Health

Foreigners seeking visas to live in the U.S. might be rejected if they have certain medical conditions, including diabetes or obesity, under a Thursday directive from the Trump administration.

The guidance, issued in a cable the State Department sent to embassy and consular officials and examined by KFF Health News, directs visa officers to deem applicants ineligible to enter the U.S. for several new reasons, including age or the likelihood they might rely on public benefits. The guidance says that such people could become a “public charge” — a potential drain on U.S. resources — because of their health issues or age.

While assessing the health of potential immigrants has been part of the visa application process for years, including screening for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and obtaining vaccine history, experts said the new guidelines greatly expand the list of medical conditions to be considered and give visa officers more power to make decisions about immigration based on an applicant’s health status.

The directive is part of the Trump administration’s divisive and aggressive campaign to deport immigrants living without authorization in the U.S. and dissuade others from immigrating into the country. The White House’s crusade to push out immigrants has included daily mass arrests, bans on refugees from certain countries, and plans to severely restrict the total number permitted into the U.S.

The new guidelines mandate that immigrants’ health be a focus in the application process. The guidance applies to nearly all visa applicants but is likely to be used only in cases in which people seek to permanently reside in the U.S., said Charles Wheeler, a senior attorney for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, a nonprofit legal aid group.

“You must consider an applicant’s health,” the cable reads. “Certain medical conditions — including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, cancers, diabetes, metabolic diseases, neurological diseases, and mental health conditions — can require hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of care.”

About 10% of the world’s population have diabetes. Cardiovascular diseases are also common; they are the globe’s leading killer.

The cable also encourages visa officers to consider other conditions, such as obesity, which it notes can cause asthma, sleep apnea, and high blood pressure, in their assessment of whether an immigrant could become a public charge and therefore should be denied entry into the U.S.

“All of these can require expensive, long-term care,” the cable reads. Spokespeople for the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the cable.

Visa officers were also directed to determine whether applicants have the means to pay for medical treatment without help from the U.S. government.

“Does the applicant have adequate financial resources to cover the costs of such care over his entire expected lifespan without seeking public cash assistance or long-term institutionalization at government expense?” the cable reads.

The cable’s language appears at odds with the Foreign Affairs Manual, the State Department’s own handbook, which says that visa officers cannot reject an application based on “what if” scenarios, Wheeler said.

The guidance directs visa officers to develop “their own thoughts about what could lead to some sort of medical emergency or sort of medical costs in the future,” he said. “That’s troubling because they’re not medically trained, they have no experience in this area, and they shouldn’t be making projections based on their own personal knowledge or bias.”

The guidance also directs visa officers to consider the health of family members, including children or older parents.

“Do any of the dependents have disabilities, chronic medical conditions, or other special needs and require care such that the applicant cannot maintain employment?” the cable asks.

Immigrants already undergo a medical exam by a physician who’s been approved by a U.S. embassy.

They are screened for communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis, and asked to fill out a form that asks them to disclose any history of drug or alcohol use, mental health conditions, or violence. They’re also required to have a number of vaccinations to guard against infectious diseases such as measles, polio and hepatitis B.

But the new guidance goes further, emphasizing that chronic diseases should be considered, said Sophia Genovese, an immigration lawyer at Georgetown University. She also noted that the language of the directive encourages visa officers and the doctors who examine people seeking to immigrate to speculate on the cost of applicants’ medical care and their ability to get employment in the U.S. considering their medical history.

“Taking into consideration one’s diabetic history or heart health history — that’s quite expansive,” Genovese said. “There is a degree of this assessment already, just not quite expansive as opining over, ‘What if someone goes into diabetic shock?’ If this change is going to happen immediately, that’s obviously going to cause a myriad of issues when people are going into their consular interviews.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

America’s longest government shutdown is becoming more painful by the day.

At least 40 million Americans are struggling to get food, more than a million federal workers haven’t been paid, health insurance premiums are rising, and flights are getting disrupted.

Congress has been locked in a standoff over a bill to fund government services, with Democrats demanding tax credits that will make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans and an end to federal agency cuts.

Democrats won decisive victories in state and local elections this week. President Donald Trump is blaming the shutdown for this setback to the Republican Party.

So, will he now be willing to negotiate? Can the two sides agree to a comprise?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Mark Pfeifle – Republican strategist

Jeremy Mayer – Professor of political science at George Mason University

David Bolger – Democratic strategist

JUDI Dench has revealed a heartbreaking health update and admitted she struggles every day.

The legendary actress, 90, first opened up about her age-related  macular degeneration (AMD) in 2012.

Earlier this year, Dame Judi told how she “can’t leave home alone” due to the worrying condition.

And now she has admitted she’s lost her vision completely.

The Oscar-winner, who scooped the accolade for her role as supporting actress in Shakespeare in Love, has said: “I can’t see any more.”

She told the crowds at Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, where she is a patron: “When I go to the theatre, I can’t see.

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“Hopeless.”

Yet she revealed she had been catching up on the Celebrity Traitors “dirt” – and how pal Celia Imrie was getting on – through word of mouth.

It comes after the star of screen and stage told how it was “impossible” to read scripts.

CONDITION REVEAL

Macular degeneration is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting more than 700,000 people.

AMD is an eye disease that can blur an individual’s central vision.

According to the National Eye Institute, age-related macular degeneration “happens when aging causes damage to the macula – the part of the eye that controls sharp, straight-ahead vision.”

The disease does not cause total blindness, but it can make everyday activities difficult.

LIFE-CHANGING

Judi has been candid in addressing her worsening health battle.

During an interview on Trinny Woodall’s Fearless podcast, Dame Judi says “somebody will always be with me” when she leaves the house.

She continued: “I have to [have someone] now because I can’t see.

What is age-related macular degeneration (AMD)?

DAME Judi Dench has spoken openly about her diagnosis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Yet what is it?

Macular degeneration is the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK, affecting more than 700,000 people.

It first affects people in their 50s.

AMD is an eye disease that can blur an individual’s central vision.

According to the National Eye Institute, age-related macular degeneration “happens when aging causes damage to the macula – the part of the eye that controls sharp, straight-ahead vision.”

The disease does not cause total blindness, but it can make everyday activities difficult.

Recently, we reported on research which suggested a person’s choice of morning brew could impact their eyesight.

In a study of more than 500,000 people, scientists from the Hubei University of Medicine in China found a link between instant coffee intake and the risk of dry AMD – one of the forms of the sight-robbing disease.

In contrast, ground coffee and decaffeinated brews bore no links to AMD.

“And I will walk into something or fall over.

“I’m always nervous before going to something.

“I have no idea why. I’m not good at that at all.

“Not at all. Nor would I be now.

“And fortunately, I don’t have to be now because I pretend to have no eyesight.”

The Oscar winner, famed for playing M on nine James Bond movies, added she was “no good at that at all” when she used to attend events alone.

SCREEN QUEEN

Dame Judi made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company and is now referred to as one of Britain’s best actresses.

After landing roles on TV and in movies from the late 50s, she has starred in a plethora of big titles, with IMDB crediting her for 120 on-screen productions.

Some of her notable roles include Chocolat, Notes on a Scandal, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Philomena and Iris and also her role as “M” in several James Bond films.

She’s a ten-time Bafta winner including winning Best Actress in A Fine Romance (1981) in which she appeared with her late husband, Michael Williams.

Judi has also been nominated for six Oscars and won one of these as Best Supporting Actress for Shakespeare in Love in 1998.

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She has also won seven Laurence Olivier Awards and has a further eight nominations under her belt for her professional theatre work.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, and a Dame of Order of the British Empire in 1988.

Sad news for Bad Company fans.

Paul Rodgers, one of the original members of the English rock supergroup, announced Tuesday that he will miss the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday where Bad Company will be honored as part of the 2025 class.

“My hope was to be at the Rock & Rock Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and to perform for the fans, but at this time I have to prioritize my health,” Rodgers wrote in a statement posted to Bad Company’s Instagram page. The singer had planned to reunite with former bandmate and drummer Simon Kirke on stage to perform a couple songs at the ceremony.

While Rodgers did not elaborate on his health in the statement, in 2023 he told CBS News that he had suffered two major strokes in 2016 and 2019, as well as 11 minor strokes, which had temporarily stripped him of his ability to speak.

“I have no problem singing, it’s the stress of everything else,” Rodgers’ statement continued. “Simon along with some outstanding musicians will be stepping in for me — guaranteed to rock.”

Best known for hits such as “Can’t Get Enough,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” “Ready for Love” and, of course, “Bad Company,” the hard rock group formed in London in 1973. In addition to Rodgers and Kirke, who had played together in the rock band Free, Bad Company’s original members included guitarist Mick Ralphs and bassist Boz Burrell.

The band initially disbanded in 1982 but over the years reunited to record or tour, though not always with the same lineup. Rodgers and Kirke are Bad Company’s only surviving original members — Burrell died in 2006, followed by Ralphs this June.

In addition to Bad Company, the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees include Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast, Soundgarden and the White Stripes in the performer category. Additional inductees Salt-N-Pepa, Warren Zevon, Thom Bell, Nicky Hopkins and Carol Kaye will all be honored either for musical influence or excellence, while Lenny Waronker is the recipient of the Ahmet Ertegun Award for lifetime achievement.

A surge in chikungunya cases has hit southern China, fuelled by climate change, urbanisation and global travel. Experts warn the next pandemic is inevitable – but have we learned enough from COVID-19 to be prepared?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Carmen Perez Casas – Head of pandemic prevention, Unitaid
Albert Fox Cahn – Founder, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP)

Nadia Sawalha explains her swollen appearance as she details her painful health condition after a discussion with Dr Zoe which has left her face feeling ‘bruised’

Loose Women star Nadia Sawalha is suffering from a painful health condition as she opens up about her appearance and her experience chatting to Dr Zoe Williams.

During the show on Thursday, 30 October, Jane Moore asked Nadia the reason she had her glasses on and opted for a no-makeup look. Nadia joked that in the past, if she wore her glasses, then people would think she was hungover, before she explained that her face felt ‘bruised’ due to her stress levels.

She discussed how she thought it was an allergy at first before explaining: “It just feels a bit bruised, but lovely doctor Zoe came and saw me, I had my own session with her in my dressing room, and I said to her ‘honestly Zoe I think it’s stress’ and she agreed.”

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Nadia explained how Zoe suggested taking deep breaths and taking a bit of ‘time out’. Nadia went on to say that she hadn’t cried properly in about ‘two or three years’, saying: “I cry a little bit and then I stop. I honestly think it is that. When we get stressed, why do we think it doesn’t impact our body?” She went on to thank Zoe and said she was a ‘special woman’.

The Loose Women panellist also shared a video on her Instagram page where she revealed her sister couldn’t believe she was going on live TV ‘looking like that’. Nadia revealed her sister said she looked like she ‘had three bottles of sauvignon blanc’ and had ‘fallen asleep in a hedge’.

Fans rushed to send their well wishes as one person wrote: “Bless you Nadia I hope it clears up soon it looks uncomfortable”, while another added: “Ohhh Nadia I love how strong and humble you are. You’re beautiful inside out even with puffy eyes. Hope they get better”.

It follows after Nadia recently opened up on her 23-year marriage, revealing that it nearly ended over her husband’s intense jealousy. The 60-year-old married husband Mark Adderley in 2002 and has previously opened up about hurdles in their relationship.

Nadia spoke in the past about her husband achieving sobriety after struggling with alcohol for many years and being diagnosed with Bipolar II disorder and depression back in 2021. Now, the TV personality has revealed that after quitting alcohol, Mark began to suffer with jealousy.

Nadia told the ITV show: “My kids hate it what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger but I think that it probably has with Mark and I. I think about when things have been really tough in our marriage and we’ve thought, ‘God we’re not going to get through this’ but then we do.

“For him, it definitely would have been points through my menopause when I was a screaming banshee nutter. I was very difficult, I was awful.”

As for his behaviour that she struggled him, Nadia said: “He’s been brilliant with his sobriety and then after the sobriety, after he got sober, he cross-addicted a lot to jealousy and the jealousy was just awful. It was so bad.

“When we went to couples’ counselling, I said that unless you do some work on this, we’re not going to survive it. It’s something that’s made me love him even more that he’s done work on that.”

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

US states have relied on vaccine mandates since the 1800s, when a smallpox vaccine offered the first successful protection against a disease that had killed millions.

More than a century later, Florida’s top public health official said vaccine requirements are unethical and unnecessary for high vaccination rates.

“You can still have high vaccination numbers, just like the other countries who don’t do any mandates like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the [United Kingdom], most of Canada,” Florida Surgeon General Dr Joseph Ladapo said on October 16. “No mandates, really comparable vaccine uptake.”

It’s true that some countries without vaccine requirements have high vaccination rates, on a par with the United States. But experts say that fact alone does not make it a given that the US would follow the same pattern if it eliminates school vaccination requirements.

Florida state law currently requires students in public and private schools from daycare through 12th grade to have specific immunisations. Families can opt out for religious or medical reasons. About 11 percent of Florida kindergarteners are not immunised, recent data shows. With Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s backing, Ladapo is pushing to end the state’s school vaccine requirements.

The countries Ladapo cited – Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the UK and parts of Canada – don’t have broad vaccine requirements, research shows. Their governments recommend such protections, though, and their healthcare systems offer conveniently accessible vaccines, for example.

UNICEF, a United Nations agency which calls itself the “global go-to for data on children”, measures how well countries provide routine childhood immunisations by looking at infant access to the third dose in a DTaP vaccine series that protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough).

In 2024, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 94 percent of one-year-olds in the United States had received three doses of the DTaP vaccine. That’s compared with Canada at 92 percent, Denmark at 96 percent, Norway at 97 percent, Sweden at 96 percent and the UK at 92 percent.

Universal, government-provided healthcare and high trust in government likely influence those countries’ vaccine uptake, experts have said. In the US, many people can’t afford time off work or the cost of a doctor’s visit. There’s also less trust in the government. These factors could prevent the US from having similar participation rates should the government eliminate school vaccine mandates.

Universal healthcare, stronger government trust increase vaccination

Multiple studies have linked vaccine mandates and increased vaccination rates. Although these studies found associations between the two, the research does not prove that mandates alone cause increased vaccination rates. Association is not the same as causation.

Other factors that can affect vaccination rates often accompany mandates, including local efforts to improve vaccination access, increase documentation and combat vaccine hesitancy and refusal.

The countries Ladapo highlighted are high-income countries with policies that encourage vaccination and make vaccines accessible.

In Sweden, for example, where all vaccinations are voluntary, the vaccines included in national programmes are offered for free, according to the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

Preventive care is more accessible and routine for everyone in countries such as Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK with universal healthcare systems, said Dr Megan Berman of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences.

“In the US, our healthcare system is more fragmented, and access to care can depend on insurance or cost,” she said.

More limited healthcare access, decreased institutional trust and anti-vaccine activists’ influence set the US apart from those other countries, experts said.

Some of these other countries’ cultural norms favour the collective welfare of others, which means people are more likely to get vaccinated to support the community, Berman said.

Anders Hviid, an epidemiologist at Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, told The Atlantic that it’s misguided to compare Denmark’s health situation with the US – in part because Danish citizens strongly trust the government to enact policies in the public interest.

By contrast, as of 2024, fewer than one in three people in the US over age 15 reported having confidence in the national government, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of advanced, industrialised nations. That’s the lowest percentage of any of the countries Ladapo mentioned.

“The effectiveness of recommendations depends on faith in the government and scientific body that is making the recommendations,” said Dr Richard Rupp, of the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences.

Without mandates, vaccine education would be even more important, experts say

Experts said they believe US vaccination rates would fall if states ended school vaccine mandates.

Maintaining high vaccination rates without mandates would require health officials to focus on other policies, interventions and messaging, said Samantha Vanderslott, the leader of the Oxford Vaccine Group’s Vaccines and Society Unit, which researches attitudes and behaviour towards vaccines.

That could be especially difficult given that the United States’s top health official, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, has a long history of anti-vaccine activism and scepticism about vaccines.

That makes the US an outlier, Vanderslott said.

“Governments tend to promote/support vaccination as a public health good,” she said. It is unusual for someone with Kennedy’s background to hold a position where he has the power to spread misinformation, encourage vaccine hesitancy and reduce mainstream vaccine research funding and access, Vanderslott said.

Most people decide to follow recommendations based on their beliefs about a vaccine’s benefits and their child’s vulnerability to disease, Rupp said. That means countries that educate the public about vaccines and illnesses will have better success with recommendations, he said.

Ultimately, experts said that just because something worked elsewhere doesn’t mean it will work in the United States.

Matt Hitchings, a biostatistics professor at the University of Florida’s College of Public Health and Health Professions, said a vaccine policy’s viability could differ from country to country. Vaccination rates are influenced by a host of factors.

“If I said that people in the UK drink more tea than in the US and have lower rates of certain cancers, would that be convincing evidence that drinking tea reduces cancer risk?” Hitchings said.

Google Translate was used throughout the research of this story to translate websites and statements into English.

Kennedy, a top health official, urges ‘cautious approach’ after Trump baselessly claimed taking Tylenol is linked autism in children.

United States Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has partially walked back his warning that taking Tylenol during pregnancy is directly linked to autism in children.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Kennedy struck a more moderate tone than he generally has in his past public appearances.

“The causative association between Tylenol given in pregnancy and the perinatal periods is not sufficient to say it definitely causes autism,” Kennedy told reporters. “But it’s very suggestive.”

“There should be a cautious approach to it,” he added. “ That’s why our message to patients, to mothers, to people who are pregnant and to the mothers of young children is: Consult your physician.”

Wednesday’s statement is closer in line with the guidance of reputable health agencies.

While some studies have raised the possibility of a link between Tylenol and autism, there have been no conclusive findings. Pregnant women are advised to consult a doctor before taking the medication.

The World Health Organization reiterated the point in September, noting that “no consistent association has been established” between the medication and autism, despite “extensive research”.

But claims to the contrary have already prompted efforts to limit the availability of Tylenol, a popular brand of acetaminophen, a fever- and pain-reducing medication.

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a lawsuit accusing Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, the companies behind the over-the-counter pain reliever, of deceptive practices.

In doing so, he reiterated misinformation shared by President Donald Trump and government officials like Kennedy.

“By holding Big Pharma accountable for poisoning our people, we will help Make America Healthy Again,” Paxton said in a statement, giving a nod to Kennedy’s MAHA slogan.

The suit alleges that Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue violated Texas consumer protection laws by having “deceptively marketed Tylenol as the only safe painkiller for pregnant women”.

It was the latest instance of scientific misinformation being perpetuated by top officials. Both Trump and Kennedy have repeatedly spread scientific misinformation throughout their political careers.

Trump linked autism and the painkiller during a news conference in September, without providing reputable scientific findings to back the claim.

“[Using] acetaminophen – is that OK? – which is basically, commonly known as Tylenol, during pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism,” Trump said on September 22. “So taking Tylenol is not good. I’ll say it. It’s not good.”

Kennedy has offered his own sweeping statements about Tylenol and its alleged risks, despite having no professional medical background.

“Anyone who takes this stuff during pregnancy, unless they have to, is irresponsible,” he said in a cabinet meeting on October 9.

Kennedy also mischaracterised studies on male circumcision earlier this month. He falsely said the studies showed an increase in autism among children who were “circumcised early”.

“It’s highly likely because they’re given Tylenol,” he added.

Kenvue stressed in a statement on Tuesday that acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, noting that high fevers and pain are potential risks to pregnancies if left untreated.

“We stand firmly with the global medical community that acknowledges the safety of acetaminophen and believe we will continue to be successful in litigation as these claims lack legal merit and scientific support,” Kenvue said.

A new report from the city controller’s office questions the effectiveness of the LAPD’s signature crisis response program, saying clinicians trained in de-escalation too often are forced to defer to armed patrol officers.

For years, Los Angeles Police Department officials have touted the success of the Systemwide Mental Assessment Response Team, or SMART. But critics say the program, which pairs licensed specialists with officers in unmarked cars, is failing in the crucial initial minutes of encounters when multiple police shootings of mentally ill people have occurred.

Dinah M. Manning, chief of strategic initiatives and senior advisor in the controller’s office, said the report found an “inherent contradiction” in the SMART program.

Even though its purpose is to send in clinicians and tap their expertise to avoid killings, LAPD policy still requires armed patrol officers to clear a scene of any potential threats beforehand.

Traditional police units almost always take charge, even on calls in which no weapon is involved, such as a person threatening to commit suicide, Manning said.

Referring to SMART as a co-response program “is pretty much a misnomer in this case,” she said. “How is it that we’re ending up with so many fatalities?”

An LAPD spokesperson declined to comment in response to questions about the report.

LAPD officers have opened fire 35 times this year; in recent years, department statistics showed at least a third of all police shootings involved someone with obvious signs of emotional distress.

The report pointed to other shortcomings with the SMART program, which is housed within the department’s Mental Health Unit. Officers detailed to the units receive no specialized training, the report said, also finding that the department has failed to properly track uses of force on mental health-related calls.

The department’s existing use of force policy “falls short” of best practices for dealing with people in mental distress, the controller’s report said. The LAPD’s policy, it said, “only makes cursory mention of ‘vulnerable populations’ without expounding on the dynamic realities presented in encounters with people who have a mental health condition or appear to be in a mental health crisis.”

Too often in cases in which SMART responds, the report said, the outcome is that the person in crisis is placed on an involuntary 72-hour hold. Such scenarios do not involve an arrest or criminal charges; instead the person is held under state law that allows for detention if a person poses a threat to themselves or others.

The controller’s report comes amid a continued debate in L.A. and elsewhere about how officials should respond to emergencies involving mental health, homelessness, substance use or minor traffic incidents.

The city has expanded its alternative programs in recent years, but proponents warn that looming cuts in federal spending for social safety net programs under the Trump administration could hinder efforts to scale up and have more impact.

LAPD leaders in the past offered support of such programs, while cautioning that any call has the potential to quickly spiral into violence, necessitating the presence of officers.

With millions of people in the United States at risk of losing access to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – also known as food stamps – from November 1, a viral chart has claimed to show the majority of the nation’s food stamp recipients are non-white and noncitizens.

The chart, titled Food Stamps by Ethnicity, listed 36 groups of people and said it showed the “percentage of US households receiving SNAP benefits”.

The groups were labelled by nationality, such as “Afghan”, “Somali”, “Iraqi”, along with the racial groups “white”, “Black” and “native”. The chart appeared to show that Afghan people were the largest group receiving SNAP benefits, at 45.6 percent, followed by Somali (42.4 percent) and Iraqi (34.8 percent). White people, represented on the chart with the US flag, were third to last at 8.6 percent.

The federal government shutdown, which started on October 1, is the cause of the looming SNAP funding lapse. SNAP provides food purchasing benefits to low-income households. Conservatives have peddled the misleading narrative that Democrats are pushing for healthcare for undocumented migrants, and people commenting on the chart rehashed a similar talking point.

“Who is getting their EBT cut?” read the caption of an October 25 X post sharing the chart, which had 3.1 million views as of October 27. EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer, which is a SNAP payment system.

“Only 18.7% of EBT or food stamp recipients are American. Let that sink in …” read another post sharing the chart, seemingly mistakenly referring to the figure next to the word “Armenian”; there was no “American” category in the chart. “We are subsidizing foreigners on the taxpayers dime.”

Who is getting their EBT cut pic.twitter.com/el8x9X5iVX

— The General (@1776General_) October 25, 2025

The chart doesn’t show the full picture of SNAP recipients by race or ethnicity. The most reliable source for the breakdown of SNAP recipients by demographics comes from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the programme.

According to the most recent USDA data available, from 2023, white people are the largest racial group receiving SNAP benefits, at 35.4 percent. African Americans are next, making up 25.7 percent of recipients, then Hispanic people at 15.6 percent, Asian people at 3.9 percent, Native Americans at 1.3 percent and multiracial people at 1 percent. The race of 17 percent of participants is unknown.

The same report found that 89.4 percent of SNAP recipients were US-born citizens, meaning less than 11 percent of SNAP participants were foreign-born. Of the latter figure, 6.2 percent were naturalised citizens, 1.1 percent were refugees and 3.3 percent were other noncitizens, including lawful permanent residents and other eligible noncitizens.

While large shares of the groups listed in the chart may receive food stamps, “they are certainly a tiny share of the households and spending on SNAP”, said Tracy Roof, University of Richmond associate professor of political science.

Survey data shows an incomplete picture on SNAP recipients

The chart shared on social media originated from a June blog post from The Personal Finance Wizards, which cited “US Census Table S0201” as its source. The site offers financial advice, but published a disclaimer saying it cannot guarantee the “completeness, accuracy, or reliability” of its information.

The site’s authors appeared to cherry-pick groups to include in the chart, noting, “It’s important to note that the graph highlights a selection of ethnicities we felt would be most relevant and engaging for our audience.” It did not name an author.

In a comment on an Instagram post sharing the chart, Personal Finance Wizards shared a link to the US Census table it used. It shows data from the 2024 American Community Survey, filtered by 49 racial and ethnic groups. The filtered groups don’t completely overlap with the groups in the chart, but the dataset has a column for “households with food stamp/SNAP benefits”, which shows percentages similar to the ones in the chart.

The data does not show what percentage of all SNAP beneficiaries belong to an ethnic or nationality group.

Joseph Llobrera, senior director of research for the food assistance team at the liberal think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the chart appeared to show the shares of households receiving SNAP based on the household respondents’ reported ancestry, which is different from citizenship status.

“Without context, this graphic is misleading and may lead some to conclude that many non-citizens are participating in SNAP, which is not true,” he said.

The American Community Survey allows respondents to self-identify their race. It also defines ancestry as a “person’s ethnic origin or descent, roots or heritage, place of birth, or place of parents’ ancestors before their arrival in the United States”.

Colleen Heflin, Syracuse University expert on food insecurity, nutrition and welfare policy, said the American Community Survey data on SNAP receipts is self-reported, and that question “is known to have a great deal of measurement error” when compared with SNAP administrative data.

Chart reflects higher levels of need in groups with higher shares of SNAP participation

Groups such as Afghans and Iraqis, who are first and third on the chart, would have been more likely to have immediately qualified for the SNAP programme before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s passage because of their special immigration status.

Before the law’s passage, refugees and people who had been granted asylum were also eligible for SNAP without a waiting period. Somalis, who were second on the chart, are “more likely” to qualify based on those criteria, Roof said.

Other noncitizens, such as lawful permanent residents, could be eligible for SNAP only after a five-year waiting period.

But the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed the eligibility, making refugees and asylum seekers ineligible. Immigrants in the country illegally are not and have never been eligible for SNAP.

Israel is holding captive 95 Palestinian healthcare workers in its prisons. They include doctors, nurses and paramedics detained without charge. Healthcare Workers Watch recorded 80 medical workers taken from Gaza and 15 from the occupied West Bank.

The mass-produced COVID-19 vaccines built using the mRNA model – which were rapidly manufactured during the global pandemic – could also help the immune system recognise and attack cancer tumours, new studies have shown.

Studies in mice and an analysis of medical records of cancer patients – who received mRNA shots for COVID-19 before starting immunotherapy for cancer treatment – revealed a startling pattern: the vaccinated patients lived significantly longer than those who had not received the shots.

A team of researchers from the University of Florida and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center presented the results this week at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Berlin and published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature.

The results, they say, reveal that the mRNA vaccines do not just prevent infection – they also “wake up” and prompt the body’s immune system to fight tumours.

The discovery has come at a time when US President Donald Trump’s administration has slashed funding for mRNA research.

So, why is this being touted as groundbreaking? What does it mean for cancer patients? And how did the COVID-19 pandemic become the medium for this unlikely discovery?

What is an mRNA vaccine?

Unlike traditional vaccines, which used weakened or inactive parts of a virus to trigger the immune system to build a defence, mRNA vaccines deliver a small strand of genetic code known as “messenger RNA” directly into the body’s cells.

The cell reads this blueprint as an instruction to manufacture a spike protein which mimics that of the virus, and display it on its surface, effectively waving a red flag that alerts the immune system to build a defence.

The body then creates antibodies and memory cells trained to recognise and attack that protein spike if it ever appears again.

How did researchers discover the link between mRNA and cancer?

This is an area of research which has been going on for some years, most notably by paediatric oncologist Elias Sayour, the Stop Children’s Cancer/Bonnie R Freeman Professor for Pediatric Oncology Research at the University of Florida, in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a particular opportunity to study the implications of mRNA for cancer treatment as the world moved en masse to vaccinate the population.

When Sayour’s former student, oncologist Adam Grippin, examined clinical data of more than 1,000 patients treated between August 2019 and August 2023 at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, he found a striking pattern.

People who had received a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine within 100 days of starting immunotherapy lived significantly longer than those who received the same medical treatment but did not have the vaccine.

How much longer did people live with the vaccine?

For patients with advanced lung cancer, the median survival rate nearly doubled if they had the vaccine, rising from 20.6 months to 37.3.

More strikingly, the survival improvements were most pronounced in patients with immunologically “cold” tumours – meaning that the mRNA vaccine appeared to “wake up” the immune system in patients with these harder-to-treat cancers – turning “cold” tumours into ones the immune system could more easily recognise and attack.

The researchers noted that their findings were consistent across varying factors, such as different vaccine manufacturers, doses and time of vaccination.

The researchers also compared the survival rates in a smaller group of patients receiving immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, the most advanced stage of a type of skin cancer. In the study, 43 patients had an mRNA COVID vaccine and 167 did not.

Patients who did not receive the vaccine had a median survival of just more than two years. By contrast, those who were vaccinated before starting treatment had not yet reached their median survival point more than three years into follow-up, the research found.

How does it work?

The researchers discovered that mRNA vaccines work like an alarm for the body’s defence system.

When the vaccine is given, it puts the immune system on alert, making it more likely to notice cancer cells that it might have ignored before. Once the immune system is activated, it begins to attack these cells.

But cancer cells fight back. They produce a protein called PD-L1, which works as a shield that “hides” them from the immune system. However, there are drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors that can block this shield.

When both the vaccine and these drugs are used, it creates the ideal situation – the immune system is active and alert, and the cancer’s defences are down, Grippin explained.

While the researchers said that they do not yet fully understand the mechanisms, the findings suggest that mRNA vaccines can be used to re-programme immune responses to cancer.

What does this mean for cancer patients?

These findings are preliminary. If, however, the study is validated in clinical trials, it could have huge implications for the treatment of cancer.

“These vaccines produce powerful anti-tumour immune responses that are associated with massive improvements in survival for patients with cancer,” Grippin said.

“The implications are extraordinary – this could revolutionise the entire field of oncologic care,” said Sayour. “We could design an even better nonspecific vaccine to mobilise and reset the immune response, in a way that could essentially be a universal, off-the-shelf cancer vaccine for all cancer patients.”

Grippen, who co-led the study with Steven Lin, professor of radiation oncology, said his team is launching a Phase 3 clinical trial to confirm the initial results and investigate whether COVID mRNA vaccines should be made part of the standard of care for patients.

What did scientists find in tests with mice?

In the mouse experiments, researchers found that injecting an mRNA COVID vaccine directly into a tumour made dendritic cells – a type of white blood cell – more alert.

Once the dendritic cells picked up on presence of the tumour, they sent out signals that attracted T cells to come and attack it. In some mice, this helped slow the growth of the cancer.

But there’s a big catch. Not everyone naturally has T cells that are capable of killing cancer cells. For some people, their immune system can tell that a tumour is dangerous, but their specific T cells do not know how to destroy it.

That’s one reason why immunotherapies – treatments that boost the immune system to fight cancer – work for some patients but not for others.

Having an mRNA COVID vaccine will not make your body produce new tumour-fighting T cells. What it might do, based on this early research, is make dendritic cells more likely to notice a tumour and effectively deploy the T cells.

The Celebrity Traitors may appear like it is all fun and games on TV, but some of the participants have explained that they really did find it difficult to live under rules and deception for several weeks during filming

The makers of The Celebrity Traitors have confirmed mental health experts are on hand to support the contestants at all times after Jonathan Ross revealed he struggled while making the show. The star-filled version of the game show has been a ratings smash for the BBC.

But it seems lying to all those around you can play heavily on those taking part, both faithfuls and traitors alike. In a recent podcast, talk show host Jonathan, 64, admitted that he found it difficult to lie to the fellow stars in the first UK celebrity version of the show.

He was selected alongside comedian Alan Carr, 49, and singer Cat Burns, 25, as a traitor – and tasked with killing off fellow stars and working to manipulate the other contestants to wrongly guess who the traitors were. But speaking on his podcast, Jonathan remarked: “You’re on the defence this whole time” – and complained it was hard to be constantly lying.

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Fans of the Traitors will note that a psychologist, Victoria Plant, and a psychotherapist and counsellor, Tanya Taylor-Wright, are listed as part of the crew. A source told The Sun that the mental health experts were on hand to support those taking part.

They said: “People may think it is just a telly show, but when you’re living the game 24/7, it takes a toll. It was made clear to the celebrities that help was on hand for them if they were struggling with the mind games.

“There is a duty of care in television now, so medical experts are employed on set, but it was of paramount importance on The Traitors because of the nature of the show.”

A spokesperson for The Traitors confirmed to The Mirror that the exact same measures are put in place for the civilian version of the show – and that showmakers take ensuring the care and safety of contestants is met at all times extremely seriously. This always includes making a psychotherapist and a psychologist available to the cast.

The spokesperson said: “Since the very first series in 2022, we have had a dedicated welfare team and psychological support on hand at all times who monitor and regularly speak to all of the players in private to ensure they feel comfortable throughout the entire process. Our priority is and will continue to be supporting the well-being of our cast, and this is the case before, during and after filming.”

So far, the traitors have managed to avoid being uncloaked as the 16 faithful contestants have either been picked off like sitting ducks or tricked into banishing their fellow faithfuls.

Viewers have been left in amusement as the traitors have expertly taken out the other stars while competing to win a prize of up to £100,000 for charity. Alan spilled the first blood when he marked singer Paloma Faith for death in plain sight when he completed a task which involved planting a black mark on her face.

Jonathan’s time could be running out, however, as the faithful contestants have speculated that either he or Stephen Fry could be a traitor, but they voted out the Blackadder actor at a round table.

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Israeli restrictions on the entry of heavy machinery are crippling Gaza City’s efforts to clear debris and rebuild critical infrastructure, the city’s mayor says, as tens of thousands of tonnes of unexploded Israeli bombs threaten lives across the Gaza Strip.

In a Sunday news conference, Mayor Yahya al-Sarraj said Gaza City requires at least 250 heavy vehicles and 1,000 tonnes of cement to maintain water networks and construct wells.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from az-Zawayda in Gaza, said only six trucks had entered the territory.

At least 9,000 Palestinians remain buried under the rubble. But the new equipment is being prioritised for recovering the remains of Israeli captives, rather than assisting Palestinians in locating their loved ones still trapped beneath rubble.

“Palestinians say they know there won’t be any developments in the ceasefire until the bodies of all the Israeli captives are returned,” Khoudary said.

Footage circulating on social media showed Red Cross vehicles arriving after meetings with Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, to guide them to the location of an Israeli captive in southern Rafah.

An Israeli government spokesperson said that to search for captives’ remains, the Red Cross and Egyptian teams have been permitted beyond the ceasefire’s “yellow line”, which allows Israel to retain control over 58 percent of the besieged enclave.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Amman, said Israel spent two weeks insisting that Hamas knew the locations of all the captives’ bodies.

“Two weeks into that, Israel has now allowed Egyptian teams and heavy machinery to enter the Gaza Strip to assist in the mammoth task of removing debris, of trying to get to the tunnels or underneath the homes or structures that the captives were held in and killed in,” she said.

Odeh added that Hamas had been unable to access a tunnel for two weeks due to the damage caused by Israeli bombing. “That change of policy is coming without explanation from Israel,” she said, noting that the Red Cross and Hamas have also been allowed to help locate potential burial sites under the rubble.

Netanyahu: ‘We control Gaza’

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to reassert political authority at home, saying that Israel controls which foreign forces may operate in Gaza.

“We control our own security, and we have made clear to international forces that Israel will decide which forces are unacceptable to us – and that is how we act and will continue to act,” he said. “This is, of course, accepted by the United States, as its most senior representatives expressed in recent days.”

Odeh explained that Netanyahu’s statements are intended to reassure the far-right base in Israel, which thinks he’s no longer calling the shots.

Those currently overseeing the ceasefire do not appear to be Israeli soldiers or army leadership, she explained, with Washington “requesting that Israel notify it ahead of time of any attack that Israel might be planning to conduct inside Gaza”.

Odeh noted that Israel’s insistence on controlling which foreign actors operate in Gaza – combined with the limited access for reconstruction – underscores a broader strategy to maintain political support at home.

Unexploded bombs a threat

Reconstruction in Gaza faces further obstacles from unexploded ordnance. Nicholas Torbet, Middle East director at HALO Trust in the United Kingdom, said Gaza is “essentially one giant city” where every part has been struck by explosives.

“Some munitions are designed to linger, but what we’re concerned about in Gaza is ordnance that is expected to explode upon impact but hasn’t,” he told Al Jazeera.

Torbet said clearing explosives is slowing the reconstruction process. His teams plan to work directly within communities to safely remove bombs rather than marking off large areas indefinitely. “The best way to dispose of a bomb is to use a small amount of explosives to blow it up,” he explained.

Torbet added that the necessary equipment is relatively simple and can be transported in small vehicles or by hand, and progress is beginning to take place.

The scale of explosives dropped by Israel has left Gaza littered with deadly remnants.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defence, told Al Jazeera that Israel dropped at least 200,000 tonnes of explosives on the territory, with roughly 70,000 tonnes failing to detonate.

Children have been particularly affected, often mistaking bombs for toys. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili reported the case of seven-year-old Yahya Shorbasi and his sister Nabila, who were playing outside when they found what appeared to be a toy.

“They found a regular children’s toy – just an ordinary one. The girl was holding it. Then the boy took it and started tapping it with a coin. Suddenly, we heard the sound of an explosion. It went off in their hands,” their mother Latifa Shorbasi told Al Jazeera.

Yahya’s right arm had to be amputated, while Nabila remains in intensive care.

Dr Harriet, an emergency doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, described the situation as “a public health catastrophe waiting to unfold”. She said children are being injured by items that look harmless – toys, cans, or debris – but are actually live explosives.

United Nations Mine Action Service head Luke David Irving said 328 people have already been killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since October 2023.

Tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs, including landmines, mortar rounds, and large bombs capable of flattening concrete buildings, remain buried across Gaza. Basal said clearing the explosives could take years and require millions of dollars.

For Palestinians, the situation is a race against time. Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said civilians are pressing for faster progress: “They want reconstruction, they want freedom of movement, and they want to see and feel that the ceasefire is going to make it.”

KATIE Price showed off some worrying bumps on her forehead after revealing concerns about her health and weight loss.

The 47-year-old mum-of-five took to Snapchat to share a close-up selfie of her forehead where she pointed to the series of “humps” that protruded from her skin.

“I’ve got HUMPS on my forehead,” Katie captioned the post.

The selfie, which she also shared to her Instagram Stories, showed several bumps from her eyebrows up to the middle part of her forehead, with the biggest bump in the centre.

On her Snapchat, Katie posted a video of her ‘before’ getting the botox, where there was a number of black marker dots on her forehead, presumably injection points for the botox.

“I’ve gone from this,” she said in the first video and it quickly changed to the next Snapchat where she spoke about the bumps on her skin.

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“At the moment, it looks like I’ve got humps on my face, my ‘lovely lady lumps’,” Katie said referring to the Black Eyed Peas song, My Humps, which she had playing over the video.

Bumps are a common reaction to Botox and could occur because of a reaction to the needle or allergic reaction to the Botox itself.

It comes weeks after she started going to the doctors over her unexplained weight loss and months after undergoing a £10,000 facelift in August.

Katie revealed she was in hospital last month after drastically losing weight over the past 12 months.

The Celebrity Big Brother winner told her fans on Snapchat at the time: “I’ve been up early at the doctors so she could do some bloods and because my veins are so s*** they had three attempts.

“They could only fill two tubes up, so I’ve got to go back in two weeks.

“And I’ve got to have my stitches out then because they looked at my little stab wound that I did.”

Her boyfriend, JJ Slater, worried that Katie might be running herself into the ground.

 MAFS alum JJ, 32,  was “terrified of her [Katie] losing any more weight,” according to a source published in the Daily Mail.

“It’s not an easy thing to sit back and watch your partner running themselves into the ground health-wise.”

They added this concern was a consensus among the star’s wider family and said: “JJ and Katie’s family think she is putting way too much pressure on herself.

“She’s been constantly on the move with tour shows, but isn’t right mentally or physically – something she knows deep down.”

Katie’s health woes come amid more personal drama as her ex-husband Kieran Hayler was charged with raping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

The former stripper will appear at Crawley Magistrates Court on November 19.

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Hayler, 38, has been charged with three counts of rape and one count of sexual assault on a 13-year-old girl and is under police investigation.

The alleged offences occurred between June and October in 2016, when Katie was still married to Hayler.

Lots of people travel on planes as it’s hard to resist a break away in the sun; however, if you’re preparing to board soon, then you need to be aware of some health advice

Lots of people travel on planes, but there are a few rules people may want to follow if they want to keep on top of their health while flying. Holidaymakers often worry about jet lag, but there’s another mid-air menace many don’t talk about, and it’s known as travel constipation.

From uncomfortable bloating to sluggish digestion, pharmacists say flying creates the perfect storm for gut trouble but, with the right prep, it doesn’t have to ruin your trip. In fact, if you travel a lot, there’s a simple way you can keep on top of your health when flying.

Pharmacist Seema Khatri of Roseway Labs explained: “Airplane cabins are pressurised to the equivalent of around 6,000 to 8,000 feet above sea level. That lower pressure makes gases in your digestive system expand, which is why so many people feel bloated in the air.

“Add in dry cabin air, sitting still for hours and a disrupted eating routine, and your gut slows right down. It’s no surprise constipation is one of the most common post-flight complaints.”

She added that fizzy drinks, beans, garlic and onions are frequent culprits for in-flight bloating, as they create gas which expands more at altitude. Alcohol, meanwhile, not only dehydrates but can irritate the digestive tract, making matters worse.

According to Khatri, many people unknowingly make choices that compound the issue. “Skipping water in favour of coffee or wine is one of the biggest mistakes,” she added. “Both dehydrate you further. Another common mistake is ignoring the urge to use the plane toilets, but holding it in just makes things harder later.

“Heavy, processed meals before or during flights are another trigger. Fast food and sugary snacks often replace fibre-rich meals when people are travelling, and that low fibre intake makes constipation far more likely.”

To keep things moving, the expert shared some top tips. Khatri’s top pharmacist-approved strategies include:

• Stay well-hydrated before and during your flight. Start increasing your water intake one to two days before you travel, aiming for 2.7 to 3.7 litres a day, depending on your body size. Continue to sip water throughout the flight.
• Get up and walk the aisle every hour or do stretches in your seat.
• Choose herbal teas over fizzy or caffeinated drinks to stimulate digestion.
• Don’t ignore the urge to go. Use the toilet when you need it.

Khatri added: “Hydrate properly in the days before flying, keep meals light and fibre-rich and avoid alcohol where you can. Sticking to your normal sleep and bathroom routine also helps reduce disruption. With just a little preparation, you can save yourself a very uncomfortable holiday start.”

She said you can also pack some snacks to aid matters such as oat bars to give you a fibre boost without the bloat. Nuts and seeds are also filling, light and digestion-friendly.

As well as this, bananas and dried fruit are also good things to add. Khatri explained there are also a few mistakes you should avoid, which include:

• Swapping water for wine or coffee.
• Holding it in instead of using the loo.
• Loading up on fast food and fizzy drinks pre-flight.

As the Netherlands gears up for a snap parliamentary election on October 29, less than halfway through parliament’s usual four-year term following the collapse of the ruling coalition, the likelihood of another win for the country’s far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) is mounting.

An outright win is next to impossible. The Netherlands has always had a coalition government formed by a minimum of two parties due to its proportional representation electoral system, under which seats in parliament are awarded to parties in proportion to the number of votes they win.

The PVV, headed by Geert Wilders, also won the most votes in the last election in November 2023. It then partnered with three other far-right parties – the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), New Social Contract (NSC), and the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) – to form a coalition government.

But in June, PVV made a dramatic exit from the coalition government over a disagreement on immigration policy. PVV had wanted to introduce a stricter asylum policy that included closing borders to new asylum seekers and deporting dual nationals convicted of crimes, but the other parties demanded further discussions.

In a dramatic move, Wilders took to X to announce that the failure by other parties to agree to PVV’s plans meant it would leave the coalition.

Coalition partners slammed this decision and accused Wilders of being driven by self-interest. VVD leader Dilan Yesilgoz said at the time that Wilders “chooses his own ego and his own interests. I am astonished. He throws away the chance for a right-wing policy”.

Following the pull-out, Prime Minister Dick Schoof – an independent – announced that he would resign and a snap election would be held this month.

Then, in August, the NSC’s Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp also resigned after he failed to secure support for new sanctions against Israel over its war in Gaza and the humanitarian situation in Gaza City. In solidarity with Veldkamp, other NSC party members left the coalition, leaving only two parties remaining.

Now, with an election imminent, opinion polls suggest the PVV will secure the most seats in the 150-seat parliament. While a winner needs 76 seats to form a government, no single party ever makes it to that figure, which has led to a history of coalitions.

According to a poll by the Dutch news outlet, EenVandaag, on October 14, the PVV is projected to secure 31 seats. The centre-left Green-Labour alliance (GroenLinks-PvdA) is polling at 25 seats, and the centre-right Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) is polling at 23.

PVV’s former coalition partner, the centre-right VVD, could take 14 seats and the BBB, four. So far, the NSC is not projected to secure any seats at all.

Immigration fears

At the end of September, EenVandaag polled 27,191 people and found that the main sticking point between voters – and, hence, between the leaders, PVV and GroenLinks-PvdA – is immigration. Half of all voters said it was the key issue on which they would be voting this year. Housing was the second-most important issue at 46 percent, and “Dutch identity” came third at 37 percent.

While the PVV is firmly anti-immigration and wants to impose a much stricter border policy and asylum laws, GroenLinks-PvdA would prefer to allow a net migration figure of 40,000 and 60,000 migrants per year.

Tempers are running high over this issue. Last month at The Hague, a right-wing activist known as “Els Rechts” organised an anti-migration protest that attracted 1,500 attendees. According to reports, protesters threw stones and bottles at the police, set a police car alight and smashed windows of the left-wing Democrats 66 (D66) party offices.

While left-wingers argue that the immigration issue has been wildly hyped up by the far right, they are losing control of the narrative.

Esme Smithson Swain, a member of MiGreat, a Dutch non-governmental campaign group that calls for freedom of movement and equal treatment for migrants in the Netherlands, told Al Jazeera that the far right in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom, more widely, had “constructed a narrative that there is a migration crisis”.

“They’ve managed to construct this idea of a crisis, and that distracts our attention away from populism, away from arms trades, away from social services and the welfare state being sold off.”

Whatever its merits, the right-wing message that immigration is at the root of many social ills seems to be taking hold. The far-left, pro-immigration BIJ1 party, which rejects this message, is not projected to win any seats at all in this election.

Immigration “is a key term especially for right-wing political parties to win the election”, Noura Oul Fakir, a candidate for the BIJ1 party, told Al Jazeera. “We don’t focus on it because we look at everything that’s been going on from a systemic point of view, that every form of oppression is interlinked … This fight for equality and justice, it’s about more than just immigration, but it’s also interlinked with other issues that we see nowadays.”

People ‘more emboldened to express racist views’

By January 1, 2024, the Netherlands was hosting 2.9 million migrants (16.2 percent of the population), compared to the average across European Union member states of 9.9 percent (44.7 million people in total).

Similarly, Germany hosts 16.9 million migrants (20.2 percent of the population); France, 9.3 million (13.6 percent of the population); Spain, 8.8 million (18.2 percent of the population); and Italy, 6.7 million (11.3 percent of the population), according to figures from the EU.

Mark van Ostaijen, an associate professor in public administration and sociology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, explained that immigration has become a mainstream talking point in “housing, care, educational and cultural policy domains”.

For instance, the Netherlands is currently short of 434,000 homes, including for 353,000 asylum seekers and 81,000 Dutch first-time buyers, according to figures commissioned by the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning (VRO).

Immigration has, therefore, been blamed for what is seen as a housing crisis.

According to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), 316,000 migrants arrived in the country in 2024, 19,000 fewer than in 2023. But CBS also found that population growth is still mainly down to net migration, with the largest number of migrants coming from Ukraine and Syria.

“I think this is indeed something that will continue the electoral legitimacy of far-right parties, or right-wing parties, even more, given the fact that the Netherlands was already quite leaning towards the conservative angle,” van Ostaijen told Al Jazeera.

“This will be a topic that will haunt our politics and our democratic decision-making and discourse for quite a while,” he said.

Anecdotal evidence bears this out. Fakir has noticed a change in the experiences of immigrant residents she and her colleagues have spoken to in the country following the growth of the PVV.

“In their personal life [they have seen] a noticeable shift where people feel more free or emboldened to express racist views, both online and in real life. Others are telling them those classic things of ‘go back to your own country, or you’re not Dutch’,” she said.

For Nassreddin Taibi, a recent graduate who works as a political analyst and plans to vote for GroenLinks-PvdA, the anti-immigration protests at the Hague “further cemented polarisation among Dutch voters” and have caused centrist parties to fall into line with the right-wing narrative.

“These protests have influenced the discourse in the sense that centrist parties now say that cutting immigration is necessary to win back trust of voters in politics,” he said.

Nearly half of voters still undecided

While the far-right PVV is projected to win the most seats in this election, it will still face an uphill journey to form a government, as other parties such as the centre-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) have ruled out joining a coalition government.

Furthermore, the PVV’s leader, Wilders, has not escaped controversy with his Islamophobic comments and anti-migration stance despite the rise in anti-immigration sentiment across the country as a whole.

Notable incidents over the years include Wilders’ likening of Islam to Nazism in 2007 and his reference to the Muslim holy book, the Quran, as “fascist” in a letter to a Dutch news outlet. His letter and comments led to Wilders being prosecuted for inciting hatred and discrimination, which he denied. In 2011, he was acquitted by a judge who ruled that his comments had fallen within the scope of free speech.

More recently, in August this year, Wilders posted an image on X that depicted a smiling, blonde and blue-eyed woman, representing the PVV; and a wrinkled, angry-looking elderly woman wearing a headscarf, representing the PvdA. It was accompanied by the words: “The choice is yours on 29/10.”

Aan U de keuze op 29/10 pic.twitter.com/royhcInDlm

— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) August 4, 2025

Fake news and misinformation have also driven the rise in far-right narratives, analysts say.

The Facebook page ‘Wij doen GEEN aangifte tegen Geert Wilders’ (We are NOT filing charges against Geert Wilders), which claims to be a PVV supporters’ page boasting 129,000 followers, said it does not intend to be “discriminatory, hateful, or incite violence”, but has nevertheless posted AI-generated images of this nature.

In one such image, which received 1,700 likes, a white family is seemingly being harassed by men of colour.

In another, a white woman is seen in a supermarket paying for groceries while surrounded by Muslim women wearing hijabs and niqabs, with the caption: “No mass immigration, no Islamisation, no backwardness of the Dutch.” The post received 885 likes.

While the outgoing home affairs minister, Judith Uitermark, has said the government is examining new ways to combat fake news, she added that the Netherlands is somewhat protected from the rise of extremism by its proportional representation system, under which no one party ever wins a majority.

Still, the Dutch Data Protection Authority has warned voters not to use AI chatbots to help them decide who to vote for.

And a large number are still deciding. EenVandaag found that some 48 percent of voters are still undecided about which candidate they will choose. If the GroenLinks-PvdA can disengage from right-wing talking points and, instead, focus on its own policies more, it may perform better than expected, analysts say.

This will be no easy task, however.

“We find ourselves doing this also as a civil society organisation, as campaigners, trying to fight off the narrative and fight off the kind of populist ideals of the far right faster than we can push for our own agenda as well. And I think a lot of the time that leaves left-wing parties in the Netherlands seeming a bit hollow,” Swain said.

Still, she says that she is holding out hope for this election, despite what feels like a “vast and growing far-right bulk of the population”.

“I think it’s very easy to kind of feel that division between ‘us and them’. Us campaigning on the left and this growing mass of the far right,” Swain said.

“We need to tackle fighting the influence of lobbying and of fake news in our political structures. And I think that becoming more united as a population would naturally fall from that.”

Growing up in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, Mahnoor Omer remembers the shame and anxiety she felt in school when she had periods. Going to the toilet with a sanitary pad was an act of stealth, like trying to cover up a crime.

“I used to hide my pad up my sleeve like I was taking narcotics to the bathroom,” says Omer, who comes from a middle-class family – her father a businessman and her mother a homemaker. “If someone talked about it, teachers would put you down.” A classmate once told her that her mother considered pads “a waste of money”.

“That’s when it hit me,” says Omer. “If middle-class families think this way, imagine how out of reach these products are for others.”

Now 25, Omer has gone from cautious schoolgirl to national centrestage in a battle that could reshape menstrual hygiene in Pakistan, a country where critics say economics is compounding social stigma to punish women – simply for being women.

In September, Omer, a lawyer, petitioned the Lahore High Court, challenging what she and many others say is effectively a “period tax” imposed by Pakistan on its more than 100 million women.

Pakistani governments have, under the Sales Tax Act of 1990, long charged an 18 percent sales tax on locally manufactured sanitary pads and a customs tax of 25 percent on imported ones, as well as on raw materials needed to make them. Add on other local taxes, and UNICEF Pakistan says that these pads are often effectively taxed at about 40 percent.

Omer’s petition argues that these taxes – which specifically affect women – are discriminatory, and violate a series of constitutional provisions that guarantee equality and dignity, elimination of exploitation and the promotion of social justice.

In a country where menstruation is already a taboo subject in most families, Omer and other lawyers and activists supporting the petition say that the taxes make it even harder for most Pakistani women to access sanitary products. A standard pack of commercially branded sanitary pads in Pakistan currently costs about 450 rupees ($1.60) for 10 pieces. In a country with a per capita income of $120 a month, that’s the cost of a meal of rotis and dal for a low-income family of four. Cut the cost by 40 percent – the taxes – and the calculations become less loaded against sanitary pads.

At the moment, only 12 percent of Pakistani women use commercially produced sanitary pads, according to a 2024 study by UNICEF and the WaterAid nonprofit. The rest improvise using cloth or other materials, and often do not even have access to clean water to wash themselves.

“If this petition goes forward, it’s going to make pads affordable,” says Hira Amjad, the founder and executive director of Dastak Foundation, a Pakistani nonprofit whose work is focused on promoting gender equality and combating violence against women.

And that, say lawyers and activists, could serve as a spark for broader social change.

The court docket describes the case as Mahnoor Omer against senior officials of the government of Pakistan. But that’s not what it feels like to Omer.

“It feels like women versus Pakistan.”

‘It’s not shameful’

Bushra Mahnoor, founder of Mahwari Justice, a Pakistani student-led organisation whose name translates to “menstrual justice”, realised early just how much of a struggle it could be to access sanitary pads.

Mahnoor – no relation to Omer – grew up in Attock, a city in the northwestern part of Pakistan’s Punjab province, with four sisters. “Every month, I had to check if there were enough pads. If my period came when one of my sisters had hers too,” finding a pad was a challenge, she says.

The struggle continued in school, where, as was the case with Omer, periods were associated with shame. A teacher once made one of her classmates stand for two entire lectures because her white uniform was stained. “That was dehumanising,” she says.

Mahnoor was 10 when she had her first period. “I didn’t know how to use a pad. I stuck it upside down; the sticky side touched my skin. It was painful. No one tells you how to manage it.”

She says that shame was never hers alone, but it’s part of a silence which starts at home and accompanies girls into adulthood. A study on menstrual health in Pakistan shows that eight out of 10 girls feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when talking about periods, and two out of three girls report never having received information about menstruation before it began. The findings, published in the Frontiers in Public Health journal in 2023, link this silence to poor hygiene, social exclusion and missed school days.

In 2022, when floods devastated Pakistan, Mahnoor began Mahwari Justice to ensure that relief camps did not overlook the menstrual needs of women. “We began distributing pads and later realised there’s so much more to be done,” she says. Her organisation has distributed more than 100,000 period kits – each containing pads, soap, underwear, detergent and painkillers – and created rap songs and comics to normalise conversations about menstruation. “When you say the word ‘mahwari’ out loud, you’re teaching people it’s not shameful,” she says. “It’s just life.”

The same floods also influenced Amjad, the Dastak Foundation founder, though her nonprofit has been around for a decade now. Its work now also includes distributing period kits during natural disasters.

But the social stigma associated with menstruation is also closely tied to economics in the ways in which its impact plays out for Pakistani women, suggests Amjad.

“In most households, it’s the men who make financial decisions,” she says. “Even if the woman is bringing the money, she’s giving it to the man, and he is deciding where that money needs to go.”

And if the cost of women’s health feels too high, that’s often compromised. “[With] the inflated prices due to the tax, there is no conversation in many houses about whether we should buy pads,” she says. “It’s an expense they cannot afford organically.”

According to the 2023 study in the Frontiers in Public Health, over half of Pakistani women are not able to afford sanitary pads.

If the taxes are removed, and menstrual hygiene becomes more affordable, the benefits will extend beyond health, says Amjad.

School attendance rates for girls could improve, she said. Currently, more than half of Pakistan’s girls in the five to 16 age group are not in school, according to the United Nations. “We will have stress-free women. We will have happier and healthier women.”

‘Feeling of justice’

Omer says her interest in women’s and minority rights began early. “What inspired me was just seeing the blatant mistreatment every day,” she says. “The economic, physical, and verbal exploitation that women face, whether it’s on the streets, in the media, or inside homes, never sat right with me.”

She credits her mother for making her grow up to be an empathetic and understanding person.

After completing school, she worked as a gender and criminal justice consultant at Crossroads Consultants, a Pakistan-based firm that collaborates with NGOs and development partners on gender and criminal justice reform. At the age of 19, she also volunteered at Aurat March, an annual women’s rights movement and protest held across Pakistan on International Women’s Day – it’s a commitment she has kept up since then.

Her first step into activism came at 16, when she and her friends started putting together “dignity kits”, small care packages for women in low-income neighbourhoods of Islamabad. “We would raise funds with bake sales or use our own money,” she recalls.

The money she was able to raise enabled her to distribute about 300 dignity kits that she and her friends made themselves. They each contained pads, underwear, pain medication and wipes. But she wanted to do more.

She got a chance when she started working at the Supreme Court in early 2025, first as a law clerk. She’s currently pursuing postgraduate studies in gender, peace and security at the London School of Economics and says that she will go back to Pakistan to resume her practice after she graduates.

She became friends with fellow lawyer Ahsan Jehangir Khan, who specialises in taxation and constitutional law. The plan to challenge the “period tax” emerged from their conversations.

“He pushed me to file this petition and try to get justice instead of just sitting around.”

Khan, who is a co-petitioner in the case, says that fighting the taxes is about more than accessibility and affordability of sanitary pads – it’s about justice. “It’s a tax on a biological function,” he says.

Tax policies in Pakistan, he says, are written by “a privileged elite, mostly men who have never had to think about what this tax means for ordinary women”. The constitution, he adds, “is very clear that you cannot have anything discriminatory against any gender whatsoever”.

To Amjad, the Dastak Foundation founder, the fight for menstrual hygiene is closely tied to her other passion – the struggle against climate change. The extreme weather-related crisis, such as floods, that Pakistan has faced in recent times, she says, hit women particularly hard.

She remembers the trauma many women she worked with after the 2022 floods described to her. “Imagine that you are living in a tent and you have mahwari [menstruation] for the first time,” she says. “You are not mentally prepared for it. You are running for your life. You don’t have access to safety or security. That trauma is a trauma for life.”

As temperatures rise on average, women will need to change sanitary pads more frequently during their periods – and a lack of adequate access will prove an even bigger problem, Amjad warns. She supports the withdrawal of taxes on sanitary pads – but only those made from cotton, not plastic ones that “take thousands of years to decompose”.

Amjad is also campaigning for paid menstruation leave. “I have come across women who were fired because they had pain during periods and couldn’t work,” she says. “When you are menstruating, one part of your brain is on menstruation. You can’t really focus properly.”

Meanwhile, opponents of the taxes are hoping that Omer’s petition will pressure the Pakistani government to follow other nations such as India, Nepal and the United Kingdom that have abolished their period taxes.

Taking on that mantle against the government’s policies didn’t come easily to Omer. Her parents, she says, were nervous at first about their daughter going to court against the government. “They said it’s never a good idea to take on the state,” she says.

Now, they’re proud of her, she says. “They understand why this matters.”

To her, the case is not just a legal fight. “When I think of this case, the picture that comes to mind … It’s not a courtroom, it’s a feeling of justice,” she says. “It makes me feel a sense of pride to be able to do this and take this step without fear.”

Life-changing mental health walking and running groups are set to open all over the country in honour of Pride of Britain winner Marcus Skeet

The Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards 2025 were a night to remember as ordinary people – who have done extraordinary things – were applauded for their hard work by a host of famous faces.

And when Marcus Skeet, the record-breaking charity runner and mental health champion received his Special Recognition Award, he got an extra surprise. After handing Marcus his trophy, pop star Anne-Marie, and podcast duo Pete Wicks and Sam Thompson revealed Pride of Britain had launched a special GoFundMe for mental health charity Mind in Marcus’s honour.

Money raised will pay for special mental health walking and running groups all over the country called Marcus’s Movers. The groups, which include mental health practitioners, cost £2,500 to set up.

READ MORE: Lydia Bright’s poignant foster care connection as she celebrates Pride of Britain kids

Sam and Pete kicked things off with a £5,000 donation on stage, and then Pub Landlord Al Murray took to the floor to persuade some other famous faces to chip in too.

Dragons Den tycoon Duncan Bannatyne donated £20,000, bringing the total raised on the night to £50,000, enough to fund 20 potentially lifesaving Marcus’s Movers groups. A stunned Marcus told Ashley Banjo: “From the bottom of my heart, that means the absolute world. I’m lost for words.”

Now you can help by donating to the GoFundMe to help Mind set up even more Marcus’s Movers groups in communities all over Britain. The Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards with P&O Cruises celebrate unsung heroes like Marcus. His own life was transformed by walking and running – the teenager went from the lowest possible ebb to becoming a record-breaking charity fundraiser and Pride of Britain winner.

He was 12 when his dad was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. Marcus’s physical and mental health rapidly declined and he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and intrusive thoughts which dramatically impacted his life.

At 15 he was in “one of the darkest places”, and attempted suicide after spending months alone in his room with no contact with the outside world. Desperate to turn his life around, Marcus, now 17, started walking short distances at first, before building up distance and speed until he was jogging longer routes. He says: “My mental health was at an all time low so I decided to run, not just for mental health but to raise awareness. Running pushed my body and mind and the feeling after a run was like nothing else.”

Since then, Marcus has raised more than £200,000 for Mind through running, including a run from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The gruelling 874 mile challenge saw him become the youngest person ever – and the first under 18 – to run the entire length of the UK.

Marcus has documented his journey on social media in the hopes of inspiring others who are struggling with their mental health. He says: “Life is brutal, sometimes you feel like you’re in a place you can’t get out of. But I promise you, every road may have speed bumps but you’ll get over them. Mental health is such a big thing, everyone is different but I find running helps mine.”

Find out more about Marcus’s Movers and donate at gofundme.com/f/marcus-movers