Readers respond to an article by Roe McDermott saying that women don’t need laws to make them ‘reflect’ on their choices

Well done to Roe McDermott for saying what is rarely said – that abortion doesn’t lead to inevitable regret (Abortion trauma is a myth. Irish women don’t need laws to make them ‘reflect’ on their choices, 26 May). My own experience of one, many years ago, was that it was in fact a very straightforward decision – I didn’t want to become a mother, so I didn’t. End of.

What was maybe most confusing about it was that I somehow felt that I should feel more hesitant and conflicted than I actually did, that I wasn’t a “proper woman” because I wasn’t more upset about it all.

The new and excoriating account of the dire prospects for UK young people is a call to action. It could be the Beveridge report for our time

The diagnosis is dire. Alan Milburn has published the first part of his forensic report on the lives and chances of young people, their fate after leaving school or college, the inadequacy of their health, education and pastoral care, and the reluctance of employers to hire them. This is a “moral crisis”, he says. There are now more than a million young people not in work, education or training (Neets), and Milburn expects that number to rise to 1.25 million without radical change. The government needs a “big idea”, he tells me. This should be it, “the spine, the purpose”.

Perhaps he was expected only to solve the particular problem of left-behind and lost Neets. What he has delivered instead is an excoriating overview of how badly this young generation is treated altogether. A sense of shock reverberates through every well-written page. Why have children and young people had such a low priority in resources and political concern, especially since 2010? There has been institutional neglect, loss of youth and careers services, chaotic non-communication or data exchange between dislocated silos, small schemes coming and going. Milburn describes a catastrophic failure: it needs a whole “system reset” and no more “tinkering”.

For those of us working in Aboriginal health, the outbreak doesn’t come as a surprise. We must invest in housing that keeps remote communities safe

The diphtheria outbreak should shock Australia. Not simply because a disease once considered virtually eradicated has returned, but because of where it is spreading and why.

More than 220 cases have been recorded in 2026, primarily across the Northern Territory and northern Australia. The overwhelming majority of patients are Aboriginal people, including those living in remote and very remote communities.

Cases remain ‘consistently high’ – with 10,406 infections last year, 26% more than in 2016

The number of people in England struck by salmonella poisoning after eating contaminated food has reached its highest level for a decade.

There were 10,406 laboratory-confirmed cases last year of non-typhoidal salmonella, the type of the bacteria found in contaminated foods such as meat, poultry and eggs.

Government will consider committee’s guidance that says mass screening ‘likely to cause more harm than good’

Most men in the UK will not be offered prostate cancer screening if the government accepts the final recommendation of an expert committee.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with more than 64,000 men diagnosed every year. There is, however, no national screening programme for the disease.

States with abortion bans are turning away from medications to a wait-and-see approach, with care falling below standards

Abortion restrictions in the US have made it more difficult to access care for miscarriages, a new study stays.

The new research found that since the June 2022 Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturning Roe v Wade, pregnancy care has fractured along state lines; it’s getting increasingly harder to access healthcare for miscarriages in US states with abortion restrictions.

The former minister paints damning picture of structural issues affecting 1 million young people in the UK

Alan Milburn, the Blair-era cabinet minister turned social mobility adviser, has delivered the first part of his government-commissioned report on why increasing numbers of people aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training (Neet).

Its 217 pages cover the extent and causes of the issue – with possible solutions coming in his next report – and set out a hugely detailed and damning picture of what Milburn calls a “record of failure”, one that is letting down young people. These are some of its main points.

Medics battling the incurable disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo working in ‘agonising’ conditions

When Dr Vladimir Maduali died of Ebola in the early hours of Sunday morning, he was the fourth member of staff at his hospital to be killed by the disease in as many days. Two days later, his colleague Dr Tibenderana Katho Blaise also died of the disease at the Bunia Evangelical medical centre, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Maduali graduated from the University of Bunia just three years ago and had been working in the Rwampara region, one of the areas of eastern DRC’s Ituri province worst hit by Ebola. The 30-year-old died at Rwampara’s isolation centre, where he had spent two days on oxygen therapy, according to his family.

BMA blames new health secretary for decision to stage 16th strike in long-running jobs and pay dispute

Resident doctors in England will next month stage the 16th strike in their long-running jobs and pay dispute, and have blamed the new health secretary for their decision.

They will strike for four days from 7am on Monday 15 June until 6.59am on Friday 19 June. Announcing the move, the British Medical Association warned that resident doctors would mount a further stoppage in July unless progress towards meeting their demands was made.

Some experts criticize White House approach and say not allowing Americans to return to US hurts treatment efforts

The Trump administration is building a quarantine and treatment center in Kenya for Americans affected by the Ebola outbreak, instead of bringing them home.

The White House on Wednesday confirmed that the US was setting up a facility in Kenya for Americans to quarantine after Ebola exposure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Readers respond to the Green MP Carla Denyer’s decision to take time out from her work

Gaby Hinsliff’s excellent article about the Green MP Carla Denyer (The curse of burnout Britain affects politicians as much as everyone else: give Carla Denyer a break, 26 May) powerfully articulates a reality faced by far too many. As a volunteer taking calls for Headrest, a helpline supporting school leaders, I regularly hear evidence of the pressures she describes.

Many school leaders experience the “moral injury” Hinsliff identifies, particularly around the provision of special educational needs and disabilities, where rising demand too often has to be met from inadequate funding.

Experts say climate change linked to 10% rise in salmonella antibiotic resistance genes between 1940 and 2023

The climate crisis is accelerating a global increase in antibiotic resistance that poses a serious threat to human health, experts have said as figures show a rise in salmonella antibiotic resistant genes.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the fastest-growing threats to global health. It can affect people of any age in any country and already kills more than 1 million people a year, according to estimates.

US president, who turns 80 next month, frequently casts himself as fit but recent photos have added to questions about his health

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Donald Trump, the oldest inaugurated president in US history, completed a physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed national military medical center, amid questions around his health.

“Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” the US president declared in a social media post.

With concerns about childhood obesity and screen use sky-high, cuts to primary PE are an unforced error

With remarkably poor timing, days before closing a consultation on children’s social media use, the government announced last week that it is cutting an annual £320m sports premium for primary schools in England. A new scheme worth £193m will cover secondaries too, and resurrect a previous model whereby outside clubs and coaches play a bigger role. But primary school leaders are understandably unhappy, particularly about the haste with which this is being done.

Bodies including Sport England are more supportive, unsurprisingly since their role is set to grow. There will be advantages, particularly for older pupils who do not already participate in a busy round of extracurricular activities, in having the chance to make links with outside teams or clubs. But the reduction in dedicated funding for primary-school sports seems wrong-headed at a time when childhood obesity is viewed by experts as one of biggest public health challenges facing the country, and concerns about the mental and physical impacts of screen use are sky-high.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Our life expectancy is not simply our personal responsibility, writes Jennie Popay

Having spent several decades as a researcher in the health equity field, I was irritated to see that well-worn, misleading trope about personal responsibility for poor health being given the oxygen of publicity by the Guardian (At least 80% responsibility for ill health in old age down to individual, study says, 20 May).

The Oxford Longevity Project’s study gave the impression that the main cause of poor health and its unequal distribution is an open question. That is not the case. The weight of evidence accumulated over decades is clear: the primary causes of inequalities in health, driving poorer health for poorer groups, are the material conditions in which people are born, live, work and grow old. It is growing inequalities in access to material resources, power and privilege, not irresponsible behaviours, which have created a 20-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least advantaged groups in the UK.