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Rapid endometriosis tests to be made available on NHS in England and Wales

Saliva and gut sensor-based tests hailed as ‘gamechanger’ for millions of women who can wait years for diagnosis

Two tests that can dramatically speed up diagnosis of endometriosis are to be made available on the NHS in England and Wales, in a move hailed as a “gamechanger” for millions of women.

One in 10 women of reproductive age are affected by the condition, where tissue similar to that found in the womb lining grows elsewhere, such as the ovaries and fallopian tubes. Symptoms include painful periods, painful bowel movements, pain when urinating and pain during or after sex.

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Together in prosaic dreams: anthology reveals Europeans’ anticlimactic subconscious

Collector of dream stories from across continent finds ‘surprising consistency’ in the way they are structured

A young woman discovers in a dream that she is responsible for the Holocaust and tries to come up with schemes to make amends – and then gets distracted by a business meeting. Another woman dreams she is being chased by murderers – and ends up chilling in front of the TV with them. A man gets to advise Emmanuel Macron on social policy – and talks to him about haircuts and dog training instead.

Dreams can turn our innermost fears and darkest fantasies into miniature dramas. But an anthology of recollected dreams harvested from online forums across Europe shows how the story arc of the subconscious often bends towards anticlimaxes.

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Student loan promotion in England and Wales amounted to mis-selling, MPs say

Treasury select committee also says ministers have moral obligation to reverse last year’s repayment threshold freeze

Slideshows that compared student loan repayments with the cost of a mobile phone contract, and YouTube videos that did not mention the fact that loan terms could change amounted to mis-selling by the government, MPs have said.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, caused a furore last year when she announced that the repayment threshold on plan 2 student loans would be frozen at £29,385 for three years from April 2027.

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‘I felt my spine and body split’: the woman who was hit by a child on a Lime bike – and denied compensation

The collision was catastrophic. Jane Ouartsi suffered a fractured collarbone, two spinal fractures, a broken femur that took three operations to fix, and she had to learn to walk again like a baby. Why has no one taken responsibility for her life-changing injuries?

As Jane Ouartsi walked across a pedestrianised square in central London, on a Friday evening in early August three years ago, she linked arms with her partner, Dave Mathias, and told him how much she had enjoyed the afternoon they had spent together, eating pizza in Soho and visiting an art installation. It was the last time she can remember feeling properly happy and relaxed.

“We were walking quite slowly, talking about the art. It’s hard to remember exactly, but I think I was saying what a lovely lunch, and then all of a sudden there was a horrific impact,” she says. “I felt my spine and body split and I thought my life was over.”

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Nato braces for difficult summit as Trump puts pressure on spending

Meeting of 32 member states comes at crucial time for alliance after tensions with US over Iran and Greenland

Nato leaders will gather in Ankara on Tuesday after a turbulent six months. And as the US continues to pressure its allies to increase defence spending, the other 31 members of the alliance will be hoping to mollify an unpredictable Donald Trump.

On Monday, Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, called for the allies to present “clear, concrete and credible plans” to reach the organisation’s spending targets. “President Trump fully expects that all allies will step up immediately and get on the path to 5% and do it with urgency,” he said.

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Europe faces up to prospect US may be unable to arm Nato allies

Wars in Iran and Ukraine have expended stockpiles of sought-after missiles, leaving gap in military resources

There are growing concerns in Europe that the US defence industrial base is no longer providing the weapons pledged to Nato allies with US stockpiles depleted owing to the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, leaving allies to consider new avenues to arm and defend themselves.

As Nato leaders including the US president, Donald Trump, convene in Ankara, Turkey, the US plans to address European defence spending and concerns over the Trump administration’s future commitment to the military alliance.

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‘I can sense Sinatra enter my body and exit my lungs’: aboard the celebrity impersonators’ cruise

I joined Marilyn Monroe, Walter White, Ozzy Osbourne and other tribute artists on a cruise where imitation is its own art form

INT. DECK 7, LE CABARET ROUGE, 11.37pm

Frank Sinatra, palming a can of Sprite in one hand and the fist of his beautiful red-headed wife in the other, sat in a dark corner across from Jeff Bezos, who looked like he was waiting for him to say something. But Sinatra said nothing. He’d been mostly quiet all evening, and now in this cabaret he seemed even more distant, staring out past fog and strobe and Bezos’s strong bald head and into the large room where at least half a dozen men had basically shattered a bistro table trying to get a better look at Marilyn Monroe. Sinatra’s wife knew, as did Roy Orbison and Austin Powers, who stood nearby, that it was only minutes before he was supposed to go onstage, and that forcing any sort of conversation on him in this mood of focus would be extremely stupid.

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Sleaze is back and children are hungry – for Project Burnham, these have to be top priorities | Polly Toynbee

Our new PM will be hit by multiple crises when he enters No 10. Success or failure will depend on the decisions he makes in first 100 days

On the day the new prime minister steps into No 10, the heap on his doormat will be ceiling-high with missives imploring, advising, warning and counselling. No doubt there will be many pearls of wisdom and some bad ideas too. Each one will involve getting or spending money, decisions for his first totemic 100 days.

It so happens that his first day, 20 July, is the first week of school summer holidays in England and Wales. As he walks into Downing Street, millions of children will leave the school gates “walking into nothing”, as one child told the Children’s Society. Lonely, isolated, caring for siblings, many hungry, some at risk – for those children, six weeks will loom ahead with Covid-like emptiness, home alone as parents work, no splashing in the sunlit waves of the holiday ads.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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Russian cities feel the pinch amid worsening fuel shortages

Ukraine’s drone and missile campaign on oil infrastructure has brought impact of war to citizens of Moscow and elsewhere

Five hours into the queue, tempers were already fraying at the gas station. Then a black Audi Q7 swept past dozens of waiting cars and pulled straight up to the pumps. Within minutes, motorists were shouting, mobile phones were recording and a police officer had drawn his pistol to calm the crowds.

The confrontation, filmed on Saturday night at a petrol station in the Siberian town of Ust-Ordynsky, captured the growing frustration over Russia’s worsening fuel shortages, which have spread across a country that remains one of the world’s largest oil producers.

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Dowry murders in India no longer spark public anger or debate, study finds

Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961

Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research.

The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases.

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Marine Le Pen’s political future at stake with ruling on electoral ban imminent

Leader of France’s far-right National Rally and a contender for the presidency set to hear appeal decision on Tuesday

Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right figurehead and a leading contender for its presidency, will learn on Tuesday whether she can run in next year’s election when a Paris appeals court rules on her attempt to overturn a ban on holding elected office.

The ruling will determine whether the far-right National Rally (RN) will be led by Le Pen, 57, or her young protege, Jordan Bardella, 30 in next year’s general elections.

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‘Bored? You’re never good enough to get bored!’ Oscar-winner Helen Hunt on great roles, unruly audiences and her RSC debut

The formidable actor talks about the challenge of finding meaty characters, tough times in the US – and co-starring with her dad’s hero Kenneth Branagh in The Cherry Orchard

It’s lunchtime in Stratford-upon-Avon and Helen Hunt has 30 minutes to spare. She’s preparing for her Royal Shakespeare Company debut and is taking time out to speak to me via Zoom, just her head and shoulders, with what looks like a sleek-surfaced kitchen in the backdrop. Hunt is all sleek surfaces herself: polite smiles, even tones and an inscrutability so strained it makes me wonder what might be bubbling underneath.

Hunt is starring alongside Kenneth Branagh and Bill Pullman in a new version of The Cherry Orchard. She plays Madame Ranevskaya, the Russian aristocrat and matriarch who returns home to find her family estate in jeopardy. The play, like so many of Chekhov’s, is about the apathy of the elite class in the dying days of the Russian empire. So why this play, for her, and why now?

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Indecent proposal: why social media’s rebrand of surveillance tech normalises harassment and non-consensual filming | Maggie Zhou

By selling AI glasses as aspirational, cool and fashion-forward, tech elites are trying to pacify their entry into the mainstream world

We have a habit of dismissing social media trends as inane and vapid while ignoring the disturbing undercurrent. A few weeks ago I was reminded of that when I saw an Instagram carousel by British fashion personality Alexa Chung. Shared with her 6 million followers, she showed different outfits through screenshots of herself entering and leaving her home on her security camera. Rita Ora commented, “Good angle keep this series going”. Security system company Ring commented, “Fit checks on Ring cam? Next level.”

The post caught my eye among the feed of curated noise, a counterculture take on the traditional iPhone outfit photo. Its presumed effortlessness felt intimate and off the cuff. Social media loves that sort of thing.

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VK: Voorpagina

Volkskrant.nl biedt het laatste nieuws, opinie en achtergronden

Wat is Europees burgerinitiatief waard als 1,4 miljoen ondertekenaars al vijf jaar wachten?

Mundaring State Forest

Old Man Hiking has added a photo to the pool:

Mundaring State Forest

Day 2 On The Bibbulmun

Hewett's Hill Shelter

Old Man Hiking has added a photo to the pool:

Hewett's Hill Shelter

A typical style shelter on the Bibbulmun Trail.

Meer nog dan winnen, wil een mens niet verliezen. Maar wie stopt met aanvallen, is zijn voorsprong snel kwijt - De Correspondent

De pijn die verliezen oplevert, is groter dan het plezier bij winst. Geen wonder dat voetbalteams die op voorsprong komen, vaak inzetten op verdedigen. Maar met die tactiek ligt verliezen alsnog op de loer, want risicomijdend gedrag loont niet altijd. En dit soort ‘loss aversion’ beperkt zich niet tot het voetbalveld.

Rijnmond - Nieuws

Het laatste nieuws van vandaag over Rotterdam, Feyenoord, het verkeer en het weer in de regio Rijnmond

Het weer van vandaag: perioden met zon

Vandaag wordt een heerlijke zomerdag met zonnige perioden en het blijft in de hele regio droog. Met een middagtemperatuur van 24 graden wordt het net iets minder warm dan gisteren. Er waait eerst een matige westenwind. Vanmiddag komt de wind uit het noordwesten, windkracht 3 of 4.

Balogun kan VS niet behoeden van pijnlijke uitschakeling door België: 4-1

De wedstrijd werd zondag opeens de meest controversiële van het toernooi, toen de FIFA na een telefoontje van Trump de schorsing van sterspeler Falorin Balogun terugdraaide. Het hielp de VS niets.

Wel.nl

Minder lezen, Meer weten.

Storing treinverkeer Rotterdam na ruim een week verholpen

ROTTERDAM (ANP) - De stroomstoring waardoor het treinverkeer tussen Rotterdam en het zuiden ruim een week lang stillag, is verholpen. Rond 04.45 uur meldde NS dat de beperkingen voorbij waren. Volgens ProRail is de treindienst rond 05.00 uur weer volledig opgestart.

Door een brand in een kabelgoot bij Rotterdam Stadion vorige week maandag werden ongeveer 200 kabels verwoest. Sindsdien reden er geen treinen tussen Rotterdam en het zuiden. Herstelwerkzaamheden liepen meermaals uit.

Ook maandagavond hield ProRail nog een slag om de arm, omdat niet zeker was dat een technisch systeem in de Willemsspoortunnel op tijd kon worden hersteld. Gedurende de nacht vonden nog herstelwerkzaamheden en testen plaats. "Die zijn succesvol verlopen", meldt ProRail. "Na dagen en nachten van intensieve herstelwerkzaamheden is het treinverkeer daarmee hervat."

Dinsdag worden nog enkele afrondende werkzaamheden uitgevoerd aan de sporen langs het perron bij Rotterdam Stadion. Volgens ProRail hebben deze geen gevolgen meer voor de dienstregeling.