Two women had abortions after an NHS trust mistakenly told them their babies had serious conditions, the BBC has learned.
We aborted healthy babies after NHS mistakes, couples tell BBC
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Putin’s Minister Sends Blunt Message To Trump Over US-Russia Relations
Vladimir Putin’s minister has called for Donald Trump’s administration to make the first move to improve relations between their countries.
It comes as the US president looks to end the bloody Ukraine war which started in February 2022, when the Russian president invaded in a land grab.
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Trump and Putin are yet to directly discuss how to resolve the conflict, though both have signalled that they are willing.
That is a significant development considering the US-Russia relationship completely fractured over the Ukraine war.
Even so, deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov wrote on the Foreign Ministry website that the US “must take the first step” to fix the relationship.
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According to Reuters news agency, he said the Kremlin has tried to be a partner with the west, but “no one was listening or, in theory, wanted to listen.”
He added: “And that is because the underlying aim was to weaken the geopolitical rival to the maximum.”
He said Moscow has regained “its lawful place in world geopolitics by frustrating the plans of Joe Biden’s administration”, alleging the last White House wanted to push a “strategic defeat” on Russia in a “hybrid war” via its support for Ukraine.
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Ryabkov continued: “Against the background of this failed policy and with the change of administration, it is the United States that must take the first step in normalising relations on the basis of mutual respect and equal rights.”
Despite this warning, he said Russia is “open to dialogue and ready to reach agreement through hard bargaining while taking account of realities on the ground … So it is up to D Trump and his team to make a decision.”
Putin has heaped praise on Trump since his return to office, describing him as “a clever and pragmatic man”.
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The US president has expressed his sympathy over Russia’s frustration the idea that Ukraine could one day join Nato, and once described Putin’s invasion as “savvy” and “genius”.
But Trump has also adopted a harsher tone in recent weeks, saying he thinks Putin is “destroying Russia by not making a deal” and threatened to put more sanctions on the country if it did not stop the “ridiculous war”.
Although Trump officially returned to the office on January 21, only preliminary contact has been established between the US and Russia so far, according to Russia’s ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin.
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Asked if Trump was seen as a friend of Russia by ITV News, the ambassador said: “No.”
“That is clearly no, because what we have heard about peace through force, about [the] necessity to impose more sanctions on Russia,” he said, adding: “We are hearing different things and a lot of speculation all around so it is too early to say what will be the outcome of that.”
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Putin’s Army Has Just Had Two of The ‘Most Costly’ Months Of War, UK Says
Vladimir Putin’s army has just endured two of its “most costly” months of war, according to the UK.
The ministry of defence (MoD) announced in its latest update on social media that January 2025 was “likely the second most costly month” for Russia after its forces sustained a staggering 48,240 casualties.
The Mod put the average daily casualty rate at around 1,556.
But the worst period of loss for the Russian army was December 2025, when casualties hit 48,670, according to reports from the Ukraine’s General Staff shared by the MoD.
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The intelligence officers believe average daily loss rate was therefore a little higher in December, reaching 1,570 per day.
The MoD said that is “the highest average daily casualty rate of the conflict thus far” – although it does not look like that number will drastically drop any time soon.
Putin’s troops has already sustained a staggering 50,000 casualties just in the first six weeks of 2025.
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The MoD also claimed Russia has endured more than 837,000 casualties since invading Ukraine in February 2022, almost three years ago.
The MoD said: “Russia’s casualty rate will likely continue to average above 1,000 a day in February 2025, reflecting the high tempo of Russian operations and offensives.”
These are all estimates as Russia does not regularly reveal its casualty rate.
Ukraine normally keeps its losses to itself too, but its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently announced his army had lost more than 45,100 throughout the war, with another 390,000 injured since the war began.
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The shocking number is still much lower than the estimates for their Russian opponents.
Putin had already been accused of using “meat-grinder tactics” by UK prime minister Keir Starmer last autumn, but he now seems to be forcing his troops to push forward into Ukraine, even if there’s an even greater rate of loss, after Donald Trump’s election.
The US president has made it clear he wants to end the Ukraine war but is much more sympathetic to Putin than other western allies.
This has sparked fears Trump may force Ukraine to cede any occupied land to Russia in a potential peace deal – and at the moment, Moscow controls around a fifth of its beleaguered neighbour.
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Harrison Ford Makes Very Honest Admission About Signing Up For The MCU
This article contains minor spoilers for Captain America: Brave New World.
Harrison Ford has opened up about his new penchant for saying yes to projects without actually looking at a script.
The Hollywood octogenarian has had an especially jam-packed few years, which have included prominent roles in the Apple TV+ comedy Shrinking, the Western drama 1923 and, of course, the reboot of the Indiana Jones franchise.
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For both of his TV ventures, Harrison has spoken in the past about how he signed on without ever reading a script, based solely on the reputation of their creators.
In a new interview with the Wall Street Journal, he revealed this approach extended to his role in the Marvel franchise.
“Again, no script,” he told the US outlet. “Why not? I saw enough Marvels to see actors that I admired having a good time.”
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Harrison joined the MCU in 2022, taking over the role of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross from the late William Hurt, and will make his Marvel debut in Captain America: Brave New World when it hits cinemas next month.
Because of signing on without reading a script, Harrison admitted that it came as a bit of a surprise when more of his character’s connection to another Marvel property was revealed at the end of the film, when Thunderbolt is revealed to be the Red Hulk.
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“It’s like life,” the Star Wars actor quipped. “You only get so far in the kit until the last page of the instructions is missing.”
Later this year, Harrison is expected to reprise the role in another Marvel movie, Thunderbolts*, which features an all-star cast including Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
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Scientists reveal gut microbes’ hidden role in anxiety: Could probiotics be the next mental health breakthrough?
Could the key to easing anxiety be hidden in our gut? Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School and the National Neuroscience Institute have discovered a crucial connection between gut microbes and anxiety-related behaviour. Their research, published today in EMBO Molecular Medicine, suggests that microbial metabolites- specifically indoles-play a direct role in regulating brain activity linked to anxiety. This finding opens up exciting possibilities for new probiotic-based therapies to improve mental health.
The prevalence of mental health disorders has been rising over the years. According to the latest nationwide study, 1 in 7 people in Singapore has experienced a mental health disorder, which includes depressive and anxiety disorders[1]. In 2019, mental health disorders were one of the top four leading causes of disease burden in Singapore[2].
The research team thus set out to investigate the role microbes play in anxious behaviour. In pre-clinical studies, the scientists observed that in a germ-free environment, those which were not exposed to live microbes, showed significantly more anxiety-related behaviour than those with typical resident live microbes.
Further investigation revealed that the increased anxiety was associated with heightened activity in a brain region involved in processing emotions such as fear and anxiety, the basolateral amygdala (BLA). This was further identified to be related to specialised proteins within brain cells known as the calcium dependent SK2 channels, associated with anxiety behaviour. In conditions when the body and brain are exposed to live microbe metabolites, the SK2 channels act like a clutch, thus preventing neurons from becoming overly excited and firing too frequently.
Associate Professor Shawn Je from Duke-NUS’ Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme and one of the lead authors, explained:
“Our findings reveal the specific and intricate neural process that link microbes to mental health. Those without any live microbes showed higher levels of anxious behavior than those with live bacteria. Essentially, the lack of these microbes disrupted the way their brains functioned, particularly in areas that control fear and anxiety, leading to anxious behavior.”
To better understand the role of microbes in this process, the researchers introduced live microbes into germ-free mice[3]. This reduced the elevated neuronal activity in the basolateral amygdala and thus SK2 channel activity. As a result, the mice showed significantly less anxiety-related behavior — their emotional responses became like those exposed to microbes.
The researchers also tried treatment with indoles, microbial metabolites produced by certain microbes. When the germ-free mice were given indoles, they showed reduced activity in the basolateral amygdala and displayed less anxiety-related behaviour. This demonstrated that our indigenous microbes produce metabolites, which suggest a direct link between our microbiota and maintaining mental balance.
Professor Sven Pettersson from the Department of Research, National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore, who is also a lead author of the study, said:
“Establishing hunger signals and controlling hunger is an evolutionarily conserved defence mechanism. The physiological switch at birth, can therefore, be viewed as a first major wave of anxiety exposure for the newborn, which simply says, “If you don’t eat, you will die.” Additionally, birth is associated with exposure to breast milk, known to contain microbes that can produce molecules known as indoles. Indoles are known to be secreted in plants when they are exposed to stress or malnutrition (draught) and in this paper we report a similar mechanism in which indoles can regulate anxiety levels in mammals. That is, different levels of circulating microbial plasma indoles in the blood may reflect different sensitivity and vulnerability to stressful situations and therefore variable risk of experiencing anxiety-related situations.”
The implications of these observations are multiple: for example, it opens for the therapeutic potential of targeting the gut-brain axis to treat anxiety-related disorders by restoring the microbe composition through dietary supplementation with indoles or by introducing indole-producing gut microbes as probiotics. “In other words, it opens for tailor-made therapies in line with 21st-century precision medicine. Studies such as this illustrate the close hereditary relationship that exists between our indigenous microbes and the higher complexity of life,” concludes Pettersson.
Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS, said:
“Our findings underscore the deep evolutionary links between microbes, nutrition and brain function. This has huge potential for people suffering from stress-related conditions, such as sleep disorders or those unable to tolerate standard psychiatric medications. It’s a reminder that mental health is not just in the brain-it’s in the gut too.”
The team now hopes to explore clinical trials to determine whether indole-based probiotics or supplements can be effectively used in humans as a natural anxiety treatment. If successful, this could mark the beginning of a new era in mental health care — one where gut microbes help keep our minds at ease.
[1] Institute of Mental Health, Singapore Mental Health study
[2] Ministry of Health 28 October 2020 Global Burden of Disease 2019 Study Findings https://www.moh.gov.sg/news-highlights/details/global-burden- of-disease-2019-study-findings
[3] The study was conducted according to the National Advisory Committee for Laboratory Animal Research (NACLAR) guidelines.
Understanding aging requires more than counting birthdays
People’s bodies can be old or young for their chronological age, depending, in part, on the amount and types of stressors they have experienced. Scientists can estimate people’s biological age, but whether they use oral tissue or blood to make the measurement matters, according to a new study led by researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health.
Biological age — a measure of how well one’s body is functioning — differs from chronological age — the amount of time since someone was born. While chronological age can be correlated to disease risk, researchers and medical doctors can use biological age, which can be slowed or accelerated by environmental or behavioral factors, to more precisely understand a person’s risk for certain diseases, including cancers and dementia.
The correct type of tissue is needed to estimate biological age accurately, according to the study led by Abner Apsley, doctoral candidate in the Penn State Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Biosciences Graduate Program, and his adviser, Idan Shalev, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. Their results were published in Aging Cell.
In recent years, researchers created several epigenetic clocks — tools that compare a person’s biological age to their chronological age. As these clocks have become widely available, multiple companies have begun to offer services that estimate people’s biological age by comparing customer tissue samples to established epigenetic clocks.
Researchers construct epigenetic clocks by collecting tissue samples from a large number of people and examining differences in epigenetic markers — which indicate points of DNA methylation — across the lifespan. Using machine learning to identify which epigenetic markers predict chronological age, the researchers can then determine if a person’s epigenome, or the set of markers, matches their chronological age.
In theory, knowing a person’s biological age could indicate what behaviors that person needs to modify in order to extend their life. In clinical settings, however, scientifically validated uses of epigenetic clocks are not common yet, the researchers said.
“Aging is the main driver for a host of common diseases including dementia, heart disease and cancer,” Shalev said. “Measurement of biological age is not a diagnosis of a health problem, but it can be used to identify a person’s risk for age-related conditions.”
Some commercial companies offer to measure biological age by requiring customers to spit into a test tube and mail the sample to the company. The company analyzes epigenetic information in the saliva and uses established epigenetic clocks to predict the customer’s biological age. Epigenetic clocks, however, are most commonly created using blood, not saliva, which is why the researchers in this study said they wanted to compare the performance of different tissue-sample types.
The researchers evaluated five types of tissue samples and compared them with seven epigenetic clocks. The study included 284 distinct tissue samples from 83 individuals between the ages of nine and 70 years old. In six of the seven clocks tested, the team found that oral tissue resulted in substantially less accurate estimates of biological age than blood-based samples.
“We tested three types of blood samples and two types of oral tissues — saliva and cheek swabs,” said Apsley, the lead author of the study. “For almost every epigenetic clock, the oral tissue led to significantly higher estimates of the subject’s biological age. In some cases, the estimates were 30 years higher; that is extremely inaccurate. It is very clear that the tissue used to measure someone’s biological age must match the tissue used when the clock was created. Otherwise, estimates of biological age will not be valid.”
Results from this study demonstrated that blood-tissue types led to similar biological age estimates across the different epigenetic clocks. Oral tissue performed very differently than blood tissue and was generally not as accurate, estimating older biological ages across the clocks. The one exception to this trend was the only epigenetic clock in the study created using both blood and cheek swabs. For that clock, the age estimates across different tissues were much more accurate than they were on the other clocks.
“Most of the popular clocks were created using blood samples,” Apsley said. “So, these results represent an important lesson for this burgeoning field. If companies or physicians want to use saliva or cheek swabs to measure biological age, then researchers need to develop epigenetic clocks using those tissues. Currently, blood is needed to accurately estimate biological age in most circumstances.”
While tests of biological age are not commonly measured in medical settings yet, the researchers said that biological age could be used someday to identify patients who may need medication to delay the onset of an age-related disease due to their advanced biological age. Alternatively, patients with delayed biological age might be better candidates for surgery than other people of the same chronological age. There are other uses for biological age estimates, as well.
“Researchers are still discovering how to apply biological age,” said Shalev, a Social Science Research Institute co-funded faculty member. “Our research focuses on medical applications, but epigenetic clocks have also been used with blood samples from crime scenes to help forensic scientists identify the approximate age of criminal suspects. Who knows where this field will lead us next?”
Other researchers who contributed to this study include Qiaofeng Ye, Christopher Chiaro, John Kozlosky and Hannah Schreier of the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health; Avshalom Caspi, Laura Etzel-House and Karen Sugden of Duke University; Waylon Hastings of Texas A&M University; Christine Heim of the Berlin Institute of Health at Charite; and Jennie Noll and Chad Shenk of the University of Rochester.
The National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the Penn State College of Medicine funded this research.
Clean air policies having unintended impact driving up wetland methane emissions by up to 34 million tons
Reducing sulphur in the air may inadvertently increase natural emissions of methane from wetlands such as peatlands and swamps, a new study has found.
The findings published today in the journal Science Advances suggests that the decline of global sulphur emissions as the result of clean air policies, coupled with the warming and fertilization effects of carbon dioxide emissions lifts a lid on wetland methane production resulting in increased emissions.
The resulting additional future release of 20-34 million tonnes of methane each year from natural wetlands would mean targets to reduce human-caused emissions need to be more stringent than currently set out in the Global Methane Pledge.
Methane, which is one of the most potent greenhouse gases in trapping heat in the atmosphere, is produced in wetlands around the world. Sulphur (in the form of sulphate) has a very specific effect in natural wetlands that reduces methane emissions, while CO2 increases methane production by increasing growth in plants that make the food for methane-producing microbes.
Professor Vincent Gauci from the University of Birmingham and a senior author of the study said:
“Well-meaning policies aimed at reducing atmospheric sulphur appear to be having the unintended consequence of lifting this sulphur ‘lid’ on wetland methane production. This coupled with increased CO2 means we have a double whammy effect that pushes emissions much higher.
“How has this happened? Put simply, sulphur provides the conditions for one set of bacteria to outmuscle another set of microbes that produce methane when they compete over the limited food available in wetlands. Under the conditions of acid rain sulphur pollution during the past century, this was enough to reduce wetland methane emissions by up to 8%.
“Now that clean air policies have been introduced, the unfortunate consequence of reducing sulphur deposition, which does have important and welcome effects for the world’s ecosystems, is that we will need to work much harder than we thought to stay within the safe climate limits set out in the Paris agreement.”
More than 150 nations signed up to the Global Methane Pledge at COP26 in Glasgow, which seeks to reduce human-caused emissions of methane by 30% on a 2020 baseline, by 2030.
The study is the latest to implicate reductions in atmospheric sulphur in driving warming at a faster rate than anticipated. In 2020 shipping pollution controls were introduced to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide and fine particles that are harmful to human health. This reduction in atmospheric sulphur over the oceans has been implicated in larger warming that expected in what has come to be known as ‘termination shock’.
Lead author of the paper Lu Shen of Peking University said:
“Our study points to the complexity of the climate system. Representation of these complex biogeochemical interactions has not previously been well integrated into estimates of future methane emissions. We show that it is essential to consider these feedbacks to get a true understanding of the likely future of this important greenhouse gas.”
Women with endometriosis earn less, research shows
Researchers suggest that following diagnosis, women may take lower-paid jobs or work fewer hours.
