Brain-controlled device results in more natural gait and improves stability on stairs and uneven terrain

A brain-controlled bionic leg has allowed people with amputations to walk more quickly and navigate stairs and obstacles more easily in a groundbreaking trial.

The device allows the wearer to flex, point and rotate the foot of the prosthetic using their thoughts alone. This led to a more natural gait, improved stability on stairs and uneven terrain and a 41% increase in speed compared with a traditional prosthetic. The bionic leg works by reading activity in the patient’s residual leg muscles and uses these signals to control an electrically powered ankle.

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© Photograph: HERR Nature Medicine

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© Photograph: HERR Nature Medicine

Exclusive: ‘Vital’ recognition of migrant care worker’s plight may pave way for more cases, says union leader

A migrant nurse could be eligible for a significant payout from a British healthcare company after an employment judge ruled he was likely to win his case for unfair dismissal, in a judgment that could pave the way for dozens of other such cases.

Natasha Joffe, an employment judge, ruled that Clinica Private Healthcare, a London-based healthcare provider, may have to pay Kirankumar Rathod £13,000 in unpaid wages after it dismissed him in 2023. Rathod was dismissed after raising concerns about the lack of work being offered to him and other colleagues who had also moved to the UK on the promise of full-time employment.

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© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

For 15 years I read the books, took the courses and downloaded the apps to try to become a better person. None of it helped

I was in my mid-20s when I fell into one of the most toxic relationships of my life. I remember buying my first self-help book, which promised I could be healed of anything if only I banished my limiting beliefs. I devoured it in days and even though I was still the same depressed, broke, single mother I had been when I picked up the book, that didn’t matter. I was hooked.

Over the next 15 years, I bought hundreds of self-help books, courses and apps, and tracked down every self-styled personal improvement guru on TikTok and YouTube in the hope that they could teach me how to become happier, more confident and more lovable. I internalised messages, such as: “Stop being a victim to take back your power.” I even dipped my toe into manifesting and hypnosis: “Start thinking you are slim and healthy even though you probably need to lose a few pounds and have a chronic health condition.”

Emily Goddard is a production subeditor at the Guardian and a freelance writer

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© Photograph: Ivan Pantic/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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© Photograph: Ivan Pantic/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Doctors may not always agree with their methods, but in Lagos state, traditional birth attendants are helping to connect women and babies with modern maternity treatments

The sound of chanting fills the narrow corridor that serves as a waiting room, as about 30 pregnant women pray for safe deliveries and protection against wizards, witches and other enemies they believe could harm them or their babies.

The women take turns in the small bathroom, where they stand on a rock and use soap, nest-like straw sponges and seeds blessed by a prophet ​to wash away evil spirits.

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© Photograph: Kasia Stręk/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Kasia Stręk/The Guardian

Authors reassess the legacy of the father of psychotherapy in a lovely grab bag of essays

Spare a thought for Ida Bauer. The 17-year-old came to Freud’s consulting room with a host of symptoms – fainting fits, pains, hoarse cough, breathlessness. She told Freud her dad’s friend Herr K had tried to seduce her from the age of 13. Possibly K’s advances, for which she once understandably slapped him, were erotic payback for her father having an affair with Herr K’s wife.

Freud disagreed, arguing that, really, she wanted to be seduced by Herr K – and by her therapist too. Unsurprisingly, she terminated Freud’s therapy after three months. “Talk about unexamined projection!” writes the cartoonist and editor Sarah Boxer in the first essay in this often droll and always engaging collection, arguing that his treatment of Ida was: “Ground zero for ‘No means yes.’”

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© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Exclusive: Alan Milburn, Jacqui Smith and Sally Morgan would be contenders to take over from Richard Meddings

Labour is poised to axe the chair of NHS England if it wins the election and replace him with a party loyalist to help implement its plans to revive the “broken” health service.

The party is considering replacing Richard Meddings with the former health secretary Alan Milburn, the ex-home secretary Jacqui Smith, or Sally Morgan, who served as Tony Blair’s political secretary.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

One of the continent’s leading medics, Jean Kaseya, has made it his mission to help the 116m people in African countries with mental health conditions

Jean Kaseya would hear regularly from his younger brother, an army officer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, until the day in 2018 when all contact stopped. “Suddenly, we didn’t have any information,” remembers Dr Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

It was two years before an acquaintance approached the family to say his brother, Dieudonné, was alive, but in jail in the north of the country. Kaseya was able to have him brought back to the capital, Kinshasa. “I went to see him. Honestly, this person deserved to be at a hospital, not to be jailed.

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© Photograph: Media Lens King/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Media Lens King/The Guardian

Once upon a time, it was only hardcore bodybuilders who pumped themselves up with testosterone. Today it is no longer niche. But how dangerous is it? By Stephen Buranyi

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© Illustration: Calum Heath

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© Illustration: Calum Heath

Only a third of shifts have enough nurses on duty, the Royal College of Nursing says its analysis shows

NHS patients are being left unseen in pain and in some cases to die alone because shifts do not have enough registered nurses, a survey shows.

The Royal College of Nursing said analysis of a survey it carried out showed that only a third of shifts had enough registered nurses on duty.

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© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

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© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Steep cuts left three-quarters of 16- to 19-year-olds unable to get support, youth agency says

• ‘Youth clubs helped me’: Efe Obada calls for funding for centres for young people

Young people are “crying out” for a return of youth clubs after swingeing cuts left three-quarters of 16- to 19-year-olds in England lacking ways to connect with youth workers, according to research shared with the Guardian.

More than half of people in their late teens are specifically calling for more youth work that offers “fun”, with older teenagers particularly hankering for more jollity, according to a study by the National Youth Agency (NYA). One in 10 said they have zero options to access youth work.

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© Photograph: Image Source/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Image Source/Getty Images

Should you struggle on when you’re really not feeling it? As I’ve learned, sometimes it’s much better to ditch your plan

I don’t record every single run that I do, so I can’t tell you precisely how often I have laced up my trainers, or how far they have taken me in the last 10 years. But I track enough to know that I have run more than 1,849 times and 13,948km. That’s 8,667 miles, or about a third of the way round the world. Go me! If I wasn’t trying to eat less sugar, I would give myself a biscuit.

After all that sweating and chafing, you would think I’d have it down pat. I would have my pre-run pee, head out of the door and simply stick one foot in front of the other until I had finished whatever distance I had set out to do.

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© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Absorption through skin could be ‘significant source of exposure’ to toxic forever chemicals, study shows

New research “for the first time proves” toxic PFAS forever chemicals are absorbed through human skin, and at levels much higher than previously thought.

Though modeling and research has suggested the dangerous chemicals are absorbed through skin, University of Birmingham researchers say they used lab-grown tissue that mimics human skin to determine how much of a dose of PFAS compounds can be absorbed.

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© Photograph: fstop123/Getty Images/iStockphoto

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© Photograph: fstop123/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Regulator warned of risk to patient safety posed by plan to recruit 10,000 healthcare workers to assist doctors

Doctors are warning the UK medical regulator that wider use of physician associates in the NHS may risk patient safety and lead to greater inequalities in care in deprived areas that struggle to recruit GPs.

The government’s plan to recruit 10,000 physician associates – healthcare professionals supervised by doctors – has angered many clinicians who consider the roles ill-defined and a potential threat to patient safety.

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© Photograph: Poster

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© Photograph: Poster

The recall of the gummies this week sparked concern about the spread of natural stimulants such as herbs and fungi in everyday products

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Mushroom gummies have made headlines this week after one brand was recalled Australia-wide as customers were hospitalised with “disturbing hallucinations”.

Attention soon turned to the question of whether cannabis was present.

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

Celebrities have spoken up about their experiences – and Silicon Valley types learned ovaries may hold the key to long life

If you had asked 20-year-old me to explain what “perimenopause” was, I would have stared at you blankly. Honestly, I would have struggled to even tell you much about menopause. It was never a mainstream topic of conversation and studies have found most women were never educated about it. Indeed, I’m pretty sure I learned far more at school about Henry VIII’s wives than what I could expect from my own body as I got older.

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© Photograph: Highwaystarz-Photography/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Highwaystarz-Photography/Getty Images

A daughter who gave up full-time work to help look after her mother reveals her emotional and financial struggle

• Unpaid UK carers ‘face financial hit that can last decades’

We’re in the haematology department at the hospital and they call my mum in. We go inside, sit down and the doctor tells us the results of the test: she has myeloma – blood cancer – but will need a bone marrow test to confirm it.

I nearly faint, my heart sinks and I can see my mum’s face filled with sadness. Everything we hear after that is a blur but I know from that point things will be tough and that I am about to become a carer.

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

Police warn of ‘potentially contaminated batch’ after adults taken to hospital in County Durham

Seven people have been taken to hospital after taking the sleeping medication zopiclone, prompting concerns over a “potentially contaminated batch”.

Cleveland police said it had received reports on Friday of the adults being taken to North Tees General hospital in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham.

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© Photograph: David Dixon/Alamy

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© Photograph: David Dixon/Alamy

Experts warn ‘health tourists’ to do their research, saying savings can lead to higher costs for work to be redone

Patients seeking medical treatments in Turkey and other countries should do their research and not be tempted by low prices, experts have warned.

From Brazilian butt lifts to Hollywood smiles and even organ transplants, the range of procedures offered by overseas providers is staggering, with myriad companies now promoting packages covering flights, accommodation and post-operative hotel accommodation.

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© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

Investigation details industry campaign including legal threats and charm offensive aimed at Tory MPs

Rishi Sunak abandoned his “legacy” policy to ban smoking for future generations amid a backlash from the tobacco industry in the form of legal threats, lobbying and a charm offensive aimed at Conservative MPs, an investigation reveals.

The UK had been on course to become the first country to ban smoking for future generations, via the tobacco and vaping bill, which Downing Street hoped would help define Sunak’s place in British political history.

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© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/AP

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© Photograph: Ian Forsyth/AP

Charlotte Edwardes interviews the Labour leader as he closes in on power, but who exactly is the man who wants to run Britain? Plus the extraordinary story of the woman who stepped in as a surrogate for her daughter’s baby, and Sam Pyrah examines the latest scientific understanding about why we dream what we do

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© Photograph: Harry Borden/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Harry Borden/The Guardian

The recall of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies has sparked concerns that the product contains psychoactive cannabinoids

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A cannabis product could be to blame for more than six people being hospitalised with symptoms including seizure-like twitching, vomiting and hallucinations after consuming gummies marketed as containing mushrooms, according to experts.

The Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies were recalled this week by Food Standards Australia New Zealand after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

Claimants include family of 11-year-old girl who spent three weeks on dialysis after eating chicken salad sandwich

Tesco and Asda are being sued by customers, including the family of an 11-year-old girl, who were left seriously ill after eating own-brand sandwiches linked to an outbreak of E coli.

The supermarkets face legal action after a child and adult were left in hospital. One person has been confirmed to have died and more than 120 others including a six-year-old have been hospitalised in the UK due to the bacteria.

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© Photograph: Islandstock/Alamy

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© Photograph: Islandstock/Alamy

The so-called toughest vape laws in the world are unfair and might create a new black market, seasoned vapers say

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While many might see vaping as a grotesque threat to the health of young people, and will welcome the so-called toughest vape laws in the world, seasoned vapers beg to differ.

Mark* has been vaping for more than 15 years. He used the device to break a 15-year, two-pack-a-day addiction to cigarettes. He loves his vapes. Mark says the new laws, which kick in on 1 July, are infantilising, contradictory and a backwards step.

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© Photograph: Nicholas.T Ansell/PA

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© Photograph: Nicholas.T Ansell/PA

Leaked documents from Philip Morris reveal ‘secret’ strategy to market its heated tobacco product IQOS

The tobacco company Philip Morris International has been accused of “manipulating science for profit” through funding research and advocacy work with scientists.

Campaigners say that leaked documents from PMI and its Japanese affiliate also reveal plans to target politicians, doctors and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the multinational’s marketing strategy to attract non-smokers to its heated tobacco product, IQOS.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Viral video of Prince William prompts experts to laud benefits of men ‘communicating their hormones’, from lifting mood to boosting trust

In his early 20s, Prince William was often seen stumbling out of night clubs after a night of grooving. Now, however, as though a clock has struck 12, this youthful cavorting appears to have transformed into something altogether more cringeworthy: dad dancing.

In a viral video captured at a Taylor Swift concert, the heir to the throne was filmed with his arms aloft, chest shimmying swiftly – and somewhat stiffly – to the beat.

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© Photograph: Royal Kensington via X

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© Photograph: Royal Kensington via X

I recoiled in horror: I could see a thick black body hanging out of my nostril

It was September 2014. I’d just started working front of house in a fancy hotel in Edinburgh. I spent most of my shifts with a paper napkin pressed to my nostril, as I had been getting lots of nosebleeds. I would soon find out why.

A few weeks earlier, I’d been travelling in Vietnam. I had rented a moped and had the time of my life driving around. I soon crashed but luckily was wearing a helmet, so only got a small bump on my head.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

New coalition formed to push for repeal of colonial-era laws and reduce barriers to access for those seeking mental health help

Pressure to decriminalise suicide in four Caribbean nations is mounting as a new coalition has come together for the first time to fight for the repeal of colonial-era laws.

A group of people with experience of poor mental health, government officials, activists, legal experts and healthcare workers, led by organisations in the Caribbean, will advocate for legislative reform. They want to reduce barriers for people seeking help and ensure that mental health services can operate without fear of legal repercussions and ultimately save lives.

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© Photograph: Ranta Images/Alamy

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© Photograph: Ranta Images/Alamy

The party’s pledge for the NHS is ‘hugely ambitious’, says one expert, though others are more optimistic.

• UK election live – latest updates

Labour appears poised to win a historic election victory on 4 July. In the series Life under Labour, we look at Keir Starmer’s five key political missions and ask what is at stake and whether he can deliver the change the country is crying out for.

“If they came into power, the Labour party would inherit a really terrible set of problems in the NHS that are both broader and deeper than the ones they faced in 1997. This feels a lot worse,” says Siva Anandaciva, the chief analyst at the King’s Fund thinktank.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty images/EPA/

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© Composite: Guardian Design/Getty images/EPA/

More than half of international medical graduates questioned say NHS induction inadequate

Many doctors from overseas are left feeling lost, anxious and not ready to care for patients after joining the NHS because they are not properly looked after, research has found.

Many international medical graduates (IMGs) feel the NHS does not help them prepare for life as a doctor in the UK and the practicalities of moving to a new country, according to a survey.

38% said they had too little time to shadow other doctors to gain valuable insights.

45% were not trained on cultural differences between the NHS and their country of origin and what is acceptable in the UK compared with in their home nation.

48% said their induction did not involve being given enough knowledge or training before starting to work clinically.

51% did not receive help or advice with practical issues after moving to the UK such as finding a place to live, opening a bank account, registering with a GP or paying council tax.

41% said they were left feeling alone and isolated.

38% questioned their decision to work in the NHS.

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© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

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© Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

More than 21,000 old sites may be releasing ‘forever chemicals’ into land often left as open space

• ‘It’s a poison and it’s killing us’: the hidden dangers of old UK landfills

Thousands of polluted landfills across England could be leaking toxic chemicals into the environment and harming people who live nearby, experts have warned.

A few decades ago, the method for getting rid of industrial and domestic waste was to stick it in a hole in the ground, cover it up and hope for the best. It was known as “dilute and disperse” and it assumed toxic substances would seep into the surrounding soils, air and water and become harmless.

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© Photograph: Britstock Images Ltd/Alamy

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© Photograph: Britstock Images Ltd/Alamy

Water quality testing by campaigners shows levels up to 27 times acceptable limit for bathing as rowers told to take precautions

Harmful E coli bacteria have been found at very high levels at Henley, days before elite rowers compete in the international regatta there.

Water quality testing in the Henley Mile, part of the regatta course outside the Oxfordshire town, has revealed mean levels of 1,213 E coli colony forming units (CFU) per 100ml of water, across 27 tests. Where E coli levels are above 900 CFU/100ml, the water quality is deemed poor, according to bathing water designations, and is a threat to public health.

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Early onset ischaemic stroke more likely to affect adolescents with low cognitive function, study finds

Teenagers with lower levels of mental ability may be three times more likely to experience a stroke before the age of 50, research suggests.

The association held true even after accounting for a range of factors, prompting experts to say more comprehensive assessments beyond traditional stroke risk factors were now needed to ward off disability and death.

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© Photograph: OJO Images Ltd/Alamy

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© Photograph: OJO Images Ltd/Alamy

Exclusive: Shadow health secretary discusses plans for waiting lists and patient safety if Labour wins election

NHS managers who silence and scapegoat whistleblowers will be banned from working in the service, the shadow health secretary has said, as part of a determined drive by Labour to eradicate a culture of cover-ups.

In an interview with the Guardian, Wes Streeting pledged to push through the formal regulation of NHS managers and warned the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that its inspectors must get much better at exposing risks to patients’ safety in order to regain the confidence of frontline staff.

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© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

The doctors should get a pay rise, but they are not the only public servants with a case for better terms

Junior doctors deserve a pay rise. Entry requirements are among the most competitive of all professions, and even were the health service not on its knees, the early years of a medical career would be demanding. Looking after people who are ill or injured is difficult and high-stakes work. Under current conditions, with vast waiting lists, workforce shortages, a rising population of chronically unwell people and, in some places, buildings that are not fit for purpose, it can be a punishing job.

It is two years this month since the British Medical Association voted for pay rises of up to 30% over five years. Consultants agreed a deal with the government last year, as did nurses. But junior doctors, who make up about half of all NHS doctors in England, have held out. In March, in a further ballot, 98% opted to keep striking in pursuit of a 35% pay rise, on a 62% turnout. The five-day strike that started on Thursday is their 11th. When it ends they will have been on strike for a total of 44 days since they first walked out in March last year. At least 1.3m cancelled appointments have been among the results.

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© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press/Rex/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press/Rex/Shutterstock

Five-day strike by junior doctors is the 11th action in their long-running pay dispute

“I’m itching to get back to work, to get back to the grindstone,” says Matthew Alexander, a junior radiology doctor. “Nobody wants to be here, nobody wants to be on strike.” Alexander, 30, is one of about 50 junior doctors on a Thursday morning picket line at the Friarage hospital in Northallerton, a bustling market town in Rishi Sunak’s sprawling North Yorkshire constituency.

It’s a sunny day; there’s cheerful, enthusiastic chanting and lots of support from drivers who honk their horns, but it is abundantly clear that only Betty, a laid-back 11-year-old jackapoo, is anywhere approaching happy to be here.

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© Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

The numbers that have been coming out of Gaza have been almost too shocking to comprehend

Dead or dismembered Palestinians don’t seem to shock anyone any more. A couple of hundred killed over here, dozens burned to death over there, a bunch of children dead from malnutrition: every day there seems to be another massacre that barely makes a blip on public consciousness. After eight months of intense bombing, the most abject civilian suffering has been dangerously normalized.

Still, as steeled as people may have become to the horrors in Gaza, you’d have to be completely broken not to be devastated by Save the Children’s new report on the missing children of Gaza. While more than 15,000 children are estimated to have been killed by Israel’s relentless assault on the strip, Save the Children has estimated that up to 21,000 children are missing.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

It’s complicated. Sometimes I still want people to take my illness into account. And then there is the regret of all I’ve lost by returning to everyday life

On Thursday, I saw off my family to school and work, deliberated over what to wear, then cycled the five-ish miles to the Guardian office in the sunshine. I checked emails and chatted to colleagues about plans for the day. It was all very much like 27 June 2022, with one major difference: at lunchtime I didn’t pop out to the hospital and come back with a breast cancer diagnosis.

Realising it’s already two years on from that day is a shock, but what’s weirder is to think of the same day a year ago. I had finished my chemo and radiotherapy and had had my surgery but I was still on targeted drugs and felt absolutely exhausted – just the thought of getting on my bike made me need a sit-down. My hair was thin and several different lengths, I looked strangely grey and I was working just two days a week.

Hilary Osborne is the Guardian’s money and consumer editor

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© Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/REX/Shutterstock

Exclusive: Rohan Bandil says ‘this was not the intention’ after hallucinations and unexpected toxicity leads to health warnings and nationwide recall

• Mushroom gummies recalled Australia-wide after customers hospitalised
• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

The sole director of an Australian company that distributed mushroom gummies from the US that resulted in people being taken to hospital with symptoms including “disturbing hallucinations” has apologised and declared “this was not the intention”.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand on Wednesday issued a recall of two flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

The Marches, Shropshire: With the glory of summertime comes hayfever, which we are only making worse

Purple and silver: the solstice grass flowers. This is the first year that the whole five acres of Brogyntyn park has been left uncut, and Oswestry has designated it a wildflower meadow. The transformation is enchanting. The many buttercups, ox-eye daisies and few orchids have privilege, but the grasses are the liberated proletariat that have never realised its full potential before.

Common grass names have an earthy poetry: fescue, false oat, foxtail, fog, bent, brome, couch, cocks foot, timothy, rye, sweet vernal, squitch. For a couple of days it stops raining and warms up a bit. When the sun comes out, so does the pollen. VH, a red sign on the weather map, announces a very high pollen count (more than 150 grains per cubic metre of air). About half of the people in the UK report hayfever symptoms – allergic rhinitis. It can mean itchy eyes, runny noses, sore throats and sneezes for millions, but for some the reaction can be deadly serious. Dogs, cats and horses are also affected, as if sacrificing an immune system is a trade-off for domestication.

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© Photograph: Maria Nunzia @Varvera

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© Photograph: Maria Nunzia @Varvera

Authorities say products contain ‘unapproved novel food ingredients’ as company Uncle Frog states ‘consuming the whole bag could … make people feel weird’

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
• Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast

People have been hospitalised across Australia with symptoms including “disturbing” hallucinations, dizziness and involuntary twitching after ingesting mushroom gummies made by a Byron Bay business.

A South Australian teenage boy was found unresponsive earlier this month after consuming several of the Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies, the state health department said on Thursday. He was treated and has since recovered.

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© Photograph: Uncle Frog's

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© Photograph: Uncle Frog's

About 25,000 BMA members begin five-day action at 7am that some union leaders say will achieve little

Junior doctors in England will strike today for the 11th time over pay, amid concern in their union that a stoppage so close to the general election is an “own goal”.

Senior figures in the British Medical Association (BMA) believe the strike is pointless and “naive” and risks irritating Labour, which looks likely to be in power by next Friday and asked the union to call it off.

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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

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© Photograph: Jonathan Brady/PA

UPFs should also be heavily taxed due to impact on health and mortality, says scientist who coined term

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are displacing healthy diets “all over the world” despite growing evidence of the risks they pose and should be sold with tobacco-style warnings, according to the nutritional scientist who first coined the term.

Prof Carlos Monteiro of the University of São Paulo will highlight the increasing danger UPFs present to children and adults at the International Congress on Obesity this week.

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© Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

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© Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

Research discovers the cost of some healthcare products fluctuates wildly, according to time of year you buy them

Dentists agree that brushing twice a day is the best way to look after your teeth. But depending on what month it is, dental hygiene can be a dramatically more expensive habit to maintain.

New research has shown that the cost of a tube of toothpaste at some times of the year can be double its price at other times. The price of other popular health products such as Gillette razors can also double depending when they are bought.

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© Photograph: Gravity Images/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Gravity Images/Getty Images

Researchers say in most cases condition is mild but it can increase risk of heart attacks and strokes

One in four healthy people aged 60 and over in the UK have undiagnosed heart valve disease, research suggests.

The conditions develops when one or more of the heart valves do not work properly. The main problems are caused by the valves either not opening fully or not closing correctly.

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© Photograph: Universal Images Group Limited/Alamy

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© Photograph: Universal Images Group Limited/Alamy

Beset by the doctors’ strike, the prime minister swelters under the glare of a shining Keir Starmer

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© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian

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© Illustration: Nicola Jennings/The Guardian

We would like to hear from people who have had emergency NHS care after travelling abroad for treatment

The NHS is having to provide emergency care to patients suffering serious complications following weight loss surgery and hair transplants abroad amid a “boom” in medical tourism, doctors have warned.

If you have had medical treatment abroad and have returned to the UK for follow up care, we would like to hear from you. What treatment did you receive and what were your reasons for travelling abroad? What complications did you experience and how did the NHS help?

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© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

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© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

The Kingston region’s public health unit is warning local residents that drug-involved poisonings are on the rise in the area. Read More

When Naissa tells his mother Daniela that he identifies as a trans man she struggles to understand. Through candid personal letters exchanged over three years, Dear Mamma follows Naissa as he stands firmly for his independence and identity, and Daniela as she wrestles with her fear of losing a child. As Naissa embarks on his professional dance career and proudly embodies his gender, his mother also embarks on a journey of understanding and acceptance of her son’s choices

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© Photograph: The Guardian

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© Photograph: The Guardian