Married couple Jean Bennett and Albert Maguire developed Luxturna, which helped a patient see their child’s face for the first time

A married couple who met over a dissected brain and went on to create the first approved gene therapy for blindness have been awarded one of the most lucrative prizes in science.

Molecular biologist Jean Bennett and ophthalmologist Albert Maguire share the $3m (£2.2m) Breakthrough prize for life sciences with physician Katherine High for the 25-year-long project, during which the couple adopted a pair of dogs they had treated for blindness.

While an estimated 500,000 people battling addiction miss out on treatment each year, those who can afford it can access private care within hours

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The view of the Whitsundays is postcard-perfect. The setting – a private yacht – extravagant. There’s a gym downstairs, a spa upstairs and a staff ratio of 14:1.

Floating off the Australian coastline is one of the world’s most luxurious rehabilitation and mental health programs. Operating on a superyacht called “Mischief”, a trip on Ocean Blue costs $600,000 a week.

President signed executive order directing FDA to expedite review of psychedelic drugs including ibogaine

Donald Trump on Saturday announced reforms intended to speed up access to medical research and treatment based on psychedelic drugs.

The president signed an executive order directing the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite review of drugs such as ibogaine, which US military veteran groups have said can help treat post-traumatic stress disorder.

My friend and colleague Felicia Cox, who has died aged 60, was an inspirational nurse leader who carried out pioneering work in pain management. She was editor in chief of the British Journal of Pain for more than a decade and a founder member of the Pain Nurse Network, which was originally for UK nurses and is now international.

Known to all as Flick, she was born in Launceston, Tasmania, the eldest of the five children of Junetta (nee Keep), an office worker, and Berkley Cox, a well-known Australian Rules footballer who played for Carlton in Victoria. As a young girl, Flick was given a nurse’s uniform – a white dress, red cape and nun-type headdress, which she took to wearing around the house. She eventually followed in the footsteps of her glamorous Aunt Suzanne, who was a senior nurse.

UK Health Security Agency says cases have been treated successfully and antibiotics are being given as a precaution

Three cases of meningitis B have been confirmed in the south-west of England, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), and young people in the area have been offered vaccinations against the disease.

The cases, which have all been confirmed to have occurred between the 20 March and 15 April in Dorset, have been treated. Those affected are said to be recovering well, according to the UKHSA.

Current and ex-officials at the CDC warn Americans’ health security in danger under RFK Jr’s direction

Fourteen months after Robert F Kennedy Jr was sworn in as US health secretary, the country’s prime public health agency over which he presides is in a state of disarray.

Eighty per cent of the top director positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stand vacant, with no permanent leader to drive policies affecting the health of millions of Americans. No one is in place to coordinate the agency’s day-to-day work fighting infectious disease, combatting heart conditions or screening for cancer.

Jolie has star power as an American film-maker who gets diagnosed with breast cancer while filming in a blandly drawn Paris fashion show

As this film’s producer-star, Angelina Jolie shows honesty and courage in tackling a story that so closely mirrors her own experience of having a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. But sadly, the film itself feels specious and shallow, insisting with bland and weirdly humourless confidence on the glamorous importance of the fashion world in which it is set.

Jolie’s character, Maxine, is an American indie film-maker just arrived in Paris, having been picked to direct the opening short movie for a super-prestigious fashion show. Her character is first-among-equals in the ensemble cast. Anyier Anei is Ada, a fledgling model from South Sudan who is to be the show’s star; Ella Rumpf plays makeup artist and would-be writer Angèle, trying to convert her experiences into an edgy fictionalised memoir; Louis Garrel smoulders and frowns as only he can as Anton, the first assistant director on Maxine’s film; and Vincent Lindon is the rumpled, caring Dr Hansen, who has the unhappy task of telling Maxine that his American colleague has passed on to him the results of her recent biopsy, and that she has breast cancer. (He sadly watches her walking away down the pavement from his high window after their consultation, while smoking a pensive cigarette.)

Though welcomed by chefs and campaigners, many schools say the government’s plan to remove ‘grab and go’ options from the menu is a step too far

It is lunchtime at Richard Challoner school, a Catholic comprehensive for boys in New Malden, south-west London. The familiar smell of school lunch is beginning to waft around the corridors.

In the canteen, there is a moment of calm as the kitchen team make final preparations before year 7 descend – a mass of chatting, laughing boys, with backpacks swinging and empty tummies grumbling.

Schwartz was deputy surgeon general under Trump’s first administration and is a rear admiral in the US Coast Guard

Donald Trump has selected Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bringing to an end a months-long search for a permanent head of the troubled public health agency.

Trump revealed his choice on Truth Social, saying: “I am pleased to announce the new leadership of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is my Honor to nominate the incredibly talented Dr Erica Schwartz, MD, JD, MPH, as my Director of the CDC,” he wrote. “She is a STAR!”

Health secretary and chef Robert Irvine claim Americans could eat healthier and more cheaply if they shopped better

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The first episode of the new Secretary Kennedy Podcast, produced by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), opens with this quote from guest Robert Irvine, who creates meal plans for the US military: “We talk about food being expensive. If you’re buying expensive food, it’s expensive. But if you’re buying food and you know what to do with it, it’s not expensive.”

The episode is titled Fixing America’s Food System – Robert Irvine, and features a 45-minute conversation with the HHS secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the host of the show, and guest Irvine. Best known as a celebrity chef, Irvine has collaborated with the US military to launch Victory Fresh, a program that offers healthy grab-and-go meals on military bases, during the Biden administration. The program’s Biden-era origins are never acknowledged during the show.

Spy-tech company and founder Peter Thiel should ‘have their hands ripped off our NHS’, say MPs

MPs have queued up to demand the government scraps its £330m NHS contract with the spy-tech company Palantir, calling it “dreadful” and “shameful” in a debate on Thursday, after which the government said it was “no fan” of the US company’s politics.

Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs led the calls for Palantir, which also works for Donald Trump’s ICE immigration crackdown and the Israeli military, to be removed as a supplier to the NHS federated data platform (FDP), with one Labour backbencher, Samantha Niblett, questioning whether it could be “trusted as a custodian of the intimate health records of tens of millions of British citizens”.

The prime minister was not aware that the former US ambassador had failed the vetting process, according to Downing Street

Swinney says this is a manifesto for the whole of Scotland.

He confirms that the SNP would argue for the Scottish power to have more control over energy policy (still largely reserved to Westminter). He says:

The problem is not that we do not have the energy. The problem is that Westminster has the power. This election is our opportunity to take those powers and put them into Scotland’s hands.

Data shows 85% of those infected in the state have been not vaccinated against measles as dozens are hospitalized

• Measles: how does it spread and how can I protect my child?

Utah has emerged as a major center of measles infections in the US, as an outbreak that has been building for some time continues to expand.

State officials reported a total of 602 measles cases on Wednesday tied to an outbreak that started last year and is still ongoing, including 19 newly identified infections, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (Cidrap). Recent exposures have been reported at several preschools and elementary schools.

The lack of a unified digital repository for patients and healthcare workers means that key medical changes are often missed. But the NHS can learn from US intelligence sharing

• Will Parman is the winner of the The Guardian Foundation’s 2026 Emerging Voices award (19-25 age category), recognising young talent in political opinion writing

As she battles cancer, my mum fears that she will forget to tell her consultant something important. Like many people with complex and chronic health needs, she clutches a Post-it note with 10 bullet-pointed symptoms, such as “cannot stand” and “spasms”. It is her companion during stressful appointments. We rehearse her list before we enter, and worry that we deviated too much when we leave.

Even then, her peer-reviewed lists, sometimes on the back of envelopes, are inadequate when her condition may change day to day. Each list, too, must be tailored for each of her consultants – many lists get lost in her tall pile of notes and letters. I hate those car rides home when we’re upset that we didn’t say something important, fearing the consequences of this omission. In a health system in which people can wait more than a year for an appointment, you wonder how meticulous these Post-it notes need to be to convey every change in their medical condition since the initial referral letter. It raises the question of how many people have experienced this unsettling ride home.

Will Parman is the winner of the The Guardian Foundation’s 2026 Emerging Voices award (19-25 age category), recognising young talent in political opinion writing

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

Heather Hallett hails scheme but urges ministers and health services to promote better vaccine awareness

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The UK’s Covid vaccination programme was “an extraordinary feat” which developed and delivered protective jabs in record time, but work is now needed to rebuild trust in vaccines and ensure better access before the next pandemic, an official inquiry has found.

Heather Hallett, the chair of the statutory inquiry into the pandemic, said the vaccine rollout and the identification of an inexpensive steroid that saved the lives of thousands of UK patients, were “two of the success stories” of the pandemic.

Establishing a pharmaceutical expert advisory panel to oversee the UK’s preparedness to develop, procure and manufacture vaccines and therapeutics.

Producing targeted vaccination strategies and communications to increase vaccine uptake and reduce inequalities.

Improving monitoring and evaluation of vaccine uptake and delivery to ensure efforts to boost uptake are effective.

Helping regulatory bodies to access healthcare records for ongoing safety monitoring of new vaccines and therapeutics, and

Assessing the vaccine damage payment scheme as soon as possible.

Transfer of medical services from hospital to former Wilko store is improving healthcare access and boosting footfall

It is a revolution that might just save the NHS – and the high street. Imagine being able to have your eyes tested, mole examined or get an appointment with a consultant without going to your local hospital – and maybe fit in some shopping or a cinema visit afterwards.

That, increasingly, is what people in Barnsley are doing after an unprecedented relocation of medical services from the district general hospital into a purpose-built outpatients centre in the Alhambra shopping centre, which is getting a new lease of life thanks to the experiment.

Data assessed from 17 clinical trials of anti-amyloid drugs found no ‘meaningful effect’ on cognitive decline

Drugs that have been hailed as a gamechanger for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease make no noticeable difference to patients, according to an extensive review.

The analysis of clinical trials in people with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia found that the effects of anti-amyloid drugs on cognition and dementia severity over 18 months were “trivial”, with improvements in functional ability “small at best”.

Safety charity warns deaths are rising overall and closely linked to deprivation

People in the north of England are twice as likely to be killed in accidents than Londoners, with accidental deaths clearly linked to deprivation, a report has found.

The research, from safety charity the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), highlights vast regional differences in accidental deaths, which have also seen an overall increase.

Dr Helen Holt and Dr Peter Davis respond to an article by Polly Toynbee on the latest round of strikes by resident doctors

Polly Toynbee is right that it is time to stop the doctors’ strikes (Both doctors and the government are handling this strike badly – that’s why there is no end in sight, 10 April). She suggests that doctors are not feeling the pain of industrial action, but this is far from true. We are anxious about our patients and their cancelled appointments and procedures; we are exhausted covering work that we are not familiar with; and those being paid overtime for shifts they don’t want to do are uncomfortable about the financial impact on the NHS.

Many of us reluctantly supported industrial action at the beginning, with a government that wasn’t listening – wanting to support junior colleagues whose pay had fallen far behind contemporaries. Now we see how divided and conflicted resident doctors are too, and we long for a resolution. We recognise that the strikes are harmful. Communication and diplomacy are skills we pride ourselves on, and politicians have never needed them more than now. Diplomacy is the way to resolve this crisis for our NHS as well.
Dr Helen Holt
Consultant physician and chair of the medical staff committee, University Hospitals Dorset

Toilet tissue | Bumphone jazz | Discontinued products | A classic crossword clue | Practice v practise

In the 1970s, to save money, a London psychiatric hospital replaced soft toilet tissue with Izal medicated toilet roll (Letters, 13 April). Therapists conducting successful sessions for outpatients with compulsive disorders were surprised by a sudden increase in relapse rates, until they realised that each sheet contained the exhortation “Now wash your hands”. Its use was discontinued.
‌Prof David C Sanders
Mortain, France

• Izal toilet paper made excellent tracing paper, but it also made a superb sound in a comb and paper. One member of a jokey interval band at the original Concorde Jazz Club in Southampton played an Izal bumphone to great effect!
David Witt
Malmesbury, Wiltshire