UK IVF couples use legal loophole to rank embryos based on potential IQ, height and health

Couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions of IQ, height and health, the Guardian has learned.The controversial screening technique, which scores embryos based on their DNA, is not permitted at UK fertility clinics and critics have raised scientific and ethical objections, saying the method is unproven. But under data protection laws, patients can – and in some cases have – demanded their embryos’ raw genetic data and sent it abroad for analysis in an effort to have smarter, healthier children.Dr Cristina Hickman, a senior embryologist and founder of Avenues fertility clinic in London, said rapid advances in embryo screening techniques and the recent launch of several US companies offering so-called polygenic screening had left clinics facing “legal and ethical confusion”.“This opens a whole can of worms,” said Hickman, who raised the issue in a letter last month to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)

AI deepfakes of real doctors spreading health misinformation on social media

TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.The factchecking organisation Full Fact has uncovered hundreds of such videos featuring impersonated versions of doctors and influencers directing viewers to Wellness Nest, a US-based supplements firm.All the deepfakes involve real footage of a health expert taken from the internet. However, the pictures and audio have been reworked so that the speakers are encouraging women going through menopause to buy products such as probiotics and Himalayan shilajit from the company’s website.The revelations have prompted calls for social media giants to be much more careful about hosting AI-generated content and quicker to remove content that distorts prominent people’s views

What is in the UK government’s child poverty strategy?

Keir Starmer has hailed his government’s plan to tackle child poverty as a “moral mission”, with a promise to lift half a million children out of hardship.It is the first such document in more than a decade and was described by the Resolution Foundation thinktank as a “sea change” in Britain’s approach to children in poverty.The plan was promised in spring, but delayed as cabinet ministers thrashed out a way to lift the two-child limit on universal credit. It appears to have been worth the wait for many Labour MPs, who are very happy about Rachel Reeves’s announcement at the budget that the cap would go.These are the key points from the strategy and the impact they will have:This is the key plank of the strategy as it will have by far the biggest and fastest effect

Mixed messages on prostate cancer testing proved deadly for my husband | Letter

My husband died of prostate cancer in August, and I read your coverage of the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendations with dread (Expert panel advises against prostate cancer screening for most men in UK, 28 November). I believe the mixed messages being delivered will be deadly for some, as they were for my husband. He delayed having a PSA blood test because he believed it was unreliable and could lead to damaging treatments. He found out too late that he had prostate cancer and that it had spread through his body. He died less than three years after diagnosis aged 68

We must warn travellers about the risk of methanol poisoning | Letters

With 14,600 deaths caused by suspected methanol poisoning incidents worldwide since 2015, much more needs to be done to prevent tragedies like the death of Simone White in Laos last year (Brain damage, blindness and death: the global trail of trauma left by methanol-laced alcohol, 29 November).Following campaigning by bereaved families and supportive MPs, the UK government has included education about methanol dangers in the national curriculum and strengthened Foreign Office advice to travellers, extending the warning to more countries. We now need a wider national campaign involving travel companies, with a message that in countries such as Indonesia, which has the highest number of reported incidents of suspected methanol poisoning globally in the past 10 years, spirits should be avoided altogether.Jim Dickson MPLabour, Dartford Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Whales, beards, mules and VIPs: the secret world of high-rolling professional gambling

The world of professional gambling is secretive by design.Successful punters find an edge wherever possible and seldom show their hand to rivals when they spot an opportunity to make a killing.It is even rarer that the outside world gets the chance to penetrate the code of silence that governs this niche cadre of high-rollers.That is why a court document, reported on Tuesday by the Guardian, is so unusual, in that it drags a dispute from a very private world into the public spotlight.According to the filing, George Cottrell, a close associate of Nigel Farage and a key figure in Reform UK’s inner circle, effectively acted as a front for a major gambling syndicate controlled by Tony Bloom, the former professional poker player who owns Brighton and Hove Albion football club, by handing over control of betting accounts in his name