A blood test for the Alzheimer’s-linked protein p-tau217 found that those with very high levels faced a 38 percent risk of cognitive impairment within five years and 78 percent within ten.
Alicia Upano has crafted a beautiful debut novel full of emotion, heartache and discovery, which follows the aftermath of a tsunami in Hilo, Hawaii. A Hawaiian herself, the author immerses the reader in the island’s cultural practices and everyday routines; its tropical beauty is emphasised, but Everything To The Sea isn’t your typical summer read. The heartbreaking twists and gut-wrenching turns make for a story you become emotionally attached to.
Flitting between Kenji and Jane’s experiences of the tsunami, we get a dichotomy of lives that have each taken a different turn. Both characters, though highly flawed, are extremely likeable making you root for their love right until the very end. Themes of family, friendship, belonging, tragedy and love all culminated to create a relaxing book that is impossible to put down.
The dynamic of the push and pull between the comfort of your home town and the aspirations of a far-away city has a relatable quality; anyone struggling with homesickness, or dissociating from where they feel they belong, will understand Everything To The Sea on another level. A thoroughly enjoyable, inventive twist on a classic romance tragedy; if only I could read the ending again for the first time.
All babies born in England will be tested for a rare genetic condition from birth in a major win for former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson.
The pop star, 35, welcomed news there will be a full rollout of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) screening after previously describing it as a ‘postcode lottery’.
Nelson began campaigning for newborn babies to be screened after her twins, Ocean Jade and Story Monroe Nelson, were diagnosed with the rare condition, which causes progressive muscle wastage.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the national newborn screening programme for SMA will be rolled out as part of an evaluation programme from the end of this year.
Hundreds of thousands of babies will be screened as part of the simple heel prick blood test shortly after birth.
SMA can leave babies unable to sit up, crawl or walk. In the most severe cases, it stops them breathing or swallowing.
Early treatment, however, can delay the progressive nature of the illness and help children live longer.
Nelson said: ‘After years of campaigning, it means so much to see the heel prick test for SMA begin rolling out from October, with implementation continuing throughout 2027 until every newborn screening laboratory across the UK is offering the test.
The former Little Mix star revealed her daughters Ocean Jade and Story Monroe have been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
‘Today is a day of hope.
‘Knowing that future families will have access to early diagnosis and the opportunity for the best possible outcomes is something I’m incredibly proud to have supported.
‘This is a victory for every family affected by SMA. Whilst it can’t change the future of our children, I know it marks the beginning of a brighter future for future SMA families.’
In a post on Instagram last month, accompanied by a video of her becoming emotional, Nelson said a previous announcement that screening would come in October was a big milestone but would ‘only cover 72 per cent of England’.
She added: ‘That means some babies won’t be screened simply because of where they live. A postcode lottery like that just isn’t fair.
‘Every baby deserves the same chance, every baby’s life matters.’
The new development means all parts of England will be covered by the evaluation, which will inform future recommendations on testing newborns by the UK National Screening Committee.
Giles Lomax, chief executive officer of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) UK, said: ‘After years of campaigning by the SMA community and our partner organisations, this is a hugely important step forward.
The star struggled to hold back her tears as she opened up about the diagnosis process
‘When newborn screening for SMA begins later this year in October, thousands of babies will benefit from earlier diagnosis and access to life-changing treatment.
‘We are delighted to see the confirmation that the remaining six screening laboratories will begin screening from October 2027, this demonstrates a clear commitment to making newborn screening available across England.
‘No family should face a postcode lottery when it comes to a condition where every day without treatment can lead to irreversible loss of motor neurons.
‘We are incredibly grateful to the families, clinicians, researchers, supporters and campaigners who have helped us reach this point, and we look forward to the day when every newborn across the whole of the UK is offered this simple, life-changing test.’
Health Secretary James Murray, said: ‘No parent should have to watch their child lose the ability to move or breathe, knowing that earlier treatment could have made all the difference.
‘This expansion means babies across England will be tested from birth, giving them the best possible chance of a full and healthy life, and another step in the right direction as we do all we can to reduce health inequalities.
‘I’m in awe of the campaigners who’ve worked tirelessly to raise awareness of this rare but very serious genetic condition. We’re moving faster and rolling screening out more widely to ensure children get the best treatment from the earliest possible moment.’
Scotland is establishing a similar screening programme drawing on funding from the private sector.
The Department of Health and Social Care is taking a similar approach and seeking £5 million of investment to expand evaluation.
South Wales Police said:
A 27-year-old man from Barry was arrested at around 10.40am this morning following a report of a man with a knife in Holton Road.
Police say no-one was injured and the arrested man remains in custody.
Local residents took to social media to describe their shock, with one saying it was “getting scary now anywhere you go” after seeing the man in the town centre. Another witness wrote that they had seen him being arrested and called it “scary times we live in”.
Parents also reported that a nearby school was placed into lockdown as a precaution. One poster said staff were “so good with it” and hoped that nobody had been stabbed.
Police enquiries into the incident are continuing.
It’s one of the healthiest cooking oils on the market. But it turns out the avocado oil in your favourite snacks might be fake.
It happened outside allotments in Maesteg(Image: Google)
A man was taken to hospital after a suspected hit and run incident in Maesteg. Here is everything we know:
The El Niño climate phenomenon linked to record global temperatures and now locked in place in the Pacific Ocean could develop into the strongest on record, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
Climatologists are watching the strengthening El Niño with increasing alarm, saying the forecasts from climate models in the coming months are “mind blowing” and “astounding”.
Globally, experts have said a strong El Niño could work in tandem with global heating to deliver the hottest year on record either this year or, more likely, in 2027.
The bureau has stressed that the strength of an El Niño does not necessarily correlate with the strength of impacts in Australia, but the system generally brings hotter and drier conditions in winter and spring for southern and eastern parts.
The climate phenomenon is characterised by warming sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, with the subsequent atmospheric upset fuelling more severe storms in some parts of the world and hot, dry conditions in others.
A major indicator of the strength of an El Niño is the sea surface temperatures in one area of the equatorial Pacific – known as Niño 3.4.
Dr Zhi-Weng Chua, a senior climatologist at the bureau, said the highest reliable temperature value for previous El Niños was a monthly average of +2.6C seen in that Pacific region in January 1983.
But he said climate models were suggesting this El Niño could peak between +2.2C and above +3C.
“There is a realistic chance that the peak anomaly of this event will rank in the top events, with a chance it could rank as the highest. It is remarkable, and it shows just how much heat there is in the ocean.
“It’s perhaps not a surprise, given climate change and how oceans have been gathering heat in the last few decades.”
The bureau’s own model has the El Niño peaking at about +3.3C with the phenomenon staying in place until at least the coming summer.
Dr Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, reviewed 14 different seasonal model forecasts of the Niño 3.4 region from around the world.
“It looks like this year’s El Niño is not only very likely to be the strongest event since reliable records began – it may end up the strongest by a truly mind-blowing margin,” he wrote in The Climate Brink newsletter.
“The models are forecasting something outside the envelope of anything we have ever observed.”
Current sea surface temperature maps in the Pacific show a huge tongue of unusually warm water extending east from the northern South American coast.
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Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist and expert in heat extremes at the Australian National University, said: “Every time I look at it, I have this sense of awe but deep concern. I think it will be one for the record books.
“But this doesn’t mean the impacts here in Australia will be extreme. But we are waiting with bated breath.”
The bureau’s latest long-range forecast shows that for August to October, huge areas of the country have a high chance of seeing maximum temperatures in the top 20% on record for that period.
Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth all have an at least 80% chance of experiencing those temperature extremes. All those cities also have an increased chance of unusually low rainfall.
Dr Kim Reid, an expert on seasonal predictions and rainfall at the University of Melbourne, said if the climate models were right about the El Niño, it would be “astounding to see that amount of heat being released from the ocean into the atmosphere”.
“That’s going to have considerable impacts around the world. For Australia, the strength is not super correlated to the impacts we feel.”
Reid was particularly watching conditions in the Indian Ocean, where some models were predicting cooling in the waters of Australia’s north-west in the coming months.
When this phenomenon – known as a positive Indian Ocean Dipole – had combined with El Niño in the past, Reid said this had led to very dry periods such as the “tinderbox drought” which preceded Australia’s black summer bushfires in the summer of 2019-2020.
The FDA announced hundreds of thousands of bread rolls have been urgently recalled over fears they contain glass shards that run the risk of leading to serious injuries such as choking.
Erin Richards, who grew up in Penarth and trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, plays Cheryl Dreason, the ex‑wife of central character David Burroughs.
The series, adapted from Coben’s 2023 novel, follows David, played by Sam Worthington, a father serving a life sentence for the murder of his young son – a crime he insists he did not commit. When new evidence suggests the boy may still be alive, David escapes prison in a desperate bid to uncover the truth.
Richards’ character Cheryl is a talented and compassionate paediatric surgeon still grieving the loss of her son while trying to rebuild her life, only for David’s breakout to drag her back into a nightmare of secrets and suspicion. Netflix describes her as a woman “who has worked hard to move on, until long‑buried secrets threaten to unravel everything she’s built”.
The former Stanwell pupil first came to wider attention in the US comedy‑drama Breaking In before landing the role of Barbara Kean in Batman prequel Gotham, later adding credits in The Crown and Being Human to her CV. Welsh fans have been quick to celebrate seeing a familiar Penarth name in Netflix’s latest glossy crime import, with one local reviewer calling her performance “brilliant” and praising her as “absolutely gorgeous to chat to”.
Early critical reaction to I Will Find You has been mixed but generally agrees on one thing – it is highly watchable. Radio Times described it as a “fast‑paced, throwaway Netflix thriller” that still delivers enough tension to keep viewers hooked.
Crime blog The Killing Times said the series “may stretch credibility to breaking point” but remains “compulsively watchable” in places, especially for fans of Coben’s trademark plot twists. Industry site IndieWire was more sceptical, branding it “one of the most ludicrous shows of the year so far”, but even that review acknowledged the show’s “so‑bad‑it’s‑good” appeal and the strength of its ensemble cast.
For Richards, the role adds another major international credit to a career that has already taken her from Penarth to prime‑time US television and now to the heart of Netflix’s latest mystery hit.
Americans in the DRC are not able to return directly to the US from the country, under a new order.
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