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A new safety warning to doctors and patients around a rare but potentially fatal side effect of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists has been issued by UK regulators.Sold under brands like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, GLP-1 injections are for weight

Doctors are integral to realising the UK’s ambitious 10-year plan for the National Health Service (NHS) and improving the nation’s health, but the past year has been marked by repeated strikes in England and escalating tension between the government and

bmj;392/jan29_12/s188/FAF1faFred was born in Beeston, Nottingham, and attended Henry Mellish grammar school before training at Guy’s Hospital, qualifying in 1964. Following posts in Nottingham he joined the Royal Navy and had several postings, including to Singapore. On discharge from the

Two royal colleges representing more than 50 000 medical professionals1 have chosen to stop posting on the social media platform X.And a third has told The BMJ it is reviewing its use of social media channels.The Royal College of Anaesthetists

The current wave of measles cases in the US provides an opportunity to see what the disease does to the unvaccinated, the new head of the government’s vaccine advisory group says.In a wide ranging talk Kirk Milhoan, head of the

The collapse of global ecosystems poses a high risk to the UK’s national security and prosperity, government intelligence leaders have warned.A new report, Global Biodiversity Loss, Ecosystem Collapse and National Security,1 says that the “severe degradation or collapse” of ecosystems

Wood burning stoves could carry health warnings like those on cigarettes or alcohol under new plans announced by the government.Ministers are also considering imposing stricter limits on the emissions produced by new stoves, which would reduce the current cap by

Multiplex immunofluorescence proteomics is a powerful method in spatial biology to decipher cell types, states, and architecture in tissues. In this issue of Cell, Valanarasu et al. develop GigaTIME, an expansive population-scale analysis of the tumor immune microenvironment of over

India is on a bold journey towards Viksit Bharat, with an aim to transform itself into a developed nation (with high-middle-income status) by 2047, 100 years after gaining independence. India has tremendous assets to help achieve this goal: rapid economic

The crisis in the UK’s medical workforce will be helped by new legislation that prioritises UK graduates for medical training places (doi:10.1136/bmj.s78).1 Helped, but not solved. The legislation will fix some issues and introduce new ones, particularly for international medical

NHS hospitals in England have been told to “urgently review” the safety of their home birth services following a coroner’s report into the deaths of a mother and baby in Manchester.The recommendation from NHS England comes after the senior coroner

In this paper by Zheng and colleagues (BMJ 2025;391:e083890, doi:10.1136/bmj-2024-083890, published 22 October 2025), the data sharing statement was corrected after publication to add a direct link to the dataset in the Github open access repository.

US officials have confirmed that a government web page warning about the risks of unproved therapies claiming to treat autism has been taken down.The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) page, which told consumers to beware of false autism “cures” promoted

William WitheringMy list of medically related anniversaries for 2026 includes the 250th anniversary of the publication in 1776 of William Withering’s book The botanical arrangement of all the vegetables naturally growing in Great Britain.William Withering was born on 17 March

China has established itself as a global research superpower. Official data show that total research and development expenditure in 2024 exceeded 3·6 trillion yuan (roughly US$520 billion), up 8·3% from 2023, despite economic slowdowns, reflecting an unwavering commitment to science

Progress has been made in reducing the “collective shame” of disproportionate employer referrals of doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds or who qualified outside the UK, the doctors’ regulator says.1The General Medical Council says the proportion of employers with excess referrals

Ministers have set out legislation to prioritise UK medical graduates for medical training places to help curb soaring competition for training posts.The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill1 aims to tackle “the choked recruitment system” that has led to UK trained doctors

Doctors in Tehran are under attack, hospitals are “overwhelmed,” and human rights groups say that hundreds of people have been killed—with some reports saying the toll could be in the thousands1—as the Iranian security forces opened fire on anti-regime protesters.The

NHS clinicians will take part in probation meetings with offenders as part of a drive to reduce reoffending in parts of England.Under a new pilot scheme in England, health professionals—primarily mental health nurses, with oversight from GPs—will sit in on

The levying of a 13% tax on condoms sold in China from Jan 1 is the country’s latest policy aimed at reversing its falling total fertility rate (TFR; the average number of children a woman might expect to have in

Australia has approved controversial Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab after two rejections.1 The amyloid hypothesis posits that amyloid is the cause of Alzheimer’s disease and underpins claims that anti-amyloid antibodies such as lecanemab and donanemab are “disease modifying.”23 The implication is that

Ancient DNA has become a workhorse for evolutionary biologists. In contrast, ancient RNA studies have been rare and often methodologically controversial. Mármol-Sánchez et al. provide compelling evidence that aRNA survived up to ca. 50,000 years in permafrost-preserved mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)

An artificial intelligence is now allowed legally to participate in clinical decisions over prescription renewals.The approval, made in the US state of Utah, is a global first, the company behind the technology, Doctronic, told The BMJ.In a pilot programme, Doctronic’s

US health authorities will cut from 17 to 11 the number of vaccines recommended for children, says the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.1Under the new guidance, vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, Haemophilus influenzae type B,

Age based thresholds for blood tests to detect ovarian cancer should be introduced, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has said.1NICE said its recommendation to replace the current one-size-fits-all test for ovarian cancer—made in new draft guidelines—should

As vaccine sceptic attitudes continue to spread in political groups on both sides of the Atlantic, the UK government is now offering vaccination against chickenpox.As of 2 January general practices in the UK will now offer a combined measles, mumps,

Israel’s “cynical and calculated” threat to ban aid organisations from the Gaza Strip could leave Palestinians without lifesaving medical care, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns.New rules mean that international non-governmental organisations operating in Gaza need to provide Israeli officials with

What will be the most pressing health challenge of 2026? Climate change? Artificial intelligence? Pandemics? Non-communicable diseases? These issues will continue to shape health and medicine. Yet across much of the world, conflict is a fundamental determinant of people’s health

Eight young people have recently been on hunger strike in UK prisons. This is the largest coordinated hunger strike in the UK for almost 50 years.1 At the time of writing, Heba Muraisi, Teuta Hoxha, and Kamran Ahmed have not

Almost one million people have signed up to a national diabetes prevention scheme, which has been shown to cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than a third.NHS England released details of its analysis on 30 December,

A new consultation on expanding access to naloxone—which reverses the effects of opioid overdoses—to homeless shelters and other key locations has been launched by the UK government.1Part of the plan includes the installation of publicly accessible emergency boxes, similar to

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accused several of America’s largest retail chains of “failing to remove” recalled infant formula products that have been linked to the country’s first official outbreak of infant botulism.The product in question, ByHeart

In this issue of Cell, Jaschke and Luchsinger et al. uncover a gut-to-brain signaling mechanism that dynamically shapes protein intake. During recovery from extreme fasting, ammonia derived from the metabolism of specific dietary amino acids is detected by Trpa1-expressing intestinal

The US Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vote on Dec 5 to no longer recommend the hepatitis B vaccine birth dose, which had ensured that babies exposed to hepatitis B would not later develop hepatitis B-associated liver damage and liver

We live in a world of lies, damned lies, and AI hallucinations. A US publication calculated that Donald Trump told 30 573 lies during his first term as president.1 Trump is neither alone nor atypical—except that his rate of lying

Resident doctors joined picket lines across England on Wednesday morning to begin their five day pre-Christmas strike—their 14th walkout over pay and conditions since March 2023.The strike comes after BMA members rejected a last minute offer from the government,1 amid