cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2693230

Last Monday, the strike announced weeks before by the Dominican Medical Association (CMD) took place, as part of a series of isolated protests, which would be carried out if the demands are not heard. Representatives of these companies informed that the strike will be nationwide.

The strike ratifies the failure of negotiations between the Dominican Association of Health Insurance Companies and grassroots organizations, led by the Dominican Medical Association, which are demanding a democratization of the health insurance system and an improvement in health infrastructure and services.

The main demands that are retaken and redrafted from unsuccessful conversations are the regulation of codes for physicians, the expansion of the Basic Health Plan and the leveling of rates in professional fees, among others.

The effects of the strike were felt on Monday, affecting several health services, which were not well received by many patients. In view of this situation, the Dominican Association of Health Risk Insurers has proposed to the leaders of the strike to agree on a new negotiating table. The request was communicated by its president, José Manuel Vargas, insisting on the need of not affecting patients

The Medical Association is at the forefront of the striking professionals. Its president, Rufino Senén Caba, warned that they are in permanent session and asked those responsible to seek a solution to their demands in order to avoid a deepening of the struggle. The strike lasted 12 hours and began early in the morning.

Several mass media have reported that the government has not made any statement so far.

Since July 26, the strikers announced that it would be a staged stoppage in response to the absence of agreements in the meetings held with government health institutions and the insurance company.

These negotiations were carried out for more than four months, and representatives of the plaintiff institutions denounce that they only received “vague promises”. This was communicated by Senén Caba, president of the CMD.

Both state and private institutions participated in the strike, both sectors interested in the creation of a Social Security Law that guarantees the quality of health services, and that these services be conceived as citizens’ rights.

“It is not possible that after 14 joint meetings, the committee has not made a proposal that minimally meets the expectations of those of us who went there, with the promise that it was the expeditious way to reach an agreement,” the CDM stated in a communiqué.

These are not the only demands being made by Dominican medical organizations to the government. Already in days prior to January 2023, different guilds of the sector, under the banner of the National Health Coordinating Committee CONASALUD, complained to the president about the “lack of equipment and medicines in the hospitals of the country” and called for the “remodeling of the health centers that are not in good conditions.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2693133

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been given three-year jail sentence over corruption allegations.

A court in Islamabad found him guilty of not declaring money he had earned from selling state gifts. He denies the charges and says he will appeal.

After the verdict, Mr Khan was taken into custody from his home in Lahore.

The former cricketer, 70, was elected in 2018, but was ousted in a no-confidence vote last year after falling out with Pakistan's powerful military.

Mr Khan is facing more than 100 cases brought against him since his removal - charges he says are politically motivated.

Saturday's verdict centred on charges that he incorrectly declared details of presents from foreign dignitaries and proceeds from their alleged sale.

The gifts - reported to be worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000) - included Rolex watches, a ring and a pair of cuff links.

Mr Khan's barrister Gohar Khan said the verdict was "a murder of justice".

"We weren't even given a chance. We weren't even allowed to cross [examine], to say anything in defence or conduct our arguments. I haven't seen this kind of injustice before," he told Dawn newspaper.

As the court decision was announced, a crowd, which included some prosecuting lawyers, began chanting "Imran Khan is a thief" outside the building.

His party, Tehreek-e-Insaf, confirmed to the BBC that after being arrested in Lahore, Mr Khan was flown to the capital, Islamabad, to begin serving his sentence.

For months he had avoided arrest, with his supporters at times fighting pitched battles with police to keep him out of custody.

In May, Mr Khan was arrested for not appearing at court as requested. He was then released, with the arrest declared illegal.

Since then, his party has been under intense pressure from the authorities.

Many senior officials have left and thousands of supporters have been arrested, accused of being involved in the protests that followed Mr Khan's arrest.

Pakistan's army plays a prominent role in politics, sometimes seizing power in military coups, and, on other occasions, pulling levers behind the scenes.

Many analysts believe Mr Khan's election win in 2018 happened with the help of the military.

In opposition, he has been one of its most vocal critics, and analysts say the army's popularity has fallen.

Since being ousted, Mr Khan has been campaigning for early elections.

Conviction would disqualify Mr Khan from standing for office, possibly for life.

Pakistan's parliament will be dissolved on August 9, leaving a caretaker government to take over in the run up to the elections.

No election date has been announced, although constitutionally they should take place by early November.

Canada's PM Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie are separating after 18 years, following "meaningful and difficult conversations".

The couple said they would remain "a close family with deep love and respect" in an Instagram post.

They were married in Montreal in 2005 and have three children together.

In a statement, Mr Trudeau's office said that while the couple had signed separation agreement they will still make public appearances.

"They have worked to ensure that all legal and ethical steps with regards to their decision to separate have been taken, and will continue to do so moving forward," the statement said, adding they would be on holiday as a family next week.

The couple have asked for privacy for the "well-being" of their children, Xavier, 15, Ella-Grace 14, and Hadrien, nine.

"We remain a close family with deep love and respect for each other and for everything we have built and will continue to build," Mr Trudeau, 51, and Ms Gregoire Trudeau, 48, said.

They have been seen together publicly less frequently in recent years, though they attended the coronation of King Charles III together in May and hosted US President Joe Biden in Canada in March.

In a wedding anniversary post on Instagram in May 2022, Ms Gregoire Trudeau wrote about the challenges of long-term relationships, saying "we have navigated through sunny days, heavy storms, and everything in between".

The two began dating in 2003, when Ms Gregoire Trudeau was working as a TV personality. She is also known for her charity work around mental health and eating disorders.

Mr Trudeau was first elected prime minister in 2015.

Former President Donald Trump was indicted for an unprecedented third time on August 1, adding another set of serious federal charges to the mounting legal issues he faces.

Trump wasindicted as part of the Department of Justice’s criminal investigation, led by special counsel Jack Smith, into the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. The indictment marks the second time Trump has faced federal charges, and he remains the only president to have been federally indicted.

The indictment is the product of a months-long investigation in which Smith’s team questioned several high-profile members of Trump’s circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and former White House communications director Hope Hicks. It follows the House January 6th committee’s investigation last year, which concluded that Trump incited the insurrection and conspired to defraud the US government, referring him and other associates to the DOJ for prosecution.

Trump seemed to know the indictment was coming. He posted August 1 on TruthSocial that Smith “will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your Favorite President, me,” and previously posted on the platform that he’d received what’s known as a target letter from Smith. He wrote, “They have now effectively indicted me three times,” and called the investigation a “WITCH HUNT” as well as “POLITICAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT” in that earlier, July 18 post.

Here’s what you need to know about what happens next.

Will Trump be arrested and go to jail?

Trump is not expected to be jailed following his arraignment, following a pattern established by his previous arraignments in New York and Miami. Trump was previously fingerprinted in those cases but was not put in handcuffs and did not have his mugshot taken. There were cameras allowed in the courtroom in New York, but not in Miami. He was also allowed to return home following both arraignments.

What does this mean for Trump’s 2024 campaign?

So far, Trump has simply brushed off his legal entanglements, and they appear to be helping him in the 2024 polls. He remains the frontrunner in the GOP primary, polling more than 30 percentage points on average ahead of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, notes that previous indictments were easy for GOP voters to dismiss, but it’s unclear whether this latest indictment will follow that trend.

Many legal analysts have said Trump’s first indictment in New York has weak underpinnings, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had previously boasted about how many times he had sued the Trump administration during his campaign. Together, those factors left many Republicans waving away that indictment as a “partisan witch hunt.”

The second, in the case concerning Trump’s retention of classified documents after he left office, was a “blockbuster legally,” Ayres said, but given Bragg’s indictment had come before it, was easy for Republicans to brush it off yet again.

It’s difficult to know exactly what will happen now that Trump has been indicted for a third time. But if Republicans’ reaction to the House January 6 committee’s investigation is any indication, it might do little to sway the base.

“It was an article of faith among Republican voters that they weren’t going to watch the January 6 hearings. They just determined ahead of time that it was a partisan witch hunt, even though the vast majority of the witnesses were Trump employees, Trump confidants, and Trump staff members,” Ayres said.

That means that when it comes to the primary, this latest indictment seems unlikely to have a major effect on voters. However, it remains to be seen whether these indictments will cause moderates and independents to turn away from the former president.

Trump has already lost once to President Joe Biden, but in head-to-head matchups over the last month, some polls have him winning by as much as 7 percentage points, while others have him losing by as much as 6 percentage points. Much could change before November 2024, but should Trump be his party’s nominee, those numbers suggest a tight race in which losing moderates and independents in states like Georgia or Pennsylvania could be the difference between victory and defeat.

Overall, even in the best-case scenario for the former president, in which the legal issues have zero effect on his support, the cases will take away valuable time and money he could be spending on his campaign.

How are Trump’s Republican rivals reacting?

Republicans seeking the 2024 nomination have treaded lightly in using the investigations against Trump to attack him as unfit for another term.

Before news of the indictment broke, DeSantis said that Trump “should have come out more forcefully” against violence on January 6, but also told CNN, “I hope he doesn’t get charged.” Vivek Ramaswamy said that he “would have made very different judgments than President Trump did” that day. Nikki Haley suggested that she’s tired of the drama and said that, “We can’t be sitting there focused on lawsuits over and over again.”

All three indictments have presented a conundrum for those looking to displace Trump as the GOP frontrunner. Recognizing his continued grip on the Republican primary voters and the risk of alienating them, the candidates have largely refrained from criticizing Trump directly. But in so doing, they have also struggled to carve out distinct lanes and present a clear argument for why the party should dump Trump. What happens next?

As with the cases against Trump in New York and Florida, the January 6 case could extend well into the 2024 campaign season — or even beyond the election.

Smith has sought a speedy trial in the classified documents case, which is currently scheduled for May 2024, and it’s possible that he will do so in the January 6 case. (Trump, on the other hand, had pushed to delay the trial in the documents case later than the 2024 election to accommodate his campaign calendar.)

Kevin O’Brien, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said it’s unclear whether the January 6 case can feasibly be decided before the 2024 election. It is much bigger in scope and therefore may take longer to resolve, but also carries significant public interest.

“The subject matter has had direct implications for our democratic process. And you can argue the voters should be exposed to that evidence and know [the jury verdict] in that case,” he said.

If Trump wins the 2024 election, then it “would be a brouhaha,” O’Brien said. Any unresolved federal charges would likely become moot under the longstanding DOJ policy that a sitting president cannot be indicted. But if he’s convicted before assuming office, that would create a constitutional question: whether he could later pardon himself

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/2375580

A powerful bomb ripped through a rally by supporters of a hardline political and Muslim leader in the country’s northwestern Bajur district that borders Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 35 people, local officials said.

Azam Khan, head of the emergency room at Khar’s main hospital, said 35 bodies were brought to the hospital while the number of wounded was now more than 100.

Government administrator Mohibullah Khan Yousufzai confirmed the toll, adding that those serious wounded were being airlifted to the provincial capital, Peshawar, for better medical care.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Senior police officer Nazir Khan said the workers’ convention of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party was taking place on the outskirts of Khar, the capital of Bajur district, when the explosion took place.

Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, the inspector general of police for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said explosion took place before the senior party leader’s arrival.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that while the attack was confirmed as a suicide bombing, there were fears that the armed group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) may be responsible for it.

Rehman is considered to be a pro-Taliban cleric and his political party is part of the coalition government in Islamabad.

Meetings are being organised across the country to mobilise supporters for the coming elections, due to be held by October.

Rapper Ye’s account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is no longer suspended, a journalist from the New York Times first reported.

“Twitter/X says Kanye West’s account is being “turned back on,” the Times’ tech reporter Ryan Mac posted. “It will be ineligible for a monetization and no ads will appear next to his posts, according to the company.”

Mac also pointed out that the account has been given a gold check mark — supposedly reserved for “official business accounts.”

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was suspended from the platform — owned by billionaire Elon Musk — more than six months ago, after sharing an image depicting the Star of David with a swastika inside of it.

“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk wrote after the suspension.

In the months leading up to Ye’s suspension, he repeatedly made antisemitic comments online and offline. Watchdog group StopAntisemitism.org even named him “Antisemite of the Year” after he became embroiled in controversy over a string of derogatory comments against Jews.

When Musk bought the platform, he touted plans to change its content moderation rules to allow for more “free speech.” However, when Ye tweeted the controversial image, he drew the line.

Musk has not publicly commented on the renewal of Ye’s account nor responded to requests for comment.

Anyone who's had a migraine knows how debilitating it can be. It begins with your head throbbing from the inside, the pain spreading like frozen iron from behind one eye to the next. You keep your head down, avoiding bright lights and loud sounds. Nausea begins to rise.

If you're lucky you can retreat to bed before it gets any worse, where the migraine pins you down for anything between a few hours and a couple of days.

Migraine is not just a bad headache. It can debilitate you in ways that head pain cannot. For many, those with chronic migraine, more than half of your days each month are spent in this state.

One in two people suffer from a headache disorder, while around 15% of people globally suffer from migraines. Migraine is caused by a hypersensitive brain

Migraine is a disease of hypersensitivity: The migraine brain has abnormally sensitive neuronal connections.

Compared to people who don't get migraines, this leaves migraineurs more likely to respond to small changes in the environment, which can result in headaches or more serious migraine attacks.

Migraine attacks are thought to originate from abnormal electrical excitability in sensory neurons in the meninges, layers of membrane that protect the brain.

When sensitized, these neurons send signals to the brain which trigger headache pain, photophobia, and other migraine symptoms. These neurons are also close to blood vessels, which is why headaches can feel like they pulse along with your heartbeat.

According to Paul Durham, a migraine researcher at Missouri State University, US, migraine is a disease which primarily affects the brain, but also involves the whole body.

"Other systems such as the immune, digestive and cardiovascular system contribute to migraine. That means if you only target one aspect of migraine with analgesics [pain-relief], then it is not likely to alleviate all symptoms and improve the patient's quality of life," he said.

What triggers migraine?

There are a huge range of migraine triggers and each person's triggers can differ from the next. The most common triggers are:

• Bright lights and loud sounds.
• Strong smells like perfume, smoke, or certain smelly foods.
• Lack of sleep, poor quality sleep, or jet lag.
• Hunger or dehydration.
• Too much caffeine.
• Alcohol, especially red wine.
• Hormone fluctuations, such as before or during periods, pregnancy, or menopause.
• Foods and diet, especially diets containing ultra-processed foods and processed sugars.
• Stress.

Durham said that stress is the key binding factor here:

"These factors promote a hyperexcitable nervous system that is more susceptible to migraine triggers. Stress is a major factor in modern society," he said.

Ways to help alleviate migraine symptoms

There are ways you can help to alleviate the severity of a migraine, or prevent a headache becoming a full-blown migraine.

Drinking plenty of fluids or placing an icepack on your forehead can help, as can resting in a quiet, dark room to ease environmental stressors.

Many patients learn to get migraine relief from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). It's unlikely to treat the disease, but it can teach you thought actions to cope with pain and understand migraine triggers.

There are claims that mindfulness can also help, however studies are finding little evidence it has a robust impact on headache or migraine symptoms in the long run.

How do you treat migraine?

Here are some of the most clinically successful migraine medications:

• Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) monoclonal antibodies: These new migraine medications block the action of a protein called CGRP. CGRP plays an important role in the development of migraine symptoms, sensitizing neurons in the meninges.
• Triptans: A class of medications which bind to certain types of serotonin receptors in the body and causes pain-relieving effects.
• Analgesics like paracetamol or aspirin can be effective in reducing headache pain, but don't tend to help reducing chronic migraine symptoms.

The evidence for CGRP antibodies and Triptans as migraine treatments is particularly robust, with patients having dramatic improvements of life quality after taking the drugs. However, the drugs don't work in all patients, meaning not all patients can get migraine relief from medication.

Another issue is that treatments tend to focus on alleviating headache pain, which means other symptoms like nausea, light sensitivity and tiredness can remain.

Migraine treatments in development

Researchers are working hard to solve these treatment gaps and there are promising candidates being investigated:

• Neuromodulation devices: e-TNS (external trigeminal nerve stimulation) is a treatment which gives low power electrical stimulation to facial nerves. Clinical trials are showing clinical success in treating migraine, but it is not yet approved for patient use.
• Oxytocin: oxytocin hormonal nasal sprays could be effective and safe at reducing migraine incidence, especially in women.
• Certain foods or dietary supplementation treatments: Paul Durham's research shows grape seed extract, cacao, or chicken broth can help reduce migraine incidence in some people.

"I don't think nutraceuticals should ever replace medications, but they could provide another option for managing migraine. I like what Hippocrates said: 'Let food by thy medicine', " he said.

For the time being, these latest approaches have only been tested on small numbers of patients, meaning they currently lack sufficient evidence to be recommended to patients. However, all three candidates look promising, and clinical testing is underway to see if could be used as safe and effective migraine treatments.

For the second time, contaminated bone graft products from the medical company Aziyo Biologics Inc. are linked to a highly unusual and deadly outbreak of tuberculosis.

This week, three new tuberculosis cases were identified, bringing the outbreak total to five, according to Politico. One person has died. The contaminated material, used for surgical and dental procedures, was implanted in at least 36 other patients, who are now being treated as if they have tuberculosis.

Aziyo Biologics issued a recall of all of its bone matrix products earlier this month "out of an abundance of caution" after the first two cases were identified. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that all unused products from the affected lot have been sequestered so that they will not be used. The affected materials had been sent to health care facilities in California, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia.

A representative for Aziyo did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment. In the recall announcement, Aziyos CEO Randy Mills said: "We are taking immediate action to safeguard patients by implementing a full product recall as we work with the CDC to investigate this event. The people of Aziyo care deeply about the patients we serve and will continue to work with the medical community, patients, and regulatory authorities as we gather additional information."

Tuberculosis outbreaks linked to transplanted tissue are very rare, yet this isn't the first time Aziyo's bone graft products have been linked to such an outbreak. Just two years ago, a different bone graft product from the company was linked to a large outbreak in which at least 87 patients developed tuberculosis, and eight died.

That outbreak, which came to light in May 2021, was linked to contaminated product from a single tissue donor, a deceased man in his 80s. An outbreak investigation published last year found that the donor had "unrecognized risk factors, symptoms, and signs consistent with tuberculosis."

Tissue from the man was made into 154 units of bone matrix material—described as a malleable putty that includes human cells—which was shipped to 37 health care facilities in 20 US states. From there, 136 units were implanted into the spines of 113 patients, some of whom got multiple units. Of those 113 patients, 87 had signs of tuberculosis disease, 55 were readmitted to the hospital for complications, and 48 had to undergo secondary spinal surgeries for drainage, to remove damaged tissue, and/or to remove hardware. Of the 105 surviving patients, all were treated for tuberculosis, taking multiple antibiotics for a median course of 69 days.

It's unclear how the problem occurred again. In its recall announcement earlier this month, Aziyo said the contaminated lot, again from a single donor, had tested negative for the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, by an independent laboratory using a nucleic acid test before distribution. The company added that it is "fully cooperating and investigating the events" in coordination with the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration.

The US Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the city of Memphis and its police department, months after the beating death of a 29-year-old Black motorist catapulted local law-enforcement tactics into the national spotlight.

At a news conference on Thursday, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke acknowledged the outrage that followed the killing of Tyre Nichols, who died in hospital after being pulled from his car during a traffic stop, and tackled and assaulted by police.

“In January of this year, the nation witnessed the tragic death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police,” Clarke told reporters.

“City and police department leaders recognised the need to scrutinise the police department’s practices to prevent such incidents from ever happening again.”

But Clarke underscored that the investigation was not “based on a single incident or event”, and she described “multiple reports of officers escalating encounters” in the city.

“There are also indications that officers made use of force punitively when faced with behaviour they perceived to be insolent,” she said. “The information we reviewed also shows that officers may use force against people who are already restrained or in custody.”

Clarke also said that traffic stops like Nichols’s are not uncommon in Memphis, where nearly 65 percent of residents identify as Black, according to the 2022 census.

“Our review indicates that even in a majority Black city, MPD’s [Memphis Police Department’s] traffic enforcement may focus disproportionately on the Black community,” she said.

Memphis is the latest city in the United States to face a federal civil rights investigation as the country continues to grapple with widespread calls to address police violence, particularly against Black people and other people of colour.

In June, the Justice Department concluded a similar probe in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the 2020 police killing of George Floyd sparked protests around the world.

The investigation found that Minneapolis police had discriminated against Black and Indigenous people, among others. It also found “unjustified deadly force” had been used.

Similarly, the Justice Department found civil rights violations in Louisville, Kentucky, in a separate investigation that concluded in March.

Those findings echoed widespread concerns about abuse of power and discriminatory practices in US police departments.

A 2021 report in the medical journal The Lancet found that half of all deaths due to police violence between 1980 and 2018 went unreported in a federal database. Of those, an estimated 9,540 Black deaths went unaccounted for or mislabelled.

The study also noted that Black men were 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than their white counterparts.

In the Nichols case, much of the attention has focused on Memphis’s so-called “Scorpion Unit”, the elite police team that carried out his arrest.

The Scorpion Unit was designed to address violent crime in the city, though advocates say it has contributed to an aggressive, “cowboy” police culture.

Memphis has seen a 5.4 percent increase in violent crime since 2022, part of an upward trend since 2011.

Clarke acknowledged that the Tennessee city faced “one of the country’s highest rates of violent crime”. “When crime is high, there is an understandable urgency to respond,” she said.

But Kevin Ritz, the US attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, emphasised that law enforcement’s primary responsibility is to protect. “Here’s the thing. Public safety requires public trust in law enforcement,” he said.

“The police officers who risk their lives every day in the line of duty need the public to trust them. Community trust makes policing more effective and less dangerous for both officers and the people they protect.”

The civil rights investigation will weigh whether Memphis and its police violated the US Constitution or federal civil rights law in a “systematic way”.

Unlike a criminal investigation, which may end with charges, the probe will culminate in a report if violations are found.

The Justice Department will then work with the city and police officials to reach an agreement on next steps. Should the parties fail to agree on remedies, the Justice Department has the option to bring a civil lawsuit against Memphis.

The Memphis probe is the Justice Department’s ninth such investigation during US President Joe Biden’s administration.

London, United Kingdom – In the early 1980s when Amandip Sidhu was growing up in Harrow, a suburb on the fringe of northwest London, his South Asian family was one of only a handful of non-white households in the area.

Having spent some of his childhood in East Africa, where his father was a civil servant, Amandip and his family keenly felt the racist microaggressions that were common across the United Kingdom at the time.

This early experience of prejudice profoundly changed his brother Jagdip, who was five and a half years older than him. Jagdip decided that the best way to beat discrimination was to prove that he was better than his peers. “He was very much the golden boy, and everyone loved him,” Amandip says.

After leaving secondary school with top grades, Jagdip went on to tertiary college, which was at the time a prerequisite for entrance into university. Just to outdo himself, he made a request to the college to be allowed to take four subjects instead of the maximum three for his exams. The request was rejected, but Jagdip refused to be deterred. He bought himself a textbook and taught himself physics, eventually scoring straight As.

Amandip found it tough being continually compared with his accomplished sibling. “I’m not academically gifted, and my dad would have a go at me about it sometimes,” he says. “And my brother would step in and say, ‘Look, just leave him alone.’ He was the only person my dad would listen to.”

Jagdip sailed through medical school, his scholastic record peppered with awards. Then he started work at Ealing Hospital in West London. Amandip recalls how his brother bought a new pair of shoes and, a short time after he started work, showed him his feet. They were bleeding and covered in blisters. Amandip was shocked, but Jagdip was pleased. He was so busy at the hospital that he had been rushing around for 10 miles (16km) a day.

“He felt it was a badge of honour, the fact that his shoes were worn out, that he didn’t have anything to eat or drink or even go to the toilet,” Amandip explains. It was almost as if these were accepted symbols of the dedication needed to be considered a good doctor by the profession and health systems.

Over almost 25 years, Jagdip established a reputation as an excellent doctor. He became the clinical lead for cardiology at a hospital in Kent and was tasked with spearheading several large projects, including one at a teaching hospital in London. “Until today, I still run into people who tell me he was the best they’d ever worked with, that he never got a diagnosis wrong,” Amandip says.

While many other consultants decided to take on private commercial work, Jagdip was committed to serving the majority of his patients under the publicly funded National Health Service (NHS). He felt strongly that he had a responsibility towards those who needed urgent healthcare but couldn’t pay for it. But his clinic lists were far longer than his colleagues, and there simply were not enough resources to support the overwhelming number of patients. Jagdip felt like he had to take every single one of them on.

But the cracks were beginning to show. In mid-November 2018, Jagdip told Amandip that he was scared of what was happening to him. “He was listening to his colleague talk about a case and said his brain couldn’t even function.”

Amandip gave his brother advice he now regrets. “I said he should see the occupational health service at the hospital, which was probably the wrong thing to do,” he says. Deeming Jagdip overworked, the hospital put him on leave for six months. In his severely distressed state, Amandip believes, Jagdip perceived this to be a punitive measure.

The Sunday after Jagdip was signed off sick, Amandip went to visit him. He says his brother was completely broken. It was only the second time he’d seen him cry. The first was at their father’s funeral. “He couldn’t look me in the eye. He felt so ashamed. It was his whole life. Being signed off work was like a draconian punishment to him, to say that you can no longer be the person you are.”

The next day, Amandip sent Jagdip a message to check on him. Jagdip responded and said he was resting. Unbeknownst to Amandip, his brother was actually tidying up his financial affairs.

Then, the following day, November 27, at around 2:30pm, Amandip received an email. True to the perfectionism that had defined him since childhood, Jagdip’s message consisted of a long list of instructions on what to do with his house and his insurance policies. “You’ll find me at Beachy Head with the car,” the note ended. Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in the UK, has been a well-known location for suicides since the 1600s. Amandip felt a punch to the gut: His brother was saying goodbye.

Amandip drove straight to Beachy Head from London, where he lives. The area was already swarming with search dogs, helicopters and officers from the coastguard. He sat waiting in silence until a policeman told him that they had found Jagdip’s body.

A numbness came over him during the hourlong drive home. “I showered, went to bed and thought I’d process it later,” he says. At 3am, he woke up and started sobbing as his wife held him. “That’s when it really hit me that my brother was dead,” he says.

Dr Jagdip Sidhu was 47 years old.

Mosquitoes carry malaria, which kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. Now some researchers are trying to use genetic engineering to make the pesky insects into allies in the fight against the disease.

The approach is a radical departure from traditional ways of controlling malaria. For years, public health officials have tried to limit the disease by controlling mosquito populations.

But that approach is temporary, says Anthony James, a professor of molecular biology and genetics at the University of California, Irvine. Because mosquitoes are extremely tough little insects, and their populations can quickly rebound.

"To try to get rid of them, I don't think it's possible," he says. Instead, James and his colleagues want to try a different approach: making mosquitoes themselves into malaria-fighting warriors.

To understand how it works, it helps to understand the life cycle of malaria. The malaria pathogen is a parasite that grows inside humans. It's transmitted via mosquitoes that flit from person to person, sucking blood (the parasites also reproduce inside the guts of skeeters).

"If we can make the mosquitoes inhospitable to the pathogens, you know, we can eliminate the threat of getting the disease," he says.

But making mosquitoes uninviting to malaria is a tough job. The malaria parasite doesn't make mosquitoes sick, so mosquito immune systems don't fight it.

To get around the problem, the team used a gene-editing technique called CRISPR. They started with genes from mice, whose immune systems do fight human malaria.

"What we did then was engineer those [genes], and give them to the mosquitos," he says.

The results were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Sure enough, the gene-edited mosquitos produced malaria-fighting antibodies.

Those antibodies "worked very well," says James. "They reduce the number of parasites in the mosquito, most importantly in the salivary gland, which is where they would be before they were transmitted to a human host."

This technique also allows the researchers to make the genes spread quickly. That means, rather than having to release swarms of gene-edited mosquitos, they could put out a smaller number. The engineered mosquitoes mate, pass on their genetic code, and that code rapidly fans out across the wild population.

But genetically altering wild animals does not sit well with environmentalists.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1840014

Two-day strike by consultants comes amid record waiting times due to a pandemic backlog and multiple strikes over the past year as workers battle a cost of living crisis, Transport workers are due to strike at the same time as the consultants with staff at 14 train operators walking out on Thursday, Saturday and on July 29.

English hospitals were braced Thursday for the latest doctors’ strike to hit the state-run health service with managers warning it will leave “routine care virtually at a standstill”.

The two-day strike by consultants, and hospital-based dentists comes amid record patient waiting times due to a vast pandemic backlog and multiple strikes across the economy over the past year as workers battle a cost of living crisis.

The consultants’ strike, only the third time the senior specialist doctors have taken industrial action, began at 7:00am (0600 GMT) on Thursday and runs until 7:00am on Saturday. Consultants will not only stop seeing patients themselves, but they won’t be around to provide supervision over junior doctors, which impacts thousands of appointments Stephen Powis, NHS medical director

“This could undoubtedly be the most severe impact we have ever seen in the NHS as a result of industrial action, with routine care virtually at a standstill for 48 hours,” said National Health Service (NHS) medical director Stephen Powis.

“Consultants will not only stop seeing patients themselves, but they won’t be around to provide supervision over the work of junior doctors, which impacts thousands of appointments for patients,” he said.

The action follows months of disruption as health staff have walked out leading to delayed treatment and cancelled appointments for hundreds of thousands of patients.

Junior doctors staged an unprecedented five-day stoppage earlier this month over pay and staff retention, their third walkout since April.

UK Tories tell PM Rishi Sunak he must raise nurses’ pay to fix NHS crisis

Nurses and ambulance staff have also taken strike action, eventually accepting a five per cent pay rise in May.

Powis said emergency and urgent care would be prioritised “in the eighth month of industrial action, and with more than 600,000 appointments already affected, it’s becoming even more challenging to get services back on track after each round of action”.

Consultants are calling for a “credible pay offer” after years of below-inflation rises which they say have eroded their pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA), which represents consultants, says their take-home pay has fallen by 35 per cent since 2008.

The consultants, who earn salaries of around £88,000-£119,000 (US$113,000-US$153,000), have already announced a second round of strikes for August 24-25.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, however, has told the doctors to call off their stoppages and warned that the government will no longer negotiate on higher salaries.

He said earlier this month the government had accepted recommendations from independent pay review bodies for salary increases of between 5.0 and 7.0 per cent in the public sector.

The offer was “final”, he said, adding: “No amount of strikes will change our decision.”

Sunak has pledged to halve stubbornly high inflation, currently just under 8.0 per cent.

He has said higher pay awards are unaffordable and just risk fuelling inflation.

The BMA called the government’s offer “derisory” and urged members to join their nearest picket line.

Transport workers are due to strike at the same time as the consultants with staff at 14 train operators walking out on Thursday, Saturday and on July 29.

They will be joined on Sunday and on July 25-28 by London Underground staff.

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