Trump's aid cuts have left at least 16 countries in Africa running out of essential contraception. In three countries I've identified, contraceptive methods have already gone out of stock, leaving women facing abuse and turning to unsafe alternatives. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Just for a second, take a step back, and remember that these are the actions of a 56 year old man towards a 17 year old girl.

+ watch Bel Trew's film on the devastating effects of cutting family planning www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/trum... + read her powerful reporting www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Read the report here www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

WATCH: Mission Aborted: Trump’s War on Maternal Care

Countries across Africa are running out of contraceptives.

Exclusive from me today: Countries across Africa are running out of contraception because of US aid cuts, with at least three having already run out of key methods leaving women vulnerable to unsafe abortion and abuse www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Find this use of the term 'deep state' so so fascinating, bearing in mind it originally described policies and actions taken secretly outside of the official system of checks and balances. Means seems to be using it to describe that very system of checks - the fact the pres can't do w/e he likes

The thing you don’t see about lengthy libel cases like this is the mental impact on witnesses - and on news outlets’ willingness to do similar stories. Respect to all the women who chose to go to court to defend this story - plus Sirin Kale, Lucy Osborne, Paul Lewis and the Guardian team.

Babies used to die on the bumpy road from Mahama refugee camp, Rwanda, to the nearest hospital. A fully-operational @savethechildren.org maternity clinic saved lives, but now the centre faces closures because of US aid cuts www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Could direct cash transfers be part of the answer to shrinking aid budgets? www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

love the en dash, fear the em dash

Delighted to have been shortlisted for podcast of the year for my BBC Radio 4/ BBC Sounds doc on the Lightning Process, the misleading treatment preying on long Covid patients and telling them their illness is in their minds #MJAAwards

After asking ChatGPT what to eat instead of salt, a man slowly poisoned himself over course of 3 months and gave himself a psychiatric illness that was common in the 19th century, according to a new medical case study: www.404media.co/guy-gives-hi...

On his decision to end $500M worth of research on mRNA vaccines, RFK Jr. said: “The the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu”. These vaccines saved 3.2M lives in the U.S. He is running a disinformation op against Americans.

Why are they naming all these American detention facilities like pro wrestlers? www.newsweek.com/indiana-prep...

An update on this frankly mind-bending story that Trump's government plans to burn $10m of contraception rather than give it to those who need it - even tho it will cost them more to destroy it + they've had offers from charities to take on the cost of donating www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

We need to teach people the difference between being uncomfortable and being unsafe. Because the discomfort of the safest people is endangering the most vulnerable, all day every day.

A plan to destroy almost $10m worth of contraception already bought for use in low-income countries has now been set in motion. www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Smoking among children in the Great Britain is increasing, now one in five kids (21%) have tried smoking, compared to just 14% two years ago (according to latest figures from ASH). And it coincides with the explosion in popularity of vaping among kids

We've known for months that the UK is going to dramatically cut aid spending. Now we know a bit more about where some of the cuts will fall - at least for next year. And they are falling, as feared, heavily on women and girls www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

"My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived in Israel, served in the IDF and spent my career writing on the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach." archive.md/2025.07.15-0...

UK pledge to global vaccine effort falls £400m to £1.25bn amid raft of aid cuts Campaigners warn reduction could cost lives – even if Britain remains of the largest donors to the international @gavi.org alliance @rachelschraer.bsky.social ✍️ www.the-independent.com/news/health/...

Quick q for Starmer, can you commit hate speech against a military? www.un.org/en/hate-spee....

Millions of children at risk as vaccine uptake around the world stalls www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Lencapavir is the nearest thing we have to an HIV vaccine. It's been described as pandemic-ending - and it could have been in people's arms by the end of the year. Now doses for millions of people are in question because of US cuts independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Another less-known impact of Trump's aid cuts is emerging - while HIV funding has been scaled back in Southern Africa, rape crisis services have become collateral damage www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

The pandemic agreement has been adopted after three years of negotiations, fights and swirling conspiracy theories. But what does it actually mean? www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Aid cuts forcing people in 70 countries to miss out on much-needed medical care, @who.int warns Health facilities have closed and health workers are losing their jobs, WHO director @drtedros.who.int @rachelschraer.bsky.social ✍️ www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...

The World Health Organization's director Dr Tedros opened the World Health Assembly #WHA78 this week with a stark warning about the impact aid cuts are already having on people's health www.independent.co.uk/news/world/e...

This is gloriously illustrative of a certain brand of social media reporting that looks at any ongoing online conversation, pulls out a few random stand-out accounts that are part of the conversation, and then suggests they are the origin of or representative of

"Uganda has some of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world – with same-sex couples facing up to life imprisonment. @rachelschraer.bsky.social speaks to Ugandans who have run out of HIV medication & finds out how already vulnerable communities are coping"

Boob hypnotism Bluesky feels like old Twitter and I don't hate it

a great reframe, the envy of PR experts everywhere

With a lot of focus on the seismic changes to US aid, we shouldn't forget that UK are also coming down the pipeline. It's nowhere near as significant in terms of $$ but the development minister admitted yesterday the cuts will have 'huge impact' www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

See this? It's called a non-inferiority trial. It compares the new vaccine with the current vaccines to see if the new vaccine does better. This new vaccine did. Placebo-controlled trials are not needed to test most new vaccines. Demanding them will only reduce vaccine access. Which is the point.

We should have more black smoke/white smoke drama in other areas of life

Trump’s cuts to contraception will kill ‘tens of thousands’ of women @guttmacher.org: if nothing changes, 50m people will be denied contraception by end of 2025, leading to 34k extra women + girls dying preventable deaths @rachelschraer.bsky.social ✍️ www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

Trump's deadline to review foreign aid spending has passed with billions of dollars still in limbo. So what happens next for those relying on US money to treat HIV patients, offer shelter to refugees in Syria, support rape survivors in South Africa & more? www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

The world had a goal of ending Aids as a public health emergency by 2030 in its sights. Now Trump's cuts have derailed that pledge - instead deaths could triple by the end of the decade www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

I start today as global health correspondent for The Independent covering, among other things, how aid influences communities' health. Know something? Get in touch 🌎

As health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the agencies he leads have taken far-reaching steps to undermine confidence in vaccine efficacy and safety.

There’s a lot written at the moment about No Buy years and divesting from Amazon but this one made me well up open.substack.com/pub/laurafen...

Angella was 14 when she was called into her school staff room, man-handled by a teacher and then told to go home and not come back. She hadn’t known she was pregnant – but by the end of the day, her whole class knew. For @teenvogue.com and @tbij.bsky.social www.teenvogue.com/story/forced...

In East Africa, girls are subject to forced pregnancy exams. “Teachers examine girls, [touching them] around their bodies,” explained a legal worker. “They look at the changes of their body, the changes in the breast size.” Read more: www.teenvogue.com/story/forced...

Coercive pregnancy testing that can lead to expulsion from school is humiliating, invasive and potentially unlawful Despite government action and court rulings, some countries continue the practice 👇

In Teen Vogue today: girls in Uganda, Tanzania and beyond are being subjected to forced pregnancy testing which can lead to them being expelled. It's humiliating and invasive - and potentially unlawful www.teenvogue.com/story/forced...

Breaking down the myth that multiple vaccines can overwhelm the immune system, using the antigen exposure from a single breath as a comparison:

NEW: Pregnancy became far more dangerous in Texas after the state banned abortion, according to ProPublica’s first-of-its-kind analysis, which found the sepsis rate for women hospitalized as they miscarried in the 2nd trimester shot up by more than 50%. https://propub.li/43487Tj

Imp info: “essential foreign assistance normally provided by the agency is not reaching its intended recipients. This is despite Trump administration’s assurances (& a judicial temporary restraining order) to the contrary… HIV drugs that keep millions of people alive are not reaching those in need”