Phone alarms are what get teaching assistant Layla through her day. She has four alarms to wake up, one to get dressed, another to pack her work bag, and so on.

“There’s a million different ones. Different times of the day,” says the 30-year-old as she scrolls through the alerts on her phone.

“It feels like overkill to a lot of people, but I have these markers that I need to hit,” says Layla, adding that the process helps keep her ADHD brain focused and establish a routine.

But that sense of control evaporates as soon as Layla’s period nears – the peak of her menstrual cycle.

“It’s like you’re clinging on, for dear life, onto the ball that is continuing to roll, and sort of cursing yourself and the world the entire time.”

ADHD is a condition where the brain works differently to a lot of people including difficulties with things like concentrating, regulating emotions and sitting still, according to the NHS.

Conversations are rife on social media and chat forums about women’s menstrual cycles exacerbating their ADHD symptoms.

A first of its kind study by Kings College and Queen Mary University in London is putting that link to the test, by asking 50 women who have ADHD and are taking medication for it, to track their menstrual cycle and the impact it has on their ADHD symptoms, and daily life more broadly.

The waiting room outside the hepatology clinic at Rajagiri Hospital in Kochi is suspended between hope and despair.

One man stares silently at the floor, weakened by advanced liver disease and in urgent need of treatment. Nearby, another family clutches a folder of old medical reports, hoping the hospital can still save their loved one.

Inside, Dr Cyriac Abby Philips is unhurried.

A patient sits across from him. Philips leans forward, asks a question, then falls silent. He listens – really listens. When he speaks again, his assessment is candid but delivered with compassion. He doesn’t simply tell the family what comes next; he carefully walks them through the road ahead.

I spent two days in his clinic in the southern Indian state of Kerala expecting to find a very different man.

Philips is one of India’s best-known – and most polarising – doctors online: admired by supporters as a fearless champion of evidence-based medicine, reviled by critics as an attention-seeking provocateur.

On X, where more than 300,000 people follow him as the “Liver Doc”, he has called homeopathy “false medicine”, labelled alternative practitioners quacks and told critics their brains were “for rent”. Alternative practitioners accuse him of not understanding the Indian system and attacking them unfairly.

His feed is packed with public health information, but also with bitter feuds – including with celebrities – conducted in a style many describe as rude.

India’s Ayush Ministry – the federal body overseeing traditional medicine – has held two formal committee meetings just to discuss him. A police inspector once travelled for two days by train from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to question him over a social media post. In six years, Philips has faced 16 legal cases, some of which are still ongoing.

Yet the man behind the social media persona seemed markedly different in person.

During our conversation, he came across as measured and soft-spoken. Long-term patients, colleagues and doctors who know him also described him in similar terms: polite, unassuming and courteous.

“It’s an adopted persona,” he says, without apology. “They hate me. But they cannot invalidate the information I give.”

“Sometimes you must make loud noises to be heard. I specially go after trolls, so they cannot deviate the attention from the message I am trying to give. If people think I’m rude or ill-tempered, even though it isn’t true, I’m willing to pay that price.”

Traders have been betting millions of dollars shortly before US President Donald Trump makes big announcements throughout his second term.

And communications relating to the Iran war are no exception.

The BBC has looked into trade volume data that suggests several large bets were made shortly before Trump made market-moving statements.

Nick Marsh has this analysis.

BBC

AFP via Getty Images

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The NHS ‘postcode lottery’

Reuters

Private patients priced out

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‘Not a magic bullet’

Kevin Mazur/WireImage via Getty Images

Are we medicalising a social issue?

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MILAN: AC Milan fell further into crisis on Sunday as a stoppage-time penalty condemned them to a 2-1 defeat at home to Lazio in the Italian league.

Despite being reduced to 10 men, Milan managed to level in the 84th minute but Pedro converted a penalty in the eighth minute of stoppages.

This was Milan’s third straight Serie A loss amid a disastrous run that also saw the Rossoneri crash out of the Champions League.

Milan dropped to ninth in the standings and were leapfrogged by Roma after Claudio Ranieri’s team fought back to beat 10-man Como 2-1.

Lazio climbed back into fourth place — a point above Juventus, which hosts Hellas Verona on Monday.

Sixth-placed Bologna rallied to beat relegation-threatened Cagliari 2-1.

Late (and even later) drama

Lazio were also looking to get back to winning ways following two Serie A draws and being knocked out of the Italian Cup midweek by Inter Milan, also at San Siro.

Mattia Zaccagni gave Lazio the lead in the 28th minute. His initial attempt was saved by Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan but Zaccagni tapped in the rebound.

Milan’s chances of getting something from the match diminished in the 67th when defender Strahinja Pavlovic was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Lazio midfielder Matteo Guendouzi

Milan neverthless managed to find an equalizer when Rafael Leao whipped in a cross from the left for an unmarked Samuel Chukwueze to head in at the far post.

But there was even later drama when Lazio was awarded a penalty on video review after Maignan brought down visiting forward Gustav Isaksen. Pedro struck the spot kick into the bottom right corner.

Bologna boosts top 4 hopes

Riccardo Orsolini scored twice to help Bologna boost their chances of qualifying for the Champions League again.

Cagliari surprisingly reached the break ahead in Bologna after Roberto Piccoli’s 22nd-minute header.

But Bologna coach Vincenzo Italiano made three changes at halftime and his team leveled almost immediately as Orsolini converted a penalty after Cagliari midfielder Mattia Felici fouled Nicolò Cambiaghi — one of those substitutes.

Cambiaghi also rolled the ball across for Orsolini to tap in and complete the turnaround eight minutes later.

Cagliari are three points above the relegation zone.

Impact subs

Substitute Alexis Saelemaekers took just 120 seconds to help Roma turn their match round.

Roma were trailing at home to Como following Lucas Da Cunha’s goal on the stroke of halftime.

But the match changed in the 61st minute. Saelemaekers, who had only just come off the bench, played a one-two with Zeki Çelik and then a stroke of luck saw his effort deflected by Como defender Edoardo Goldaniga, going in off the underside of the crossbar.

It quickly got worse for Como as they almost immediately went down to 10 men when defender Marc-Oliver Kempf was sent off following a second yellow card.

Halftime substitute Artem Dovbyk scored the winner in the 76th, volleying in a cross from Devyne Rensch — who had been on the field for less than two minutes.

It was Roma’s 11th league match unbeaten since a loss at Como on Dec. 15 and sent Ranieri’s team up to eighth, six points below Juventus.

Empoli, who surprisingly knocked defending champions Juventus out of the Italian Cup midweek, drew 1-1 at Genoa to remain in the bottom three, one point from safety.

Torino won 2-0 at bottom club Monza.

Local activist Norma Andrade, who was recently at the UN Office in Geneva to raise awareness about femicide, knows the issue first-hand.  Her own daughter, Lilia Alejandra, was murdered in that same city in 2001.

“As my granddaughter would sum it up: we are worth a peanut – which in other words means that a woman is just disposable,” she told UN News.

“On one day, she was working in a factory, the next day she disappeared, the next she is found dead, while another person has already replaced her at work, so [her death] is only important to her family – not for society, not for the government, much less for the authorities or the company,” she explained.  

Impunity is rampant

According to Ms. Andrade, the fact that Juárez is a key border crossing with the United States contributes to the lack of community rootedness, which dehumanizes the population and makes it harder to fight the crime of femicide.

But the problem is not confined there. Across Mexico, around 10 women and girls are killed every day by intimate partners or other family members, according to Government data. 

Since 2001 – the year when Lilia Alejandra was killed – 50,000 women have been murdered, while the impunity rate exceeds 95 per cent. 

Furthermore, only two per cent of cases end in a criminal sentence and only one in 10 victims dares to report their aggressor.

There is no justice

Ms. Andrade has survived two murder attempts in the 23 years since her daughter’s body was discovered, as she continues her quest for justice.  

“In Mexico, the growing number of disappearances is real, but this boom in organized crime and drug trafficking has erased what is happening to women, not that it stopped happening, but it is becoming invisible…”, she said.

Even though the violence against women is increasing, its visibility is going down – local activist Norma Andrade

Speaking about the lack of justice, she said that even when the skeletal remains of a missing young woman are found, it is an “achievement” as it gives closure to their families. “It gives them a place to go and mourn their daughter,” she added.

Since the disappearance of her daughter, Ms. Andrade has been fighting for justice. 

“Recently, an expert made me see a reality that I hadn’t seen for the past 23 years, one that I didn’t want to accept: maybe I won’t find justice for Alejandra. Or at least not the legal justice that I want that would put Alejandra’s attackers in jail”, she stressed.  

Her case was transferred to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in Costa Rica, in December 2023. 

Symbolic justice

“Perhaps we can find moral or symbolic justice,” Ms. Andrade said, “because the moment the Mexican State is given a criminal sentence […] it publicly acknowledges that it didn’t protect Alejandra, neither all the Alejandras in the country, nor all those children who were orphaned when their mothers were murdered; and that would alleviate to some extent the lack of legal justice”. 

Blaming the lack of political will, Ms. Andrade who is also a co-founder of non-profit association of mothers whose daughters were victims of feminicide in Ciudad Juárez, added that the mothers are the ones “swimming against the tide”.

Supported by other women, academics, feminists, and civil society, they are the ones “who must go, protest and raise their voices to be taken into account”, she said. 

In recent years, the crimes have sparked several waves of protests and put gender violence at the top of Mexico’s political agenda.

Keeping the issue of femicide in the spotlight and making information available and accessible for women, is key for holding the authorities accountable and preventing violence against women and girls. 

Since 2011, UN Women, in partnership with key state institutions, has published periodic studies analysing the scope, trends, characteristics of femicide in the country.

‘Look at us’

Ms. Andrade stars in the documentary Norma, in search of justice directed by French journalist Brigitte Leoni, which was screened in Geneva ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November.

She hopes the documentary will bring more visibility to the cases of disappearance, noting that “this boom in organized crime has caused people to flee, crossing into the United States, and drug trafficking has made what is happening to women invisible”.

Speaking in Geneva, home to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN News asked Ms. Andrade what message she would like to share with rights experts. 

“Look at us, look at the mothers. Come here and see the families and don’t just stick with the image that the government gives to the outside world”, she said.

Femicide transcends borders

Violence against women is a global crisis, according to a report by UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), released on the International Day.

The commemoration marks the start of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual campaign that runs through 10 December, Human Rights Day.

Regional data shows that femicide transcends borders, socio-economic status and cultures, but its severity varies.

Africa recorded the highest rates of intimate partner and family-related femicides, with 21,700 women killed in 2023, followed by the Americas and Oceania.

In Europe, 64 per cent of victims were killed by their intimate partners; in the Americas, it was 58 per cent. 

In contrast, women in Africa and Asia were more likely to be killed by family members than by their partners.

The report revealed that globally, 140 women and girls died every day at the hands of their partner or a close relative in 2023 – one woman killed every 10 minutes.  

NHS England says recognising any one of these signs in yourself or others and dialling 999 urgently is crucial to getting prompt, specialist treatment.

Yet the average time taken to make that emergency call was 88 minutes in 2023-24, NHS data reveals.

The analysis, from a team at King’s College London, looked at data for more than 41,000 stroke patients who were taken by ambulance to hospital.

NHS England also said a recent poll they carried out found a mistaken belief that two or three stroke symptoms were necessary before calling 999.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis, NHS England’s medical director, said people should act fast to help save lives.

“These figures highlight very clearly that we must do more to support people to recognise the symptoms of stroke in themselves and others, and take action to call 999 at the earliest opportunity. “

He said stroke symptoms “can be less obvious or dramatic than you might expect”, but added that even if it doesn’t seem like it, any sign of a stroke is always an emergency.