Author: BBC

Rob Sissons, East Midlands health correspondentBBCJordan was one of the first donors to give stem cells at the new centre, which collects cells for NHS transplants from people across the UKThe UK’s first stem cell collection centre strictly dedicated to transplants has started welcoming donors.The Anthony Nolan Cell Collection Centre, based at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre (QMC), will help more people across the UK donate potentially life-saving cells to patients with blood cancers and disorders.The Anthony Nolan charity said the centre would create 1,300 new donation slots a year, helping to tackle a “longstanding global shortage of cell collection facilities”.Jordan,…

US President Donald Trump has announced a new wave of tariffs, including a 100% levy on branded or patented drug imports from 1 October unless a company is building a factory in the US.Washington will also impose a 25% import tax on all heavy-duty trucks and 50% levies on kitchen and bathroom cabinets, the US president said as he unveiled the industry-focused measures.”The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, citing the need to protect US manufacturers.The announcements come…

Zoe CorbynTechnology Reporter, San FranciscoGetty ImagesE. coli has been used in many discoveries in genetics and molecular biologyEarlier this year an extraordinary new way of using waste plastic made headlines. A common bacterium was genetically engineered to eat a plastic-derived molecule and then digest it to produce the everyday painkiller, paracetamol.The microbe used by Stephen Wallace, professor of chemical biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh, was Escherichia coli, better known as E. coli.The rod-shaped bacterium is found in the intestines of humans and animals, and you might be more familiar with it as an unpleasant bug that can make us…

The price the NHS pays for medicines will need to rise to stop a wave of pharmaceutical investment leaving the UK, science minister Patrick Vallance has said.His comments follow several recent announcements from some of the world’s largest drug companies either pausing or scrapping UK projects.Critics in the sector say low prices for new drugs, a lack of government investment, and tariff pressure from US President Donald Trump have been pushing firms away from the UK.Lord Vallance told the BBC “price increases are going to be a necessary part” of solving that problem.”Where the additional money would come from to…

Chi Chi IzunduInvestigations correspondent andMark SavageMusic correspondentReutersTicketmaster will have to give music fans more advance information about ticket prices, after complaints about Oasis’s reunion tour last year.The Competition and Markets Authority says the company has agreed to tell fans 24 hours in advance if a tiered pricing system is being used, as it was for Oasis standing tickets, and give more information about ticket prices during online queues.It comes after the CMA said Ticketmaster “may have misled Oasis fans” with unclear pricing last year.Platinum tickets sold for almost two and a half times the standard the price, but Ticketmaster did…

Imran Rahman-JonesTechnology reporter andJoe TidyCyber correspondent, BBC World ServiceGetty ImagesA person has been arrested in connection with a cyber-attack which has caused days of disruption at several European airports including Heathrow.The National Crime Agency (NCA) said a man in his forties was arrested in West Sussex “as part of an investigation into a cyber incident impacting Collins Aerospace”.There have been hundreds of flight delays after Collins Aerospace baggage and check-in software used by several airlines failed, with some boarding passengers using pen and paper.”Although this arrest is a positive step, the investigation into this incident is in its early stages…

Catherine SnowdonHealth ProducerGetty ImagesThousands of pharmacies in England will offer free NHS flu spray doses to toddlers for the first time this year.The vaccination is given via a child’s nose and two and three-year-olds could previously access them at their GP surgery.Around 4,000 pharmacies have signed up to deliver the vaccine to 1.2 million eligible toddlers from 1 October.Both walk-in and booked flu vaccine appointments will be available as part of the NHS drive to increase vaccine uptake nationally.NHS England stats show that last winter, there were more than 300,000 hospital bed days taken up by patients with flu –…

Kevin PeacheyCost of living correspondentGetty ImagesEvery household will be offered a low standing charge deal by the end of January, under new plans, but the cost of overall energy bills is unlikely to fall.Regulator Ofgem has announced all suppliers in England, Scotland and Wales will offer at least one tariff in which standing charges are lower but customers then pay more for each unit of energy used.The move comes after those who use relatively little gas and electricity argued they have no control over the fixed daily charges, which cover the cost of connecting to a gas and electricity supply.However,…

Zoe KleinmanTechnology editor andTom GerkenTechnology reporterEmma Lynch/BBCLilly Sabri has nearly six and half million followers on YouTube, where she posts fitness videosYouTube content creators contributed £2.2bn to the UK economy in 2024 and supported 45,000 jobs, according to an impact report carried out by Oxford Economics.It comes as an all-party parliamentary group (APPG) is launched to represent UK creators and influencers.Its co-chair Feryal Clark, Labour MP for Enfield North, described them as “trailblazers of a new creative revolution” who had been “undervalued in Westminster for too long”.British content creator Lilly Sabri welcomed the research and the creation of the parliamentary…

Madeline Halpert andNadine YousifWatch: Trump says taking Tylenol is “not good” for pregnant womenDoctors in the US will soon be advised not to prescribe the pain reliever Tylenol to pregnant women, US President Donald Trump said, citing a disputed link between the drug and autism.The US president claimed on Monday that taking Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere, “is no good” and that pregnant women should “fight like hell” to only take it in cases of extreme fever.Medical experts have strongly pushed back on the claims, with some calling the president’s comments dangerous.Health officials in the UK have stressed that paracetamol…