Scientists have discovered a surprising link between eating a specific late-night snack which may be fueling nightmares and poor sleep.
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Daniel Barnett, 36, of Hastings Close, Penarth conspired with others to supply cocaine in Cardiff between November 6, 2024 and January 23, 2025.
The defendant also admitted controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily towards his ex-partner between October 2022 and August 2025.
Roger Griffiths, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court how the controlling behaviour included him telling the victim to delete friends from social media, preventing her from speaking to certain friends and using violence against her.
Judge Carl Harrison jailed Barnett for 16 years and six months and made him the subject of an indefinite restraining order not to contact the woman.
The defendant was represented by Ekwall Tiwana.
The common disorder, which affects roughly eight million people in the UK, occurs when breathing repeatedly stops and starts throughout the night.
The honey deuce is the delicious signature drink of the US Open. But, are there any health risks you should be aware of? We asked the experts.
Gardeners should consider checking on their any outside taps or leaky areas of their garden as they tend to attract a lot of noisy pests at this time of year.
Garden taps can actually encourage pests into your garden at this time of year(Image: Getty)
September brings considerably cooler and wetter days, which will provide much-needed relief for plants that have struggled through the summer heat, but it can, unfortunately, draw more pests into your garden. Wet weather is well known for attracting slugs and snails, yet gardeners should also be aware that it can entice the creatures that feed on these insects, such as frogs.
Most people think you need a pond to spot frogs hopping around, but they can flourish in any damp area, including long grass, compost heaps, or even tucked inside flower pots. As temperatures drop, frogs are more inclined to venture closer to homes in search of food, and they can be rather noisy creatures, notorious for keeping people awake at night with their croaking.
If you’re hoping for some peace and quiet this autumn, Deirdre Sullivan from homeowner group Angie’s List has revealed that you don’t need any specialist products to keep frogs at bay, as simply checking for leaks in your garden is far more effective.
Deirdre said: “Ensure proper drainage and fix leaky faucets to discourage frogs from seeking refuge in soggy areas.
“Also, eliminate stagnant water from containers, gutters, and other spots in your yard. Consider creating dry spots throughout your yard using stones and gravel-this will make your lawn less inviting.”
Why fix leaky faucets in September?
Frogs require moisture to survive, but they don’t necessarily need a large body of water, as even a small drip anywhere in a garden can be sufficient for them to shelter nearby.
Gardeners would be wise to inspect dripping taps, drains, gutters, birdbaths and any areas where rainwater can begin to draw in insects that may lay eggs in standing water.
Frogs are attracted to gardens where drain flies, gnats, mosquitoes, water beetles and snails are present, as stagnant water can become a breeding ground for these creatures.
Taking the time to address any damp or leaky spots in your garden before autumn arrives will reduce the number of troublesome insects, which in turn will help deter larger pests without any added expense.
How else to keep frogs and other pests out of a garden?
Preventing noisy frogs from entering your garden can be relatively straightforward, as you simply need to create more dry areas within it.
September is an ideal time to trim hedges, mow the lawn and cut back shrubs to limit the amount of wet foliage in your garden, as these provide the sheltered hiding spots that frogs are known to favour.
Placing stones and gravel can also improve drainage in certain areas, though care should be taken when positioning them near flowerbeds, as they may prevent water from reaching plant roots.
Dimming your outdoor lighting or reducing its sensitivity can also prove beneficial, as bright lights encourage a larger insect population, which is more likely to tempt frogs onto your property.
While salt, vinegar or lemon juice are frequently suggested online as frog deterrents, these substances can severely damage their skin or even prove fatal, and are therefore considered deeply cruel.
Eliminating damp patches in your garden is a more considerate approach to deterring frogs, and will prove considerably more successful over time in keeping your garden free from unwanted visitors this autumn.
Experts are warning of the dangers of so-called ‘symptom borrowing’ among people watching content about health conditions on social media.
As diagnoses of the condition continue to rise, an intriguing question is emerging. Could some people with these common symptoms not have ADHD at all, but another medical condition?
A notetaking tool called “Notes” is helping staff in the Vale of Glamorgan complete paperwork more efficiently, cutting case submission times by 36 per cent and freeing up valuable hours for frontline care.
Jason Bennett MBE, head of adult services and the Vale Alliance at Vale of Glamorgan Council, said: “Beam notes wasnʼt launched in isolation; it was accompanied by our implementation of a “strengths based practiceˮ training package.
“Beam Notes allows practitioners to spend their time really getting to know the person, their strengths and personal outcomes. It allows the practitioner to be fully present during their conversations whilst the AI takes care of the draft notes and initial record keeping for the practitioner to build from later.
“We have also introduced compassionate leadership across the department and Beam Notes allows supervision to focus on the person and having a meaningful conversation.”
The “Notes” tool, developed by social-impact technology company Beam, automatically generates documents from recorded meetings.
Instead of typing or writing notes, staff record meetings with consent and let the AI handle the paperwork.
Social Services has been using the tool in adult services since a successful pilot in 2025 and has since rolled it out to children’s services.
A total of 484 staff now use it daily.
Data from the three-month pilot shows practitioners saved an average of 2.5 hours per week on admin, with the top third saving 3.5 hours.
One practitioner saved more than nine hours.
80 per cent said the tool allowed them to spend more time with service users, and 86 per cent wanted to continue using it.
Sian Palmer, a practitioner, said: “Before using Notes, I was always stressed about completing assessments, care plans and other paperwork because I knew it took me longer than some of my colleagues due to my dyslexia.
“Being able to speak my thoughts into Notes has significantly reduced my anxiety around paperwork.
“I can see a real difference in the quality of my case notes and assessments since using the AI notetaker.”
The tool is now used by other local authorities and public sector organisations to support frontline documentation across social care.
Human oversight remains in place, with staff reviewing and editing all outputs before they are entered into council systems.
Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory disease, it causes painful, boil-like lumps to form deep under the skin in areas such as the armpits and groin.
Don’t look up! The world is a mess. The sky could fall in any day. Unending wars, expanding humanitarian crises, rising authoritarianism, dysfunctional democracies, rampant racial and religious extremism, and unchecked lawlessness cast a dark cloud as the west’s new political year begins. Set all that against a backdrop of staggering global economic inequality, corporate and individual greed, irresponsible government indebtedness, dangerous AI gambles, climate breakdown and proliferating nuclear weapons, and a truly apocalyptic global outlook begins to take shape. It’s enough to make anyone shut their eyes, cover their ears and utter a Munch-like scream. And it’s only getting worse.
Democratic leaders who promise a better, safer, more optimistic future – what Britain’s freshly arrived prime minister, Andy Burnham, calls a “new era of possibility” – cannot escape this wider international context. Last week’s global bond market upheaval, sparked by external factors, left Burnham’s cash-strapped government struggling with sharply increased borrowing costs before he barely got started. The fact he chose Ukraine for his first overseas trip, while symbolically important, highlighted another grim reality. As a lead opponent of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Britain now finds itself in a de facto state of war with Russia – and facing attack. Argentina, too, is eyeing UK defence vulnerabilities. These are not the sort of possibilities Burnham envisaged.
Little wonder some analysts believe a third world war has already begun. Those who say this is over-dramatic should consider the following snapshots of the state of the world in 2026. From Kyiv to Khorramshahr, Kordofan and Kachin, conflicts flare and subside but never seem to end. All-out Russian aggression in Ukraine, now mostly comprising daily attempts to murder and terrorise civilians, is into its fifth year. Trump has lost his Iran bet, but keeps killing and bombing with no end in sight. In southern Sudan, appalling atrocities go unchecked. In Myanmar, a people’s war against a brutal junta rages on. Israel’s response to the 2023 massacres has triggered an ongoing regional war embroiling Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and the Gulf states. Worldwide, record numbers of people are displaced by conflict.
Increasingly interconnected, these wars threaten to merge into one uncontrollable global conflagration. The alliance system, key pillar of the post-1945 order, is eating itself. Donald Trump taunts Europe and Nato with tariffs, troop withdrawals, barbs and insults at a time of acute vulnerability. Canada and the US are at daggers drawn as the White House bully fatuously threatens Venezuela – or Greenland-style annexation. China aids North Korea, which also aids Russia, which aids Iran, which aids Hezbollah and the Houthis. In Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Australia, China looms menacingly as partnerships with Washington fray. In Taiwan, fears of invasion grow, aggravated by Trump’s obsequious appeasing of Xi Jinping.
Everywhere you look, humanitarian crises caused by war, the climate crisis or natural disasters are producing chaotic mass migrations, malnutrition and disease. Increasingly, the suffering overwhelms a UN-led aid system crippled by US and UK funding cuts. In the fertile West Bank, 900,000 Palestinians, their homes and farms besieged by settler extremists, are now food insecure, the World Food Programme says. In Somalia, millions go hungry amid record drought and predicted El Niño-related flooding. Colombia and Afghanistan face similar perils. Humanitarian and human rights outrages take individual form, too. In Hong Kong, for example, an ailing Jimmy Lai, brave champion of free speech, languishes in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement, a tortured casualty of Chinese communism’s hatred of democracy and civil rights.
Skittish bond markets may be the least of the world’s economic and financial problems. Is a crash coming, reminiscent of 2008, only worse? The signs are ominous. The US just notched up a record $40tn in national debt. France, the UK, Japan and others are deep in the red, too. Unmanageable current-account deficits, rising inflation and the huge, draining diversion of investment into bloated AI tech companies all point to what market analysts cutely call a “disorderly correction”. By some estimates, the Nvidia chip-maker, plus Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft, are “worth” about 23% of the entire US stock market. Meanwhile, unaffordable northern-hemisphere energy and food prices loom this winter, exacerbated by Trump’s Middle East forever folly. In the worst case, all this could translate into global recession and yet more political instability. It’s a gigantic bubble waiting to burst.
The existential hazards posed by the climate crisis and global heating should require scant elaboration after the terrifying Nepal-Tibet flood disaster. Similarly inimical to life on Earth, in an avoidable, human-made way, is the rapid proliferation of nuclear weapons, including so-called “battlefield” or tactical nukes that are more likely to be used in war zones such as Ukraine or Iran. All nine nuclear weapons states are expanding or modernising their arsenals, with China in the lead. Countries such as South Korea and Saudi Arabia weigh their nuclear options. And now this atomic arms race is expanding into space. There really seems no limit to humanity’s relentless, doom-laden drive towards self-destruction.
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The fundamental values of post-Enlightenment liberal societies are everywhere under siege. The rule of law is routinely flouted. While Putin and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu ignore war-crimes arrest warrants, Trump and his unctuous lickspittle, Marco Rubio, actively work to destroy the international criminal court. Across Europe, far-right racists, loons and bigots make political advances, seen again this weekend in the east German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Next year, France will approach its own fateful national reckoning. In the US, Trump, enabled by a supine majority in Congress and dishonourable supreme court justices, is constructing a “constitutional dictatorship” to subvert future elections, symbolised by a gross, 250ft-tall “Arc de Trump”. Let alarm bells ring: US democracy and the entire western democratic tradition are in dire peril.
What is to be done? Is any consolation to be had? First, key pillars of the post-1945 order, though badly battered, are still just about intact. The UN and most of its agencies, the international court of justice and collaborative, multinational western democratic alliances such as the EU, Nato and the G7 have so far survived the current tumult. Second, the age of tyrants is nearing an end. These angry old men are mostly headed for nursing homes, jail or the grave. May their legacies of fear and hate die with them. Last, younger generations in many “middle power” and developing countries, exemplified by India’s Cockroach youth protest movement, are making plain their revulsion and rejection of the way the world is now. Like Burnham, they believe passionately in the power of possibility and change.
The future lies not in the hands of political thugs and killers, of dictators and megalomaniacs, but in the hands of ordinary people everywhere. It depends on millions upon millions of individual daily acts of kindness, selflessness, faith and courage. So don’t lose heart. Keep your eyes open. Unblock your ears. And don’t look down!
