The drugs giant blames “protracted” talks with the government as well as differences over funding.
Blow for Reeves as AstraZeneca ditches £450m investment
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Campaigner launches bid to ban cross-sex hormones for under-18s
Lawyers write to health secretary warning him to take action or they will seek a judicial review.
Reese Witherspoon Says This Awkward Speech Ended Her Friendship With A Major British Star
Reese Witherspoon has admitted that an ill-advised speech she made at a swanky event cost her a friendship with a fellow actor.
In a recent video interview for People magazine, the Oscar winner asked her You’re Cordially Invited co-star Will Ferrell: “Have you ever had this moment where you gave a speech and then like three years later, you’re like, ‘Why did I do that? Why did I do that?’.”
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Looking back at a moment from her own past, the Legally Blonde star admitted: “I have one. It literally haunts me.”
Reese went on to recall an incident at an awards show where she misjudged the tone, and instead got up and roasted a “very serious, proper actress” she actually “didn’t really know that well” while introducing her at an awards show.
“The tone was British and elegant and classy. And I was like, ‘Remember the time we got laser hair removal?!’ I’m still embarrassed about it,” she said.
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In fact, Reese claimed: “I think she doesn’t like me anymore. I thought it was so funny and it was just, I had the wrong audience. It was pretty bad. Yeah.
“Not even kidding, she doesn’t talk to me anymore. Oh well.”
Although Reese didn’t actually name the actor in question, that hasn’t stopped people online from doing some sleuthing.
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Several news outlets have pointed out that Reese once introduced Kate Winslet at an event for Bafta back in 2007, after unearthing a speech posted on a fansite that same year.
According to the site in question, Reese told the crowd: “I always wanted to be a European movie star, wear giant sunglasses, elaborate neck scarves, smoke hand-rolled cigarettes, and have savoir faire and gravitas.
“Imagine my good fortune when Kate Winslet moved into my neighbourhood, rang my door bell and said, ’Dahling, Sam is off shooting, and I believe our children are the same age. Could they possibly have a play date and oh, by the way, it’s almost 9 o’clock and I’ve had nothing to drink, do you have any wine?’.”
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Reese apparently said she wouldn’t share any more personal anecdotes as they were “too bawdy or tawdry or drunken to tell” in public, but apparently alluded to an incident involving laser hair removal, which indicates that Kate could be the friend in question.
HuffPost UK has contacted Kate Winslet’s team for comment.
While Reese has spoken in the past about public speaking not being her strong suit, last year she welcomed her friend and former co-star Nicole Kidman to the stage at one awards show, making headlines with a pretty impressive impersonation of the Australian star.
We’re Psychologists – Try These 6 Micro-Habits To Boost Kids’ Happiness
Parents frequently say that “all they want” is for their kids to be happy. But what does this happiness look like?
The things that parents tend to focus on — good grades, college acceptances, a fulfilling career — are all measures of achievement. Pride in an achievement may well engender a feeling of happiness, but it certainly isn’t the only way to get there. Plus, most parents don’t really want their child’s happiness limited to milestones like graduations or championships.
In fact, parents’ efforts to secure their kids’ happiness are often the very things most likely to keep kids from feeling happy. Doug Bolton, a psychologist and author of Untethered: Creating Connected Families, Schools, and Communities to Raise a Resilient Generation, explained how this process tends to work.
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Parents often “think something is wrong when our children are unhappy. We become distressed when they are distressed. Often, when we intervene to take away their distress, we are robbing them of the opportunity to learn to tolerate their own distress and, thus, limit their ability to develop resilience — which, in itself, gives us greater access to happiness,” Bolton told HuffPost.
In other words, kids need experience dealing with a full range of emotions — including sadness, disappointment and frustration — if they’re going to lead the kind of lives we think of as happy ones.
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Parents’ laser-focus on kids’ achievement is another obstacle. The pressure to succeed can leave kids feeling like their parents’ love is conditional, that they are valued for what they do instead of who they are.
“In our parenting and educational practices, we increasingly value things outside of the person to justify their value — their achievement of grades, the number of likes on their social media posts, and their participation on several travel teams are examples of this. These can lead to moments of happiness that undermine longer term unhappiness,” Bolton said.
A student might feel momentary pride about a test score, but the pressure to keep their grades up might cause anxiety in the long run, for example.
Instead of positioning happiness — a state we all know to be elusive — as yet another goal that kids need to reach, Bolton suggested that we think in terms of kids’ wellness. “Wellness, for me, includes both the ability to enjoy happy moments but also the resilience to cope effectively with the hardest moments,” he said.
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To help our kids lead the kind of happy lives that wellness makes possible, we can focus on helping them build resilience and social connection through small daily habits, or micro-practices.
“In the same way we know that eating vegetables and moving our bodies help our physical health, there are everyday behaviours we can teach children that build their happiness muscles,” Ariana Hoet, a psychologist who is the executive clinical director of The Kids Mental Health Foundation, told HuffPost.
Here are some micro-practices that parents can encourage their kids to do every day to promote their well-being.
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1. Social connection
“Children with strong social connections have more positive emotions,” Hoet said.
“Having meaningful connections with friends and family every day is protective to children’s mental health and important for their happiness levels,” she continued.
Social connection is also the antidote to social isolation, which puts people of all ages at risk for anxiety and depression, in addition to other health issues. Whether it’s a family meal, walking the dog together or riding bikes around the neighbourhood with a friend, interactions that help your child feel connected to the community they’re in will promote happiness.
2. Behavioural activation
If a kid is feeling down, it’s easy to get stuck in the rut of inertia. That’s why it’s important to encourage kids to do something every day that makes them feel good. This could mean spending time outdoors, seeing a friend or making art.
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Hoet recommends that kids “do at least one pleasant thing every day for at least 5-15 minutes.” There are a huge variety of activities that might fit the bill. Hoet recommended choosing ones “that help a child feel connected to others, proud/accomplished, or simply that bring them joy.”
Bolton underscored the value of mastery, which he defined as “the experience of getting better at something that is meaningful to us (not because we will get an award).” An example, he said, would be “the child who loves building with legos without the expectation of a prize or gold star for the best creation.”
3. Mindfulness
It’s a buzzword these days, but the truth is that mindfulness simply means “being present in the moment, instead of in your thoughts worrying about the future or sad about the past,” Hoet explained.
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But that doesn’t mean mindfulness comes easy. Kids (and adults) will need to practice frequently in order to build this skill. We tend to associate mindfulness with breathing exercises and meditation, but those aren’t the only ways to get there. The only requirement is to try to stay present in the moment, so you can practice mindful eating, walking, or many other daily activities.
“Mindfulness is a wonderful way to quiet our nervous system,” Bolton said.
Tom Werner via Getty Images
4. Gratitude
With practice, we can train our brains to “notice the good in our day-to-day life and spend less time thinking about the difficult things,” Hoet said.
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Bolton also expressed this. “Our emotion often follows our attention,” he explained, adding that a practice like a gratitude journal can help us hone in on the good things in our lives. Likewise, saying “grace” before a meal, whether or not in a religious way, is a way to share a daily moment of gratitude, Bolton said.
5. Goal-setting
Goals don’t have to rely on standard measures of success like money, grades or likes on social media. Your child might want to learn to play a song on the piano, or cook a meal for the family.
“Children with achievable goals feel a sense of purpose and meaning to their lives. Goals give them something to look forward to and can increase their motivation,” Hoet said.
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6. Generosity
“When we do things for other people, it boosts our sense of ourselves,” Bolton said, adding that there is a body of research showing the benefits of being generous.
One study, for example, found that people’s depression and anxiety symptoms were reduced by performing acts of kindness.
“We know that creating the habit of kindness toward others helps children feel happier, calmer, and less anxious. There is also the added benefit of helping foster social connections,” Hoet said.
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Walking a neighbour’s dog while they are homebound or helping to prepare food for someone in need are meaningful acts of generosity in which kids can participate.
NHS to offer ‘groundbreaking’ sickle cell gene therapy
The gene therapy Casgevy, which will now be offered to some patients in England, could help people live disease-free, experts say.
Farmers in bird flu ‘panic’ call for UK vaccine plan
Vaccinating poultry against bird flu is still not allowed in the UK despite a rise in farm outbreaks.
Ancient DNA analyses bring to life the 11,000-year intertwined genomic history of sheep and humans
Sheep have been intertwined with human livelihoods for over 11,000 years. As well as meat, their domestication led to humans being nourished by their protein-rich milk and clothed by warm, water-resistant fabrics made from their wool.
Now, an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers led by geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and zooarchaeologists from LMU Munich and the Bavarian State Collections of Natural History (SNSB) has deciphered the prehistoric cultural trajectory of this species by analysing 118 genomes recovered from archaeological bones dating across 12 millennia and stretching from Mongolia to Ireland.
The earliest sheep-herding village in the sample, Aşıklı Höyük in central Türkiye, has genomes that seem ancestral to later populations in the wider region, confirming an origin in captures of wild mouflon over 11,000 years ago in the western part of the northern Fertile Crescent.
By 8,000 years ago, in the earliest European sheep populations, the team found evidence that farmers were deliberately selecting their flocks — in particular for the genes coding for coat colour. Along with a similar signal in goats, this is the earliest evidence for human moulding of another animal’s biology and shows that early herders, like today’s farmers, were interested in the beautiful and unusual in their animals.
Specifically, the main gene the team found evidence of selection near was one known as “KIT,” which is associated with white coat colour in a range of livestock.
Also by that time, the earliest domestic sheep genomes from Europe and further east in Iran and Central Asia had diverged from each other. However, this separation did not last as people translocated sheep from eastern populations to the west.
First, in parallel with human cultural influences spreading out from the early cities of Mesopotamia we see sheep genomes moving west within the Fertile Crescent around 7,000 years ago.
Second, the rise of pastoralist peoples in the Eurasian steppes and their westward spread some 5,000 years ago profoundly transformed ancestral European human populations and their culture. This process changed the makeup of human populations, for example, altering the ancestry of British peoples by around 90%, and introduced the Indo-European language ancestor of the tongues spoken across the continent today.
From the dataset used in this study it now seems that this massive migration was fuelled by sheep herding and exploitation of lifetime products, including milk and probably cheese, as it is around the same time that sheep ancestries are also changed. Consequently, by the Bronze Age, herds had about half their ancestry from a source in the Eurasian steppe.
Dr Kevin Daly, Ad Astra Assistant Professor at UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Trinity’s School of Genetics and Microbiology, is the first author on the research article that has just been published in leading international journal Science. He said: “One of our most striking discoveries was a major prehistoric sheep migration from the Eurasian steppes into Europe during the Bronze Age. This parallels what we know about human migrations during the same period, suggesting that when people moved, they brought their flocks with them.”
Dan Bradley, leader of the research and Professor of Population Genetics in Trinity’s School of Genetics and Microbiology, said: “This research demonstrates how the relationship between humans and sheep has evolved over millennia. From the early days of domestication through to the development of wool as a crucial textile resource, sheep have played a vital role in human cultural and economic development.”
Joris Peters, co-corresponding author, Professor of Paleoanatomy, Domestication Research and the History of Veterinary Medicine at LMU Munich and Director of the State Collection for Paleoanatomy Munich (SNSB-SPM), said: “Our study, while convincingly reconciling morphological and genomic evidence of the geographic origin of domestic sheep, clearly illustrates that further transdisciplinary research is needed to clarify the patterns of dispersal and selection of the many landraces occurring today in Eurasia and Africa.”
Regular dental flossing may lower risk of stroke from blood clots, irregular heartbeats
Flossing your teeth at least once a week may be linked to a lower risk of stroke caused by a blood clot blocking brain blood flow and irregular heartbeats, according to a preliminary study to be presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2025. The meeting is in Los Angeles, Feb. 5-7, 2025, and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health.
“A recent global health report revealed that oral diseases — such as untreated tooth decay and gum disease — affected 3.5 billion people in 2022, making them the most widespread health conditions,” said study lead author Souvik Sen, M.D., M. S., M.P.H, chair of the Department of Neurology, Prisma Health Richland Hospital and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, South Carolina. “We aimed to determine which oral hygiene behavior — dental flossing, brushing or regular dentist visits — has the greatest impact on stroke prevention.”
The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study, one of the first large-scale investigations of this kind in the U.S., assessed the home use of dental floss through a structured questionnaire of more than 6,000 people. Among those who reported flossing, 4,092 had not experienced a stroke, and 4,050 had not been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation (AFib).
Participants were asked about their status regarding high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking, body mass index, education, regular brushing and dentist visits. During the 25 years of follow-up, 434 participants were identified as having strokes, of which 147 were larger artery brain clots, 97 were heart-driven clots and 95 were hardening of the smaller arteries. Additionally, 1,291 participants were noted to have experienced AFib.
The analysis found:
- Flossing was associated with a 22% lower risk of ischemic stroke, 44% lower risk of cardioembolic stroke (blood clots traveling from the heart) and 12% lower risk of AFib.
- The associated lower risk was independent of regular brushing and routine dental visits or other oral hygiene behaviors.
- Increasing the frequency of flossing had a greater chance of stroke risk reduction.
- Flossing was also associated with a lower chance of cavities and periodontal disease.
Researchers were surprised by the reduction of irregular heartbeats, or AFib. AFib is the most common form of irregular heartbeat. It can lead to stroke, heart failure or other cardiovascular complications. More than 12 million people are projected to have AFib in the United States by 2030, according to the American Heart Association’s 2025 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics.
“Oral health behaviors are linked to inflammation and artery hardening. Flossing may reduce stroke risk by lowering oral infections and inflammation and encouraging other healthy habits,” Sen said. “Many people have expressed that dental care is costly. Flossing is a healthy habit that is easy to adopt, affordable and accessible everywhere.”
Study limitations include that data were based on answers to a questionnaire, and the 25-year follow-up appears to have focused on stroke and heart outcomes only. There was no follow-up concerning flossing or other oral behaviors over the years, Sen said.
“This study offers more insights into the specific dental health behaviors that may be linked to stroke risks and potential risk reduction. With further research, dental health practices could possibly be incorporated into the “Life’s Essential 8″ risk factors, which include diet, physical activity, nicotine exposure, sleep, body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose and blood lipids,” said Daniel T. Lackland, Dr.P.H., FAHA, American Heart Association EPI and Stroke Council member and professor of epidemiology and director of the Division of Translational Neurosciences and Population Studies in the department of neurology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Lackland was not involved in this study.
Study background, and details:
- The study began in 1987 and is ongoing.
- Of the 6,258 participants, 82% were self-reported white adults and 18% Black adults. Their average age was 62 years and 55% were women.
- Potential participants were excluded if they had total tooth loss, dental implants, heart disease, organ transplant, artificial joints, implanted heart valve or stent or major surgery.
Why you shouldn’t scratch an itchy rash: New study explains
Your parents were right: Scratching an itchy rash really does make it worse. Now we know why, thanks to new research published today in the journal Science that uncovers how scratching aggravates inflammation and swelling in a mouse model of a type of eczema called allergic contact dermatitis.
“At first, these findings seemed to introduce a paradox: If scratching an itch is bad for us, why does it feel so good?” said senior author Daniel Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., professor of dermatology and immunology at the University of Pittsburgh. “Scratching is often pleasurable, which suggests that, in order to have evolved, this behavior must provide some kind of benefit. Our study helps resolve this paradox by providing evidence that scratching also provides defense against bacterial skin infections.”
Allergic contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction to allergens or skin irritants — including poison ivy and certain metals such as nickel — leading to an itchy, swollen rash. Succumbing to the often-irresistible urge to scratch triggers further inflammation that worsens symptoms and slows healing.
To figure out what drives this vicious cycle, Kaplan, first author Andrew Liu, student in Pitt’s Medical Scientist Training Program, and their team used itch-inducing allergens to induce eczema-like symptoms on the ears of normal mice and those that don’t get itchy because they lack an itch-sensing neuron.
When normal mice were allowed to scratch, their ears became swollen and filled with inflammatory immune cells called neutrophils. In contrast, inflammation and swelling were much milder in normal mice that couldn’t scratch because they wore tiny Elizabethan collars, similar to a “cone of shame” that a dog might sport after a visit to the vet, and in animals that lacked the itch-sensing neuron. This experiment confirmed that scratching further aggravates the skin.
Next, the researchers showed that scratching causes pain-sensing neurons to release a compound called substance P. In turn, substance P activates mast cells, which are key coordinators of inflammation that drive itchiness and inflammation via recruitment of neutrophils.
“In contact dermatitis, mast cells are directly activated by allergens, which drives minor inflammation and itchiness,” explained Kaplan. “In response to scratching, the release of substance P activates mast cells through a second pathway, so the reason that scratching triggers more inflammation in the skin is because mast cells have been synergistically activated through two pathways.”
Mast cells are culprits in a range of inflammatory skin conditions and allergic reactions, but they’re also important for protecting against bacteria and other pathogens. As such, the researchers wondered if scratching-induced activation of mast cells could affect the skin microbiome.
In experiments led by coauthor Marlies Meisel, Ph.D., assistant professor of immunology at Pitt, the team showed that scratching reduced the amount of Staphylococcus aureus, the most common bacteria involved in skin infections, on the skin.
“The finding that scratching improves defense against Staphylococcus aureus suggests that it could be beneficial in some contexts,” said Kaplan. “But the damage that scratching does to the skin probably outweighs this benefit when itching is chronic.”
Now, the researchers are investigating new therapies for dermatitis and other inflammatory skin conditions such as rosacea and urticaria that suppress inflammation by targeting receptors on mast cells.
Other researchers on the study were Youran Zhang, Chien-Sin Chen, Ph.D., Tara N. Edwards, Ph.D., Torben Ramcke, M.D., Lindsay M. McKendrick, Eric S. Weiss, Jacob E. Gillis, Colin R. Laughlin, Simran K. Randhawa, Catherine M. Phelps, Kazuo Kurihara, M.D., Ph.D., Hannah M. Kang, Sydney-Lam N. Nguyen, Jiwon Kim, Tayler D. Sheahan, Ph.D., Sarah E. Ross, Ph.D., and Tina L. Sumpter, Ph.D., all of Pitt and UPMC; and Sumeyye Ozyaman, of Pitt and Istanbul Medipol University.
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (T32NS73548, T32CA0820840, R01DK130897, U24EY035102, K99NS126569, R01AR071720 and R01AR077341) and the German Research Foundation.
Norovirus cases at more than double expected number
The UKHSA warns the rise is having a big impact on hospitals and care homes.
