Participants who got single dose of psilocybin were more likely to abstain from cocaine than those who got placebo

Results from a new clinical trial show that a single dose of psilocybin could be an effective treatment for cocaine addiction.

The study, published in Jama Network Open this month, showed that 19 participants who received a single dose of psilocybin were more likely to abstain from cocaine than 17 participants who received a placebo of diphenhydramine, a common antihistamine.

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As Starmer, Burnham, Streeting, Rayner, Polanski and Farage line up, I say ambition for power is no bad thing. It’s what they would do with it that counts

Ah, Mr Burnham, come in, take a seat. Mr Streeting, good to see you. We’ll also be interviewing Mr Starmer, then Ms Rayner; Mr Farage and Mr Polanski come in this afternoon. So, this prime minister job: what are you in it for?

That’s how I would do it. The “what are you in it for?” question gets to the heart of personal ambition. Of course we all tell prospective employers that we are hard-working, able, conscientious and ambitious. But that last claim, in particular, needs to be followed up and tested a bit. Ambitious for what? Ambitious for whom?

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The Russian-born artist’s work can hypnotise, deceive or even transform into a mushroom. He talks about his Venice show full of Christian iconography and haunting depictions of children

Sanya Kantarovsky’s paintings are filled with the dishevelled and the fallible: figures that bite and pin each other into submission, draw blood, appear hypnotised or sometimes transmogrify into a mushroom. The otherworldly intensity that has defined the 44-year-old’s work to date is as strong as ever in his new show, Basic Failure, which recently opened in Venice to coincide with the Biennale.

Located at Venice’s Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts – a palazzo with high ceilings and a dark terrazzo-marbled floor, the walls lined with antique books – the exhibition opens with the diminutive portrait, Boy With Cigarette, in which the thickly painted, pallid, downturned young face of a boy, outlined in darkening blue brushstrokes, is seen caressing an unlit cigarette with tendril-like fingers. As Kantarovsky observes, his characters “feel both familiar and kind of alien at the same time”. This saturnine image is counterbalanced by the giddy expression of innocence nearby – a child spins on the spot, her dress flying upwards, as if free from the weight of any embarrassment.

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Cult club of Hamburg gave everything at Millentor, but Dane inspired visitors to a dramatic victory that kept their survival hopes alive

There were few tears at the end, just as there were few gazes directed to phone screens during the game to check scores elsewhere. St Pauli scarves were raised to the sky in the stands of Millentor as You’ll Never Walk Alone rolled out of the stadium’s speakers, with the players and staff forming a huddle in the middle of the field to share words of commiseration.

This club apart will live to fight another day, after a day on which they had given everything and on which it just was not enough. It would be simplistic, on a day when Europe’s premier counter-cultural club played a club that have traditionally been seen by Bundesliga fans as the embodiment of corporate football with salvation the prize, to say that Wolfsburg needed this more than St Pauli. This meant plenty to this left-leaning neighbourhood of Hamburg too, where innovative measures like selling supporters shares in the stadium to raise funds have shown how determined they are to prove that there are ways to thrive and survive in the top leagues of the modern game without shedding their traditional values.

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Britain's F-35 fighter fleet is set to carry US-made glide bombs as an interim measure until delayed F-35 software updates from Lockheed Martin add support for the SPEAR 3 mini-cruise missile intended for the aircraft. The news comes in an official response from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which published a scathing report last year on the MoD's management of the F-35 program. That report noted that the stealth fighter force lacks essential capabilities, one of which is a stand-off weapon to attack ground targets from a safe distance. The SPEAR missile is intended to fulfil this requirement, but although it is ready and passed test firings in 2024, the F-35 is not currently able to operate it. This capability should have been delivered by now through the Block 4 software update from F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin, but this has met with a series of delays. It is now expected in 2031, five years behind schedule. One of the PAC's recommendations was that the MoD should set out in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) how it will ensure a stand-off capability until SPEAR 3 is fully integrated onto the aircraft. Permanent Secretary at the MoD Jeremy Pocklington wrote back in a letter that approval has been given to proceed with a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) procurement of the precision-guided munition, Small Diameter Bomb (SDB II). "This acquisition will provide the F-35 with an interim stand-off capability until the introduction of SPEAR 3 into service," he stated. SDB II, designated GBU-53/B StormBreaker in US service, is a roughly 200-pound (93 kg) bomb with fold-out wings to allow it to glide to a target up to 69 miles (111 km) away. It has a tri-mode seeker in the nose that lets it use radar, infrared, or laser tracking to home in. Other criticisms leveled at the MoD were that it lacked suitably qualified engineers, and the department's pattern of delaying purchases to meet annual budget targets, which the PAC claimed has the effect of inflating total program costs while reducing operational capacity. Pocklington conceded that not enough spares were available to support the F-35 squadrons aboard aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales during the eight-month Operation Highmast deployment last year. "The surge to 24 F-35B aircraft during Operation HIGHMAST exceeded the Afloat Spares Pack capacity of 12. This was mitigated by supplementing with the Deployable Spares Pack [designed for land-based deployments] and taking additional spares from the RAF Marham Base Spares Pack," he wrote. "The Lightning Force is collaborating closely with the Royal Navy to optimise joint scheduling between home and embarked operations, given the current limitation of two front-line squadrons. The Department also plans to double the capacity of the Afloat Spares Pack and procure an additional Deployable Spares Pack for land operations, subject to the DIP." In response, PAC chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP commented on the "entirely unacceptable incompetence that flies in the face of any kind of sensible planning from the Ministry of Defence." "At the heart of any military planning is sound logistics. The UK sent an aircraft carrier with 24 F-35 fighter jets on it to the Middle East – with not enough spare parts to support them." "In an increasingly dangerous world, our military and the country need more than this half-baked approach from the MoD. Our brave fighting men and women, before being sent into potential harm's way, must have absolute certainty that they are well-supported in their equipment, with clear and reliable supply lines," he added. Pocklington's letter also said a short-term reduction in the availability of F-35 aircraft was likely due to the MoD stepping up corrosion awareness and prevention practices. While corrosion can be an issue for all aircraft, this is especially true for those operated from carriers, and it can also impact the F-35's radar-defeating stealth capabilities. The PAC report had noted that the MoD is behind in delivering a UK Aircraft Signature Assessment Facility, needed to check that the F-35's stealth technology is still doing its job and has not been compromised. On the lack of qualified engineers, Pocklington claimed that steps were being taken to address this by increasing available posts to 168. "The RAF has plans in place to fill its remaining engineering posts by 2032. This date is driven by the amount of time (up to three years) it takes to make engineers fully competent on an aircraft type," he said, adding that "the number of personnel recruited into the Engineering Profession, who are now in the training system, has already increased." However, the government's Defence Investment Plan (DIP) was due in autumn 2025, but there is currently no official publication date for it, despite the fact that many key projects are in limbo until it is delivered. ®

TEHERAN (ANP) - De Iraanse Nobelprijswinnares Narges Mohammadi is zondag ontslagen uit het ziekenhuis, meldt haar stichting op sociale media. De activist, die eerder in de gevangenis zat, mag naar huis en heeft de komende weken nog afspraken in het ziekenhuis, aldus de stichting.

Het is "absoluut essentieel" dat Mohammadi nauwlettend in de gaten wordt gehouden door haar artsen, zegt de stichting. Die zouden hebben gezegd dat ze rust nodig heeft en minstens acht maanden in een rustige omgeving moet verblijven, "volledig vrij van externe stressfactoren". Mohammadi heeft al langer een slechte gezondheid en lag in het ziekenhuis vanwege een hartaandoening.

Het is niet duidelijk wat dit betekent voor de gevangenisstraf van Mohammadi, die ze kreeg opgelegd voor samenzwering, medeplichtigheid aan het plegen van misdrijven en propagandistische activiteiten. Ook toen ze in 2023 de Nobelprijs kreeg voor haar inzet voor mensenrechten en tegen de onderdrukking van vrouwen, zat ze al vast.

SCHIPHOL (ANP) - Advocaten Ronald van der Horst en Anique Slijters zijn bereid om Ridouan Taghi (48) bij te staan in het hoger beroep van het Marengo-proces. Dat zei advocaat Sjoerd van Berge Henegouwen maandag tijdens een tussentijdse zitting in de rechtbank op Schiphol. Van Berge Henegouwen stond Taghi eenmalig bij voor deze zitting, waarin de situatie over het ontbreken van zijn rechtsbijstand werd besproken.

Het advocatenduo stond onder meer de oudste zoon van Taghi, Faissal, bij en Delano G., de schutter bij de moord op Peter R. de Vries.

Van Berge Henegouwen meent dat er genoeg advocaten zijn die Taghi willen bijstaan, maar dat het grote probleem is dat zij te weinig tijd krijgen van het hof om zich in te lezen in het dossier. Van Berge Henegouwen meent dat het hof daarom over de "eigen schaduw" heen moet stappen.

Taghi zit al meer dan een jaar zonder advocaat, na de aanhouding van zijn laatste advocaat Vito Shukrula.

TER APEL (ANP) - In het aanmeldcentrum voor asielzoekers in Ter Apel is het sinds vorige week nog drukker dan normaal. Het complex mag maximaal 2000 mensen opvangen. Die limiet wordt sinds januari vrijwel onafgebroken overschreden, maar sinds vorige week schommelt het aantal mensen rond de 2200.

In de nacht van zondag op maandag sliepen 2199 mensen in het aanmeldcentrum. De nacht ervoor ging het om 2234 asielzoekers. Dat was het hoogste aantal sinds 18 september 2024. Volgens opvangorgaan COA hebben sommige mensen op stoelen of op de grond moeten slapen.

In 2022 sliepen honderden nieuwe asielzoekers op het gras buiten het aanmeldcentrum, omdat er binnen geen plek voor ze was. Dat is nu nog niet aan de orde, zegt het COA. "Maar we hebben minder keuze in wie je waar plaatst. We moeten de hele tijd schuiven. Stel dat een gezin van zes mensen in een ruimte voor acht personen zit. Doe je daar twee alleenstaande mannen bij? Als we vol zitten, kom je op het punt dat dit nodig is. Dat gaat ten koste van leefbaarheid en veiligheid."

rosssta-maria has added a photo to the pool: