Aerial footage from the Philippines shows the destruction wrought on homes and streets by Typhoon Kalmaegi.
It was one of the strongest typhoons in the Philippines this year.
At least 85 people have died in the flooding and another 75 are missing. The floodwaters swept shipping containers through the streets and cars have been left in piles.
WEIGHT loss jabs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy have offered a lifeline to those with diabetes and obesity.
But not everyone who takes the GLP-1 receptor agonists benefits equally, warn scientists.
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The way GLP-1 receptor agonists work is by lowering blood glucose, which then modifies a person’s appetite leading to weight loss.
But not everyone experiences weight loss while taking them.
As part of their investigations, researchers looked at people’s relationship with food, and the influence this had on their treatment.
The scientists focused on three different types of eating behaviours linked to weight gain; emotional eating, where people eat in response to negative emotions rather than hunger; external eating, where people eat because the food looks great rather than because of hunger; and restrained eating, which can help with weight loss but can also lead to disordered eating.
The study monitored 92 individuals with diabetes in Japan over their first year of taking the drugs.
All three types of eaters showed a significant reduction in body weight, cholesterol levels, and body fat percentage over the course of the year.
But there were some differences in results.
People who overeat in response to the sight or smell of tasty food were most likely to respond well to the drugs in the long term.
But individuals who overeat for emotional reasons were less likely to.
“Pre-treatment assessment of eating behaviour patterns may help predict who will benefit most from GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy,” said Prof Daisuke Yabe of Kyoto University, senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Clinical Diabetes and Healthcare.
“GLP-1 receptor agonists are effective for individuals who experience weight gain or elevated blood glucose levels due to overeating triggered by external stimuli.
“However, their effectiveness is less expected in cases where emotional eating is the primary cause.”
After three months, participants reported more behaviours associated with restrained eating, and fewer behaviours linked to external or emotional eating.
By 12 months, a decrease in external eating was sustained.
But restrained and emotional eating behaviours returned to their baseline levels.
“One possible explanation is that emotional eating is more strongly influenced by psychological factors which may not be directly addressed by GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy,” said Dr Takehiro Keto of Gifu University, second author of the study.
“Individuals with prominent emotional eating tendencies may require additional behavioural or psychological support.”
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The researchers did point out participants who fell into the external eating group may have been especially highly motivated to try to improve their control over their diabetes, which may have resulted in greater weight loss.
“While our study suggests a potential association between external eating behaviour and treatment response to GLP-1 receptor agonists, these findings remain preliminary,” said Yabe.
“Further evidence is necessary before they can be implemented in clinical practice.
“Should future large-scale or randomised controlled trials validate this relationship, incorporating simple behavioural assessments could become a valuable component in optimising treatment strategies.”
Weight loss jabs are all the rage as studies and patient stories reveal they help people shed flab at almost unbelievable rates, as well as appearing to reduce the risk of serious diseases.
Wegovy – a modified version of type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic – and Mounjaro are the leading weight loss injections used in the UK.
Wegovy, real name semaglutide, has been used on the NHS for years while Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is a newer and more powerful addition to the market.
Mounjaro accounts for most private prescriptions for weight loss and is set to join Wegovy as an NHS staple this year.
How do they work?
The jabs work by suppressing your appetite, making you eat less so your body burns fat for energy instead and you lose weight.
They do this my mimicking a hormone called GLP-1, which signals to the brain when the stomach is full, so the drugs are officially called GLP-1 receptor agonists.
They slow down digestion and increase insulin production, lowering blood sugar, which is why they were first developed to treat type 2 diabetes in which patients’ sugar levels are too high.
Can I get them?
NHS prescriptions of weight loss drugs, mainly Wegovy and an older version called Saxenda (chemical name liraglutide), are controlled through specialist weight loss clinics.
Typically a patient will have to have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, classifying them as medically obese, and also have a weight-related health condition such as high blood pressure.
GPs generally do not prescribe the drugs for weight loss.
Private prescribers offer the jabs, most commonly Mounjaro, to anyone who is obese (BMI of 30+) or overweight (BMI 25-30) with a weight-related health risk.
Private pharmacies have been rapped for handing them out too easily and video calls or face-to-face appointments are now mandatory to check a patient is being truthful about their size and health.
Are there any risks?
Yes – side effects are common but most are relatively mild.
Around half of people taking the drug experience gut issues, including sickness, bloating, acid reflux, constipation and diarrhoea.
Dr Sarah Jarvis, GP and clinical consultant at patient.info, said: “One of the more uncommon side effects is severe acute pancreatitis, which is extremely painful and happens to one in 500 people.”
Other uncommon side effects include altered taste, kidney problems, allergic reactions, gallbladder problems and hypoglycemia.
Evidence has so far been inconclusive about whether the injections are damaging to patients’ mental health.
Figures obtained by The Sun show that, up to January 2025, 85 patient deaths in the UK were suspected to be linked to the medicines.
ANOTHER popular gadget is destined for the scrapheap after Apple officially designated it “obsolete”.
It joins hundreds of products already on the list that are beyond repair.
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Like any tech company, Apple routinely discontinues older devices and continues to offer software and servicing for a limited period after.
The firm has two key phases: vintage and obsolete.
An Apple gadget is classified as vintage when Apple stopped distributing it for sale more than five and less than seven years ago.
You can still get a repair sorted from authorised service providers during this period but there’s no guarantee as the parts become limited.
But when it steps into the obsolete stage you can’t get any repairs sorted at all.
A device is considered obsolete when Apple stopped distributing them for sale more than seven years ago.
As you would expect, with 49 years in the business, Apple has a lot of discontinued products now.
And there are a sizeable number of iPhones on the list dating back to the very first in 2007.
Of course, it includes other gizmos too, such as the Apple Watch.
And it’s a popular Apple Watch model that’s been bumped down to obsolete this week.
The second-generation Apple Watch Series 1 models released in 2016 have been added.
So if you own one, don’t count on any repairs – you’ll have to upgrade to a newer Apple Watch.
This means the full list of obsolete Apple Watch products is now:
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor at The Sun
It’s never good news to hear that your favourite gadget is no longer repairable and you’ll have to buy an expensive new one altogether.
But Apple is fairly good for making tech last as long as possible, providing plenty of software updates for years after a product was released.
However, there comes a point when they have to stop.
For something like a smartwatch it’s simply not financially viable to keep producing parts for items that few people now own.
Given the second-generation Apple Watch Series 1 models were released nine years ago, a lot has changed since then.
If you do still own one, chances are it’s probably quite battered and slow now.
Nearly six decades after the assassination of United States civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr (MLK) in 1968, the White House has released more than 230,000 pages of once-classified files relating to his murder.
After becoming president in January, Donald Trump signed an executive order declassifying documents related to the assassinations of King, former President John F Kennedy and former Senator Robert F Kennedy.
The MLK files largely reinforce the longstanding official conclusion that James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin, acted alone with no conclusive evidence of a broader conspiracy.
The files released on Monday add to the well-documented record of FBI surveillance and harassment of King, including efforts to discredit and intimidate him in the years leading up to his assassination.
So what do the MLK files offer? What was the FBI operation against him? And why has Trump released them now?
The MLK files are the trove of documents related to both the FBI’s surveillance of King throughout the 1950s and 1960s and the investigation into his assassination in 1968. The records were put under a court-imposed seal in 1977 after the FBI compiled them and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
The files include internal memos, wiretap transcripts, informant reports and correspondence from then-FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and senior officials, reflecting how the FBI viewed King as a political threat due to his civil rights activism.
A major focus is the FBI’s covert campaign to discredit and intimidate King, which included bugging his hotel rooms, infiltrating his inner circle and even sending him an anonymous letter urging him to commit suicide in 1964.
The FBI also falsely labelled King as a communist sympathiser based on his ties to former Communist Party member Stanley Levison, using this claim to justify illegal surveillance and attempts to destroy his reputation.
These operations were part of the FBI’s wider COINTELPRO programme, which targeted activists and dissenters across the country.
The newly released MLK files do not reveal any dramatic new evidence about his assassination or secret plots.
The files largely reinforce what was already known: Ray was convicted as the lone shooter, and the FBI engaged in an extensive surveillance campaign.
The communications also suggest the FBI considered multiple suspects beyond Ray but dropped those leads. Ray confessed to killing King in 1969 but later recanted and claimed he was framed.
Before being arrested, Ray was on the run for nearly two months. He fled to Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom before being extradited to the US, where he was convicted and sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in April 1998 from complications related to kidney and liver disease.
The documents reaffirm that the FBI, under the direction of Hoover, viewed King as a subversive figure and engaged in extensive surveillance and disinformation campaigns against him. These tactics, which included wiretaps and anonymous threats, have been public knowledge for decades, particularly after the findings of the US Senate’s Church Committee in the 1970s.
The new files appear to confirm this history while adding more granular details. They provide additional internal records and memos that reinforce previous accounts of the bureau’s efforts to discredit King and monitor his activities.
Notably, the release does not contain new evidence implicating anyone beyond Ray in King’s assassination.
But King scholars would like to see the information the FBI was discussing and circulating as part of its investigation, Ryan Jones, director of history, interpretation and curatorial services at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee told The Associated Press news agency.
“That’s critical given the fact the American public, at that time, was unaware that the FBI that is involved in the investigation was leading a smear campaign to discredit the same man while he was alive,” Jones was quoted as saying. “They were the same bureau who was receiving notices of assassination attempts against King and ignored them.”
The civil rights movement was a decades-long struggle, primarily in the US during the 1950s and 1960s, aimed at ending racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans.
Rooted in centuries of resistance to slavery and racial injustice, the movement gained momentum after World War II as Black Americans demanded equal treatment under the law and full access to political, social and economic rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.
Led by figures such as Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, King and countless grassroots activists, the movement employed strategies ranging from peaceful protests and legal challenges to civil disobedience and mass mobilisation.
Landmark events like the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama; the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech; and the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, also in Alabama, pressured lawmakers and reshaped public opinion. These efforts led to major legislative victories, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The FBI’s operation against King was primarily conducted under the Counterintelligence Program, known as COINTELPRO, a covert initiative launched by the FBI under Hoover.
Initiated in 1956, COINTELPRO targeted various organisations, but its focus on King and the broader civil rights movement intensified in the early 1960s, particularly as King’s prominence grew.
The FBI labelled King a national security threat, suspecting communist influence within the civil rights movement although no such ties were ever substantiated.
Declassified documents outline a systematic campaign to monitor King’s activities, undermine his leadership and tarnish his public image through surveillance and psychological tactics. Wiretaps were placed on King’s home and office phones, and hidden microphones were installed in hotel rooms where he stayed.
These efforts, authorised by Attorney General Robert F Kennedy in 1963, were often abused to collect salacious details about King’s private life, particularly extramarital affairs.
In 1964, the FBI sent an anonymous letter to King accompanied by an audiotape it pulled from bugged hotel rooms that allegedly was evidence of his affairs and urged him to commit suicide to avoid public disgrace.
The FBI’s operation against King, which continued until his assassination in 1968, reflected Hoover’s animosity and the agency’s broader paranoia about civil rights activism disrupting the status quo.
“He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign,” a King family statement said.
The Trump administration released the MLK files despite opposition from his family and the political group he once led.
In a statement, Attorney General Pamela Bondi said: “The American people deserve answers decades after the horrific assassination of one of our nation’s great leaders.”
Trump’s order for the files to be released said it was in the “national interest” to release the records. “Their families and the American people deserve transparency and truth,” it said.
Bondi hosted Alveda King, a conservative commentator and MLK’s niece, at the Department of Justice to commemorate the release of the files. Alveda said she was grateful to Trump “for delivering on their pledge of transparency in the release of these documents on the assassination” of King.
The King family said in its statement that it had hoped to get an opportunity to review the files as a family before their public release.
In a statement released on Monday, King’s children called their father’s case a “captivating public curiosity for decades” but emphasised that “these files must be viewed within their full historical context.”
“We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief,” the statement said.
Before releasing the MLK files, Trump declassified thousands of documents related to the assassinations of former President Kennedy (JFK) and his younger brother, Robert F Kennedy, calling it a push for transparency.
In March, the National Archives released tens of thousands of pages concerning JFK’s 1963 assassination, including previously redacted FBI and CIA records. These documents offered further detail on the intelligence tracking of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and US surveillance efforts during the Cold War.
After that, from April to June, the Trump administration released more than 70,000 pages related to the 1968 assassination of Senator Kennedy. These records included FBI field reports, informant files and internal memos.
While many hailed this latest release, Trump also faced criticism from other leaders who called it a political distraction at a time when pressure has been mounting over the president’s handling of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein files.
The Epstein files detail the life and connections of the disgraced financier with deep ties to elite political, business and cultural circles. Calls for transparency have intensified after renewed demands from civil society, victims advocates and bipartisan lawmakers who argued that shielding the full extent of Epstein’s connections undermines justice and accountability.
Brussels and London acting ‘in concert’ after Trump failed to secure ceasefire promise from Putin.
The European Union and the United Kingdom have announced coordinated packages of sanctions against Russia in a bid to ramp up pressure on President Vladimir Putin to end the war against Ukraine, as diplomatic momentum to reach a ceasefire accelerates.
The packages, which were unveiled Tuesday, will see both the EU and the UK taking aim at Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of oil tankers that illicitly transport oil to circumvent Western restrictions, with Brussels targeting 189 ships.
The UK’s wide-ranging package will also target the supply chains of Russian weapons systems, including Iskander missiles, Kremlin-funded information operations, and financial institutions that help Russia evade sanctions.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said an 18th package of sanctions was already being prepared by the EU, to follow the newly adopted 17th, with further meaningful measures.
“It’s time to intensify the pressure on Russia to bring about the ceasefire,” she posted on X, after a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull noted that the EU and UK were “acting in concert”, simultaneously releasing the new sanctions after sealing a new defence and security pact during reset talks in London the previous day.
Responding to the sanctions, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that Russia would never bow to ultimatums from anyone, adding that it was clear Europe wanted to re-arm Ukraine to continue the war.
The coordinated action came a day after United States President Donald Trump failed to secure a promise for a ceasefire in Ukraine from Putin in the pair’s highly anticipated phone call on Monday – without any corresponding steps from Washington, despite intense lobbying from European leaders and Zelenskyy.
Eager to set the terms, Putin said after the call that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum about a future peace accord, saying that discussions on the memorandum would include the principles of a settlement and the timing and definitions of a possible ceasefire.
The Kremlin’s Zakharova told reporters “the ball is in Kyiv’s court,” adding that she hoped Ukraine would take a constructive position on the proposed memorandum for the sake of its own “self-preservation”.
Zelenskyy said on Telegram on Tuesday that it was “obvious that Russia is trying to buy time to continue the war and occupation”.
“We are working with partners to put pressure on the Russians to behave differently,” he added, in an apparent reference to further international sanctions on Russia.
After announcing their measures, Brussels and London both suggested that more sanctions could follow, and France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for further action to “push Vladimir Putin to put an end to his imperialist fantasy”.
Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said: “Putin is clearly playing for time; unfortunately we have to say Putin is not really interested in peace.”