Congress authorized the money in a bipartisan breakthrough around addressing gun violence after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 children and two teachers.The Trump administration has halted $1 billion for mental health services for children, saying that the programs funded by a bipartisan law aimed at stemming gun violence in schools were no longer in “the best interest of the federal government.”Lawmakers authorized the money in 2022 after a former student opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers and injuring 17 others. The measure, known as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, broke a decades-long impasse between congressional Republicans and Democrats on addressing gun violence by focusing largely on improving mental health support for students.But just as some of the mental health programs are starting, the Education Department canceled the funding this week and informed grant recipients that they would have to reapply for the money because of potential violations of federal civil rights law.The department did not specify a civil rights law or provide the grant recipients with any evidence of violations, according to the notice reviewed by The New York Times.An Education Department spokeswoman confirmed that the grants had been discontinued because of a particular focus on increasing the diversity of psychologists, counselors and other mental health workers.“Under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,” said Madi Biedermann, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications. “We owe it to American families to ensure that taxpayer dollars are supporting evidence-based practices that are truly focused on improving students’ mental health.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

The agency suggested that clinical trials in humans may be required for updated Covid shots, raising questions about whether they will be available in the fall.Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan that would require placebo-controlled studies for all new vaccines, surprising some experts who noted that such testing already routinely takes place.In a statement, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that “all new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials” before approval, and called the move a “radical departure” from existing standards.Modern studies tend to use placebos. One exception has been the Covid booster shots, which have been authorized without human trials to target new strains of the virus as it has evolved. It’s unclear how the announcement will affect availability of Covid vaccines that were expected to be updated for the fall.Mr. Kennedy also announced an effort Thursday for the National Institutes of Health to turbocharge the development of new inoculations for Covid, bird flu and seasonal flu.The new vaccine development initiative would involve methods other than the mRNA technology used to develop the dominant Covid vaccines that are already in use, a statement from the Health and Human Services department said. The mRNA shots have been the subject of conspiracy theories, and Mr. Kennedy has intensely criticized them.Taken together, the moves suggest that Mr. Kennedy will reach far into the details of vaccine development, an effort likely informed by his decades as one of the nation’s most vocal critics of immunization oversight.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

19 minutes agoShareSaveJoe McFaddenShareSaveGetty ImagesA new daily pill treating endometriosis has been approved for use on the NHS in England.The pill, called linzagolix, will soon become available for over 1,000 women to help manage symptoms of the condition.It’s estimated endometriosis affects 1.5 million women in the UK – it can cause chronic pain, heavy periods and extreme tiredness.The condition occurs when cells similar to those in the lining of the womb grow in other parts of the body like the pelvis, bladder and bowel.Linzagolix is the second take-at-home pill to become available on the NHS.In March, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) approved a similar treatment called relugolix combination therapy.The two pills differ slightly as linzagolix will require additional ‘add back’ treatment, whereas relugolix combination therapy combines the two into one pill.The list price for linzagolix is £80 for a monthly pack of tablets while a 28-day course of relugolix costs the NHS £72.What are the symptoms of endometriosis?Severe period pain that stops you from doing normal activitiesVery heavy periodsPain when you poo or peeOther symptoms can include pain in your lower tummy, pain after sex, fatigue, shortness of breath, low mood, anxietyDifficulty getting pregnantAlthough there is no cure for endometriosis, current treatments include pain relievers and hormone injections which temporarily shut down the body’s production of oestrogen – the hormone which causes endometriosis tissue to grow and cause pain.However, patients often need to travel to hospitals to have the injections, which last for up to three months.In clinical trials, linzagolix was shown to reduce painful periods and non-menstrual pelvic pain when compared with a dummy drug.The pill works by blocking specific hormones including oestrogen.The charity Endometriosis UK says this will then induce a ‘medical menopause’ and will be used alongside ‘add back’ hormone therapy.’Add back’ therapy uses low dose hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) to prevent menopause-like symptoms and bone loss.Linzagolix will only be available specifically for patients whose previous medical or surgical treatments have been unsuccessful.Dr Sue Mann, national clinical director in women’s health for NHS England, said the new pill was welcome news for women living with endometriosis.”It’s another treatment option which will help women take control of their health and better manage the symptoms of this often painful and debilitating condition.”This is a testament to our ongoing commitment to improving treatment, care and quality of life for women – giving women more choice in treatment they can take in the comfort of their own homes.”Women’s Health Minister Baroness Merron, said the daily pill could be “a game-changer” for thousands of women battling endometriosis, which can be “a debilitating and life-limiting condition”.Endometriosis UK chief executive Emma Cox said the charity welcomed the approval of linzagolix for NHS use in England and called on “all other nations to approve this medication as an option available to all across the UK”.”There are far too few options available due to the historic lack of research into endometriosis, and we are pleased to see NICE approving this new medication for endometriosis.”Welsh ministers have issued directions to the NHS in Wales, in line with NICE guidance, which requires they provide funding and resources for new approved treatments within 60 days.More on this story

21 hours agoShareSaveLewis AdamsBBC News, EssexShareSavePA MediaBereaved families have been traumatised by “distressing and appalling delays” to inquest proceedings, a landmark inquiry heard.The Lampard Inquiry is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 mental health patients who died under NHS care in Essex between 2000 and 2023.Fiona Murphy KC told the hearing “institutional defensiveness” by health providers was hindering inquests and preventing families from getting closure.Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) has apologised to those affected.The public inquiry is England’s first into mental health deaths, with evidence being heard in London after previous sessions in September and November.Ms Murphy told of the “horrendous” experiences that families she represented had during their loved ones’ inquests.She said there had been an “extraordinary and shocking number of deaths” in inpatient units in Essex.PA Media”The families’ experience has been…the death of loved ones falling under the radar and of distressing and at times appalling delays,” she said.The barrister accused EPUT of knowingly disrupting inquest proceedings by being defensive.This included “unreasonably disputing” the relevance of an inquest, failing to provide evidence and delaying its disclosure.Ms Murphy said: “There has also been shameful misrepresentation that lessons have been learned when they have not.”These defensive behaviours cause real harm. “They cause the retraumatisation of grieving families, they obstruct the truth, they obstruct lesson learning and they act as a fundamental bar and barrier to change.”An inquest is a legal investigation into a death which appears to be due to unknown, violent or unnatural causes.Coroners can hold an Article 2 inquest when the person’s death occurred while they were under state care.Ms Murphy said they had the potential to deliver “real meaning” for families, as well as change.However, she claimed a “systematic collapse of acceptable service delivery in Essex” was “undermining” this potential.EPUT chief executive Paul Scott has apologised for deaths under his trust’s care.He said: “As the inquiry progresses, there will be many accounts of people who were much loved and missed over the past 24 years and I want to say how sorry I am for their loss.”More on this storyRelated internet links

5 hours agoShareSaveConor NeesonBBC News NIShareSaveBBCA proposed trial to install a waste needle bin in Belfast city centre is not a “silver bullet” but one step to dealing with drugs issues in the city, a councillor has said.Brian Smyth was speaking ahead of a Belfast City Council vote on Thursday on whether or not to install the bin in the council-owned car park on Little Donegall Street.Councillors chose the car park over a site on Corporation Square at the People and Communities Committee last month. Green Party representative Smyth said the council was lifting between 600 and 700 needles a month in the city centre, with other organisations also involved in the collection of needles. A council report stated there had been an increase in needle finds in recent months and it had been “highlighted as being in the top six locations” for discarded needles. The proposed metal needle bin will be concreted to the ground and will provide a secure way of disposing of sharps.Smyth had previously tabled motions for similar bins to be placed in Writer’s Square, however this is not council land. He said the Department for Communities (DfC) had turned down this call. “They are worried about image but I would say if needles continue to be found in the area of high significance, then that’s going to provide an image problem,” he said.A DfC spokesperson said it recognised that drug abuse and associated anti-social behaviour in the city centre was a major issue and was working closely with other organisations, including the council, to tackle the problems.Needles found in rubbish Smyth said members of the council’s cleansing team had found needles disposed in regular rubbish bins. “This poses a risk not only to them but also to members of the public,” he said. “Whilst this is a very small response, I think we need to get our heads around the bigger issue of rising drug use in and around Belfast city centre and how we tackle it.”In March 2023, Belfast City councillors passed a motion in favour of setting up a safe injecting facility to help prevent overdoses among drug users.The council has no legal power to open a facility and a change in legislation would be required for this to happen.The aim would be to reduce overdoses and drug-related harm as well as making drug use less visible to the community.Smyth said such a facility could make the area safe for “people who live, work and socialise in the city centre”. Damian McNairney, a volunteer and trustee from The People’s Kitchen in Belfast, said the bin would help but described Belfast city centre as being in a drug crisis. The kitchen offers support to vulnerable and homeless people. “We need to be more adventurous, we need to be more compassionate in our approach to the issue,” said Mr McNairney. “Addicts are being demonised, we need to look and see if we can help.”If we solve the problem at source, i.e. the addiction, then we are going to be able to deal with the drug paraphernalia and the other issues allied to that.”Mr McNairney said there were other areas with “more prominent use” but getting needles off the street was always a positive. “There are needles around the town anyway. By not putting the bins up they’re not going to go away,” he said.Mr McNairney said he had visited a safe injection site which opened in Dublin in 2024 and he was in favour of a similar facility in Belfast.”It seems to be very encouraging in terms of people using it, there’s drug paraphernalia that has been taken off the streets, it’s being safely disposed of and people with addictions are being signposted to other services,” he said. In March, Justice Minister Naomi Long told BBC News NI that the “war on drugs had not been won” and there needed to be a rethink of how illegal drugs were dealt with in Northern Ireland.

2 hours agoShareSaveSean CoughlanRoyal correspondentShareSavePA MediaKing Charles has sent a personal message to fellow cancer patients, speaking of the “daunting and at times frightening experience” for cancer sufferers and their loved ones.In a heartfelt message to guests at a Buckingham Palace reception for cancer charities, the King spoke about becoming a cancer “statistic” – referencing the more than 1,000 new cases recorded in the UK every day.He said his experience of living with cancer had shown that “the darkest moments of illness can be illuminated by the greatest compassion”.The message doesn’t provide an update on the progress of the King’s own cancer treatment, but royal sources say he is continuing in a positive direction.The King was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February 2024 and continues to receive regular treatment, which is said to be successful and that he is getting better.There was a brief hospital stay for the King in March after he suffered side effects, but he was well enough in April for a state visit to Italy with a busy schedule and is said to have plans for further overseas trips.There has been an attempt to be more open about his health problems – and this latest message reflects his sense of a shared experience with the many other families affected by cancer.The King’s statement continued: “But as one among those statistics myself, I can vouch for the fact that it can also be an experience that brings into sharp focus the very best of humanity.”He praised the “community of care” of those who helped cancer patients, for their humanity as well as their expertise.The King highlighted “the profound impact of human connection – whether in the careful explanation from a specialist nurse, the hand held by a hospice volunteer, or the shared experience in a support group”. “While every patient’s journey may be different, together you are ensuring that a cancer diagnosis need never mean facing the future without hope and support,” said the King.He quoted Dame Deborah James, who died of bowel cancer in 2022 and whose parents are guests at the reception, who said: “Have no regrets; and always, always have rebellious hope.”PA MediaPA MediaThe reception at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening, attended by the King and Queen Camilla, is in honour of community projects helping people who are living with cancer and for health groups trying to prevent cancer.Among the guests will be representatives of cancer charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, Breast Cancer Now, Maggie’s and Children’s Hospice South West.The reception includes displays showing the work of groups helping people affected by cancer, including Wigs for Heroes and Move Dance Feel, which uses dance to support women with cancer.At the Palace there are also champions of cancer charities, people living with cancer and people who lost relatives, including radio presenter Adele Roberts, former footballer Ashley Cain and actor Richard E Grant.”Every day we see the impact that cancer is having on people’s lives and that experience is even worse for some people because of who they are or where they live, which is entirely unacceptable. We are on a mission to transform cancer care, but we cannot do it on our own,” said Gemma Peters, chief executive officer at Macmillan Cancer Support.If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this story, support and advice is available via the BBC Action Line.

What makes humans conscious? Scientists disagree, strongly, as one group of peacemakers discovered the hard way.Consciousness may be a mystery, but that doesn’t mean that neuroscientists don’t have any explanations for it. Far from it.“In the field of consciousness, there are already so many theories that we don’t need more theories,” said Oscar Ferrante, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham.If you’re looking for a theory to explain how our brains give rise to subjective, inner experiences, you can check out Adaptive Resonance Theory. Or consider Dynamic Core Theory. Don’t forget First Order Representational Theory, not to mention semantic pointer competition theory. The list goes on: A 2021 survey identified 29 different theories of consciousness.Dr. Ferrante belongs to a group of scientists who want to lower that number, perhaps even down to just one. But they face a steep challenge, thanks to how scientists often study consciousness: Devise a theory, run experiments to build evidence for it, and argue that it’s better than the others.“We are not incentivized to kill our own ideas,” said Lucia Melloni, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt, Germany.Seven years ago, Dr. Melloni and 41 other scientists embarked on a major study on consciousness that she hoped would break this pattern. Their plan was to bring together two rival groups to design an experiment to see how well both theories did at predicting what happens in our brains during a conscious experience.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

New data collected from more than 200,000 people across the world shows that young people aren’t as happy as they used to be.The happiness curve is collapsing.For decades, research showed that the way people experienced happiness across their lifetimes looked like a U-shaped curve. Happiness tended to be high when they were young, then dipped in midlife, only to rise again as they grew old.But recent surveys suggest that young adults aren’t as happy as they used to be, and that U-shaped curve is starting to flatten.This pattern has shown up yet again in a new study, one of a collection of papers published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Mental Health. They are the first publications based on the inaugural wave of data from the Global Flourishing Study, a collaboration between researchers at Harvard and Baylor University.The data, collected by Gallup primarily in 2023, was derived from self-reported surveys of more than 200,000 people in over 20 countries. It found that, on average, young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 were struggling — not only with happiness, but also with their physical and mental health, their perceptions of their own character, finding meaning in life, the quality of their relationships and their financial security. The researchers combined these measures to determine the degree that each participant was “flourishing,” or living in a state where all aspects of life were good.The study participants had relatively low measures of flourishing on average until age 50, the study found. This was the case in a number of countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia. But the difference between the younger and older adults was largest in the United States, the researchers said.“It is a pretty stark picture,” said Tyler J. VanderWeele, the lead author of the study and director of Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. The findings raise an important question, he said: “Are we sufficiently investing in the well-being of youth?”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

4 hours agoShareSaveNikki FoxBBC health correspondent, EssexShareSaveFamily handoutA mental health trust has admitted its failure in the care of a 16-year-old inpatient led to her death.Elise Sebastian, a Harry Potter fan and music lover, was found unresponsive in her room at the St Aubyn Centre unit in Colchester in April 2021.Staff at the unit, run by the Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT), had been tasked with providing one-to-one care.The family attended the first day of an inquest into her death and they are participating in the ongoing Lampard public inquiry which is investigating more than 2,000 patient deaths. The Lampard Inquiry team will monitor Ms Sebastian’s inquest.Family handoutThe inquest at Essex Coroner’s Court heard how Elise was supposed to be on one-to-one care at the St Aubyn’s unit after several self-harm attempts.Essex area coroner Sonia Hayes said she was supposed to be observed when she was in isolated areas.Mother Victoria Sebastian visited Elise on 17 April that year and gave her a cuddle.But, when she left, Elise was allowed to enter her bedroom from a communal area without staff members present.The teenager, who lived in Southminster near Maldon, was found unresponsive and died in hospital two days later.Mrs Sebastian told the inquest that the pain of her death was “too much to bear” and Elise was “badly let down by the system”.EPUT accepted the trust’s failures were “causative of her death” and its lawyer Pravin Fernando said: “[It] failed in its responsibility by allowing her to enter her bedroom unsupervised.”The family also said EPUT staff had not told them where Elise was after she had already been rushed to hospital – so they drove to Colchester Hospital in the hope she was there.JOHN FAIRHALL/BBCMichael Lewis, a senior paramedic for the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, was called after Elise was found unresponsive.He said he was met with several locked doors and became “extremely frustrated”.”I felt there was no-one there taking responsibility,” he said.”Each question was met with ‘I don’t know’.”He continued: “I was told the patient was on one-to-one observation so I remember thinking – how has this happened.”Dr Lisa Cunningham, a consultant in emergency medicine at the Essex & Herts Air Ambulance, said in a statement there was an “air of stress from the staff”.Family handoutMrs Sebastian said family meant everything to Elise, and she had a fantastic relationship with her brother and two sisters.Her father Glen Sebastian described her as a “typical little princess” and said they would enjoy visiting places like the West End and art galleries.”She would blow me away with her paintings and she certainly had a gift,” he said.Ms Hayes heard how Elise was diagnosed with autism and sometimes struggled to understand other people’s behaviour.She had physical health issues including bowel problems and a curvature of the spine.The teen was also diagnosed with epilepsy which affected her confidence socially.The coroner was told she first struggled with anxiety aged 12 and had several admissions to mental health units when she was 15 after being bullied.She managed to abscond from the unit on previous occasions.Both Mr and Mrs Sebastian, who are now separated, said they had suffered with post traumatic stress disorder since her death.In her opening statement, Ms Hayes said Elise was: “A young person with her own hopes and dreams.” The inquest is expected to last for four weeks.Related internet links

With federal support, Environmental Health Perspectives has long published peer-reviewed studies without fees to readers or scientists.Environmental Health Perspectives, widely considered the premier environmental health journal, has announced that it would pause acceptance of new studies for publication, as federal cuts have left its future uncertain.For more than 50 years, the journal has received funding from the National Institutes of Health to review studies on the health effects of environmental toxins — from “forever chemicals” to air pollution — and publish the research free of charge.The editors made the decision to halt acceptance of studies because of a “lack of confidence” that contracts for critical expenses like copy-editing and editorial software would be renewed after their impending expiration dates, said Joel Kaufman, the journal’s top editor.He declined to comment on the publication’s future prospects. “If the journal is indeed lost, it is a huge loss,” said Jonathan Levy, chair of the department of environmental health at Boston University. “It’s reducing the ability for people to have good information that can be used to make good decisions.”The news comes weeks after a federal prosecutor in Washington sent letters to several scientific journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, with questions that suggested that they were biased against certain views and influenced by external pressures.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.