Rubio criticizes WHO’s Ebola response as US continues sweeping public health cuts

US secretary of state says WHO was ‘a little late’ in identifying deadly Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Tuesday that the World Health Organization (WHO) was “a little late” in identifying the deadly Ebola outbreak in the the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.

On Tuesday, Rubio told reporters: “The lead is obviously going to be CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and the World Health Organization, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately.”

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Australian medical college leader suspended from position over alleged health and safety breach

Dr Sharmila Chandran suspended until 20 September as Royal Australasian College of Physicians agrees to work with regulator to meet its obligations

The charities regulator has suspended the president-elect of one of Australia’s oldest medical colleges for allegedly contravening a direction from the NSW work health and safety watchdog.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) on Monday issued a notice suspending Dr Sharmila Chandran as a responsible person of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, which is a registered charity, until 20 September.

SafeWork NSW advised that Chandran’s alleged failure to comply with a directive not to contact RACP staff was exposing them to “immediate and serious risks” to their psychological health and safety, the ACNC said in a public statement.

The intervention follows months of conflict within the RACP’s board, which culminated in an extraordinary general meeting last month to which police were called.

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Infectious diseases such as hantavirus and Ebola becoming more frequent and damaging, say experts

Pandemic report warns of growing global threat as health teams in Africa move to contain Ebola outbreak

The world is becoming less resilient to outbreaks of infectious diseases, experts have warned, as health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda scramble to contain an outbreak of Ebola.

The Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) said in a report published on Monday that “as infectious disease outbreaks become more frequent they are also becoming more damaging”, warning that pandemic risk is outpacing investments in preparedness and “the world is not yet meaningfully safer”.

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Two-thirds of NHS nurses believe lack of staff is putting patients at risk, survey finds

Union to urge ministers to bring in mandatory minimum staffing, as ageing population increases demand for care

Almost two-thirds of nurses believe there are too few of them working in the NHS to keep patients safe and give them proper care, a survey has revealed.

Understaffing and the increasingly complex medical needs posed by an ageing population are creating a “deadly mix” for patients, the Royal College of Nursing warned on Monday.

64% expected to cut services this year.

83% feared financial constraints will impact planned patient care and 78% worry it will affect emergency care.

57% expected to cut their clinical staffing this year to save money.

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Australia news live: Albanese congratulates Delta Goodrem on Eurovision fourth-place finish; Queensland Labor set to win Stafford byelection

Follow the day’s news live

Jim Chalmers says the opposition’s policy to index tax brackets would cost the budget a quarter of a trillion dollars over ten years, while claiming that the government is returning bracket creep to taxpayers.

It’s a slightly tricky position, as Angus Taylor argues that Labor is “betraying” itself because the high figure is actually how much the government is keeping and spending through bracket creep ever year.

This is a Government that returns bracket creep when it is responsible to do that.

That [policy] would cost tens of billions of dollars in extra debt interest, because he’s got these uncosted, unfunded, tax announcements that he [Taylor] made in his Budget reply, which was all about trying to stave off One Nation.”

What Angus Taylor is proposing to do is to pump the most money into the economy when inflation is already at its highest.

“This betrays the fact that the government plans to raise income tax rates to the tune of $35 billion This says more about their plan than our plan ...

If Labor’s saying that they plan to raise income taxes to the tune of $250 billion in the next 10 years ... [if] that is their tax hike, that’s their planned income tax increases.”

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FDA turmoil deepens as top drug chief departs claiming she was fired

Dr Tracy Beth Høeg, the Food and Drug Administration’s top drug regulator, says she was fired from agency after declining to resign

In a major shake-up at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), top regulators left on Friday – including Tracy Beth Høeg, the acting drug chief, who says she was fired, and Katherine Szarama, the acting vaccines chief who has only been in the position for days. Jim Traficant, the chief of staff, has also been ousted.

The FDA now has no permanent commissioner or deputy commissioner and no permanent leaders of two major centers, after the resignation of Marty Makary on Tuesday and other high-profile departures.

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Australia news live: Delta Goodrem hits the stage in Eurovision semi; Angus Taylor accused of ‘dog whistle’ budget reply

Australian pop star performs song Eclipse in second semi-final before Sunday’s final. Follow today’s news live

Advocates for migrants last night accused Angus Taylor of using his budget reply speech to “chase votes with dog whistles, fear and division”.

Taylor claimed that migrants were coming to Australia and claiming benefits before they were becoming citizens, a situation which he said Australians did not accept.

The Coalition’s dangerous decision to return to its harmful, failed refugee policies of the past shows what a mess they are in. They have no new policy ideas. Temporary protection visas have harmed countless people and kept many families apart for over a decade. So many are still trying to recover.

Taylor’s comments tonight are inflammatory and desperate. The fact that he feels the need to dog-whistle about mass deportations of so-called ‘overstayers’, many of whom are actually trapped in a massively blown-out court and tribunal system created through years of Coalition underfunding, shows they are far more interested in stoking fear than delivering serious policy solutions.

The language in tonight’s address misleads the nation by claiming that migrants are arriving and immediately accessing welfare payments, which is a blatant lie. In reality most of the restrictions he’s talking about already exist and there are lengthy wait periods for welfare payments.

The Coalition knows all this and is deliberately misleading Australians about how the welfare system already operates in order to whip up fear and division.

If I may answer - it will be below 200,000. There’s no doubt about that.

And then the right mix will depend on the circumstances of the time. What is clear, what is clear, is that the number of students in this country has been at record levels.

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NDIS cuts could leave some participants with a funding gap. How will the changes affect you?

Proposals also grant the health minister power to change disability support rules without state or territory approval. Here’s what you need to know

Funding for some services within the National Disability Insurance Scheme will be slashed – even in cases where participants could be left with a funding gap – as part of a sweeping proposal to drastically curb the scheme’s annual growth.

The proposed changes, revealed on Thursday, will also grant the health minister, Mark Butler, god-like powers to reduce overall funding for support categories, determine pricing guides and caps for services and support, and the ability to change NDIS rules without state and territory approval for the first 12 months.

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NHS drugs go-ahead offers lifeline to children with rare muscle-wasting disease

Medicines watchdog approves two treatments for patients with spinal muscular atrophy

Hundreds of children with a rare muscle-wasting disease will be able to receive two drugs that can improve their survival in a move parents hailed as a “lifeline”.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has published final draft guidance recommending that any patient who would benefit can have either drug.

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JD Vance threatens health funding to states that don’t comply with White House anti-fraud effort

Medicare has already paused hospice and home healthcare agency signups as potential fraud is investigated

JD Vance has threatened to “turn off” federal funding for government health insurance programs in states that refuse to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on suspected fraud.

States which fail to “get serious” about fraud would lose Medicaid and Medicare funding, the US vice-president announced on Wednesday, sparking fresh accusations that Trump officials are using unfounded allegations to punish political rivals.

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Older people risk mental decline if they do long hours of caring, UK study shows

Researchers find 50+ hours a week can be detrimental to health but lighter responsibilities have positive effect

The stresses and strains of caring for someone for 50 hours or more a week leads to “accelerated cognitive decline” in middle-aged and older people, research shows.

However, providing care for only five to nine hours a week has the opposite effect, boosting brain health so much that the benefits last until older age.

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WHO head tells countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus praises Spain’s ‘compassion and solidarity’ in evacuating virus-hit cruise ship

The head of the World Health Organization has warned countries to prepare for more hantavirus cases after the outbreak onboard the MV Hondius, and thanked Spain for the “compassion and solidarity” it had shown by taking in the stricken cruise ship and evacuating its passengers and crew.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries to follow the WHO’s advice and recommendations, which include a 42-day quarantine and constant monitoring of high-risk contacts.

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Martin Short opens up about ‘nightmare’ death of his daughter Katherine

Actor and comedian speaks for the first time since his 42-year-old daughter died by suicide in February

Martin Short has spoken for the first time about the death of his daughter, Katherine Short, saying her death has been “a nightmare for the family”.

Katherine died in February aged 42, at her home in the Hollywood Hills. The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office confirmed she died by suicide.

In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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British paratroopers land on Tristan da Cunha for suspected hantavirus case

Soldiers dropped oxygen supplies and medical aid to Britain’s most remote overseas territory

What is hantavirus?

Paratroopers landed on a “golf course covered in rocks” to supply medical personnel and oxygen to Britain’s most remote overseas territory as it deals with a suspected hantavirus case, an army commander has said.

The UK Health Security Agency confirmed on Friday that a British national had disembarked from the cruise ship MV Hondius to the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, where they live, with a suspected case of hantavirus.

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GPs and hospitals in England to be required to share data to create single patient records

Wes Streeting says legislation will save lives, but GPs are concerned about liability for errors introduced by other providers

GPs and hospitals will be required to share patient data under legislation to be announced in the king’s speech on Wednesday.

Legislation to create a single patient record (SPR) for each person, which would be used across all healthcare providers, is part of a £10bn digitisation of the health service.

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How the Trump White House works against itself in its efforts to prevent overdoses

Contradictory policies that gut harm reduction programs while supporting naloxone access are confusing experts

Within just a few weeks, the Trump administration has proposed multiple contradictory policies related to overdose prevention – some that could help save lives and others that experts say could further strain health resources and put people at risk for overdose.

These policies include a new prohibition on funding for fentanyl test strips, which help people avoid overdoses; proposed budget cuts that would gut the country’s overdose prevention efforts; and an ambitious drug control strategy that will be impossible to implement if the aforementioned cuts go through.

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‘I was in a terrible state’: actor David Morrissey tells how social anxiety led him to alcoholism

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Liverpool-born actor says depression and anxiety followed death of his father when he was 15

The actor David Morrissey has spoken of how “terrible” social anxiety contributed to him becoming an alcoholic.

“I am a recovering alcoholic,” Morrissey, who has been sober for 21 years, told Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. “Drinking first was about anxiety. I’ve had this terrible social anxiety and that helped me get through it.”

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Argentina in spotlight over hantavirus as authorities retrace footsteps of ship’s passengers

Thirty years after first person-to-person transmission was documented in Patagonia, scientists say global heating could increase world’s exposure

An outbreak in rural communities 30 years ago in the Patagonia area of Argentina led scientists, for the first time, to document person-to-person transmission of hantavirus, which until then had been known only to spread through contact with rodents.

Nearly a decade ago another outbreak, also in Patagonia, provided detailed evidence of inter-human transmission when an infected 68-year-old rural worker attended a birthday party in a small village. The infection spread and resulted in 11 deaths.

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Americans on hantavirus cruise ship reportedly to be quarantined in US

US CDC personnel are reportedly meeting ship in Canary Islands to accompany Americans on a flight to Nebraska

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reportedly sending personnel to the Canary Islands to meet the cruise ship affected by the hantavirus outbreak, with plans to accompany American passengers back to the US on a chartered flight and place them into quarantine in Nebraska.

An additional CDC team is already headed to Nebraska, according to unnamed sources who spoke with CNN. The sources indicated that passengers are expected to undergo quarantine measures there to help prevent any possible spread of the virus. Nebraska is home to both the federally supported National Quarantine Unit and the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit.

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Cook more at home to reduce ultra-processed food intake, say cardiologist groups

‘Clinical consensus statement’ also urges heart doctors to advise patients to not eat late at night, and chew slowly

Want to reduce your intake of ultra-processed food? If so, cook at home more often, don’t eat late at night and chew your food more slowly.

Those are among some of the tips doctors have offered to help people limit the amount of UPF they consume given the acute and growing danger it poses to human health worldwide.

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