Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice described Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle as “brilliant” just hours after his party colleague Zia Yusuf branded him “a coward”.

The pair appeared to be at odds over Hoyle’s approach to keeping MPs safe in the wake of the death of Ann Widdecombe.

The former Tory minister, who became a Reform spokeswoman, was found dead at her home in Devon on Thursday.

A 28-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation.

Widdecombe’s death has led to claims by Reform politicians that not enough is being done by the authorities to keep them safe.

Yusuf, the party’s home affairs spokesman, said on Sunday parliament, the government and the police do not “care at all” about their MPs’ safety.

That sparked an angry response from Commons officials, who insisted “all MPs are offered appropriate security measures”.

It is also understood that Lindsay Hoyle spoke directly to Lee Anderson, Reform’s chief whip, about Yusuf’s remarks.

But in an angry rant on X on Monday, Yusuf hit back: “Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House, has no jurisdiction over me. I am not afraid of him.

“He is a bully who did not even reply to a letter from a female Reform MP pleading for assistance with security until after I revealed it. If this is not true then I invite him to deny it on the record rather than try and bully the very people he has let down.

“Instead he briefs the press like a coward. He is a disgrace to his office.”

But in an interview with BBC’s Newsnight programme hours later, Richard Tice paid tribute to the Speaker’s attempts to protect MPs.

He said: “I had discussions with the Speaker in early January, including a letter when I said I feared something terrible and potentially fatal might happen.

“And the Speaker has been brilliant. His resolute determination about ensuring the security of all MPs is robust. But I’m afraid under him, we have found failings, we have found wantings.”

Meanwhile, Reform leader Nigel Farage has accepted an offer by home secretary Shabana Mahmood to meet the body responsible for organising security for public figures.

Reform has said it is now paying for round-the-clock security for their MPs.

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Research has already shown that exercise can help us to live longer – and we’ve written before about the 14 hallmarks of ageing that regular exercise helps to slow down.

Now, a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has identified the biological “rewind button” that helps physical activity reverse or prevent age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia).

In this study, researchers found that exercise seems to restore a key balance in muscle cells that gets disrupted as we age.

Healthy muscles rely on a growth pathway called mTORC1, which is in charge of protein production and tissue maintenance.

But when we age, this pathway becomes overactive, offering too many muscle-building new proteins without clearing away the old, damaged ones. We’ve known for a while that this buildup of damaged proteins leads to greater muscle weakness, but we weren’t sure why it happened.

This study showed that a gene called DEAF1 may be responsible.

When they artificially raised the levels of DEAF1 in mice and fruit flies, they found that the mTORC1 imbalance linked to greater muscle ageing kicked in.

Usually, DEAF1 is kept in check by regulatory proteins called FOXOs. These seem to decline over time, though exercise looks like it could rewind that process.

The study’s lead author, assistant professor Tang Hong-Wen, from the Cancer and Stem Cell Biology Programme at Duke-NUS, said: “Physical activity activates certain proteins which lower DEAF1 levels, bringing the growth pathway back into balance.

“This allows ageing muscles to clear out damaged proteins, rebuild themselves properly, and help them stay stronger and more resilient.”

There’s a caveat, however.

In some older muscles, DEAF1 levels are so high, and/or FOXO production is so impaired, that exercise alone can’t reverse the damage linked to ageing.

The study authors think that adjusting DEAF1 levels in people with ageing muscles may help to mimic the effects of exercise, even among those with limited physical activity.

The study’s first author, Priscillia Choy Sze Mun, said: “Exercise tells muscles to ‘clean up and reset.’

“Lowering DEAF1 helps older muscles regain strength and balance, almost like hitting the rewind button. With millions of older adults at risk of muscle decline, understanding DEAF1 could lead to new ways to protect muscles and improve quality of life.”

And Professor Patrick Tan, Senior Vice-Dean for Research at Duke-NUS (whose researchers were involved in the study) said: “This study helps explain, at a molecular level, why ageing muscles lose their ability to repair themselves and why exercise can restore that balance in some individuals.

“By identifying DEAF1 as a key regulator in this process, these findings may lead to new ways in which the benefits of exercise can be brought to societies with rapidly ageing populations.”

If your family’s sleep routine has gone straight out of the window these past few weeks, welcome to the (very tired) club.

In fact, a new survey by vitamin brand CapyChews found almost half of parents (48%) said their child’s sleep worsens during hot weather, a figure which rises to a mammoth 71% when it comes to parents of four-year-olds.

I can attest: sleep has been especially hard to come by in my household of late – the week where we also experienced high humidity and red health alerts was particularly tricky, with the little ’uns not falling asleep until almost 10pm most nights. (As you can imagine, the following mornings were super fun!)

The ideal room temperature for the human body to sleep is around 18-20°C, according to the Sleep Foundation.

But the recent bout of hot weather has taken bedrooms way past that – and if our bodies can’t cool down, it’s a lot harder to drift off and stay asleep.

You might’ve been aiming to get the kids in bed earlier than normal owing to just how exhausting these heatwaves can be, but baby and child sleep consultant, Andrea Grace, suggested this is a common bedtime mistake parents make.

“While early bedtimes are usually recommended, a bedtime that comes before a child is genuinely ready for sleep can make falling asleep harder – and your child’s bed can become associated with wakefulness,” she explained.

“In these cases, a later bedtime for a few nights can help. Once your child is falling asleep easily, bedtime can be gradually moved earlier until you find their ideal sleep time.”

Rosey Davidson, a sleep consultant and founder of Just Chill Mama, agreed that bringing bedtime earlier won’t necessarily have the intended outcome – even if your kids seem more tired during the day.

“If bedtime is consistently before a child is actually ready for sleep, it can lead to longer periods of lying awake, frustration, and bedtime becoming more of a battle,” she said.

Noting that the heat makes it harder to fall asleep, she added that it “won’t cause any harm” if kids have later nights when it’s really hot.

Davidson suggested that during a heatwave, “keeping the room as cool as possible is more important than making it completely dark”.

“If opening the curtains or blinds slightly overnight allows cooler air to circulate, I’d prioritise that,” she said.

“If your child tends to wake early with the light, you can always close the blackout blinds again when you wake early in the morning (for example, around 4-5am) if that helps them settle back to sleep.”

You might worry your child will get cold overnight, but Davidson warns that overheating is far more likely in a heatwave.

“Keep clothing and bedding light, and follow safe sleep guidance for babies,” she added.

If sleep’s gone AWOL, it can be tempting to overhaul the evening routine completely but Davidson warns this could backfire as “children generally cope better with familiar, predictable bedtimes”.

“Keep the routine as consistent as you can, even if sleep takes a little longer than usual,” she said.

“Also do not panic that sleep has hit the rocks! You can work on improving it when the temperature is cooler.”

The sleep expert added that a few disrupted nights during very hot weather are “completely normal and don’t usually mean you’ve created a long-term sleep problem”.

She urges parents to let kids sleep in the coolest room in the house during the hotter temperatures – even if it’s just for a few nights.

“If your baby’s nursery or your child’s bedroom is unbearably hot, there’s nothing wrong with having a family sleepover in a cooler room,” she said.

“For babies, a travel cot is a great option if that room is cooler and you’re following safe sleep guidance.”

Ultimately she wants parents to not panic: “Sleep often settles again once the weather cools. A few difficult nights won’t undo good sleep habits, so focus on keeping your child as cool and comfortable as possible rather than aiming for perfect sleep.”

President Donald Trump made a string of searing remarks about former President Barack Obama Monday on “Fox & Friends” while arguing that his presidential predecessors all “got tapped along” by Iran.

“If you look for 47 years, they’ve been tapping people along — every president got tapped along, didn’t do anything,” Trump said via phone. “And they became more and more powerful. This should have been done 47 years ago, shouldn’t have been allowed to start. But [former President Bill] Clinton let them go, and [former President George W.] Bush let them go.”

Trump then launched into an attack against Obama.

Calling Obama “the worst of all,” Trump accused him of having gone to Iran’s “side” with his nuclear deal in 2015.

“You know he’s a… well… let’s not say,” the president said, appearing to hold back a defamatory blow. “Let’s not say, let’s leave that for another time. He was terrible.”

Trump’s illusory restraint was short-lived as he quickly went on to criticise Obama further.

“He gave them $1.7 billion in cash, in green cash, put in satchels in an airplane and brought it to Iran,” he continued. “$1.7 billion. Do you know what that is? Did you ever see a million dollars in cash? This is $1.7 billion. It took up an entire Boeing 757, and they flew it to Tehran and they gave it to people that were waiting at a plane. Can you imagine these people? They never saw money, and now all of a sudden they’ve got $1.7 billion in cash. And he gave them hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and everything else, and he went to their side.”

Trump alleged that the Iranians “became much more powerful because of Obama.”

The president also blamed former President Joe Biden, who was Obama’s vice president during the Iran deal, adding that “he probably had nothing to say because he was such a stupid person.”

Trump has repeatedly, publicly insisted that his interim memorandum of understanding with Iran is superior to Obama’s agreement.

Iran received $1.7 billion in cash from the Obama administration, partly as leverage for the release of American prisoners, according to CNN, and also as reimbursement for military equipment Iran purchased from the U.S. in the late 1970s and apparently never received.

The Trump administration’s preliminary agreement with Tehran reportedly includes a $300 billion reconstruction fund, which vastly outweighs the $1.7 billion cash payment of 2015.

Watch Trump’s appearance on “Fox & Friends” below. Skip to the 8:57 mark to hear his comments.