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World’s oldest living land animal ‘alive’ after getting caught up in alleged crypto scam

Sarah Taylor — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 12:00:07 +0000

A giant Seychelles tortoise, believed to be the world’s oldest living land animal, is alive and well after claims he had died turned out to be part of an alleged crypto scam.

Posts emerged on Wednesday claiming Jonathan, who is thought to be 193 years old according to the official website devoted to him, was dead.

Reports of his demise were posted on X by the account @JoeHollinsVet, named after Joe Hollins, a vet who has taken care of Jonathan and previously spoken of his experiences.

The message read that he was “heartbroken” to announce that the “beloved” creature “has passed away today peacefully”.

Describing himself as Jonathan’s “vet for many years”, he said: “Rest easy, old friend. You’ll be missed more than words can say” and later thanked people “for the outpouring of love for Jonathan as we mourn his passing”.

But the Friends of the British Overseas Territories, quoting the island’s governor, Nigel Phillips, said “the real Joe Hollins does not have an X account, and that Jonathan the tortoise is alive. This account is soliciting crypto donations, has recently changed its username”.

Mr Phillips “has confirmed Jonathan Tortoise is alive and well – he has just checked on him”, he added.

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In a post on Facebook, Mr Hollins commented on a screen grab of the X post, saying it was “a hoax” and “not even an April Fool”.

He wrote that: “IT IS NOT TRUE. The hoaxer is asking for crypto donations. It’s a con. Please forward guys because this has spread. Even our researcher friends in the US unravelling his DNA have just sent condolences.”

There was a good deal of negative reaction to the original X post, with one commenter calling it a “nice prank, you scam artist”, while another said “he’s alive, you plonker”, and a third simply told the account it had been “BUSTED”.

– Eight British monarchs, from William IV to Charles III

– Industrialisation, the end of the agriculture-dominated society and urbanisation

– Two world wars and hundreds of smaller conflicts, with more than 40 between 1832 and 1840 alone

– The French Revolution of 1789, the collapse of feudal society, the abolition of slavery and the growth of democracy

– Scientific advances including space travel, motor vehicles, planes and cures for previously deadly illnesses

– Cultural developments such as films, sports, mass publishing and the digital age

Jonathan, who lives on the island of St Helena in the South Atlantic, “is believed to be the world’s oldest living land animal”, the website says, while admitting “we don’t actually know his exact age”.

His home is in the grounds of Plantation House, the residence of the Governor of St Helena, an exclusive address he shares with three other giant tortoises, named Emma, David and Fredrik.

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The website says it is “generally accepted” is one of three giant tortoises brought to the island in the 18th and 19th centuries and was named in the 1930s.

St Helena was discovered by Portugal in 1502, before being claimed by Britain after they arrived on the island in 1659. It has remained British ever since.

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Holiday island is cloaked by Saharan dust storm – turning its blue skies blood red

Sarah Taylor — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 11:00:03 +0000

The island of Crete, known for its blue skies, is seeing red – thanks to a cloud of Saharan dust.

A powerful storm has carried the dust from Africa, and the popular holiday destination has turned an apocalyptic shade of red ahead of the Easter break.

Dramatic photographs showed the impact the dust was having on life on the Greek island.

The island has also been battered by extreme weather – strong winds and heavy rainfall – carried by Storm Erminio.

Residents have been wearing face masks to protect themselves from the suffocating dust.

There have also been gale-force gusts on the island, and the rain, mixed with the dust, has created mud which has coated vehicles and buildings.

A red weather warning was in place until late on Thursday.

The storm has affected travel to and from Crete ahead of the Easter holidays, with flights and ferries disrupted on Wednesday.

Mainland Greece has also been hit by the storm, and a man has died near Athens.

He was found under a car in the Nea Makri area, which suffered flooding, early on Thursday, according to the fire department.

Santorini has also been enveloped in the red dust, which has caused huge disruption on the Greek island.

A dust storm has also hit Libya, and a state of emergency was declared in the city of Tobruk on Wednesday as the skies turned red.

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Greece has suffered destructive floods and wildfires in recent years, which analysts have attributed to a rapidly warming climate.

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Mother who lost sight after birth has vision restored

Sarah Taylor — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:07 +0000

A mother left blind after the birth of her first child has had her sight restored following a plasma donation.

Jessica Kent-Hazledine, 33, woke up two weeks after giving birth to her son with little vision in her left eye.

She put that down to tiredness but then lost vision in her right eye, leaving her fearing “the worst”.

But a year on, she said her sight is “so much better”.

‘I thought I’d never see my son again’

Ms Kent-Hazledine, from Cornwall, said: “I was a new mum, not getting much sleep.

“But I thought I should probably get it checked out, and the next thing I knew, I was having an urgent MRI and blood tests. It was all very scary; I was thinking the worst.

“When my vision went in my right eye, too, I was terrified – I thought I wouldn’t be able to see my baby grow up.

“I wouldn’t be able to see how his face changed or when he took his first steps or had his first day at school.

“I had been a mum for two weeks and was faced with the prospect of not being able to see my son again.”

How her sight was restored

After trying out some other treatments, medics arranged for a plasma exchange for Ms Kent-Hazledine, which was carried out by a new service run by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in the South West.

In the procedure, a patient’s plasma, the liquid component of blood that helps transport blood cells, nutrients and hormones around the body, is removed from the bloodstream and replaced with donor plasma.

This helped prevent the antibodies in her blood from attacking and damaging the protective layer around the nerve fibres in her eyes.

Overall, she had five exchanges but said things began to improve by the third.

Now she can see clearly out of her right eye and has around 75% sight in her left one.

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‘It felt like magic’

Ms Kent-Hazledine said: “By the fifth [exchange], I felt pretty much back to myself; it felt like magic.

“It’s been almost a year now, and my sight is so much better. I still have some blurring in half of my left eye, but I can look after my son and live an independent life, which I was worried I wouldn’t be able to.”

Ms Kent-Hazledine was the first person in Cornwall to use the NHSBT’s new therapeutic apheresis service (TAS), which is working with four hospitals in the region.

She said she felt “so lucky” to have had the treatment and was grateful to those who donated blood and plasma – encouraging others to do the same.

“I don’t think people realise just how much good donation can do – we all know blood can be used in emergencies, but it can also be used to help so many people like me,” she said.

“I’d urge absolutely everybody who is eligible to go and give blood or plasma – and thank you to those who already do.”

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The countries that have social media bans, or are planning to implement one

Sarah Taylor — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 04:00:10 +0000

Ever since Australia banned its young people from social media, governments across the globe have been considering following suit.

It comes amid mounting concerns over the impact of social media on children’s health and safety.

It’s been four months since under-16s in Australia were banned from using platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram. While only one other country has since implemented a straight blanket ban, many have taken steps to regulate online platforms.

Here is a summary of which countries already have rules in place for social media, as well as those proposing a stricter ban.

Australia

Australia’s landmark law came into force on 10 December 2025. It forced 10 major social media platforms to block young people under 16 or face fines of up to AU$49.5m (£25m).

Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the restrictions “aim to protect young Australians from pressures and risks that users can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts”.

She added: “These come from design features that encourage them to spend more time on screens, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing.”

France

At the beginning of the year France’s National Assembly approved legislation to ban children under the age of 15 from social media amid growing concerns about online bullying and mental health risks.

On Tuesday the bill will be voted on in the Senate and, if it is passed, will go back to the lower house for a final vote.

If implemented, France would become the first European nation to implement a ban. It would be a step further than legislation which has been in place since 2018 that bans children from using mobile phones in colleges, which are attended by young people aged 11-15.

President Emmanuel Macron said the bill passing the National Assembly was a “major step” to protect French children and teenagers, but parties on the hard left criticised it as an “overly simplistic” response to the negative impacts of technology.

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who leads Mr Macron’s Renaissance party in the lower house, said he hoped the ban would be passed by the Senate for it to come into force on 1 September.

Britain

A social media ban for under-16s has been backed by the House of Lords in the UK.

Peers passed an amendment to the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – a wide-ranging set of law proposals currently making its way through parliament.

At the beginning of March the government launched a consultation asking the British public how they want to protect young people online.

In addition to blocking younger teenagers from apps like TikTok and Instagram, measures including overnight social media curfews, restrictions to “addictive” features like infinite scrolling and autoplay, and blocks to stop children from using chatbots are also being considered.

Some of these elements will be tested in a trial period, the government announced on 25 March. This will involve 300 teenagers and aim to gauge the impact on children’s sleep, family life and schoolwork.

Austria

Austria’s three-party government announced on 27 March it will ban social media for children up to the age of 14.

Vice chancellor Andreas Babler and junior digitisation minister Alexander Proell said draft legislation for the law would be finalised by June.

Mr Proell said “technically modern methods” of age verification will be used that allow users to verify their age while respecting their privacy.

The Austrian government plans to accompany the ban with an effort to boost schools’ teaching of how to use media and deal with artificial intelligence.

However, before the law is even implemented, it will need parliamentary approval.

Spain

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, pledged in February that he would introduce an under-16 social media ban.

Mr Sanchez called social media the digital “Wild West”, and the under-16s ban is part of a raft of measures aimed at making children safer online.

The government has also asked prosecutors to investigate potential crimes committed by Meta, X and TikTok in connection with the possible creation and dissemination of child porn using AI.

It is unclear if the proposed ban would require approval by Spain’s highly fragmented lower house.

Denmark

Denmark said in October it would ban social media for children under 15, while parents could provide access to certain platforms to kids down to the age of 13.

Announcing the legislation, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused mobile phones and social networks of “stealing our children’s childhood”.

She did not specify which social networks would be affected by the new measures.

Norway

The Norwegian government has launched a public consulation to ask for opinion on its proposal for a law that ban social media for under 15s.

It said services such as video games and platforms used for communication related to school or extracurricular activities will be an exception to the proposed law.

In Germany young people aged 13-16 are allowed to use social media only if their parents provide consent.

Greece is “very close” to announcing a social media ban for children under 15, a senior government source told Reuters in February.

Children under the age of 14 need parental consent to sign up for social media accounts in Italy, while no consent is required above that age.

Poland’s ruling party said on 27 February it is preparing new legislation to ban social media for children under 15 and to hold platforms responsible for age verification.

Portugal’s parliament approved a bill on 12 February requiring explicit parental consent for children aged 13 to 16 to access social media, with tech companies that ignore the restrictions facing fines of up to 2% of their global revenue.

Slovenia is drafting a law that would prohibit children under 15 from accessing social media, deputy prime minister Matej Arcon announced on 6 February.

Indonesia

On 28 March the government began to roll out a new regulation that bans children younger than 16 from accessing digital platforms that could expose them to pornography, cyberbullying, online scams and addiction.

The country’s communications minister, Meutya Hafid, said “high-risk platforms” include TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox.

Indonesia became the first country in southeast Asia to implement such a ban, with it affecting an estimated 70 million children.

Few platforms reacted to Indonesia’s new regulation.

The Indonesia online safety page for Elon Musk’s X states the minimum age to use the platform is 16 adding: “It’s not our choice – it’s what Indonesian law requires.”

While Google-owned YouTube said it supports the Indonesian government’s effort to create an effective, risk-based framework that addresses online harms while preserving access to information and digital opportunity.

China

China’s cyberspace regulator has put in place a so-called “minor mode” programme that requires device-level restrictions and app-specific rules to restrict screen time depending on age.

India

On 6 March the Indian state of Karnataka, home to the tech hub of Bengaluru, became the first state in the country to pass legislation banning social media for children under 16. It is unknown when the ban will take effect.

Neighbouring states of Goa and Andhra Pradesh are also weighing restrictions.

India’s chief economic adviser has previously called for age restrictions on social media platforms, describing them as “predatory” in how they keep users engaged online.

Malaysia

Malaysia said in November it would ban social media for users under the age of 16 starting from this year.

Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil previously said young people under 16 would not be allowed to open their own social media accounts, although parent-managed accounts would be allowed to reduce risks, such as contact from strangers, according to local newspaper Free Malaysia Today (FMT).

The ban is expected to be introduced as early as July, FMT reported.

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The US

In 2023 Utah became the first US state to require social media firms to get parental consent for children to use their apps and verify users are at least 18.

Several other states have since passed similar legislation, with all having faced court challenges on free speech grounds.

The country’s Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act also prevents companies from collecting personal data from children under 13 without parental consent.

Brazil

On 17 March, Brazil’s Digital Statute of Children and Adolescents came into effect.

This requires young people under 16 to link their social media accounts to a legal guardian and bans addictive platform features such as infinite scrolling.

The law applies to any digital product that is likely to be accessed by anyone under the age of 18, including social media, games and apps.

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Discovery offers hope to children with rare and severe epilepsy

Sarah Taylor — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:00:04 +0000

Scientists say they have discovered a new condition behind one of the most common genetic causes of severe epilepsy in children.

The condition – named recessive RNU2-2-related neurodevelopmental disorder – leads to seizures and severe developmental delays before children are a year old.

Experts estimate millions of people could be carriers of the faulty gene behind the disorder.

Children with the condition suffer seizures that can cause them to jerk, stiffen, shake and lose consciousness.

It can also take them longer to learn to walk and talk, and sufferers may have significant learning problems.

Researchers from the University of Manchester and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust analysed changes in several hundred RNU genes in people involved in the 100,000 Genomes Project.

Eighty-four people, including five-year-old Ava Begley from Sydney, Australia, have so far been identified as having the new condition – with many more believed to be undiagnosed around the world.

The Manchester researchers and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Clinical Genetics Team helped link Ava’s condition to the RNU2-2-related disorder.

Ava is non-verbal and has complex neurological symptoms, and suffers frequent seizures due to her severe epilepsy. She used to have 100 to 200 seizures a day, but these are now more controlled thanks to medication.

Her parents said they were relieved to finally have a diagnosis but also sad “in understanding the seriousness of the condition and how rare it is”.

“It gives Ava a name and a place in the medical world, rather than being an unanswered mystery,” they said in a statement.

“It helps us feel that we are getting closer to the starting point of being able to find a cure/treatment, and provides hope that research and awareness may lead to better understanding and support in the future.”

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The findings have been published in the journal Nature Genetics and study lead Adam Jackson said it is believed “as many as one in 100 people could unknowingly be carriers of this condition”.

Dr Jackson, from the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, said: “If both parents are carriers, there is a one in four chance with every pregnancy that their child could be affected.

“We estimate roughly one in 40,000 people may be living with this condition, making it one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders currently known.”

“Unlike most other genes, RNU2-2 does not even make a protein,” Dr Jackson added.

“We were astonished to discover how changes in this tiny gene can have such profound effects in so many individuals.”

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Quarantined astronauts take part in Q&A with days to go until historic moon mission

Sarah Taylor — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 20:00:04 +0000

The countdown is on until NASA’s first moon mission in more than half a century, and the quarantined astronauts who’ll be travelling into space have taken part in a Q&A.

Artemis II will take four astronauts – NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, plus Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency – on a 10-day flight around the moon.

The launch date has been set for Wednesday (1 April) and since Friday, the crew has been living in quarantine at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

Revealing what life is like at the historic facility, Mr Wiseman described the crew quarters as “an amazing place to be”.

“The folks who are cooking for us, their shirts are just covered in patches from other missions,” he said in a Q&A via video link on Sunday.

“When you walk down the halls, you see names in foreign languages, you can think about the places they were born, the lives they have lived and the legacy that we’re a part of.

“It’s a very, very special place. This is where humanity began reaching for the stars.”

The Artemis II mission will mark a number of firsts, with pilot Mr Glover becoming the first black astronaut on a lunar mission, while Ms Koch will be the first woman and Mr Hansen the first Canadian.

Mr Glover shared conflicting feelings as he addressed this at the Q&A.

He explained: “I live in this dichotomy between happiness that a woman can look at Christina and physicalise her passion or her interest. And that young brown boys and girls can look at me and go, ‘he’s doing what?’.

“But I also hope we’re pushing in that other direction that one day, we don’t have to talk about these firsts.”

Ms Koch said: “Something to add, is that although it is something to celebrate, a bunch of firsts, that doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story. It’s not about any one individual.”

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Artemis I launched in November 2022, and saw an uncrewed Orion capsule sent to circle the moon.

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NASA was previously aiming for Artemis II to launch on 8 February, but a liquid hydrogen leak during a practice launch forced a delay.

Artemis ‘80% go’ for Wednesday, says NASA

It is now aiming for lift-off on Wednesday 1 April – although the agency has warned that the weather could impact this plan.

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Chris Cianciola, deputy manager of NASA’s space launch system, said on Sunday evening: “We got our latest forecast and the thing we’re watching is cumulus clouds, and also winds. Right now, we’re forecast to be 80% go on Wednesday afternoon.”

This third stage is currently aimed to launch in mid-2027.

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The clocks have gone forward – and should daylight savings be scrapped?

Sarah Taylor — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 04:00:05 +0000

The clocks have gone forward, marking the start of daylight saving time in the UK.

On Sunday 29 March the time jumped forward an hour when it hit 1am – and yes, it means you’ll have lost an extra hour of sleep.

But the gain of an hour of daylight will mean lighter evenings and darker mornings.

“Spring forward, fall back” has been part of our calendar for more than 100 years – but whether we should continue the practice is hotly debated.

But why are some people against the clocks changing – and why do we do it in the first place?

Here is what you need to know.

Why do we have daylight saving time?

The change from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to British Summer Time (BST) signifies the start of daylight saving time (DST) in the UK.

DST lasts from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October, when the clocks go back an hour.

The day the clocks change always falls on a weekend to cause the least amount of disruption to schools and businesses.

It is a common belief that DST was introduced to help give farmers more daylight hours to work in the fields. But this is not exactly true.

George Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist – someone who studies insects – first campaigned for more evening sunlight back in the 1890s, so he could study his beloved bugs. It was the first time that changing the clocks around the seasons had been suggested seriously.

Jump to 1907 and British inventor William Willett – the man credited with bringing daylight saving to the UK – self-published a pamphlet called The Waste Of Daylight, in which he outlined his frustration with not getting the most out of summer days.

He initially proposed that clocks jump forward by 80 minutes in four incremental steps in April and reversed the same way in September – but he died before any law was implemented in the UK.

The first country to adopt DST was Germany in 1916, during the First World War. The UK followed suit a few weeks later.

How does daylight saving time affect your health?

Since the implementation of DST, and particularly the clocks going forward in spring, various studies have found that darker mornings and lighter evenings can cause havoc with some people’s bodies.

In fact, sleep and dream researcher Charlie Morley said there is “overwhelming” evidence of the health issues the switch can cause.

“What research shows is what a massive effect on the body and mind, just one extra hour [of sleep] can have,” Mr Morley told Sky News.

One study cited by the American Heart Foundation found there was a 24% increase in heart attacks on the day following the switch to daylight saving time – however the opposite effect has been identified in autumn, when the clocks go back.

Another study from 2016 in Finland found there were 8% more hospital admissions for the most common type of stroke in the two days after the shift to daylight savings.

When asked what symptoms losing an hour of sleep can lead to, Mr Morley said: “The interesting thing is when you get a really short amount of sleep, like four hours or less, the fear centre of the brain, known as the amygdala, becomes 60% more active.

“This can make it seem like everything is annoying, threatening or in conflict. So if you lose an hour of sleep, you might see an increase in the amygdala response, making you more grumpy and tetchy.”

When clocks go back an hour, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern – can worsen, mental health charity Change says.

The charity says individuals can also feel increasingly isolated by the limited daylight hours, and sleep cycles can be disrupted.

Should daylight saving be scrapped?

Whether to keep daylight saving or not has been a hotly debated question for many years, but was reignited in October last year, when the British Sleep Society called on the UK government to abolish the twice-yearly clock changes.

In an article at the time, researchers said due to the negative effect DST has on circadian and sleep health, the UK should abolish the change altogether and reinstate standard time throughout the year.

In reality, only about a third of the world’s countries practice daylight saving time, according to the Pew Research Center.

US President Donald Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social in 2024 that he wanted to scrap DST. His secretary of state Marco Rubio has also called the ritual of changing time twice a year “stupid”.

While most states in US continue to change their clocks twice a year, Arizona and Hawaii do not, the former due to its desert climate and the latter because of its location near the equator.

The European Parliament has previously voted for all EU member countries to scrap DST, but after the Parliament and EU Council couldn’t reach an agreement on the legislation, it never became law.

One of the few places that doesn’t follow DST in Europe is Iceland, due to its location and extreme variations in daylight throughout the year.

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How to prepare for clock changes and the ‘golden rule’ of napping

Mr Morley says it is impossible to make up for lost sleep, but those worried ahead of daylight saving time can “front load sleep”.

This involves someone getting “really good, quality sleep before entering a period of bad sleep”.

Exposing yourself to natural sunlight first thing in the morning, eating meals based on the time of day it is where you are, minimise the use of caffeine and exercising can also all help treat negative effects of sleep deprivation.

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Mr Morley added that napping can also be an effective way of dealing with sleep deprivation – but there are some hard and fast rules.

“The two golden rules of napping are it needs to be under an hour, so between 20 minutes and 60 minutes, and the nap needs to end six hours before you intend to go to bed again,” he explained.

“There is a chemical called adenosine, which is known as the tiredness chemical, and it takes around five to six hours to build up. So if you want to go to bed at midnight, as long as your nap ends up 5pm you have got enough time for adenosine to build up, and you will be tired enough to go to bed.”

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Countless horror stories linked to social media – but a ban for children isn’t cut-and-dried case

Sarah Taylor — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 03:00:05 +0000

For months, the UK has felt like it’s barrelling towards banning under-16s from social media.

Spurred on by Australia’s ban, campaigners and MPs have brought the idea of a teenage ban into the UK’s mainstream, and now the government is consulting the public on what it thinks should happen.

Among adults, it’s a popular idea; a YouGov poll found that nearly three-quarters of UK adults want to ban under-16s from social media.

It’s easy to understand why; we’ve reported on countless horror stories of parents finding their children dead in bedrooms after being exposed to harmful content. We’ve covered sextortion, child sexual abuse, blackmail and more, all happening on social media platforms.

It’s reached the point where people impacted by these nightmare circumstances have had enough; if these companies can’t be trusted to look after our children, they say, we need to take them off the platforms.

But this isn’t a cut-and-dried case. There are a lot of people worried about the impact of social media on children who argue a ban isn’t the right idea.

Take Professor Sander van der Linden, a Cambridge psychology researcher who has studied the impact of social media for years.

He said there is “zero empirical evidence” to support a ban, and recently wrote a piece in the science journal Nature arguing against it.

“Blindly instituting wholesale bans for teens takes the ‘evidence’ out of evidence-based policy,” he argued.

But he isn’t saying that things should just stay the same.

In fact, he wants children as young as four to begin digital literacy education to protect them in the future and, crucially, wants social media companies to be held more responsible for building safe platforms in the first place

That’s what I was repeatedly told when researching the case against a social media ban.

Girl Guides, protesters, the chief executive of the NSPCC – they all believed that social media companies should be forced to change their platforms rather than young people being forced to come off them.

“These issues don’t [just] affect teenagers,” 15-year-old Imogen said. She’s a Girl Guiding advocate, one of three speaking to me after a Girl Guiding poll suggested just 15% of teenagers support a ban.

“Someone in their 30s isn’t going to want to see the violent content that teenagers are seeing, so it’s not solving the issue.”

“If we put a ban [in place], then that’s just saying we’re the problem,” said 16-year-old Freya. “It’s our fault when actually it’s their algorithms, it’s the way that they’ve made their platforms.”

One protester, Hannah from Mad Youth Organise, told us her group wants companies to pay a 4% “misery tax” to fund mental health services and mitigate the damage they say the companies have caused.

But the other argument against a ban isn’t about changing how the companies work, it’s about the impact on young people themselves.

Prof van der Linden said the impact of social media varies between different groups of young people. Those with pre-existing mental health issues are more likely to be harmed by algorithms than those without.

People who use social media to compare themselves negatively to others or “doomscroll” are more likely to suffer consequences than those who don’t.

In fact, using social media to connect with others or engage in social issues could have a positive impact on mental health.

He says it’s more nuanced than arguments against alcohol or tobacco, where the impacts are only negative.

And for certain groups, social media has become a lifeline.

LGBT+ teenagers, for example, face higher levels of loneliness, bullying and isolation, and when community can be hard to find in person, they now often turn to social media, according to Simon Blake, chief executive of Stonewall UK.

“It’s a place that they meet other people, it’s a place that they see people like them that they can aspire to, to see others and to ask questions and to get support in a world where they may not be able to get it from other places,” he said.

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There’s concern from organisations like Stonewall and the NSPCC that young people will simply migrate to other, less regulated platforms where they could see even more harmful content.

“You can’t block the whole internet,” pointed out Kashuf, a 19-year-old Girl Guiding advocate.

No matter where the UK lands in the government’s consultation, campaigners on both sides agree something must change – the argument now is what that change should be.

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Pregnant women and cancer patients at risk from ultrasound delays

Sarah Taylor — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 11:00:04 +0000

Pregnant women and cancer patients could face “life-threatening” delays because of a worsening shortage of sonographers, experts warn.

The vacancy rate for sonographers is 24.2% across England, rising to 38.2% in some areas, according to the Society of Radiographers (SoR).

In addition, one in every 13 (7.6%) sonographers are planning to retire within the next year, the census found.

Sonographers carry out ultrasound scans which are essential to pregnancy care and are also used to diagnose cancer.

Pregnant women undergo scans when their baby is 12 weeks old and again at 20 weeks.

Katie Thompson, SoR president and a practising sonographer, said shortages forced hospitals to pull in practitioners from other areas to keep the antenatal services going at the “expense of those other services”.

“Hospitals try their very best to get the three-month and five-month antenatal screening scans done on time,” she said.

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“But when there aren’t enough staff, prioritising those scans has a knock-on effect on more urgent later foetal growth scans, which in some cases need to be done within 24 or 36 hours.

“Departments end up struggling to fit in patients who need these emergency scans.”

Ms Thompson said ultrasound also played a role in cancer diagnosis, with a patient’s “first investigation” often being an ultrasound.

Follow up care after treatment “often takes the form of regular ultrasound scans”, she said.

“The government’s recent cancer plan spoke about increasing testing and reducing waiting lists,” she said.

“But sonography is one of the beginning points for people being diagnosed with cancer.

“With the current workforce shortfall, it’s going to be very, very hard to decrease waiting times.

“And if cancers aren’t picked up when they should be, that can have an effect on the patient’s outcome.”

The highest vacancy rates for sonographers were in the South East of England, where almost two in five posts are vacant (38.2%).

There is also a 34.6% shortfall in London, and three in 10 positions in the North West are vacant (30%).

In the North East and Yorkshire there is a lesser shortfall of 11%, the SoR said.

Ms Thompson said training new sonographers “takes quite a while, so increasing numbers can’t be done very quickly”.

“The fact that numbers are dropping shows that the number of sonographers being trained isn’t keeping up with demand and hasn’t kept up for a long time,” she said.

She said the government’s plans to improve health care, through the anticipated release of its NHS workforce plan and recent cancer plan, would be undone by staff shortages.

“You can’t say that you’re going to invest in all these new scanners and open all these community diagnostic centres unless you’ve thought about the professionals who are going to conduct the scans and provide patient care,” she said.

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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We recognise the pressures facing diagnostic services, including the sonography workforce, and we are taking action to ensure the NHS has the skilled staff it needs to meet rising demand and deliver timely care to patients.

“We have already taken action to expand services for patients, rolling out new community diagnostic centres and expanding opening hours, keeping patients away from busy hospitals and cared for in their local communities.”

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When do the clocks go forward – and should daylight savings be scrapped?

Sarah Taylor — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 03:00:07 +0000

The clocks are going forward this weekend, marking the start of daylight saving time in the UK.

On Sunday 29 March the time will jump forward an hour when it hits 1am – and yes, it means you will lose an extra hour of sleep.

But the gain of an hour of daylight will mean lighter evenings and darker mornings.

“Spring forward, fall back” has been part of our calendar for more than 100 years – but whether we should continue the practice is hotly debated.

But why are some people against the clocks changing – and why do we do it in the first place?

Here is what you need to know.

Why do we have daylight saving time?

The change from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to British Summer Time (BST) signifies the start of daylight saving time (DST) in the UK.

DST lasts from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October, when the clocks go back an hour.

The day the clocks change always falls on a weekend to cause the least amount of disruption to schools and businesses.

It is a common belief that DST was introduced to help give farmers more daylight hours to work in the fields. But this is not exactly true.

He initially proposed that clocks jump forward by 80 minutes in four incremental steps in April and reversed the same way in September – but he died before any law was implemented in the UK.

The first country to adopt DST was Germany in 1916, during the First World War. The UK followed suit a few weeks later.

How does daylight saving time affect your health?

Since the implementation of DST, and particularly the clocks going forward in spring, various studies have found that darker mornings and lighter evenings can cause havoc with some people’s bodies.

In fact, sleep and dream researcher Charlie Morley said there is “overwhelming” evidence of the health issues the switch can cause.

“What research shows is what a massive effect on the body and mind, just one extra hour [of sleep] can have,” Mr Morley told Sky News.

Another study from 2016 in Finland found there were 8% more hospital admissions for the most common type of stroke in the two days after the shift to daylight savings.

When clocks go back an hour, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – a type of depression that comes and goes in a seasonal pattern – can worsen, mental health charity Change says.

The charity says individuals can also feel increasingly isolated by the limited daylight hours, and sleep cycles can be disrupted.

Should daylight saving be scrapped?

In reality, only about a third of the world’s countries practice daylight saving time, according to the Pew Research Center.

While most states in US continue to change their clocks twice a year, Arizona and Hawaii do not, the former due to its desert climate and the latter because of its location near the equator.

The European Parliament has previously voted for all EU member countries to scrap DST, but after the Parliament and EU Council couldn’t reach an agreement on the legislation, it never became law.

One of the few places that doesn’t follow DST in Europe is Iceland, due to its location and extreme variations in daylight throughout the year.

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How to prepare for clock changes and the ‘golden rule’ of napping

Mr Morley says it is impossible to make up for lost sleep, but those worried ahead of daylight saving time can “front load sleep”.

This involves someone getting “really good, quality sleep before entering a period of bad sleep”.

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Mr Morley added that napping can also be an effective way of dealing with sleep deprivation – but there are some hard and fast rules.

“The two golden rules of napping are it needs to be under an hour, so between 20 minutes and 60 minutes, and the nap needs to end six hours before you intend to go to bed again,” he explained.

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