the world. I reject that. I think migration is an advantage for Scotland.There is a very live and active threat to our security from the aggression of Russia, and I think Farage is an accomplice to the Russian agenda and an apologist for the Russian agenda.So to anybody in this country who thinks that Farage represents a means of protecting this country from the external threats that we face, I would say, have a good close look at what Farage has been connected with and what his MPs are saying about the Russian threat and their trivialisation of the Russian threat.I'm simply making the point today that it's important that those of us who are repulsed by the politics of Farage and the far right come together to ... stress the importance of the values that we hold dear. Continue reading...
Pro-Russia populist, who won first round of election that was later annulled, suspected of communicating false informationRomanian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into Clin Georgescu, the far-right, Moscow-friendly populist who surged from almost nowhere to win the first round of the country's cancelled presidential election last year.The announcement of the investigation covering a number of separate accusations took place after Georgescu, 62, was stopped by police in Bucharest traffic on Wednesday as he was about to submit his candidacy for a rerun of the election, which is scheduled for May. Continue reading...
Researchers warn of harms of overdiagnosis for generally healthy people as well as the cost of tests themselvesInfluencers are appealing to emotional narratives around health and often fearmongering" to promote controversial medical tests on social media, a new study has found, in ways that are overwhelmingly misleading and fail to mention potential harms.The research, led by the University of Sydney and published on Thursday in the American Medical Association's open access journal JAMA Network Open, investigated five tests being discussed on social media despite limited evidence of their benefits for generally healthy people and concerns about overdiagnosis. Continue reading...
Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson will focus on president's self-delusional' decision to seek re-electionA new book announced on Wednesday aims to tell a behind-the-scenes story about Joe Biden's bid for a second term, promising to reveal a top-level cover-up about his decline in health, its publisher said.The book, titled Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, will be released on 20 May. Penguin Press, the book's publisher, announced on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Ex-007 praises Broccolis for series while expressing concern for its future after bombshell announcementThe ex-007 star Timothy Dalton has weighed in on last week's announcement on the future of the James Bond franchise.On 20 February, Amazon announced it had struck a deal to have creative control" over the movies after negotiating with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the heirs to the series. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#6VHKX)
Heathrow CEO urges ministers to commit to gateway to growth' third runwayThe boss of Heathrow has said there is room for both of London's biggest airports to expand significantly if the government can guarantee steps to a third runway, with ministers expected to approve Gatwick's second runway this week.Thomas Woldbye said Heathrow would be seeking government commitments on the airport's funding model and changes to airspace before construction of a new runway could start. Continue reading...
Antony James, from Plymouth, who competed in 2012 Games, was a trainee police officer at time of his arrestA former Olympic swimmer and trainee police officer has been jailed for 21 years after being found guilty of raping two teenage girls and a string of other sexual offences against them.Antony James, 35, who represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Games in the 100m butterfly, groomed the girls before assaulting them, Plymouth crown court heard. Continue reading...
Iconic performance amid Roman antiquity has been restored from original negatives, with a soundtrack newly mixed by prog star Steven WilsonOne of the most distinctive concert films in rock history, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, is to be rereleased in cinemas - including in Imax format - and have its first soundtrack release.Filmed in 1971 and released the following year, the film (previously titled Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii) captures the band shortly before The Dark Side of the Moon ushered in their most commercially successful phase. It will be in cinemas worldwide on 24 April. Continue reading...
Users of president's own social media site criticise video showing reimagined Gaza featuring Trump and Israeli PM sipping cocktailsDonald Trump is facing a backlash on his Truth Social platform after sharing an AI-created video of him sipping cocktails with a topless Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, in a future imagining of the Palestinian territory devastated by Israel's war.The video presented a computer-generated vision of Trump's property development plan for Gaza, under which he said he wants to clean out" the population of about 2 million people. Named the Riviera of the Middle East" plan, the proposal has been criticised as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing. Continue reading...
by Sally Weale Education correspondent on (#6VGDG)
Charity calls for move after poll finds crisis' levels of reading for pleasure and rise in 8- to 18-year-olds enjoying audio From The Sheep-Pig to His Dark Materials: the best audiobooks for children and teensThe government has been urged to include audiobooks in the new schools curriculum in England, after research showed fewer children were reading books for pleasure and more were listening to them instead.A poll by the National Literacy Trust (NLT) found that children's enjoyment of listening to audio and podcasts had risen compared with the previous year, overtaking their enjoyment of reading for the first time since the charity began asking about audio in 2020. Continue reading...
Sportscar maker says priority is plug-in hybrids, while cutting costs will reduce global workforce by 5%The British sportscar maker Aston Martin has further delayed its first battery electric vehicle, as it announced plans to cut 170 jobs - 5% of its global workforce - in the latest step in its quest for profits.The FTSE 250 manufacturer on Wednesday said its priority was plug-in hybrid cars, which combine a small battery with a petrol engine. The first electric model will only come in the latter part of this decade". Continue reading...
Parent company Southern Cross Austereo says programming should meet expectations of its audience' and it's clear this is a moment for reflection and review'
Singh, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, owned Alfa Romeo sedan similar' to one seen on CCTV in areas where Cordingley's phone was located, jury told
World news | The Guardian