An experimental treatment for the first time slowed the devastating progression of Huntington’s disease, gene therapy company uniQure announced Wednesday, a rare hopeful advance against a cruel genetic disease that robs people of control of their bodies and minds in the prime of life.

People with Huntington’s often develop symptoms in their 40s and progress to severe disability and death over about two decades, ravaged by jerky and involuntary movements, behavior disruptions and cognitive decline. About 40,000 people in the United States have symptomatic Huntington’s, which is caused by a mutated gene.

After the gene that causes the disease was discovered in 1993, there was hope that better treatments were around the corner, but many interventions were tried and failed.

“Today is a really important day in the history of how we understand Huntington’s disease and possible approaches moving forward,” said Rachel Harding, a structural biologist at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the research.

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This is what a REAL scientific breakthough looks like

Not that Tylenol stuff pic.twitter.com/iUVUVRdjEb

— Neil Stone (@DrNeilStone) September 24, 2025

The research is sprawling and interdisciplinary, but it is beginning to align around a provocative hypothesis: Shifts in everyday exposures may be accelerating biological aging, priming the body for disease earlier than expected.

“We’ve changed what we’re exposed to considerably in the past few decades,” said Patti, a professor of chemistry, genetics and medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The sheer complexity of modern life makes it difficult to pinpoint specific culprits. But advances in rapid, high-volume chemical screening, machine learning, and vast population datasets have made it possible to look with unparalleled depth and detail into the human body and the world around it. These methods test thousands of variables at once, revealing some never-before-seen patterns.

Last year, researchers released findings from a 150,000-person study at the annual American Association for Cancer Research meeting that took the cancer community by surprise. They found that millennials — born between 1981 and 1996 — appear to be aging biologically faster than previous generations, based on biomarkers in blood that indicate the health of various organs. That acceleration was associated with a significantly increased risk — up to 42 percent — for certain cancers, especially those of the lung, gastrointestinal tract and uterus.

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NEW: The rates of cancer among millennials are rising, and researchers now think it can't be explained by genetics and lifestyle choices alone. Check out the latest in our young cancer series, by @arianaeunjung @alvarovalino and @dtkeating https://t.co/YUosFbFpgq

— Juliet Eilperin (@eilperin) September 23, 2025

Alzheimer’s disease has proved to be a tricky target, and researchers and drug developers have been pursuing effective treatments for decades. Debates rage over the disorder’s underlying causes, and various approaches have faced one hurdle after another. But the field has reached a turning point. Over the past four years the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved several therapies that address some of the condition’s potential biological roots rather than merely mitigating symptoms—a key scientific milestone. Despite the advances, however, there is still a long list of open questions and so much work to be done.

The brains of people who die with Alzheimer’s show a distinct biology: clumps or “plaques” of amyloid beta proteins in spaces between neurons and tangles of tau proteins that accumulate primarily within the nerve cells. One prevailing theory holds that amyloid builds up early, and tau tangles develop when nerve cell damage is underway but cognitive symptoms are not yet apparent. Over time these pathogenic, or disease-causing, proteins disrupt nerve cell communication. The newest treatments—lecanemab and donanemab—bind to amyloid beta proteins, clear them from the brain and modestly slow cognitive decline.

But the progression from disease-linked proteins to actual dementia is long and inexact, and amyloid and tau proteins accumulate in people with other neurodegenerative disorders, too. With Alzheimer’s there is often a 20- to 30-year lag between the initial detection of amyloid and obvious cognitive decline. According to one study that predicted disease risk based on demographic data, death rates and amyloid status, fewer than one quarter of cognitively healthy 75-year-old women who test positive for amyloid in a spinal fluid analysis or positron-emission tomography (PET) brain scan will develop Alzheimer’s dementia during their lifetime. Such findings suggest that amyloid alone is not driving disease progression and have spurred scientists to investigate other strategies.

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Alzheimer’s Drugs Are Finally Tackling the Disease Itself. Here’s How
While our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease is far from complete, the latest therapies, and others in more than 100 clinical trials, offer new hopehttps://t.co/8XvYneCgSy

— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) September 16, 2025

If doctors find it too difficult to assess ‘unbearable suffering’ they referred the person to an ‘end of life’ clinic. If the second doctor did not agree it was referred to a third doctor. This becomes ‘doctor shopping’.

A committee cannot assess if someone’s suffering is ‘unbearable’.

Doctors have to be able to imagine a person’s suffering. But autistic pain is difficult to assess and so doctors have to take the autistic person’s word for it. The suffering of an autistic person is different from that of a non-autistic person.

In quite a few instances there was no physical illness that was terminal. One person found it too difficult to eat more than three meals a day – required because of their condition.

The Dutch ‘openness’ is good and good that there is scrutiny through the reports being made available online.  There was a change in the culture and unspoken pressure to accept this way of dying.  But there is no 6 month limitation and the law may be being expanded too much. The interpretation of the law expanded while the law itself was unchanged,

Disabled people cannot be excluded from the law on account of their disability because that would be discrimination. The disabled have the same rights as everyone.

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Bishops decried the proposed legalisation of assisted dying on Friday, as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill came to the House of Lords for the first of two days of debate.

“If passed, this Bill will signal that we are a society that believes that some lives are not worth living,” the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said. It would become, she said, the “state-endorsed position”.

Bishop Mullally, a former Chief Nursing Officer, questioned whether Parliament had properly listened to the advice of medical experts, including professional bodies which have expressed concerns about the legislation.

The Bill also failed in its “central claim” to give people choice about the manner of their death, she said. “A meaningful choice would see the measures in this Bill set alongside easily available, fully-funded, palliative and social-care services. Without a choice offered, this choice is an illusion.”

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"A meaningful choice would see the measures in this Bill set alongside easily available, fully-funded, palliative and social-care services. Without a choice offered, this choice is an illusion.” – @bishopSarahMhttps://t.co/y4bKSThSPJ

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) September 12, 2025

The percentage of U.S. adults who report currently having or being treated for depression has exceeded 18% in both 2024 and 2025, up about eight percentage points since the initial measurement in 2015.

The current rate of 18.3% measured so far in 2025 projects to an estimated 47.8 million Americans suffering from depression. Most of the increase has occurred since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Gallup obtained the most recent results for 2025 Feb. 18-26 and May 27-June 4, 2025, with 11,288 U.S. adults surveyed by web as part of the probability-based Gallup Panel. Respondents were asked, “Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have depression?” and if yes, “Do you currently have or are you currently being treated for depression?”

Both metrics are part of the ongoing Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. The percentage of adults who report having been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime stands at 28.5%, hovering near the record high of 29.0% measured in the first quarter of 2023.

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U.S. Depression Rate Remains Historically High https://t.co/P24MAawQa4

— Rasha B Basha (@basharabasha_ra) September 9, 2025

“Many women think that if they have a mammogram and it’s negative, there’s no way they can have breast cancer,” said Dr. Kimberly Feigin, a breast-imaging radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. “That’s simply not true.” 

The Food and Drug Administration starting Sept. 10 will require that women nationwide be notified whether their mammograms reveal dense breast tissue. Mammography reports will also encourage women to speak with doctors about their breast density and personal risk.

Nearly 40 states already require that women be notified about dense breast tissue. But there isn’t consensus on what to do with such results. Many doctors encourage women with dense tissue to consider additional tests including an ultrasound or MRI. Others say further tests could lead to unnecessary procedures. Some aren’t caught up on the trade-offs.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-backed group that sets guidance on screening and preventive care, says there isn’t enough evidence to recommend more testing. And insurance coverage for ultrasounds or MRIs varies by state and insurer. 

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Joel Eisiminger was racing to save homes in Northern California from a fast-spreading wildfire when a crewmate noticed that one side of his face was suddenly drooping so much that his mouth hung open.

In his six years fighting fires, Joel had tumbled down burning hills, endured full-body rashes from poison oak and inhaled plumes of smoke that left him gasping for weeks. But he had never felt as bad as he did on this morning in July 2024. He didn’t want to let down his crew, so he kept working deep in the forest until a medic told him to get to a hospital. He might have had a stroke.

As the doctors ran tests, Joel grew sicker. Within days, he was too exhausted to walk. On the eve of his 25th birthday, he received a diagnosis: acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive, often fatal blood cancer that usually strikes people more than twice his age. Joel told the doctors he was not a regular smoker and had no family history of blood cancers. But he did have one risk factor: his job.

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‘If I Live to 25, I’ve Lived a Good Life’ Risks to wildland firefighters are real. https://t.co/GW3VXtnOXM via @NYTimes

— TJ Kennedy (@TJPublicSafety) September 7, 2025

Seven years of investigation by scientists at Harvard Medical School has revealed that the loss of the metal lithium plays a powerful role in Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could lead to earlier detection, new treatments and a broader understanding of how the brain ages.

Researchers led by Bruce A. Yankner, a professor of genetics and neurology at Harvard Medical School, reported that they were able to reverse the disease in mice and restore brain function with small amounts of the compound lithium orotate, enough to mimic the metal’s natural level in the brain. Their study appeared Wednesday in the journal Nature.

“The obvious impact is that because lithium orotate is dirt cheap, hopefully we will get rigorous, randomized trials testing this very, very quickly,” said Matt Kaeberlein, former director of the Healthy Aging and Longevity Research Institute at the University of Washington, who did not participate in the study.“And I would say that it will be an embarrassment to the Alzheimer’s clinical community if that doesn’t happen right away.”

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Scientists at Harvard Medical School found that the loss of the metal lithium plays a powerful role in Alzheimer’s disease, a finding that could lead to earlier detection, new treatments and a broader understanding of how the brain ages. https://t.co/54UjaiD70G

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 6, 2025

Worldwide, people in more countries are living better lives and expressing more hope for the future than they have in years.

In 2024, a median of 33% of adults across 142 countries rated their lives well enough to be classified as “thriving,” continuing a trend of steady improvements in life evaluation going back more than a decade.

Gallup’s Life Evaluation Index, based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, asks people to rate their current and future lives on a ladder from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). Those scoring 7+ for the present and 8+ for five years ahead are “thriving,” while those rating both 4 or below are “suffering.” Everyone else is “struggling.”

Understanding how people evaluate their own lives is an important measure of human progress, unlike traditional economic metrics like GDP, which, while related to living standards, fail to capture whether people are living well.

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The world is becoming happier. More people across more countries say they are living better lives today and are hopeful for tomorrow, and fewer are suffering. 33% of adults across 142 countries rate their lives as "thriving", and the trend suggests even better times to come 🌍😊 pic.twitter.com/hqUk9N3nLu

— Mark Henry (@Mark_J_Henry) July 30, 2025

Some obese Americans on Medicare and Medicaid could get access to expensive weight loss drugs under a five-year experiment being planned by the Trump administration.

Under the proposed plan, state Medicaid programs and Medicare Part D insurance plans will be able to voluntarily choose to cover Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound for patients for “weight management” purposes, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services documents obtained by The Washington Post.

It’s a strong signal that the administration is open to more broadly covering GLP-1 drugs — lauded by many as a miracle solution to Americans’ long-standing struggle with weight — through government insurance programs. Medicare covers the drugs mainly for patients with Type 2 diabetes, even as some private insurance plans cover them for patients with obesity.

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Medicare, Medicaid Plans To Experiment With Covering Weight Loss Drugs – @washingtonpost https://t.co/ctAu2B9pX5

— LiveSquawk (@LiveSquawk) August 1, 2025

A Nobel Prize-winning Scottish chemist has told the BBC he thinks drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease will be available within five years.

Princeton University’s Prof David MacMillan, who is originally from North Lanarkshire, said “phenomenal things” are happening within medical research into neurological diseases.

“I would bet my house that within five years that we have marketed drugs for Alzheimer’s,” Prof MacMillan told the BBC’s Scotcast podcast.

“My father died of vascular dementia and my aunt had dementia. I think that’s such a horrible way to go.”

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'I'd bet my house' on treatment for Alzheimer's, says Nobel prize winner https://t.co/jS2dZGZKr0

— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) July 31, 2025

Fentanyl fueled the worst drug crisis the West has ever seen. Now, an even more dangerous drug is wreaking havoc faster than authorities can keep up.

The looming danger is an emerging wave of highly potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes, which often pack a far stronger punch than fentanyl. Nitazenes have already killed hundreds of people in Europe and left law enforcement and scientists scrambling to detect them in the drug supply and curb their spread.

The opioids, most of which originate in China, are so strong that even trace amounts can trigger a fatal overdose. They have been found mixed into heroin and recreational drugs, counterfeit painkillers and antianxiety medication. Their enormous risk is only dawning on authorities.

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"Stronger Than Fentanyl: A Drug You’ve Never Heard of Is Killing Hundreds Every Year: Ultrapotent nitazenes." @WSJ

"The opioids, most of which originate in #China, are so strong that even trace amounts can trigger a fatal overdose." https://t.co/Kfqkr8ohwq pic.twitter.com/SoEsoQZc4E

— Ryan Berg, PhD (@RyanBergPhD) July 30, 2025

A combination of healthy activities including exercise, nutritious diet, computer brain games and socializing can improve cognitive performance in people at risk for dementia, according to a large new study.

The study, conducted in five locations across the United States over two years, is the biggest randomized trial to examine whether healthy behaviors protect brain health.

“It confirms that paying attention to things like physical activity and vascular risk factors and diet are all really important ways to maintain brain health,” said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, an expert in cognitive aging at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the study.

The results were presented on Monday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto and published in the journal JAMA.

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Big new study shows that a program helping folks do the stuff they already know they should be doing — eating well, exercising, using their brains — can indeed delay dementia. By @PamBelluck for the NYT. https://t.co/nCLiu1QHXj

— Paula Span (@paula_span) July 29, 2025

Intuitive Surgical, an American biotechnology company, introduced DaVinci surgical robots in the late 1990s, and they became groundbreaking teleoperation equipment. Expert surgeons could operate on patients remotely, manipulating the robotic arms and their surgical tools based on a video feed from DaVinci’s built-in cameras and endoscopes.

Now, John Hopkins University researchers put a ChatGPT-like AI in charge of a DaVinci robot and taught it to perform a gallbladder-removal surgery.

The idea to put a computer behind the wheel of a surgical robot is not entirely new, but these had mostly relied on using pre-programmed actions. “The program told the robot exactly how to move and what to do. It worked like in these Kuka robotic arms, welding cars on factory floors,” says Ji Woong Kim, a robotics researcher who led the study on autonomous surgery. To improve on that, a team led by Axel Krieger, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at John Hopkins University, built STAR: the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot. In 2022, it successfully performed a surgery on a live pig.

But even STAR couldn’t do it without specially marked tissues and a predetermined plan. STAR’s key difference was that its AI could make adjustments to this plan based on the feed from cameras.

The new robot can do considerably more….

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Experimental surgery performed by AI-driven surgical robot https://t.co/dO71bcrw7z

— Ars Technica (@arstechnica) July 21, 2025

For decades, the prices Medicare pays doctors for different medical services have been largely decided not by Medicare itself, but by a powerful industry group, the American Medical Association.

An A.M.A. committee meets in secret to determine the difficulty and time demands of each type of medical visit, test and procedure, and then recommends to Medicare how much doctors should be paid for performing them.

And for decades, critics have complained that this process unfairly rewards surgeons and other specialists, at the expense of primary care physicians and other generalists.

Medicare officials have been loath to change it because it has spared them from needing their own staff and budget to make such pricing decisions, along with the unpleasant politics of adjudicating conflicts between competing groups of physicians.

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“Under the new proposal, Medicare would pay 2.5 % less for every procedure, operation & medical test in 2026, based on data suggesting there have been improvements in “efficiency” over the years.”https://t.co/vZDu3kwjC4

— Howard Liu, MD MBA (@DrHowardLiu) July 21, 2025

Jamie Mains showed up for her checkup so high that there was no point in pretending otherwise. At least she wasn’t shooting fentanyl again; medication was suppressing those cravings. Now it was methamphetamine that manacled her, keeping her from eating, sleeping, thinking straight. Still, she could not stop injecting.

“Give me something that’s going to help me with this,” she begged her doctor.

“There is nothing,” the doctor replied.

Overcoming meth addiction has become one of the biggest challenges of the national drug crisis. Fentanyl deaths have been dropping, in part because of medications that can reverse overdoses and curb the urge to use opioids. But no such prescriptions exist for meth, which works differently on the brain.

In recent years, meth, a highly addictive stimulant, has been spreading aggressively across the country, rattling communities and increasingly involved in overdoses. Lacking a medical treatment, a growing number of clinics are trying a startlingly different strategy: To induce patients to stop using meth, they pay them.

The approach has been around for decades, but most clinics were uneasy about adopting it because of its bluntly transactional nature. 

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Meth use is surging, but unlike opioids, there’s no approved medication to ease cravings. In response, clinics across the country are offering small financial rewards to help patients. It’s a behavioral intervention that’s showing real results. Read more: https://t.co/eaDcMOJu87

— Addiction Policy Forum (@AddictionPolicy) July 17, 2025

“Successive governments have failed to reduce inequalities in health,” …[the Bishop of London] said.

“These inequalities mean that some people will have up to 20 fewer good years in health than others and certain groups face persistently worse health outcomes than others.

“These inequalities are also pronounced at the end of life, with only one in four people who need end-of-life care being able to access it, and there continues to widespread misunderstanding and distrust of palliative care.

“It is into this context that the Terminally Ill Adults Bill is being proposed. So with only a third of all hospice care being funded by the NHS, the proposals are accompanied by a government commitment to fund in full an assisted suicide service should the bill be passed.

“Rather than funding assisted dying, the Government should be funding palliative care and palliative care research to enable people to live their lives to the full until they die.”

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A very thoughtful, moving and well-informed debate led by the Bishop of London at General Synod – and a very important contribution to the wider discussion on assisted dying: https://t.co/7ObjRtLsgS

— Bishop Jonathan Gibbs (@JonathanRGibbs) July 15, 2025

The theory of clergy work/life balance is on every diocesan website, and many others besides, discussed at length from all viewpoints. The general conclusion today seems to be that a 48-hour week is about right, plus a bit more if you are going to be very conscientious, with one 24-hour period a week not working, and maybe an extra day off a month — all this, wrapped in language that makes it plain that it is up to the individual to take responsibility for their own health and well-being.

So much for the theory; but what about the reality of life in a parish, where the daily torrent of emails, phone calls, diocesan directives, pastoral demands, and personal challenges threatens to overcome the hapless priest, submerging them beneath a tide of operational activities? Only a lone hand is left above the waves, holding aloft a small white piece of plastic, the symbol of their calling, hoping that they can get to the shore of annual leave before they drown.

This is exaggeration, perhaps, but probably a feeling that few have escaped at least some time in their lives — a state of “overwhelm” which I have certainly experienced and prefer to remain clear of, if at all possible. The pastoral calls made upon us, however, the late nights spent crafting sermons or creating props for family-friendly services, the early waking hours reflecting on church finances, or the stomach-sinking safeguarding issues — these are all part of the priest’s daily lot. A strategy that enables us not only to survive, but to thrive, must be worked out if we are to remain as parish clergy for any length of time.

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In the parish: the theory and reality of clergy work/life balance https://t.co/A7fcAAiN26

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 11, 2025

The Rutland police officers and a federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent who came to investigate Mr. Blanchard’s death sensed a rare opportunity. With a new body and the overdose not yet public, they wanted to find the source of the fatal heroin while evidence was fresh and undisturbed.

The trail led investigators to the onetime owner of a Manhattan wine bar with a secret life importing heroin; a Bronx man who perfected a potent mix of ingredients to create Flow; and a murderous drug crew that hawked it on New York’s streets and branched out to Rutland after finding it could charge more there.

And for one New York prosecutor, the investigation led to a place both surprising and familiar. Flow was ravaging not just the Bronx neighborhood the prosecutor was trying to make safer — it had become a plague in the Vermont city where she had been born.

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An absolute masterpiece of reporting and storytelling by @BenWeiserNYT

How a Single Overdose Unraveled an Empire of Heroin https://t.co/Y2f6rHU8Fp via @NYTimes

— Stacey Stowe (@staceystowe) July 10, 2025

The gene therapy involved using a synthetic adeno-associated virus (AAV) to deliver a functional version of the OTOF gene to the inner ear via a single injection through a membrane at the base of the cochlea called the round window.

The effect of the gene therapy was rapid and the majority of the patients recovered some hearing after just one month. A six-month follow-up showed considerable hearing improvement in all participants, the average volume of perceptible sound improving from 106 decibels to 52.

The younger patients, especially those between the ages of five and eight, responded best to the treatment. One of the participants, a seven-year-old girl, quickly recovered almost all her hearing and was able to hold daily conversations with her mother four months afterwards. However, the therapy also proved effective in adults.

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Deafness reversed: Single injection brings hearing back within weeks

A cutting-edge gene therapy has significantly restored hearing in children and adults with congenital deafness, showing dramatic results just one month after a single injection.

Researchers used a virus to… pic.twitter.com/O8hrV1nflx

— Professor Erwin Loh (@erwinloh) July 5, 2025

Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that helps clinicians identify brain activity patterns linked to nine types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, using a single, widely available scan — a transformative advance in early, accurate diagnosis. 

The tool, StateViewer, helped researchers identify the dementia type in 88% of cases, according to research published online on June 27, 2025, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. It also enabled clinicians to interpret brain scans nearly twice as fast and with up to three times greater accuracy than standard workflows. Researchers trained and tested the AI on more than 3,600 scans, including images from patients with dementia and people without cognitive impairment. 

This innovation addresses a core challenge in dementia care: identifying the disease early and precisely, even when multiple conditions are present. As new treatments emerge, timely diagnosis helps match patients with the most appropriate care when it can have the greatest impact. The tool could bring advanced diagnostic support to clinics that lack neurology expertise. 

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Mayo Clinic researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence tool that helps clinicians identify brain activity patterns linked to nine types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, using a single, widely available scan. ⁠
⁠
Learn more: https://t.co/K8zdHW0A3A pic.twitter.com/KJGTcw6ZYp

— Mayo Clinic (@MayoClinic) June 27, 2025

Parliament voted for the law to change on assisted dying “in the face of mounting evidence that it is unworkable and unsafe and poses a risk to the most vulnerable people in our society”, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said on Friday.

Responding to the decision by the House of Commons on Friday afternoon to progress the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (News, 20 June), Bishop Mullally, who is the lead bishop on health and social care, warned that, “if enacted, this legislation would come into force amid serious shortfalls in adult social care, a postcode lottery in palliative care and well documented pressures on the NHS, multiplying the potential risks to the most vulnerable.

“It does not prevent terminally ill people who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from choosing ‘assisted dying’. And it would mean that we became a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally ill people to end their own lives but, shockingly, only funds around one third of palliative care.”

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“Every person is of immeasurable and irreducible value, and should be able to access the care and support that they need.”

Read the Bishop of London's statement following the third reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

📜 https://t.co/74PloAghZ2.

— The Church of England (@churchofengland) June 20, 2025

In an historic vote, MPs have approved a bill which would pave the way for huge social change by giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to end their own lives.

The Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which was backed by 314 votes to 291, will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

The bill was approved with a majority of 23 MPs, representing a drop from the first time it was debated in November, when it passed by a margin of 55.

The vote came after an emotionally-charged debate which saw MPs recount personal stories of seeing friends and relatives die.

Read it all.

MPs back legalising assisted dying in historic Commons vote

Full story @fayebrownSky ⬇️https://t.co/1ABPztFnPF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 20, 2025

In the first major case on transgender issues, the Supreme Court decided that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical transition treatments for minors can stay in place. 

On Wednesday, the court ruled 6–3 in favor of the ban, emphasizing that it did not violate equal protection for the sexes under the 14th Amendment. 

“This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the court’s opinion. “The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound.”

“Our role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic’ of the law before us,” the court added, “but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.”

Kristen Waggoner, president of the Christian legal advocacy organization Alliance Defending Freedom, said rejecting Tennessee’s ban “would have forced states to base their laws on ideology, not evidence—to the immense harm of countless children.” She called Wednesday’s ruling “a monumental victory for children, science, and common sense.”

Read it all.

In the first major case on transgender issues, the Supreme Court decided that a Tennessee law prohibiting certain medical transition treatments for minors can stay in place. https://t.co/hs0tZiZfaT

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) June 18, 2025

The letter, published on the website of the think tank Theos on Sunday, is signed by 112 women, who include the Bishops of London, Gloucester, Stepney, Dover, Lancaster, Bristol, Croydon, and Aston. Among the other signatories are the director of Theos, Chine McDonald; the Assistant Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain, Dr Naomi Green; the President of the Catholic Union of Great Britain, Baroness Hollins; and the chief executive of Jewish Women’s Aid, Sam Clifford.

The letter says that the Bill “has insufficient safeguards to protect some of the most marginalised in society, particularly women subjected to gender-based violence, and abuse by a partner, who also experience intersecting barriers to a full and safe life”.

It continues: “We are concerned that the proposed legislation could create a new tool to harm vulnerable women, particularly those being subjected to domestic abuse and coercive control, by helping them to end their lives.”

Read it all.

Eight bishops have joined more than 100 women of different faiths in signing an open letter that says that the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill “could create a new tool to harm vulnerable women” https://t.co/lClQBm12qF pic.twitter.com/5HhlO4ZBlK

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 7, 2025

Herewith the NBC blurb-‘For parents, having a child be admitted to the hospital can make a stressful situation even worse. In many cases, kids need extra care, but some of it can be done at home. In North Carolina, Atrium Health expanded its Hospital Home program to include pediatrics. They say it doesn’t cost any extra, and the results are better. NBC News’ Anne Thompson has the story.’

 The percentage of U.S. adults who have recently been unable to afford or access quality healthcare has reached 11% — equivalent to nearly 29 million people — its highest level since 2021, according to new findings from the West Health-Gallup Healthcare Indices Study, which classifies these individuals as “Cost Desperate.”

The most notable increases since 2021 have occurred among Hispanic adults (up eight percentage points to 18%), Black adults (up five points to 14%,) and the lowest-income households, earning under $24,000 per year (up 11 points to 25%). Meanwhile, there has been no meaningful change in the proportion of White adults or middle- to high-income earners facing the same level of struggle. As a result, disparities in access to healthcare based on race, ethnicity and income are also at their highest point since surveying began.

Compared with 2021, the percentage of Americans aged 65 and above who are considered Cost Desperate has edged up just one point to 4% in 2024, while rates have risen by three points among those aged 50-64 (now 11%) and by four points among those younger than 50 (now 14%).

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% of US adults who are unable to afford or access healthcare reached 11% (~29 million people), its highest level since 2021 per new Gallup poll.

US is one of the richest countries in the world.

In U.S., Inability to Pay for Care, Medicine Hits New High https://t.co/4WmfkkHvLn

— MCN Journal (@MCNonline) April 3, 2025

Biblical scholars, particularly those working in the Hebrew Bible, have found the lens of trauma particularly illuminating. Reading biblical texts such as Job or Lamentations — and even the Psalms — through this lens helps to make richer sense and deeper meaning of both the text and the ways in which it can be read today. Ericka Dunbar, for example, reads the book of Esther through a trauma-informed lens of sex trafficking to produce a reading that brings to the fore overlooked elements of the text, and that speaks to contemporary experiences in the African diaspora.

Interestingly, far less work of this nature has been done in dialogue with the New Testament. It has been suggested that some of Paul’s writings would benefit from a trauma-informed reading, but not many theologians have attempted this. Without trying to diagnose ancient characters with trauma, other scholars (me included) have wondered what it might mean if the followers of Jesus at the foot of the cross experienced trauma responses after Jesus’s death. What might this indicate about the life of the Early Church? Could we imagine Jesus himself as one who has experienced trauma? Such questions need much more exploration.

In the field of trauma theologies, a range of themes and questions have exercised scholars. At the forefront of this field has been the work of the aforementioned American theologian Dr Rambo. Her theological work on Holy Saturday has proved significant in the field. She argues that many Christians rush from the crucifixion to the resurrection too quickly, and overlook — theologically, liturgically, and pastorally — Holy Saturday. It is Holy Saturday, when death and life are mingled, boundaries are blurred, and there is not yet the hope of Easter Day, which tells us something of the experience of trauma.

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In this month's Theology Matters, @kmrodonnell explains the growing interest in trauma theologyhttps://t.co/ahND251G2r

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) March 28, 2025

Who is to blame for America’s enormous health-care costs? The sector accounts for almost a fifth of the country’s GDP, twice the average for wealthy countries, yet outcomes are no better. Americans under 70 are almost twice as likely as their counterparts in similarly affluent nations to die of cardiovascular diseases. Death rates due to other conditions like diabetes and kidney diseases are also much higher.

Most Americans point the finger at drugmakers, insurers or the middlemen between them. Luigi Mangione, whose trial for the alleged murder of the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, America’s biggest health insurer, began last month, has received donations totalling $740,000. “He did what everyone else is just thinking,” wrote one sympathiser on Mr Mangione’s fundraising page recently.

More often overlooked are America’s hospitals, which took in $1.5trn in fees in 2023, according to the most recent government figures. That is triple the amount spent on medications, and accounts for a third of America’s total health-care spending (see chart 1). Since 2000 hospital prices have soared by over 250%, growing at twice the overall rate for medical care and triple the rate of inflation. What is behind America’s soaring hospital bills?

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How hospitals inflate America’s giant health-care bill

America has the worst healthcare system in the world for the amount of money they spend on it https://t.co/A8eRzmH7vV

— Yasir Mahmood (@MofaYasir) March 20, 2025