Publisher Health

In a modern glass complex in Geneva last month, hundreds of scientists from around the world gathered to share data, review cases — and revel in some astonishing progress.Their work was once considered the stuff of science fiction: so-called xenotransplantation, the use of animal organs to replace failing kidneys, hearts and livers in humans.But as the scientists traded notes, it became ever more clear that it wasn’t fiction anymore. They were nearing breakthroughs that might help alleviate the shortage of donor organs plaguing every nation.Transplants with organs from genetically modified pigs, designed not to trigger rejection by the human body, have begun to show great promise. “The future is here,” said Dr. Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, the outgoing president of the International Xenotransplantation Association, which hosted the conference.Attendees were told that two patients in their 60s — a man in New England and a woman in China — had survived for more than six months with kidneys from genetically modified pigs. (The organs had to be removed, and the patients returned to dialysis.)Several clinical trials of such organs are getting underway in the United States. The first participant in a study run by United Therapeutics, a biotech company, has just received a kidney from a pig with 10 gene edits.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.

50 minutes agoShareSaveNick TriggleHealth correspondentShareSavePA MediaThousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs.The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year. ‘Pragmatic step’As the job cuts result in savings in future years, the NHS will be expected to recoup the costs further down the line.Overall, government sources said no extra money is going into the NHS beyond what was agreed at the spending review this year – an extra £29bn a year above inflation by 2028-29.Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast that patients and NHS staff had told him the health service had “too many layers of management, too many layers of bureaucracy”.”People want to see the front line prioritised, and that is exactly what we’re doing,” he said, adding he would tell NHS leaders “we’re finally on the road to recovery” in his speech later on Wednesday.In a speech to health managers at the NHS Providers’ conference in Manchester later, Streeting is expected to say: “I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.”We’re now pushing down on the accelerator and slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, to reinvest the savings in front-line care.”It won’t happen overnight, but with our investment and modernisation, we will rebuild our NHS so it is there for you when you need it once again.”According to the government, the reforms will raise £1bn a year by the end of the parliament to improve services for patients.It said every £1bn saved in bureaucracy costs is enough to fund an extra 116,000 hip and knee operations.NHS England is expected to be brought back into the Department of Health within two years, while the cuts to integrated care boards (ICBs), which plan health services for individual regions, will reduce their headcounts by 50%.NHS Providers’ chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: “This is a pragmatic step that means planned redundancies can now go ahead.”It reflects the flexibility of a three-year settlement, allowing some funding to be brought forward in order to generate future savings to go into front-line care.”However, we must recognise the position of staff affected by these changes – people who have offered commitment and service to the NHS – who face a very uncertain future.”But Patricia Marquis of the Royal College of Nursing warned the redundancies could backfire.”Front-line services need more investment, but to do this off the backs of making thousands of experts redundant is a false economy. “Expert registered nurses working across NHS England and ICBs don’t just run vital public health programmes and oversee care programmes for the vulnerable – they connect the NHS and social care services with one another. “To imply these are administrators shows a complete lack of understanding of their roles and how they contribute to patient care.”Why is NHS England being abolished?NHS England – the body that runs the NHS in England – was created as part of the 2012 reforms introduced under former Tory health secretary Andrew Lansley.The idea was to free the health service from political meddling – with ministers instead setting the wider strategy, but stepping back from getting involved on a daily basis.But Lansley’s successor as health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said recently NHS England had ended up a “bureaucratic monster” that stifles innovation with reports some organisations were at times filling out 250 forms a month just to satisfy both NHS England and the health department.And on the front line, one of the most common complaints is that NHS England was incredibly controlling, even requesting individual NHS trusts ask for permission for something as mundane as granting media interviews.But make no mistake, this is also about control. Ministers have argued it is only right that a democratically-elected government was in charge of day-to-day running of the health service.But given Labour, in opposition, was critical of the Tories messing around with NHS structures, embarking on its own reorganisation comes with significant risk.Those working in the health service already talk about the disruption and distraction these changes are causing – and given NHS England oversees the day-to-day running of the health service, organises some specialist services and has a role in training and digital innovation, it is not difficult to see why there are some serious concerns about the reforms.Streeting told BBC Breakfast that patients and NHS staff had told him the health service had “too many layers of management, too many layers of bureaucracy”.”People want to see the front line prioritised, and that is exactly what we’re doing,” he said, adding he would tell NHS leaders “we’re finally on the road to recovery” in his speech later on Wednesday.

4 hours agoShareSaveAngela FergusonBBC WalesShareSaveTammy McDaidThe mother of a four-year-old boy has said her “heart is broken” after he was diagnosed with a form of childhood dementia.Tammy McDaid, from Swansea, said her son Tate has Sanfilippo Syndrome and is not expected to survive to adulthood.She has set an £11,000 fundraising target for her “handsome little man” to potentially take part in clinical trials abroad in the hope of slowing the development of the disease.Tammy, 33, said her main focus was on making precious memories with her son, as there is currently no cure for his condition.Tate, who has always been non-verbal, was diagnosed with autism at the age of two.”Deep down I always suspected there was something more,” said Tammy.She added that her “little sidekick” made her “a very proud mum”.”From day one he really has been the most happy and content little boy,” she said.”He enjoys the simple things in life and he has the most contagious smile.”I am so blessed and proud of him. Even though he can’t talk, he hugs and kisses me.”Tammy McDaidTammy said Tate loves to run and climb, and she hoped clinical trials “can slow down the regression of [Tate’s] mobility, as that is what is going to hit me the hardest”.”He could climb before he could walk. I just want him to be able to do this for as long as possible,” she said.”My handsome little man won’t live to see his 18th birthday. My heart is broken and honestly, I am one drained mumma.”After setting up a GoFundMe page and receiving thousands of pounds within days, Tammy said it was “the first time in a long while I have felt hope”.”This time last week I couldn’t talk about him without crying,” she said, adding she was grateful for the support of the Ty Hafan children’s hospice and the local community.Tammy McDaidTammy said she had contacted the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation to see if Tate could be accepted on to any clinical trials abroad.She said she “didn’t have time to waste” as she had been told that children with the condition can start to deteriorate from the age of five or six – and Tate turns five at the end of this month.”I got the diagnosis and got told basically to come back when he starts deteriorating because there is nothing they [medics] can do,” said Tammy.”The next year is quite critical in Tate’s life as it’s around now that things start to show.”Tammy McDaidIf Tate is not accepted on to a trial, Tammy said she wanted to use the money raised “to travel to as many countries as possible with him”.Ahead of World Sanfilippo Awareness Day on Sunday, she said she also wanted to raise awareness of the condition, as both she and Tate’s father carried the Sanfilippo syndrome gene.More top storiesRelated internet links

A neuroscientist, he employed a battery of high-tech tools in devising a fast-acting therapy that targets the area of the brain where depression originates.Nolan Williams, an innovative neuroscientist who developed a noninvasive brain-stimulation technique that has delivered unusually fast relief to people with treatment-resistant depression, died on Oct. 8 at his home in Northern California. He was 43.His wife, Kristin Raj, said he died by suicide. Dr. Williams himself had struggled with depression, according to two of his colleagues.Dr. Williams was hired by the Stanford University School of Medicine’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in 2014. He soon started its Brain Stimulation Lab, where he focused on finding rapid-acting approaches to treat the dysfunctions underlying psychiatric illnesses, like depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.In addition to stimulating the brain to deal with depression, he led studies of Special Operations veterans who had symptoms of PTSD and traumatic brain injury — among them anger, depression, anxiety and insomnia — and who had been treated in Mexico with the psychedelic drug ibogaine, which is illegal in the United States.The nonprofit organization Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions, or VETS, which collaborated with Dr. Williams on the ibogaine study, said in a statement after his death that “his research demonstrated what these veterans courageously believed: That healing was possible, that their suffering mattered, and that science could meet them in their darkest hour.”Dr. Williams’s fascination with the brain’s circuitry surged when he was a student at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he learned about stimulating the brain to relieve depression that therapy and prescription drugs could not ease.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.

Astatine is the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth and among the least explored in the periodic table. True to its Greek name meaning “unstable,” it exists only fleetingly in nature. Yet scientists at Texas A&M University have found a way to harness its potential. Using cyclotron beams and advanced chemical techniques, they have created a method to produce, isolate, and ship astatine-211 (At-211), an isotope that — despite its instability and short 7.2-hour half-life — shows remarkable promise in targeted cancer treatment.
The “Goldilocks” Isotope for Cancer Therapy
At-211 is often called the “perfect” or “Goldilocks” isotope because it can deliver just the right amount of radiation to destroy cancer cells while leaving the surrounding tissue unharmed. This breakthrough isotope has demonstrated strong potential against blood cancers, ovarian tumors, and certain brain cancers. Within the Texas A&M Cyclotron Institute, scientists are producing At-211 using the K150 cyclotron with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Isotope Program. Since 2023, Texas A&M has been one of only two national suppliers of astatine for targeted cancer therapy through the National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) and its University Isotope Network.
“Targeted alpha therapy is a potentially transformative cancer therapeutic of great interest due to its ability to cause large amounts of damage near a tumor cell while keeping the healthy surrounding tissue and organs intact,” said Texas A&M Distinguished Professor and Regents Professor of Chemistry Dr. Sherry J. Yennello, director of the Cyclotron Institute. “We are one of a handful of U.S. centers capable of routinely producing astatine in medically relevant quantities and delivering it to nearby facilities.”
Harnessing the Power of Alpha Particles
When astatine decays, it emits alpha particles — tiny clusters made of two protons and two neutrons — that can release powerful, localized bursts of energy. These alpha particles are highly effective in destroying cancer cells because they travel only a short distance before releasing their energy, minimizing damage to healthy tissue. When At-211 is positioned within or near tumors, its alpha emissions penetrate just deep enough to eliminate cancerous cells while sparing surrounding organs.
At-211’s short half-life also means it quickly loses its radioactivity, making it less toxic than longer-lived radiopharmaceuticals. Unlike many other isotopes, At-211 does not produce harmful secondary alpha decay, ensuring that its energy is used efficiently for therapy. This combination of precision and safety has drawn attention from researchers and pharmaceutical developers worldwide. It is already being tested in clinical trials for blood cancers and explored for potential use in treating Alzheimer’s disease.

“Astatine-211’s availability remains the biggest hurdle to harnessing its potential to transform the future of nuclear medicine,” Yennello said. “Fortunately, the advances we’re making here at Texas A&M will go a long way toward addressing that.”
A Breakthrough in Isotope Production and Transport
One of Texas A&M’s major achievements has been the creation of an automated system to separate and ship At-211. This patent-pending technology purifies the isotope by removing it from the bismuth target and then loads it onto a shipping column for incorporation into targeted alpha therapy drugs. According to Yennello, the new resin-column trapping technique allows for faster processing, enabling larger quantities of At-211 to be shipped with minimal decay and reduced risk compared with traditional methods. This improvement strengthens the case for At-211 as a viable next-generation cancer treatment.
Texas A&M has already delivered significant batches of At-211 to collaborators, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham and MD Anderson Cancer Center, which has received more than two dozen shipments. These partnerships are helping researchers refine At-211-based radiopharmaceuticals and deepen understanding of its chemical behavior.
Collaboration and Global Progress
Yennello and Dr. Federica Pisaneschi, a former MD Anderson radiochemist now at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, are scheduled to present their findings at the 2025 World Astatine Community Meeting in New Orleans. Their talk, titled “The Texas Two-Step,” will highlight their combined experience producing, shipping, and applying At-211 for therapeutic use. This first U.S.-based meeting will bring together researchers and commercial groups dedicated to expanding At-211’s role in cancer treatment worldwide.
Yennello recently shared Texas A&M’s progress at another major event — the 26th International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, held in Queensland — where she emphasized growing international interest in At-211 research.
“Although clinical trials in humans are in the early stages, there are initiatives currently looking at astatine-211’s potential in Japan, several European countries and the United States,” Yennello said. “I’m looking forward to sharing Texas A&M’s success in producing and supplying astatine-211 while also learning more about global progress in our common efforts to better understand its chemical properties and possible therapeutic advancement in oncology.”
This pioneering research is supported by the DOE Office of Science through the DOE Isotope Program, by Texas A&M through the Bright Chair in Nuclear Science, and by The Texas A&M University System Nuclear Security Office in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory.

A new targeted drug delivery system called TAR-200 has shown remarkable results in a phase 2 clinical trial, eliminating tumors in 82% of patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer that had resisted prior treatment.
In most cases, the cancer disappeared within three months of therapy, and nearly half of the patients remained cancer-free one year later.
“Traditionally, these patients have had very limited treatment options. This new therapy is the most effective one reported to date for the most common form of bladder cancer,” said Sia Daneshmand, MD, director of urologic oncology at Keck Medicine of USC and lead author of the study, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “The findings of the clinical trial are a breakthrough in how certain types of bladder cancer might be treated, leading to improved outcomes and saved lives.
How the TAR-200 System Works
The TAR-200 device is a small, pretzel-shaped implant that holds the chemotherapy drug gemcitabine. It is inserted into the bladder using a catheter, where it gradually releases the drug over the course of three weeks in each treatment cycle.
Traditionally, gemcitabine has been delivered as a liquid solution that remains in the bladder for only a few hours, which limited its effectiveness in killing cancer cells, said Daneshmand, who is also a member of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“The theory behind this study was that the longer the medicine sits inside the bladder, the more deeply it would penetrate the bladder and the more cancer it would destroy,” he explained. “And it appears that having the chemotherapy released slowly over weeks rather than in just a few hours is a much more effective approach.”
Details of the Global Clinical Trial

The study, called SunRISe-1, took place at 144 sites around the world, including Keck Hospital of USC. It enrolled 85 patients diagnosed with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.
This form of cancer is the most common type of bladder cancer. It is classified as high risk when tumors are more likely to recur or spread into the bladder’s muscle layer or to other areas of the body.
Standard Treatments and the Need for New Options
Patients in the trial had previously been treated with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), an immunotherapy drug that is the current standard of care. However, for a portion of patients, BCG is ineffective and the cancer returns.
“The standard treatment plan for these patients was surgery to remove the bladder and surrounding tissue and organs, which has many health risks and may negatively impact patients’ quality of life,” said Daneshmand.
Strong Results with Fewer Side Effects
To provide a safer alternative, doctors administered TAR-200 every three weeks for six months, followed by four treatments per year for the next two years. Out of 85 patients, 70 experienced complete tumor disappearance, and nearly half remained cancer-free after one year. The therapy was well tolerated, with minimal side effects reported.

Researchers also found that combining TAR-200 with another immunotherapy drug (cetrelimab) was less effective and caused more side effects than TAR-200 alone.
Participants in the study will continue to be monitored for another year, but enrollment is now closed.
The Promise of Slow-Release Cancer Therapies
This study is part of a growing wave of research exploring slow-release drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. These approaches aim to provide longer-lasting exposure to cancer-fighting drugs directly at the tumor site.
“We are at an exciting moment in history,” said Daneshmand, who has been investigating this technology since 2016. “Our mission is to deliver cancer-fighting medications into the bladder that will offer lasting remission from cancer, and it looks like we are well on our way toward that goal.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted TAR-200 a New Drug Application Priority Review, which allows the agency to expedite its evaluation. The device is manufactured by Johnson & Johnson.
Disclosure: Daneshmand has received grants/research funding and travel reimbursement from Johnson & Johnson, as well as consulting payments from Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (formerly Janssen Pharmaceuticals).

22 minutes agoShareSaveTom SymondsNews correspondentShareSaveAn NHS manager who sexually abused and raped young girls after grooming them on Snapchat has been jailed for 28 years.Paul Lipscombe was sentenced after he admitted to sexual grooming, sexual assault and two counts of rape of a child under 13, in a case described as “shocking and terrifying” by detectives.Lipscombe, 51, who is believed to have earned at least £91,000 a year as an associate director of NHS performance in Coventry, ferried his victims to rented hotels and Airbnbs in a Tesla.A 15-year-old girl, who was one of six children groomed by Lipscombe in Leicestershire, Norfolk and Lincolnshire, told the BBC she wants facial recognition brought in so predatory adults can’t get access to young people on the app.Snapchat said it was committed to combatting sexual exploitation of young people and worked with law enforcement to help keep “such activity off our platform”.Mr Justice Raynor, sentencing Lipscombe, said he was warped man who had blamed victims after abusing them, even though he knew what he was doing was criminal.Lipscombe admitted 34 offences ranging from sexual activity with a child to rape. Police discovered he had used fake names and lied about his age to win over his victims. The accounts no longer exist after Snapchat removed them.’He just said ‘hi”Olivia, not her real name, said Lipscombe befriended her on Snapchat when she was going through a “rough time” and that he preyed upon her vulnerability.She never met Lipscombe face-to-face. However, each of the other girls he groomed were sexually assaulted. SnapchatOlivia was first contacted in February by Lipscombe, who said his name was George.”He just said ‘hi’, it was a pretty boring conversation, the first one,” she said. “I was going through a rough time with family and stuff… and it’s not that I felt alone, but I wanted reassurance.””He’d ask me about my day at school and tell me that it would be OK,” she added.Lipscombe, while posing as George, told Olivia that he was around 30. For other victims he used the name Dom.He often sent pictures of himself in a hoodie, his bald head and face hard to make out in shadow.Leicestershire PoliceThe investigation began in April, when a different 15-year-old who had gone missing called the police.She told them she was with Lipscombe, who she said had got angry and that she wanted to get away from him.Detectives circulated his car number plate and he was spotted at a drive-through KFC and arrested at the wheel of his Tesla, initially on suspicion of kidnap. The girl was in a nearby Airbnb.Examining his devices, they uncovered a persistent campaign of grooming using Snapchat.Police discovered Lipscombe had also been running a side business selling both real and AI-generated images of child sexual abuse. This was available via a sophisticated website on which he offered “gold level” access to “all my best work”. He admitted distributing indecent photographs.One man paid more than £3,700 for images and what the judge described as a “set of instructions which were in effect a paedophile’s step-by-step guide to contacting girls, gaining their confidence, complimenting them and then arranging meetings.”Detective Constable Lauren Speight described Lipscombe as “calculating, premeditated, and well-organised”.She found Snapchat messages on Lipscombe’s phone he had sent to the girls.”He would say: ‘I can get you vapes, drink, I can pick you up and take you wherever. I’m not a creepy old man.’ Every aspect of the playbook, he used it,” Det Con Speight said.Slowly he shifted conversations online towards sexual suggestions, demanding the girls take pictures of themselves.Five of the victims, aged 12 to 15, agreed to meet Lipscombe – they were all sexually assaulted and raped in Premier Inn hotels, Travelodges, Airbnb properties and rural car parks.Olivia started to get suspicious of Lipscombe, and refused his demands to meet. She only found out that police were investigating him for sexually grooming girls when they came to speak to her.”I’m thinking, ‘oh, my god, what have I got myself into? Why didn’t I see like the red flags?'” she said.”It was so disgusting, like, why is a grown man doing that to a child? I was just in shock.”The case highlights growing concern about the targeting of children on popular social media platforms.Police believe Lipscombe had an account on a smaller chat app, with fewer safeguards, where children often share their Snapchat usernames. Though detectives were unable to get into this account, they are concerned he may have used it to identify potential victims to add as friends on Snapchat.The NSPCC said Snapchat had been used in half of the cases it has seen involving evidence of grooming on social media. Snapchat introduced new child protection measures in September 2023.For children, friends lists are private, location sharing is off by default, and both users have to agree to chat. Children get pop-up warnings if they are contacted by someone with whom they don’t share mutual friends, or who has been blocked.But Olivia feels this doesn’t go far enough. “I think everybody should have to do facial recognition to prove how old you are,” she said.She also said the platform should restrict the ability of children to engage with older strangers based on their age.”So say, if you’re 17, you should be only able to talk to people of 16, 17 and 18. You shouldn’t be able to talk to people who are older.”Age verification requirements are now required for porn sites under the Online Safety Act. Platforms not specialising in pornography – such as X, Discord and Telegram – are also introducing verification.This requirement is aimed more at preventing children from seeing harmful material, than helping them understand the age profile of other social media users.SnapchatPlatforms used by children have not done “anywhere near enough” to clamp down on fake accounts, according to Rani Govender, NSPCC policy manager.”It’s entirely unreasonable to expect children to be able to spot these and to be able to protect themselves from abuse.”That onus really has to be on companies to think about who is able to create profiles and who is able to use them.”To test how easy it is, we created an account for a boy, providing a date of birth making him 15 years old.It was easy to add adults as friends though a pop-up did warn that the adult and the child “don’t have many mutual friends”, asking: “Do you know them? Check before you start chatting.”After creating the account, the app suggested two unknown users who both appeared to be adults, one with facial tattoos, neither using their real names.Olivia said before her encounter with Lipscombe, Snapchat seemed to offer “an easier way to talk to people.””Obviously you’ve got unrestricted access to everybody who has it and you can take photos with stupid filters that obviously make you laugh,” she said.”But then when things like this happen you realise that it’s not as fun and simple as it seems because you don’t know who’s behind the screen.”Even the thought of having Snapchat again, now scares me.”‘Your thought processes were warped’A spokesperson for University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust said: “We would like to praise the girls and their families, as well as Leicestershire Police, for their bravery and courage in bringing Paul Lipscombe to justice for these horrendous crimes.Following Lipscombe’s arrest in April 2024, the Trust suspended him, before dismissing him from his administrative, non-patient facing role in June 2024.Addressing Lipscombe, Mr Justice Raynor said: “You told your wife you were going to business trips but in truth you were going to engage in your sexual interest in young girls.”He added: “Your thought processes were and remain warped but you knew what you were doing was criminal.”A Snapchat spokesperson said: “Sexual exploitation of young people is an abhorrent crime, and we are committed to combatting it.”We work with law enforcement to help keep such activity off our platform and bring criminals to justice, and we’ve done that in this particular case.”Snapchat said it encouraged people to use in-app reporting tools so they can get help quickly.”We continue to work with police, safety experts and NGOs to help create a safer experience for Snapchatters.”Police are continuing to investigate Lipscombe’s offending and believe there may be other victims around the UK.According to a pre-sentence report, Lipscombe admitted he had been committing sexual offences against young girls since he was in his 20s. Details of help and support in the UK with child sexual abuse and sexual abuse or violence are available at BBC Action Line

54 minutes agoShareSaveShareSavePA MediaNHS bosses “penalised” female nurses complaining about a transgender woman using their changing room, an employment tribunal has been told.Eight nurses are challenging a policy which allows the single-sex room at Darlington Memorial Hospital to be used by Rose Henderson, a biological male who identifies as a woman.In closing submissions, the nurses’ barrister said they had suffered indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation due to County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust’s Transitioning In The Workplace policy.The trust said the nurses had “demonised” Rose and the policy conformed with guidance and laws at the time. The tribunal in Newcastle has heard Rose, an operating department practitioner, had used the changing room since 2019 before complaints were first made by female nurses from the day surgery unit (DSU) in August 2023.The trust’s policy allowed a person to use the single-sex space that conformed with their gender identity, and anyone of that sex who objected could change elsewhere.Some 26 nurses signed a letter complaining of Rose’s use of and conduct within the changing room, with Rose telling the tribunal the allegations, which included staring at women getting undressed, were “false”.In his closing submission to the tribunal, the nurses’ barrister Niazi Fetto KC said the policy was “unjustifiably treated as sacrosanct” by managers and “prescribed the disadvantageous treatment of biological females”.He said the claimants’ complaints about the “harmful effects” were “shunned and ignored” before the nurses were “penalised and buried” in an “oppressive and ineffectual investigation process” carried out by the trust.Mr Fetto said the policy allowed people access to single-sex spaces “based on self-declared gender identity alone” and there was no consultation with staff about its implementation.The trust was prioritising the right of trans people over the women’s “right not to have to change in front of a member of the opposite sex”, Mr Fetto said.The trust converted a storage room adjoining a meeting area into a changing room for those women who did not want to share the female-only space with Rose, but that was “wholly inadequate and unsafe”, Mr Fetto said.PA MediaHe said there was “no right in law” for a person with the “protected characteristic of gender reassignment to use a single-sex changing room corresponding with their adopted gender”.Mr Fetto also said the words “men” and “women” referred to in regulations were based on biological sex, as confirmed by the UK Supreme Court earlier this year.He said multiple women had complained of Rose’s conduct in the changing room and it “defies belief” that every claimant was “mistaken, lying or making it up”, adding there was a “high level of corroboration” from “diverse sources”.The trust’s response was “determinedly not to grapple with the substance” of the complaints while at the same time “trivialising them and stigmatising those who raised them”, Mr Fetto said.David Robinson / GeographSimon Cheetham KC, for the trust, said the nurses’ “central issue” was Rose using the changing room which meant they had “chosen to interpret” anything Rose or the trust did “in a negative way” and through a “negative prism”.”Their single-minded pursuit of this issue has clouded their judgement,” Mr Cheetham said, adding Rose’s “very presence was seen as provocative”.He also said the nurses’ decision to speak to the media was “unattractive” and they had made repeated allegations without “cogent evidence” and disclosures about Rose’s private life, which had led to Rose being publicly cast as a “highly predatory character”.Mr Cheetham said the nurses’ treatment of Rose had been “unkind and unjustified”, with their allegations about conduct “exaggerated”.The nurses had unnecessarily “demonised” Rose and were fighting a “public campaign” about policy and the “trust’s treatment of them as a group of women”, Mr Cheetham said.He said staff were only given access to single-sex spaces if they had “declared they were living their life fully in that gender”, which was a “higher threshold” than the nurses claimed.Mr Cheetham said the policy also “accorded with relevant legislation and guidance at the time”.He said the trust had some 8,000 employees and had to balance the “competing” rights of those with the “protected characteristics” of biological sex and gender reassignment.Mr Cheetham said the “reality” the trust faced at the time was that there were various sets of guidance that were “not consistent” with each other.The tribunal judges will make their judgement on a future date but said it was unlikely to be reached before Christmas.More on this storyRelated internet links

Researchers have traced long-standing myths about the rapid spread of the Black Death across Asia to a single source from the fourteenth century.
For centuries, depictions of the plague racing along the Silk Route, devastating cities and towns in its path, have been based on a misunderstanding of a rhyming story rather than a historical record.
The work in question is a “maqāma” — an Arabic literary form that often features a wandering “trickster.” Written by the poet and historian Ibn al-Wardi in Aleppo in 1348/9, the piece was later mistaken for an eyewitness account of how the disease traveled across the continent.
A Story Mistaken for Science
Modern genetic evidence suggests that the bacteria responsible for the Black Death most likely originated in Central Asia. Some scientists, influenced by Ibn al-Wardi’s narrative, still argue that the plague spread from Kyrgyzstan to the Black and Mediterranean seas in less than ten years, setting off the catastrophic pandemic that swept Western Eurasia and North Africa in the late 1340s. This interpretation, sometimes referred to as the “Quick Transit Theory,” rests heavily on taking Ibn al-Wardi’s poetic work literally.
The new study challenges this idea, questioning whether it is realistic that the bacterium could have traveled more than 3,000 miles in just a few years and caused such a widespread outbreak between 1347 and 1350.
A Trickster Plague and a Century of Confusion
In his maqāma, Ibn al-Wardi personifies the plague as a mischievous wanderer who brings death to one region after another over a 15-year journey. The tale begins beyond China, moves through India, Central Asia, and Persia, and finally reaches the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, Egypt, and the Levant. Because the author later quoted sections of this story in his historical writing, many later readers assumed it was factual.

According to researchers Muhammed Omar, a PhD candidate in Arab and Islamic Studies, and Nahyan Fancy, a historian of Islamic medicine at the University of Exeter, the confusion began in the fifteenth century when Arab chroniclers — and later European historians — started to treat the story as a literal account of the Black Death’s spread.
The Text at the Center of a Historical Web
Professor Fancy explained: “All roads to the factually incorrect description of the spread of the plague lead back to this one text. It’s like it is in the centre of a spider’s web of the myths about how the Black Death moved across the region.
“The entire trans-Asian movement of plague and its arrival in Egypt prior to Syria has always been and continues to be based upon Ibn al-Wardī’s singular Risāla, which is unsubstantiated by other contemporary chronicles and even maqāmas. The text was written just to highlight the fact the plague travelled, and tricked people. It should not be taken literally.”
The Cultural Role of the Maqāma
The maqāma genre emerged in the late tenth century and became especially popular from the twelfth century onward. During the fourteenth century, Mamluk writers in the Islamic world particularly valued the style, and many of their works — including those about the plague — survive today in libraries around the world. These stories were intended to be performed or read aloud in a single sitting.

Ibn al-Wardi’s Risāla was one of at least three plague-themed maqāmas written in 1348-49. The study highlights how such texts offer insight not into the disease’s route, but into how people of the time coped with unimaginable loss and upheaval.
Revisiting Earlier Outbreaks
Recognizing Ibn al-Wardi’s work as a fictional composition allows historians to shift focus toward earlier, lesser-known epidemics, such as those that struck Damascus in 1258 and Kaifeng in 1232-33. Scholars can now explore how communities remembered these earlier crises and how such memories influenced later understandings of the Black Death.
Finding Humanity in Historical Crisis
Professor Fancy added: “These writings can help us understand how creativity may have been a way to exercise some control and served as a coping mechanism at this time of widespread death, similar to the way people developed new culinary skills or artistic skills during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These maqāmas may not give us accurate information about the how the Black Death spread. But the texts are phenomenal because they help us see how people at the time were living with this awful crisis.”

A TikTok influencer has been forced to apologise, after admitting that she had previously lied about being diagnosed with cancer.Brittany Miller, who is originally from Oxfordshire, is known for posting food and lifestyle content to her three-and-a-half-million followers on the platform.But the 29-year-old recently came under fire on the app, after material seeming to show a fundraising page claiming she had been diagnosed with gastric cancer went viral.In a video posted on social media on Monday, Ms Miller admitted to lying about the diagnosis and said it came from “one stupid sentence that I deeply regret”.”I said something to someone within my immediate circle in confidence. I said I had an illness, which was cancer,” she said in the emotional post.”I didn’t do this with malicious intent or to scam people, I did this out of desperation, I did it to keep the people in my life close to me.”The mother-of-two said the incident had taken place in 2017, when she had “extremely bad mental health”.”At the time I didn’t realise how bad, but it was bad,” she said.”I was depressed, I was suicidal, I was lost, I was confused – I lost my partner, I lost my job and there were lots of things in that year that led me to be mentally ill.”Ms Miller stressed the fabrication had not been a “long running scam or a manipulative story like it’s been made out to be”.She said the fundraising page in question had been set up in her name by a friend.”As soon as I saw there was donations, I had the page immediately shut down and I didn’t take a penny from it,” she explained.”I’ve grown from this; I am working on being the best version of myself.”I know how horrible this disease is, and I know how much it affects people so for that I am so, so sorry.”Since the incident in 2017, Ms Miller’s online content of parenting, home cooking and online shopping hauls has generated a large social media following.Thames Valley Police said it could not confirm widespread reports Ms Miller had been convicted of fraud by false representation in July 2020, but the force did add that an investigation into the incident had ended.The BBC has contacted Ms Miller, which she has yet to respond to.