
Spokesperson for Reform UK leader says paid-for Cameo videos 'should not be treated as political statements or campaign activity' after Guardian unearths clips containing offensive remarks and far-right slogans
Continue reading...After two deaths, it’s right to be concerned and to discuss investment in public health. But our system is good and it’s working
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
With the tragedy of two young people dying, and a further 13 confirmed cases, meningitis is back in the headlines in the UK, prompting public concern and worry about the risk. What’s happening and why?
Meningitis has been an ongoing public health concern for decades. Back in the 1990s, around 2,500 lab-confirmed cases of meningococcal disease were recorded annually, largely caused by meningococcal group C bacteria – the disease is caused by a range of bacterial strains, each of which require a different targeted vaccine to prepare the immune system. With the adoption of the MenC vaccine in 1999, cases of group C disease fell by around 96% to roughly 30-40 cases per year. Soon after, vaccination programmes were expanded to cover groups ACWY, which caused steep declines in all of those groups, because the vaccines reduce the transmission of infections.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Continue reading...In this poignant documentary a director shares the footage he took of his son from birth until he was 20, and reflects on losing him
The Norwegian director Gunnar Hall Jensen had been a wild youth, damaged by his mentally troubled mother and indifferent, absent father. So when his own son Jonathan was born in 2002, he felt the mix of trepidation and hope for redemption experienced by many rookie dads. “This new person was my responsibility,” Hall Jensen says at the start of Portrait of a Confused Father, a documentary drawing on the countless hours of footage he took of his child over the next two decades. “We would be connected until the day I die.” We are told from the outset, however, that their relationship ended tragically early. “Now the connection is gone,” Hall Jensen’s narration continues. “He is no longer here. Jonathan, my beautiful boy, is dead.”
Jonathan passed away in 2023, and Hall Jensen chooses to conceal how this happened until the very end of the film. We are led to guess that it was misadventure on the young man’s part, something a better father might have been able to prevent: as Jensen embarks on a chronological, critical analysis of how he reacted to Jonathan’s developing character, every scene bears a bleak portent. Jensen reaches back into the past, to be with his son again and try to discover where they went wrong.
Continue reading...Falling costs and government incentives make solar an attractive option for many, reducing need for gas
After prices of liquefied natural gas surged to record highs after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, millions of people in Pakistan were repeatedly left without electricity. An intense heatwave and gas shortages amid record-breaking prices resulted in power cuts across the country.
But people soon started to realise there was an alternative. The falling costs of solar panels and generous government incentives to feed excess power back to the grid made rooftop solar an attractive option.
Continue reading...What is it like to be Michael B Jordan’s twin, Andie MacDowell’s hands or Rachel Weisz’s hair? Some of Hollywood’s best stand-ins reveal all
Most of us are familiar with the idea of stunt doubles in film and television. But there are plenty of other doubles working in the industry, too – for when an actor doesn’t want to do an intimate scene, for example, or doesn’t have the skills required to show their character playing an instrument or driving a car. Here, six body doubles talk about their secret lives on screen.
Continue reading...As stories of men leaving their dates in ‘sketchy situations’ go viral, experts say these incidents could stem from big egos and poor communication
MJ calls what happened to her in Zion national park “small ‘T’ trauma”. She knows women have experienced worse from their partners. But she still feels the anger of being left behind on a hike by her now ex. “It brings up stuff in my body that maybe I have not cleared out yet,” she said.
Five years ago, MJ and a new partner – he was not exactly her boyfriend, and the pair were not exclusive – traveled from Los Angeles to Utah for an adventure getaway. MJ, who is 38 and works in PR, was looking forward to exploring Zion’s striking scenery; its vast sandstone canyon and pristine wading trails were on the list. But on the morning of their big hike, MJ was not feeling well. She could not shake the feeling that something was “off”; indeed, MJ would learn on this trip that her partner was seeing other women.
Continue reading...Ali Larijhani killed in an Israeli strike; Israeli military calls for evacuations in central Beirut, warning of an imminent attack on Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah
An Israeli airstrike has hit Beirut’s Bashoura neighbourhood, according to reports from Reuters and AFP, with a loud explosion heard in the area.
The strike came after the Israeli military issued a statement urging the evacuation of a building in the central Beirut neighbourhood ahead of the attack targeting Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Continue reading...Tory leader says US president’s words ‘completely wrong’ as she tries to distance herself from his war on Iran
Kemi Badenoch has called Donald Trump’s repeated criticisms of Keir Starmer “childish”, as the Conservative leader continued her recent moves to distance herself from the US president and his military action against Iran.
Speaking shortly before Trump yet again singled out Starmer, saying the prime minister had not been sufficiently supportive of the US war, Badenoch used a social media video to describe Trump’s actions as counterproductive.
Continue reading...Larijani was killed by an Israeli airstrike and is the most senior Iranian fatality since Ali Khamenei on first day of war
Iran’s supreme national security council has confirmed the death of its chief, Ali Larijani, after Israel said it had killed him in an airstrike.
“The pure souls of the martyrs embraced the purified soul of God’s righteous servant, Martyr Dr Ali Larijani,” the council said on Tuesday evening, adding that his son and his bodyguards had died with him.
Continue reading...MSPs reject bill after concerted campaign to block it and despite amendments intended to placate critics
The Scottish parliament has voted against legalising assisted dying after critics and religious groups led a concerted campaign to block the measures.
MSPs voted 69 to 57 to reject the proposals in a late night vote on Tuesday – a larger margin than expected, despite a series of last-minute amendments designed to placate critics of the private member’s bill.
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